The Cornerstone of Hope: History in HIS Story. Isaiah #14

From the calloused hands of Eliab - a stonemason around 444 BC

Inspired by |Isaiah 28 | Isaiah 53 | Psalm 118:22-23 |Ezra 1:1-4 | Neh 2:17-18 | Neh 4 | Jer 25:11-12 | 29:10-14 |1Peter2: 4-6 | Eph 2:19-22 | Luke 4: 16-21 | Other extra biblical sources below.

Eliab had always been a proud builder. His hands were calloused from years of shaping stone, each one etched with the story of his labor. As a stonemason in Jerusalem during the time of Nehemiah, Eliab knew the weight of rebuilding the city’s walls and temple. But it wasn’t just the stones that were heavy. There was another burden whose weight was weaved with his people’s faithlesness into exile, the shame of their past sins, and the constant threat of foreign oppression. Now, back in Jerusalem. Every chisel strike on the rock echoed his people’s struggle to find their place in a world that seemed to mock their faith.

Eliab’s Burden

Eliab’s family had suffered greatly during the exile in Babylon. His father, also a stonemason, had died while working as a forced laborer, shaping stones for Babylon’s grand palaces. Eliab carried the memory of his father’s bent back and the whip marks on his shoulders. He had vowed that if God ever allowed him to return to Jerusalem, he would dedicate his life to rebuilding the temple, the dwelling place of God. The God who sees suffering, the God who hears the cry of a broken heart, the only God who saves, Adonai.

But now that he was back, the work wasn’t easy. The rubble of Jerusalem was a constant reminder of their shame. The foreign nations mocked their efforts, jeering, “Can they bring the stones back to life from those heaps of rubble—burned as they are?” Eliab’s hands trembled each time he lifted his tools, not from exhaustion but from fear that their labor might be in vain. Their past failures loomed over him and he struggled to shake off the taunts that came like arrows to his heart and mind. Yet, he pressed on, driven by faith in a God who had promised to restore them. And then, something amazing happened, as if God himself saw his internal struggle and sent him a sign.

The Cornerstone

One day, as Eliab worked on the temple foundation, he came across a peculiar stone. It was larger and more perfectly shaped than the others, but it had been cast aside into the rubble. Curious, Eliab lifted it and examined its smooth edges and flawless corners. It was, for a stonemason …. magnificent. It was the kind of stone that should have been reserved for the most important part of the structure, yet it had been rejected. Then it happened:

The words of Isaiah came rushing back to him:

“So this is what the Sovereign LORD says:
‘See, I lay a stone in Zion,
a tested stone,
a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation;
the one who relies on it will never be stricken with panic or put to shame.’”

Eliab paused, the took in the weight of the stone, moved his hands carefully over it’s edges. Was this a sign? The prophets had spoken of a cornerstone—a stone that would unite and restore, one that builders might reject but that would become the foundation of all that Adonai would build. Was this stone a foreshadowing of something greater? As he sat next to this masterpiece amongst the rubble of imperfect stones … Eliab forgot His burdens. He felt his heart change, and realised that he had not felt this feeling for as long as he could remember: Peace. A peace had come to his heart.

Suffering and Hope

That night, as he lay in his tent, his eyelids feeling the welcome weight of sleep. Eliab’s thoughts turned to Isaiah’s words, despite having never fully grasped their meaning, he knew they were at the forefront of Gods heart:

“He was despised and rejected by mankind,
a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.”

These words didn’t just speak of a stone but of a person— He! The text spoke of a servant who would be rejected, who would come and bear the weight of suffering for others. Eliab felt a pang in his heart as he thought of his own pain: the loss of his father, the humiliation of exile, and the endless toil to try and rebuild what had been destroyed. Could there truly be a servant who would take all of this upon himself ? He thought of how he had come to build this wall. His people had not listened to Isaiah or Jeremiah or the other prophets. Now he was living within the prophecy that Jeremiah had spoken: 70 years in exile, God will bring us back to build Jerusalem. With each weight of each stone, he felt like he was bearing a burden for the sins of his people, restoring what had been destroyed due to their stubborn and wayward hearts, and if he was honest, his own.

