I had a cousin visit from Texas some years ago. As with most who do not live near “Hollywood,†she had a fascination with the film industry. Universal Studios was new, still a novelty in Los Angeles at that time, so we went to see how television shows and movies are made. Summing up her experience she said, “I expected to see glitz and glamour, but all I saw was façades and dirt.â€
Because of the Rigsbys’ influence, I have seen quite a few photos of Israel over the years. And, “a picture is worth a thousand words,†they say. But none of those pictures accurately portrayed what I perceived to be reality! Or maybe I selectively erased portions of the slides from my mental understanding.
What do I mean? Israel is just a bunch of rocks! One guide so aptly said, “God made the world 90% dirt and 10% rocks, but Israel He made 90% rocks and 10% dirt.†There are rocks everywhere. Rocks on the mountains, high. Rocks in the valleys, low. Rocks on the plains. Rocks in the seas. Big rocks, little rocks. Round rocks, square rocks. Plain rocks, colorful rocks. Field rocks, hewn rocks. Here a rock, there a rock, everywhere a rock, rock! So, what can you do with all those rocks?
You use them.
Rocks are stacked, etched, cut, colored, shaped, digged, flung, stored, milled, sold, crushed, mined, trucked, carved, arranged, and sometimes simply left alone.
Rocks are used for fences, walls, houses, roads, floors, mosaics, aqueducts, cisterns, castles, baths, tunnels, and milestones.
No wood for a house?
No problem, just carve it in the side of a rock! No water to your part of town? No problem, dig a tunnel in the rock wherever you want it to go!
No protection from an enemy?
No problem, build a wall to the sky, all the way around your land!
Need a defense arsenal, too?
No problem, throw, sling, or catapult a rock!
Have you rocks in your garden?
No problem, plow around them!
Are your vineyards overloaded and need uplifting?
No problem, move a rock!
Nothing to sit on?
No problem, shape a rock for a chair.
Need something to hold your animals’ fodder?
No problem, carve a trough!
Need a bed?
No problem, use a rock…and as your pillow, a rock!
Need a hot oven to cook?
No problem, heat a few rocks.
And, you can think of some fanciful way to display and charge people money to see all those rocks!
“We are going to spend the day at ‘Petra’ (which means rock), for only 20 Dinar ($30.00).
“Here is the rock Moses struck with his staff (with water still gushing).â€
“Come see the rock where Abraham almost sacrificed Isaac, at the ‘Dome of the Rock.’ That will be 30 Shekels (about $10.00).â€
“This is Calvary, where Jesus was crucified, conveniently protected from the weather by a church building, encased in glass to prevent thievery.â€
And, believe it or not, we slept at a hotel in Amman, Jordan where the beds as hard as rocks (thus the phrase, ‘bedrock,’ I suppose).
Not to be outdone, the Jerusalem City Council passed an ordinance that all buildings would have a rock facade! Really!
You’ve got to hand it to the Israelis and Jordanians for the creative use of their natural resources. Do you think God had something more in mind than economics when He created that land? Donna Rigsby often says, “God wastes nothing, He uses everything.†We have been learning that God desired to teach His people to trust Him. If Israel is the land prepared by God to teach His people faith, why did He fill it with rocks?
I couldn’t tell you why He filled it with rocks. But the Bible gives us an interesting insight about God that might be helpful to know Him.
Jacob compares God to a rock (Genesis 49:24). However, God doesn’t want us worshipping the rocks, but the One Who created them.
Joshua used rocks to set up a memorial (Joshua 4:1-ff.) so when the rocks are seen, they will remember God’s faithfulness to His people.
In the New Testament the metaphor is no longer God, but His people. Jesus told Peter, “on this rock, I will build my church.â€
Peter understood what Jesus was saying because in his first letter, he speaks of “living stones,†which we are who put our faith in Him. It was Steve Bram, a missionary in Papua New Guinea who asked, “What about Himself is God etching in me, His living stone?†Some of the things that are carved into our lives we don’t like and certainly don’t want to remember, some we do.
I thought it ironic that Satan would tempt Jesus with rocks. “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to be turned to bread.†And, if He had, without surrendering any of His Deity, today we would marvel about the bread that fills Israel instead of rocks, because Jesus is even the Bread of Life.
God doesn’t waste anything. He is working to develop faith in me or faith for the sake of others. And, whether it be rocks or bread makes no difference to Him.
Maybe I’ve got some rocks in my head, but it is hard not to fall in love with the rocks in Israel. And, the Rock of Israel, too!