Stumbling Rocks

Bro.

Reading Isaiah is like eating cheesecake. I can only study a little section at a time because it's soooooooooo rich. 

It's also like when I use to eat Little Caesar's hot wings. You see, their hot wings were like $8 for 6 itty bitty wings, that are mostly fat let's be honest here. But the sauce was very tasty in that I would want to disgustingly lick every bone, piece of skin, and nibble any morsel of actual meat on them things that I could because it was so good. I didn't want it to be over so soon. So I'd comb through little by little and take way too long to eat 6 itty bitty little wings.

Seriously, I think Molly had bigger wings when she was mailed in from California:

Anywho, I was reading Isaiah 8, and verse 14 stuck out to me as I licked the bones and meditated on the rich, fluffy cheesecake:

And he will become a sanctuary and a stone of offense and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel, a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

This verse is talking about how Messiah would come and pretty much throw everybody off their game. 

I just deleted a whole thing I wrote about the "both houses of Israel" phrase because that topic is a huge one that deserves several posts in the future. I wanted to focus on the "rock of stumbling" part.

I've been saying for months now how I think humility is a prerequisite to coming to the Father. He opposes the proud but leads and teaches the humble. We see this all throughout the scripture.

So back to this rock: He's going to trip everybody up. It says both of the houses of Israel will stumble.

But how we respond to the stumbling, I think, is telling.

The proud stumble because they are walking upright in and of their own strength, probably with their head held high. When they stumble on the rock, they do that weird little dance thing and keep on walking, offended that they even got tripped up in the first place. I often get mad when I trip on stupid rocks or birdhouse posts outside because they're in myyyyyy waaaaay!!!

But when the humble stumble (lol, rhyme), they fall and are broken. 

They are crushed beyond repair. They are helpless. Poor in spirit. 

And yet, blessed are these.

They then cling to the rock which broke them and He is "a sanctuary" to them whilst being a "stone of offense" to the proud.

Cool stuff. 

And then the Catholics were like 'Peter's the rock let's make him a pope' looooooool,

TWS