The Messiah Simeon Waited For

Isaiah 28:16 Therefore the Lord God said:
“Look, I have laid a stone in Zion,
a tested stone,
a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation;
the one who believes will be unshakable. (HCSB)

This promised stone would be laid in Zion.

This stone was called precious and tested. That would mean it had great value. People might assume that such a stone would belong to royalty. Perhaps it would be found in the world’s capital—Rome, at that time. Or maybe it belonged to the wise, to the Magi, in their center of learning. But no. God would only place this stone in Zion.

That place name had two meanings to the devout Jew. Zion was another name for Jerusalem. When they read the Psalms of ascent as they headed to one of the celebrations, they meant it as the real, physical Jerusalem that they knew and loved.

But in other places in Scripture, it could mean nothing but the heavenly Jerusalem, the perfect kingdom of God.

Still other sections of the Bible, like here, it could refer to both.

Only one person could truly be said to have lived in both Jerusalems, both Zions… Jesus.

He was put as a cornerstone both for the life of the redeemed here on earth, and for our eternal life in heaven.

The one who believes in Jesus will never lose him as the precious cornerstone or sure foundation. He will be the rock that sustains us whether in this life or the next.

So what does that mean for us?

The following poem will give you an idea of what it means to me.

SHAKEN

According to scientists, Mount Zion was shaken in 535 AD.

Shaken and shaded from the sun.

The entire world changed, they said,

Because of an Indonesian volcano

Exploding so furiously, so extensively,

That ash blackened the atmosphere

And the roar was heard thousands of miles away.

It shook everyone and everything on our world.

But Christians, then and now,

Are not shaken, were not shaken.

Our Mount Zion is not on this world.

Our Mount Zion endures forever

Beneath the throne of God.

It doesn’t matter if our world shakes

Or if calamity shakes us personally,

In Christ, we have feet on solid ground.

In faith, we cannot be moved, swayed or toppled.

In 535 AD, the world grew dark, cold, sick.

Many died, as all meet death once,

But those in Christ

Merely stepped off this trembling world

To climb the unshakable mountain

Underneath the light of his everlasting glory.