…the rock badgers are a people not mighty, yet they make their homes in the cliffs [rocks]…. (Proverbs 30:26, ESV)
Most of you will recall the famous moment in 1999 at the Phoenix Open when Tiger had the gallery move an enormous boulder between him and the green. Tiger missed the fairway on a par five and his line was obstructed by a large rock. After receiving a favorable ruling, later confirmed by the USGA, that the rock was a “loose impediment,” a dozen or so men, after a few “heave-ho’s,” moved this rock out of his path.
It was not the normal way he intended to make a birdie, but Tiger eventually rolled it in for a four. Tiger would not go on to win. He lost to Rocco Mediate by three shots. Nine years later, Tiger would go head-to-head with Rocco in the 2008 US Open at Torrey Pines. We all remember that one!
Hobbled by a fractured leg with little to no cartilage remaining in his knee, Tiger would win what one writer called his “gutsiest performance ever.” Of course, that was long before the 2021 Masters or whatever might happen in Tiger’s future. I, for one, will wait a long time before I “bet against Tiger.”
Today’s verse is about a hyrax or what we now call the Rock Badger. These animals have several fascinating traits but none more so than making their home in the “cleft of the rocks.”
Scripture has more than a few things to say about clefts, and rocks. When Moses asked God that he might see his glory, God’s response was a qualified no. More precisely, God told him, “No one can see my face and live.” The reason, of course, is that God’s holiness is unapproachable apart from a mediator. So, God hid Moses in the cleft of the rock and allowed him to see only his back as he passed by.
Paul would later tell us in 1 Corinthians 10:4 that “…the Rock was Christ.” Jesus teaches us the same thing in Matthew 16:18 when he says, “…on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
Peter, quoting the prophet Isaiah, writes that Jesus is the “…cornerstone chosen and precious and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” Peter continues by telling us, “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,” and “A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.”
Here is one thing we can all “take to the bank.” A dozen-plus men might move an enormous boulder for Tiger to have clear line of sight, but no one will be able to remove the stone that the Father has placed as the foundation stone of his grand building project.
God the Father says of this stone that he is “precious.” This is the Father’s valuation of Jesus. Sadly, he is also, “…the stone the builders rejected….” The builders are those (i.e., many in first century Israel when Peter first writes this) who have rejected Jesus’ lordship in their lives.
Jesus is, indeed, the “stone of stumbling and the rock of offense.” He is also, “the cornerstone” of God’s eternal building plans. Everyone, then and now, must choose.
There is no tertium quid (i.e., third way). There are only two choices: side with the Father’s evaluation that Jesus is “precious,” or reject him as many have over the past two millennia.
Jesus is either the stone over which you stumble, or he is the foundation stone upon which you build your life but choose you must.
Prayer – Father, may we prize Jesus as you do!