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A Stone of Stumbling!

Scripture reading for August 13th: 2nd Kings 15-16, Matthew 21

Key Scriptures: Matthew 21:42-46 “Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scripture: “‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’? Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. And the one who falls on the stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.” When the chief priest and the Pharisees heard His parables, they perceived that He was speaking about them. And although they were seeking to arrest Him, they feared the crowds, because they held Him to be a prophet.”

Jesus ended His ministry telling some parables that revealed the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. They had been entrusted with the Word of God and should have been listening and applying God’s Word as spoken by the prophets and by Jesus, Whom the people understood was a prophet. Jesus warned that God would take the kingdom of God away from them and give it to those people producing the fruit of an obedient life of faith. Jesus was the “Stone” that the builders rejected. Those who fell upon Him would be broken, but those He fell upon in the final judgment would be crushed.

Faith confession and prayer: Lord Jesus, You alone are the Cornerstone of my life and I want to follow You and produce fruit. Help me to keep others from calamity at the final judgment by sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ, my Cornerstone!

2nd Kings 16:2 “Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. And he did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord his God, as his father David had done, . . .”