Isaiah 8:14 “Then He shall become a sanctuary; but to both the houses of Israel, a stone to strike and a rock to stumble over, and a snare and a trap for the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
In Romans 9, the Apostle Paul is quoting from Isaiah 8:14 in the initial half of the verse. Then Isaiah 28:16 is quoted in the back half of the verse. Romans 9 tells us who this “rock” or “stone” is. It is Jesus. Paul connects the dots of the two verses.
Romans 9:33 just as it is written, “BEHOLD, I LAY IN ZION A STONE OF STUMBLING AND A ROCK OF OFFENSE, AND HE WHO BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.”
He is sacred and holy like a sanctuary. The phrase “a stone to strike” was prophetic when written by Isaiah. The grammar of the phrase in Hebrew refers to the stone being struck a fatal blow. He is an obstacle to the Jewish people. Jews by and large do not believe He is their Messiah. They remain hostile to His name.
The Hebrew word for “snare” is pach. According to Strong’s Concordance, it literally is a bird trap. Figuratively, it can mean an agent of calamity. He is the bait for the destructive trap to the people of Jerusalem.
Isaiah 8:15 Many will stumble over them, then they will fall and be broken; they will even be snared and caught.”
Verse 15 restates the outcome of the Jewish people. Jesus will be an obstacle. Great numbers will trip over “the rock”. They will be crippled and crushed, shattered into pieces.
Isaiah 28:16 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.
The “stone” is tested and tried. The cornerstone is described as yaqar in the Hebrew. Yaqar can mean: valuable, prized, weighty, precious, rare, splendid, costly, or glorious. The syntax in the original Hebrew language states the “rock” was firmly, intentionally, and intensively placed. We know today, He was sent and set by the Father. The condition is the same whether it is the New Testament or the Old Testament. Believe in “The Rock”.
Isaiah 8:16 Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples.
This is an official, sealed, and legal document as far as God is concerned. It was completed once in the past and the results are binding today and forever more.
“It is finished,” Jesus (John 19:30).
