Whatcha Gonna Do With Those Stones, Hon?
My first real teaching assignment was in a Kindergarten class in rural Georgia. The first year was challenging in a number of ways, and one of the biggest challenges was a small boy who always seemed to be getting into something he was not supposed to. Once in a while, he became aggressive toward other children, though I don’t think he realized it was aggressive. Throwing things at other children while smiling his own unique smile was play to him.
One day he had separated himself from everyone else on the playground, so I walked quietly over to him to see what he was up to. I saw that he had collected quite a pile of stones in front of him. “Whatcha gonna do with those stones, Hon?” I asked …
What might be done with stones? Hmmmmm … what might be done with stones.
Whatcha gonna do with those stones?
Build an altar?
What is an altar? We get our English word altar from the Late Latin altare, meaning high or higher. The Hebrew word translated “altar” in these verses has the same sense. It signifies a raised place where a sacrifice is made. So an altar is a high place, a place elevated above the regular grade of the earth, on which sacrifices are offered. And the specified sacrifices for these altars were burnt offerings and peace offerings… After nearly forty years of wilderness wanderings, Moses told the children of Israel what they had to do once they entered the Land. Deuteronomy 27:5-7: And there [Mt. Ebal] shalt thou build an altar unto the Lord thy God, an altar of stones: thou shalt not lift up any iron tool upon them.Thou shalt build the altar of the Lord thy God of whole stones: and thou shalt offer burnt offerings thereon unto the Lord thy God: And thou shalt offer peace offerings, and shalt eat there, and rejoice before the Lord thy God (https://thebiblephiles.com/2014/10/27/altars-of-earth-and-stone/).
The term altar is mentioned approximately 400 times in the Bible The first mention of an altar in the Bible is in Genesis 8:20 when Noah built an altar to the Lord after the flood, and the scriptures mention them many times following.
Altars were typically used for sacrifices, worship, and making covenants with God. The scriptures often describe them as being made of earth or uncut stones. In the Old Testament, altars were often erected in places where God had done something significant or appeared to someone.
Whatcha gonna do with those stones?
Fight an enemy?
David said to Saul, “Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him.” Saul replied, “You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a young man, and he has been a warrior from his youth.” But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.”
Saul said to David, “Go, and the Lord be with you.”
Then Saul dressed David in his own tunic. He put a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet on his head. David fastened on his sword over the tunic and tried walking around, because he was not used to them. “I cannot go in these,” he said to Saul, “because I am not used to them.” So he took them off. Then he took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd’s bag and, with his sling in his hand, approached the Philistine.
Meanwhile, the Philistine, with his shield bearer in front of him, kept coming closer to David. He looked David over and saw that he was little more than a boy, glowing with health and handsome, and he despised him. He said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come at me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. “Come here,” he said, “and I’ll give your flesh to the birds and the wild animals!”
David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hands, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. This very day I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds and the wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.”
As the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him. Reaching into his bag and taking out a stone, he slung it and struck the Philistine on the forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell facedown on the ground. So David triumphed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone; without a sword in his hand he struck down the Philistine and killed him.
Whatcha gonna do with those stones?
Teach a lesson?
At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?”
They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”
Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there.
A lot can happen with a pile of stones.
…so, there was that small boy with his pile of stones in front of him. “Whatcha gonna do with those stones, Hon?” I asked.
He looked up at me and smiled his own unique smile and answered, “I’m building a bridge.”
Good idea, my young friend. We all need bridges.
I imagine you get my point. So many things in life can be used for good or for evil, like stones. What stones are you collecting today, and whatcha gonna do with those stones?
Ecclesiastes 3:1, 5a: “To everything there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven: a time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones together.”
God bless you and give you stones for bridges!
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