Luke 19:40: And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.
Habakkuk 2:11 For the stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it.
“If just a cup of water, I place within you hand,
The just a cup of water is all that I demand. – Ira Stanphill
I just dropped off Raphael at the hospital. This is a big old guy in his sixties, former champion weight lifter, wrestler and bouncer. Even though he is in his sixties I guessed that he was in his fifties until he volunteered to say that he was 62. I was amazed that he looked so young and appeared to be the epitome of perfect health. Yet, I was taking him for a cumin test.
He confessed that he had lived a pretty fast life and was paying for it now. He has diabetes, a pacemaker, high blood pressure, bad knees, a real wreck. He said he died last year but was revived. He was sitting in his living room with his grandson who just brought him a tall glass of ice water as he was not feeling well. Suddenly he passed out. He woke up in the hospital with a bunch of tubes running out of him. The only thing he remembered was someone yelling to get the pads. Then they put something on his chest and he said it felt like someone “cocked him.” I guess it means punched him. He said it made him so mad he wanted to punch the guy but found he could not lift his hand. He then passed out.
His wife later told him the whole story. After he passed out his five year old grandson had just walked in with the tall glass of ice water and he could not get his grandpa to respond. He called out, “Grandma, Grandpa fell asleep and he won’t wake up.” His wife came running into the living room and seeing his pale face screamed and picked up the phone to call 9-11. The Grandson shouted, “I’ll wake ’em” and tossed the glass of ice water on him. It actually did revive him long enough until the medics arrived. The doctor even said that reviving him just might have saved his life. So I guess his grandson is a hero of sorts.
Anyways, I asked if he seen a light or dark tunnel. He said he saw nothing but he also said, “You know I lived a wild and fast life and did not pay much attention to God, but I sure do now and I told Him my life belongs to Him and He can do whatever He wants with it.”
I guess God can use anything to wake someone up to His presence, even a cup of cold water.
I could not help but think of the verse in Luke 19:40 and Habakkuk 2:11 which speaks of stones crying out. The word in Hebrew for crying out is not your standard word in Hebrew for crying out as it is the word za’aq. The Aramaic word used in Luke 19:40 is qea which corresponds to the Hebrew word za’aq which means to make a statement. What is unusual about both words is that it refers to an audible sound. Now how can a rock make an audible sound. Will obviously this is just a metaphor. But a metaphor to express what? That even inanimate objects praise God. I can buy that, everything in creation speaks of a Creator and its beauty speaks only in praise of the Creator.
But you know what? The Bible often speaks ahead of its time. In Job 36:27-29 you would render from the Hebrew, “He draws up the drops of water which distill as the rain to the streams, the clouds pour down their moisture.” Check Amos 5:8, “Who calls forth the waters of the sea and pours them out over the face of the earth.” Clearly the Bible is speaking of water evaporation which then turns into rain and even refers to the oceans as evaporating to return as rain. Job lived in about 950 BC, Amos lived about 755 BC. But man’s understanding of the hydrological cycle did not come about into the fifteenth century AD, particularly that water could evaporate as a gaseous state and return as rain water from seawater or salt water evaporating from the ocean and returning as fresh water in a distilling process. This whole idea was unknown during the day of Amos and Job, yet they wrote about it. It is science catching up with the Bible. Today the rocks are crying out all the time and we think absolutely nothing about it. Yet, every time you turn on your IPOD or I PAD, the rocks cry out. How so?
Go to our website and click on a little You Tube box at the bottom of our home page and you will hear a recording of my voice made one year ago. In that recording I am giving praise to God. Now stop a moment and think. You are listening to a recording recorded on a microchip. I am not talking but that microchip is. That microchip that is crying out this praise to God is made of silicon. According to Wikipedia over 90% of the Earth’s crust is compose of silicon dioxide (silica), rocks to an ancient mind. In Hebrew we would use the word ‘even which means a rock.
I am not saying yea or nay on the rapture question, but just suppose that suddenly all the Christians in this world were to disappear. Jesus is telling us that if there were no believers left in this world to praise God that the rocks will still cry out.
Most of us have an opportunity to fulfill Scripture right now. It is an opportunity our grandparents did not have. Just take your smart phone, switch it to record and start praising God. Play it back and you will hear the ‘even za’aq, the rocks crying out.
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