Living Stones – Part 2

Victor Hugo's great work, Les Miserables, is about redemption.  Jean Valjean, desperate and destitute after being released from prison, stole costly silver vessels from the church.  After having been forgiven by the priest, he was told to sell the vessels and give his live over to a pursuit of righteousness.  This is the story of the grace of God and the redemption from sin we have through our high priest, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  He paid the price of our redemption by his own precious blood as the chosen vessel of God. When we realize the grace in which we stand, only then can We love him because he first loved us.

David was anointed to be king long before he became king.  When he finally became king, the Philistines rose against Israel and divided the land into North and South, and attacked the northern city of Bethlehem in Judea.  David's mighty men gathered around him to protect and serve him.  According to 2 Samuel 23:16, David sighed in a prayer that the kingdom would be reunited and that he could again drink from the well at the gate of his hometown in Bethlehem.  His mighty men overheard his prayer and braved the ranks of the enemy to fetch water from the well of Bethlehem.  They brought the water to David as an answer to his whispered prayer.  David was so moved by this gesture that he declared that "I'm not worthy to drink of the water for which these mighty men have risked their lives."  He poured it out to God in praise and as a gesture of his own humility and unworthiness. David, when he was walking with God, was a man after God's own heart.  In his unworthiness, David understood that whatever is most precious should be poured out as an offering and a sacrifice dedicated to God.

The water from the well at Bethlehem is a picture of Jesus Christ, the fountain of living waters.  Jesus said that whosoever drinks from the living water shall never thirst...  He said blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. We have been appointed as a royal priesthood to approach our Father directly according our calling in Christ...  for there is one God, and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. As lively stones within God's habitation aligned to Jesus Christ, the chief corner stone, we have been called to deliver God's message on Christ's behalf.  As God's emissaries, as his ambassadors for Christ our charge is not only to delver the message but also to be the message. 

2 Corinthians 5:20-21 Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

Your brother in Christ, Michael