After the study I put up the other day on the Hebrew word ‘אבן‘  (even or evan) meaning ‘stone,’ I decided to build on it for our congregation’s Wednesday evening Torah study.  I dug up a few more verses with the Hebrew word and we had a ‘ball’ just looking at familiar texts and ‘seeing’ new things as remez insights for Messiah.

Now, not all verses with the word ‘evan’ point to Mashiach, or at least we didn’t ‘see’ Him under every stone…  pun intended, but we found some really cool verses that you will enjoy, and they’ll peak your interest in other references as you read.

If you have not read the ‘אבן‘ study, you need to do so to understand the rest of this post… 😉

Here are a few verses we discussed:

From last Shabbat’s Torah Portion, Genesis 11:3:

² It came about as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar and ^[a]settled there. ³ They said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly.” And they used brick for stone, and they used tar for mortar. ⁴ They said, “Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”

This is a perfect remez of why they were destined to fail.  They tried to reach heaven by their own power/works (bricks) rather than through the ‘Stone!’  Man does this still today.  Instead of coming to the Living Stone, they prefer to do it their own way…  the equivalent of making bricks!

One of the first verses to come to mind with ‘stone’ is likely the story of Ya’acov, enroute to Laban’s house when he sleeps and has a vision of the ladder to heaven.  His head is on a stone…  Look at several of these verses:

¹⁸ So Jacob rose early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on its top. ¹⁹ He called the name of that place Bethel; (House of God) however, previously the name of the city had been Luz. ²⁰ Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will keep me on this journey that I take, and will give me food to eat and garments to wear, ²¹ and I return to my father’s house in safety, then the Lord will be my God. ²² This stone, which I have set up as a pillar, will be God’s house, and of all that You give me I will surely give a tenth to You.”

Interesting!  Nice hint at the Mashiach, especially AS ‘God’s house.’  Interesting hint at Abraham and Melchitzedek with the payment of the tenth, while it is Ya’acov that anoints the stone…

Now, an AWESOME verse from Genesis 49 that I never noticed.  In the middle of the prophecy over Joseph is this verse:

But his bow remained firm,
And his arms were agile,
From the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob
(From there is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel),

This verse, with the understanding that Mashiach is the Stone, is used to help develop the Mashiach ben Joseph, suffering servant….  Also, ponder the title ‘The Stone of Israel!’  Oh, what a beautiful sound!!

I Samuel 7:12 has a verse we are familiar with where the direct connection is made:

¹² Then Samuel took a stone and set it between Mizpah and Shen, and named it ^[a]Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far the Lord has helped us.”

Yeshua is our Stone of Help, Ebenezer, through His Ruach!!

I’ll have to do a whole separate post just for the things I’ve seen in ! Samuel and the David/Goliath story!  The ‘stone’ got me started looking at that passage as prophetic, and boy is it rich!  The ‘stone’ plays in, but this remez is not directly tied to some of my recent thoughts on David as a picture of Mashiach.  Still, this one is FUN!

⁴⁹ And David put his hand into his bag and took from it a stone and slung it, and struck the Philistine on his forehead. And the stone sank into his forehead, so that he fell on his face to the ground.

Who killed the Philistine?  Mashiach!  Further, in a hint of the prophetic, David, representing the Mashiach, defends the armies of Israel and single-handedly defeats THE Philistine (anti-mashiach?) with a ‘head wound.’  The Philistine falls on his face in worship…

[Aside for the hungry:   Go back about a chapter and half and start reading that story very slowly and mark the pieces…  Without giving the farm away, do you notice a first and second coming?  Notice who does not recognize him in his first coming and who does?  The role is reversed in his second coming?  How many breads?  How many cheeses?  He comes from where?  Yeah…  that story is DRIPPING with Messianic prophecy!]

There are more ‘stone’ verses.  The cool thing is to recognize the word and to be on the lookout for it as you read.  Not every occurrence is meant to point to Mashiach, but many do…  Understand, too, the English does not always translate ‘אבן‘ as ‘stone.’  On occasion they use ‘rock,’ but then they may not use ‘rock’ consistently with the Hebrew word ‘tsur’ meaning ‘rock.’…  Man I am glad I have e-sword…

Hope you enjoyed this little post and I hope it opens a new door for you in your reading and study!

Shalom!