Yet this person Isaiah spoke of: He would bear the real burden, not just a stone, he would take the fullness of the wrath of God upon himself. With Gods wrath now gone, mankind could experience … “Shalom: Peace” … Eliab whispered these words, a smile forming on his lips as he drifted off to sleep. A deep, peaceful sleep.

The next day, as Eliab carried the cornerstone across the building site, he prayed silently. He prayed for the fulfillment of Isaiah’s words, for a Messiah who would not only restore their city but their broken hearts too. He didn’t fully understand how or when it would happen, but he had received something from God these past days: and having felt the peace of God full his heart, he now clung more intently to the promise of the Hope to come.

Before placing the cornerstone in it’s rightful place. He lay it down, took his chisel and delicately ingraved the words upon the stone:

‘Yireh Shalem’ Yireh (The Lord provides) Shalem (Peace) JERUSALEM!

The Implication of the Cornerstone

Centuries later, from the line of Eliab would come Raphu. It was an oppressive time for Israel, and this particular day was heavy. The jewish mob had been stirred, and Raphu had seen the release of a convicted criminal, Barabbas. It seemed that Jesus’ claim to be the Messiah had stirred the chief priests and elders to the ultimate plot.

To say they were envious with Jesus was an understatement. Nobody had healed and performed signs like he had. The people followed his signs and wonders. Crowds had gathered to hear his words. What evil had he done? Raphu reflected uneasily. Now, he was haunted by the cry of the people: “Let him be crucified, Let him be crucified”. The words still echoed in his ears. He opened the wooden chest near his bed that contained family memoirs past down through the generations. He had always enjoyed reading the scrolls from his great ancestor, Eliab.

A page of an ancient scroll stuck out from the stack, he picked it up and read.

‘Today I found the perfect cornerstone. It had been cast aside like trash and I could not help the feeling that God was speaking to me. I picked up this rejected cornerstone, which had taken on a deeper meaning now, and placed it in it’s rightful place.”

“I had found what the builders had rejected, and this moment brought a peace to my troubled and tired heart, a peace that I cannot explain. It holds me still through even through the greatest hardship. My hope is that my family and my people can find this Peace from God. That the Prince of Peace who Isaiah spoke of would be revealed to my children and their children and their childrens children, and that He would dwell with them. Not a stone in a wall. No! More than that: The Christ, Messiah … the One who would build a spiritual temple in the hearts of men.

Immanuel. Immanuel. Isaiah had said: God with us.”

Raphu wondered. Jesus, the carpenter from Nazareth, rejected, crucified. He knelt down on the floor, lifted his hands to Adonai. And prayed.

As Eliab’s trembling hands had once placed the cornerstone, Raphu’s hands trembled in awe as he called upon the name of the LORD.

My Personal Reflection

As I think upon this story, how Eliab was never able to taste of a life in his homeland. He had suffered and would suffer still: It reminds me of the Christian who is a sojourner in a fallen world. We are in a foreign land and our heart yearns for home.

As you persevere in honoring God, remember that with Him there is Hope in the hardship. The cornerstone reminds us that no matter how broken our lives may feel, God is building something eternal and unshakable. In Jesus, we find a light that shines in the darkness, a foundation that cannot be moved.

We find the Kingdom of God.

As I write a few verses from Isaiah 53, I hope you can find yourself in them and realise, as Eliab and Raphu did: They are for you.

Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Extra-biblical sources:

Babylon’s Opulence and Culture:

• Jospephus, Antiquities of the Jews - Jerusalem’s destruction and later rebuilding efforts

• The Cyrus Cylinder (6th Century BCE) -confirms the accuracy of Ezra 1:1-4. Policies allowing exiled peoples to return and rebuild their cities, including Jerusalem.

• The Broad Wall - Discovered in the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem, believed to be part of the walls rebuilt during Nehemiah’s time.

• Bullae and Seals (Gedaliah, Eliashib, and others) - Inscriptions with names of figures from the book of Nehemiah affirm historical accuracy. These are small clay impressions uses in ancient times to seal documents, jars, containers, often bearing the names or titles of officials.