Discover the Cornerstone and the Secret to Fitting Into God's Kingdom

“For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.” (1 Corinthians 3:9)

Do you ever feel like you don’t fit in? At a congregation, at work, at school, social gatherings, or sometimes even within your own family?

We all do at times, but few of us know that the solution to our uneasiness can be found in answering this one simple question:

Who or what are we trying to fit into?

Let’s find the ancient wisdom in this question that will comfort our souls and help us see how valuable we are to God and His Kingdom.

The answer, as we shall see, is connected to The Cornerstone, which is the Messianic Prophecy of Psalm 118:22.

In ancient building practice, a cornerstone like this one (on the southern wall of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem) was the first laid stone, onto which all other stones would be laid. (YouTube capture)

The cornerstone in the photo above had to be perfectly aligned at all angles, which then set the alignment of all the other stones. For this reason, a cornerstone was also called the foundation stone or setting stone.

Fitting into the Wrong Cornerstone

How many times have we tried to make our lives fit into our own plans without seeking God first?

How many times have those plans ended in great loss: finances, work, friendships, homes, families, and most importantly peace, joy, happiness?

Similarly, the Prophet Isaiah warned the nation of Israel how, for centuries, they had been turning their backs on God’s Torah (instructions) and turning toward pagan gods.

More troubling, they were not ashamed of it: “For we have made falsehood our refuge and we have concealed ourselves with deception,” they said. (Isaiah 28:15)

For example, they worked the land every year without giving it a shabbat, the rest that God required for the Land on the seventh year.

“YHVH (the Lord) said to Moses at Mount Sinai . . . ‘For six years sow your fields, and for six years prune your vineyards and gather their crops. But in the seventh year the land is to have a year of shabbat rest, a shabbat to the Lord. …” (Leviticus 25:1–4, 26:33–35)

Harvesting grapes in the Golan Heights.

Isaiah also warned against the priests and prophets, who were disgracing God by getting drunk on wine and beer, while guiding the people into falsehood instead of living righteous lives.

This is in stark contrast to King David’s love of the Torah, which he wrote about In Psalm 119, three hundred years earlier:

“How sweet are Your words to my palate, more than honey to my mouth! From Your precepts I shall gain understanding; therefore, I hate all ways of falsehood. Your words are a lamp for my foot, and light for my path.” (verses 103–105)

However, many of the Jewish people during the time of the prophets were more interested in doing whatever they wanted to do, rather than following God’s Torah.

They didn’t think there would be consequences. But there were!

The Burning of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar’s Army (1630–1660), by Juan de la Corte

Jeremiah prophesied that the Jewish people would be taken captive.

God used King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon to take siege of Jerusalem, destroy the First Temple, and take the Israelites captive for 70 years, “until the land had enjoyed its Shabbats.” (2 Chronicles 36:21)

The Jewish people would not live in the Land as a sovereign nation for another 2,600 years, until it became the modern Jewish State just 70 years ago in 1948 — a fulfillment of Biblical prophecy! (Isaiah 66:8). We are living in the End Times.

It wasn’t enough for God to merely restore Israel as a nation, which He promised to do in Jeremiah 33:24–26.

Two thousand years ago, God also did a massive redesign of the spiritual blueprints of His people.

He replaced Israel’s cornerstone of disobedience and pagan worship with His Cornerstone of Peace and Truth, but only for those who accept it.

“Therefore thus says the Lord GOD, ‘Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a tested stone, a costly cornerstone for the foundation, firmly placed. He who believes in it will not be disturbed.’” (Isaiah 28:16)

And that is where we fit in.

Fitting into Yeshua, the Cornerstone of Security and Truth

We can be like the other stones in God’s Holy Temple walls that fit into His cornerstone, or we can be like the ancient Israelites who chose to fit into the cornerstone of the world, which is not secure, and as a result suffer the consequences.

God told His People, “Since your refuge is made of lies, a hailstorm will knock it down. Since it is made of deception, a flood will sweep it away.” (Isaiah 28:17)

But, we can also choose to fit into the standards of God’s divine design for our lives. That design begins with Yeshua who is The Cornerstone.

In the beginning the Word (Yeshua) was with God and was God (John 1:1).

As the Word of God, He meets the architectural as well as the Biblical requirements of a cornerstone.

For example, Yeshua was tested by satan.

Yeshua Is Tempted, by Carl Heinrich Bloch (1834–1890), depicts Yeshua’s victory over Satan’s attempts to lead Him into sin (see Luke 4:1–12).

Yeshua was rejected by the religious leaders in Jerusalem and by people He grew up with in His own hometown.

Though He did nothing wrong, He was sacrificed on Passover (Pesach); Yeshua paid the costly price of His own blood to redeem us from our sins.

But He rose from the dead, conquering death. He is the Deliverer, Master, and King of the Universe!

Yeshua is our Living Cornerstone and all things are built on Him.

He is perfectly steady, secure, and strong because He is the standard bearer, the Word of God in flesh. And even though we will be rejected for believing in Him and following Him, God promises that we are secure in Him because we are securely connected to Yeshua — the Cornerstone.

“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a tested stone, a costly cornerstone for the foundation, firmly placed. He who believes in it will not be disturbed.” (Isaiah 28:16)

On Him, we can place our burdens and find rest for our souls.

On Him, we can place our trust as the foundation of our lives.

On Him, we can align our dreams and accomplish more than we ever imagined.

A plumb line is a chord with a weight at the end, a tool used to ensure that a wall is vertically straight and meets architectural standards.

As Living Stones, We Are a Perfect Fit

Yeshua is the standard that God will be testing us by:

“I will test you with the measuring line of justice and the plumb line of righteousness.” (Isaiah 28:17)

We may wonder how we who have so many imperfections can fit into this perfectly just and righteous cornerstone of God’s heavenly architecture.

After all, each of us are a unique combination of color, size, and age. Some of us are stronger or more polished than others. Some of us are still rough pebbles, but growing in the wisdom of the Lord every day.

A variety of stones

When we doubt our place in God’s spiritual building, we can remember Erwin McManus’ proverbial truth:

“Just because you don’t fit in easily, it doesn’t mean you don’t fit in.”

That is why Scripture calls us Living Stones (1 Peter 2:5–6); we are being chipped away at, reshaped, and polished in some way each day through the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) in us.

Whatever stage of development we are in, we are being called to be an active participant in God’s grand building.

Though non-believers will try to shame us for doing God’s work here on earth, and though the enemy will tempt us to take refuge in many of His lies, our Living Cornerstone promises that He will never leave us or forsake us, as long as we stay securely connected to Him.

In the Book of Mark, chapter 13, the disciples ask Yeshua about the last days.

When Yeshua left the Temple, knowing that He was the Cornerstone who was fulfilling the prophecy of Psalm 118, He said to his disciples:

“Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every stone will be thrown down.”