It was while I was writing the first episode of this series on the cornerstone that I realised my life has been shaped by a singular quest—to understand the meaning of cornerstone and all the nuances it carries. It also dawned on me I’d been repeatedly thwarted in my attempts to attain that goal—without ever realising it was what I was aiming for—by various English translations that often conceal more than they reveal.

As well as ‘Those who believe will not be in haste,’ another cornerstone-related favourite verse of mine—one you’ll find in several of my books—comes from Job:

Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?

… who laid its cornerstone—

while the morning stars sang together

and all the angels shouted for joy?

Job 38:4–7 NIV

This verse truly is worth remembering because it tells us that, right from the beginning of creation, angels were watching over cornerstones. Let’s keep that in mind, since it will become extremely important later on.

Now, back in 2009, I finally realised the importance of Isaiah 28:16 in dealing with a covenant with Death and with false refuges.

Therefore thus says the Lord God, ‘Behold, I am the One who has laid as a foundation in Zion, a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation: “Whoever believes will not be in haste.”’

Isaiah 28:16 ESV

And, wondering what a cornerstone was, I looked at the cross-references and found that Paul quotes it twice in the letter to the Romans:

As it is written: ‘See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall, and the one who believes in Him will never be put to shame.’

Romans 9:33 NIV

as well as:

As Scripture says, ‘Anyone who believes in Him will never be put to shame.’

Romans 10:11 NIV

In addition, Peter quotes it in his epistle:

For in Scripture it says: ‘See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in Him will never be put to shame.’

1 Peter 2:6 NIV

Peter goes on to say in the next verse:

Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.’

1 Peter 2:7 NIV

He therefore links back to the words of Jesus and the prophecy of Psalm 118:22—

Jesus said to them, ‘Have you never read in the Scriptures: “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvellous in our eyes”?’

Matthew 21:42 NIV

Now you’d think, with all these significant verses involving cornerstones, there’d be some mighty expository commentary on it. But all I could find was some circular argument that basically said Peter and Paul quoted Isaiah because Isaiah was prophesying of Jesus, and Isaiah’s prophecy was clearly about Jesus because Peter and Paul said so.

But what, I thought, made both of them instinctively gravitate to this verse? There are hundreds of prophecies about Jesus, so what is it about this particular verse that prompted two very different apostles to exclaim, ‘Obviously a reference to Jesus! Let me highlight this!’ Because, quite frankly, to my mind, it’s actually difficult-to-almost-impossible to see Jesus in Isaiah 28:16 without their testimony. So what was obvious to them that eluded me?

Since I couldn’t find a commentary that was any help, I tried the next option that, in retrospect, should have been my first option: I asked the Holy Spirit for help. Months went by. I’d forgotten about my request and life went on. But the Holy Spirit hadn’t forgotten.

Around my house, several hinges all malfunctioned during the same week. Now I greatly admire those contemporary prophets who can hear the Lord say a word and, from that word, they can draw out His warning and His encouragement. Me, if I get a word, more likely than not, it’ll be in a foreign language and I hope I can spell it right so I can look it up. Or, sometimes there’s no word, sometimes there’s just a pattern of events that are potentially frustrating and distracting—like different malfunctioning hinges. At this particular time, there were so many, I decided the Lord was trying to tell me something about hinges. So I searched the Scriptures for a reference to hinges and I found:

As a door turns on its hinges, so a sluggard turns on his bed.

Proverbs 26:14 NIV

Deciding that the Lord was telling me I was lazy, I meditated on this for two weeks while I was getting various household hinges fixed. Eventually I decided this wasn’t it but I hadn’t found any other Scriptural reference to hinges. Still, maybe I needed to have another look.

Now back in those days, Bible Study Tools enabled a search of about sixty translations all at once. And so I found an unusual and archaic translation of Isaiah 57:9 that referred to hinges instead of ambassadors (they’re the same word in Hebrew). In the accompanying commentary on this verse, it mentioned that this particular section of Isaiah referred to the threshold covenant of Isaiah 28:16.

Yay! I said to myself. Thank You, Holy Spirit. This has to be it! The reason Peter and Paul both chose this verse as a pre-eminent description of Jesus is because it involves threshold covenant.

Wait—what on earth is threshold covenant? I’d never heard of it. Blood, salt, yes. Threshold, no. I quickly discovered that no one I knew had heard of it either. So I tried an online search.  Consequently I found a book, written in the nineteenth century, all about it.

Threshold covenant is cornerstone covenant and it’s all to do with the Passover. As the book reveals, we’ve completely misunderstood what happened at the first Passover.

That’s just what we’ll examine in the next episode of this series.

Grace and peace to you from our Lord Jesus Christ.

Thank you to Lorna Skinner of www.riversofmusic.co.uk for the background music.

That nineteenth century book is out of copyright, so it’s available on this website for download here.

The first step in dealing with ungodly cornerstone covenants is always removing false refuges. More information on that is found in Hidden in the Cleft, available as a hardcover, softcover or an ebook. It’s the fourth in the threshold series but I’m repeatedly told that it’s the one to start with.

Please get in touch through the contact form at Armour Books if you are in the US, UK or Australia/NZ and there are availability/price issues at the retailer for any of these volumes. Amazon’s prices in Australia tend to be twice the recommended retail price. In New Zealand, the book is available through Jubilee Resources International.