Some Rock Pillars in the Bible

Jesus Saves Us From Flaky Intentions

produced by static force llc sometimes things don't change.

Transcript

Title: Some Rock Pillars in the Bible

Subtitle: Jesus Saves Us From Flaky Intentions

Description: Pillars are meant to last thousands of years – or more.

https://www.buzzsprout.com/2076577/episodes/17185585

#GospelAccordingToTheRock

Some Rock Pillars in the Bible

by Eric Engelmann

All content © 2025 Static Force, LLC

THERE ARE A LOT OF PILLARS IN THE BIBLE

A pillar is an upright rock that carries a message. A rock's natural state is to lie down on the ground -- it's more stable. A pillar shows man's intervention into nature and a desire to leave a message.

There are a lot of other pillars in the Bible besides rock pillars. There's a pillar of cloud. A pillar of fire. A pillar of salt. Bronze pillars. Cedar pillars. Sometimes people are called pillars.

Pillars can be set up to honor the Most High, or set up to honor something else.

I once read a book: *The Language of Creation*

by Matthieu Pageau. It includes information about the meaning behind setting up a pillar. The theme is heaven meets earth. For instance, at Bethel the anointing oil symbolizes heaven coming to meet earth -- the rock that was set up. Jacob also promises that as heaven blesses the work of his hands and he gets fruit from the earth, he'll give a tenth of it back in a heavenly direction.

I'm going to go through some Scriptures about rock pillars. The final one isn't specifically rock. But by the time we get to the book of Revelation, we'll see some of the motivations behind rock pillars through thousands of years.

In Genesis, 

Jacob was escaping his brother. After nightfall, he fell asleep and laid his head on a rock. It didn't look special, but The Most High appeard to him. Angels were going up and down a ladder into heaven. In the dream, the Most High promised faithfulness to Jacob.

Here's GENESIS 28:13b

The land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants. 

When Jacob woke up, he said the place was awesome. God was in it, and Jacob had no clue!

He made a small gesture to make his pillow special -- he set it up on its end and put some oil on it.

He made the pillow a pillar.

That was ABOUT 

1930 BC.

Fast forward almost 500 years to Moses at Sinai -- about 

1446 BC, 

and we see Moses sets up 12 rock pillars. Why? Jacob had 12 sons and the family had grown for generations.

Here's Exodus 24:4

Moses wrote all Yahweh’s words, then rose up early in the morning and built an altar at the base of the mountain, with twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel.

Here each stone pillar represents a clan -- a family -- a tribe. All of them are descendants of Jacob. These pillars show that God was faithful to his promise to Jacob, even after his descendants had to cross the Red Sea to escape the Pharaoh of Egypt.

God was faithful to multiply Jacob's descendants.

Let's move ahead to talk about memorials during the time of the kings of Israel. 

The first king is King Saul. 

In the time of Saul, about 

1028 BC, 

Saul was sent out on a mission. Saul didn't accomplish it. Saul changed the definitions of his mission and celebrated the propaganda victory. And he missed an important appointment with the prophet Samuel.

1 Samuel 15

Verse 12 So when Samuel rose early in the morning to meet Saul, it was told Samuel, saying, “Saul went to Carmel, and indeed, he set up a monument for himself"; 

NOTE: I found one English version that uses the phrase "tall stone". Most English versions call this a "monument". This isn't exactly a pillar, but it does seem to set a strange trend. 

Note that Saul was not blessed by God for setting up a monument for himself. It might be that the monument was a way to deceive himself into thinking that he had accomplished the mission.

NOW LET'S FAST FORWARD ABOUT 50 YEARS TO THE TIME OF KING DAVID. THIS IS ABOUT 

980 BC; 

There is a curious pillar mentioned in the time of King David.

Historically, two of David's sons grasped for the kingdom of Israel without permission. One of those sons was Absalom.

When Absalom had the resources, he had a pillar set up to comemorate ... himself. Sort of like Saul.

PILLAR SCRIPTURE

2 Sam 18:18

18 Now Absalom in his lifetime had taken and set up a pillar for himself, which is in the King’s Valley. 

For he said, “I have no son to keep my name in remembrance.” He called the pillar after his own name. And to this day it is called Absalom’s Monument.

The BIG POINT is Absalom was like David's enemy Saul. He raised a pillar to himself instead of carrying out the commands of the Most High.

Going forward in time, I want to touch on the subject of 

PILLARS IN THE FIRST TEMPLE

Absalom's half brother Solomon used pillars differently. These pillars were in the first temple Solomon built, but I'm not going to say a lot about them because Solomon's pillars in the temple appear to be either bronze or cedar.

I'm also not going to say a lot about the other idols Solomon worshipped, or any of their pillars.

There are only four mentions of the word "pillar" in the version of the New Testament I'm using. 

Going forward in time about a thousand years to the book of Revelation, I'll say it's about 

95 AD. In

Revelation 3:12

Jesus says to one of the churches,

"He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no more. I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God. And I will write on him My new name."

NOTE: The promise of being a pillar in Jesus' temple is a promise of belonging and receiving His identity. Jesus' intent is better for us than some of the kings who raised memorials for themselves.

I’d rather have Jesus raise me up than try to raise myself up and try to demand a place with God’s family.

Moving ahead in time, we can see Jesus' promise has been available for almost 2000 years.

All content © 2025 Static Force, LLC