Outline

«　WEEK 5　DAY 3　»

　　Dan. 2:34-35 …A stone was cut out without hands, and it struck the image at its feet of iron and clay and crushed them…And they became like chaff…; and the wind carried them away so that no trace of them was found. And the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.

　　This stone cut out without hands is Christ…He was cut by God through His crucifixion and resurrection. Through His crucifixion He was cut by being put to death (Acts 2:23), and in His resurrection He was cut out to be, first, the cornerstone for the building up of the church and the crushing stone to destroy the totality of human government (v. 24; Matt. 21:42, 44b).

　　At His appearing as the stone cut out not by human hands, Christ will crush the great image from the toes to the head…Revelation 19 speaks of the war between Christ and Antichrist. With Christ there will be His newly married bride, composed of the overcomers, and with Antichrist there will be the ten kings with their armies. This war will be a fighting of the earth against the heavens, of man against God. Christ will defeat and destroy Antichrist and the ten kings.

　　According to Daniel 2:34-35a, this will entail the crushing of the entire human image from the toes to the head…This signifies the complete destruction of all human government from Nimrod to Antichrist. Human government will therefore be terminated by Christ at His appearing as the God-cut stone. (Life-study of Daniel, pp. 16-17)

　　The Bible reveals that Christ is a stone in three aspects. First, to the believers Christ is the foundation stone in whom they trust. Concerning this aspect of Christ as a stone, Isaiah 28:16 says, “Indeed I lay a stone in Zion as a foundation, / A tested stone, / A precious cornerstone as a foundation firmly established.” Second, to the unbelieving Jews Christ is the stumbling stone (8:14; Rom. 9:33). Regarding this aspect, Matthew 21:44a says, “He who falls on this stone shall be broken to pieces.” Third, to the nations Christ will be the smiting stone. “On whomever it falls, it shall crush him to powder and scatter him like chaff” (v. 44b). Daniel 2 reveals Christ as the smiting stone crushing the great human image and causing it to become like chaff carried away by the wind. (Life-study of Daniel, p. 17)

　　By pray-reading we take the word of God into us. Usually when we speak of taking the word of God into us, we think of the word as nourishment… The nourishing word is for our building up, whereas the killing word deals with the enemy [see Eph. 6]. In this context we should pray-read the Word not mainly to receive nourishment but primarily to experience the sword as the killing instrument. The more we pray-read the Word, the more we should experience the killing power of the word.

　　The sword is the only aspect of the armor that is for offensive warfare; that is, it is the only item of God’s armor used for attacking the enemy. Perhaps you are wondering what this has to do with our subjective experience of the killing power of the word. If we would understand this, we must see that in spiritual warfare we must deal not only with the objective enemy but even the more with the subjective adversary. Satan is not only the enemy outside us; he is also the adversary inside us… The attacks of the enemy from without are not as serious as those of the adversary from within. To deal with this inward adversary we need to experience the killing power of the word. Yes, the enemy is outside us, but his elements are within our very being…Since the enemy has injected himself into our being, what we need is for the killing power of the word to be applied to us to deal with the elements of the enemy within us. In our experience we eventually come to realize that the most difficult foe is the self. The self is our worst enemy. Many times we are tempted not by an objective enemy but by the self, our own inner being. (Life-study of Ephesians, pp. 796-797)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Daniel, msgs. 3—4; Life-study of Ephesians, msg. 97