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The Stones May Not Be Who You Think They Are
For many years, I understood the stones mentioned by John the Baptist in Matthew 3:9 to represent the Gentiles. That was the interpretation I grew up hearing, and I never really questioned it. But the more I study Scripture through contextual hermeneutics, examining the audience, historical setting, and the language of the Old Testament prophets, the more I find myself reconsidering some of those long-held interpretations.
Recently, while studying John the Baptist’s warning concerning the axe being laid to the root of the trees, something caught my attention. John made a remarkable statement about God being able to raise up children unto Abraham from stones. I began wondering whether those stones were actually referring to the Gentiles or whether John was drawing upon something already familiar within Israel’s own Scriptures.
Before we answer that question, let’s examine what John actually said.
And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.
Matthew 3:9
Notice that John did not say God had already raised children from stones. He said God was able to do so. That distinction is important because John was emphasizing God’s ability rather than necessarily announcing that the stones had already become children of Abraham.
THE TRADITIONAL INTERPRETATION: WERE THE STONES GENTILES?
Many Christians have understood John’s reference to the stones as a prophetic picture of the Gentiles. According to this interpretation, John was warning the Jewish religious leaders that God was not dependent upon their physical ancestry to fulfill His promises to Abraham. If they refused to repent, God could raise up children of Abraham from among the Gentile nations.
There is certainly biblical support for Gentiles becoming children of Abraham through faith in Jesus Christ.
Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.
Galatians 3:7
And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
Galatians 3:29
Those passages establish that Gentiles who believe in Christ become heirs of Abraham’s promise. I have no disagreement with that truth.
However, there is something we need to recognize. Matthew 3:9 never explicitly identifies the stones as Gentiles. That identification is an interpretation brought to the passage, not something John directly states.
And while the inclusion of Gentiles is clearly taught throughout the New Testament, we must be careful not to assume that every reference to stones, trees, or other symbolic language automatically points to them.
So I began looking more closely at John’s immediate audience and the Old Testament Scriptures concerning Israel.
What I discovered led me to consider another possibility.
Could John have been referring to the spiritually hardened Israelites whom God was able to raise from covenantal death into New Covenant life?
WHO WAS JOHN ADDRESSING?
John was not speaking to a crowd of Gentiles. Matthew tells us that many Pharisees and Sadducees had come to his baptism.
John confronted their confidence in being descendants of Abraham. They believed their ancestry gave them a privileged standing before God, but John warned them that physical descent alone would not protect them from the approaching judgment.
Their genealogy was not the issue. Their response to God was.
Consider what the Gospel of John says concerning becoming children of God.
But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
John 1:12
Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
John 1:13
Notice those words: not of blood.
Being born into Israel did not automatically mean someone was born of God. The children of God were identified through receiving and believing in Jesus Christ.
This is precisely the distinction John the Baptist was confronting when he told the religious leaders not to rely upon Abraham as their father.
THE STONES AND THE OLD COVENANT
Now let’s examine something interesting.
When God established His covenant with Israel through Moses, the commandments were written upon tables of stone.
And he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God.
Exodus 31:18
Those stone tablets were associated with the covenant established at Sinai.
But centuries later, the apostle Paul described that covenant administration in language that might surprise many Christians.
Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.
2 Corinthians 3:6
But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away:
2 Corinthians 3:7
Paul calls it the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones.
Think about that.
The Old Covenant was written upon stone, and Paul contrasts its administration of death with the New Covenant ministry of the Spirit, which gives life.
Now return to Matthew 3:9.
John says God is able to raise children unto Abraham from stones.
I am not suggesting that John explicitly identifies the stones as the Mosaic Covenant. He does not. But when we examine the biblical imagery surrounding Israel, stone, death, and life, a meaningful pattern begins to emerge.
ISRAEL’S STONY HEART
The prophet Ezekiel spoke directly to Israel concerning a future transformation.
A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.
Ezekiel 36:26
And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.
Ezekiel 36:27
Who was God addressing?
Israel.
And what was their condition?
They possessed hearts described as stone.
God promised to remove those hardened hearts and give them new hearts through the work of His Spirit.
Notice how closely this corresponds to John’s announcement that the coming Messiah would baptize with the Holy Ghost.
The prophets had already spoken of Israel’s need for inward transformation. Their problem could not be resolved merely by possessing the Law or claiming Abraham as their father.
They needed the life-giving work of God.
Could John’s reference to raising children from stones have been an allusion to the very people whose hearts the prophets had described as stone?
I believe that possibility deserves consideration.
THESE BONES SHALL LIVE
The connection becomes even more interesting when we move into Ezekiel 37.
God gives Ezekiel a vision of a valley filled with dry bones. These bones are lifeless, scattered, and without hope.
But God identifies exactly whom they represent.
Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts.
Ezekiel 37:11
The bones represent Israel.
Then God promises to bring them to life.
And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the LORD have spoken it, and performed it, saith the LORD.
Ezekiel 37:14
Ezekiel’s prophecy originally addressed Israel’s restoration from exile, using resurrection imagery to describe the restoration of a people who believed their hope was lost.
But the language also provides a remarkable biblical picture of God bringing life where death had prevailed.
And the New Testament develops the contrast between the Old Covenant administration of death and the New Covenant ministry of life.
This is not about physical rocks becoming human beings or skeletons literally becoming a new nation. It is about God’s power to restore His people and give them life through His Spirit.
Now consider the language John the Baptist used.
God was able to raise up children unto Abraham.
The Greek word translated raise up is egeirō, a word frequently used elsewhere in the New Testament for awakening and resurrection. Its meaning in Matthew 3:9 does not require resurrection, but its broader usage makes the connection to life from death worth investigating.
What if John was announcing that God was able to raise a faithful people from within a spiritually hardened Israel?
Not because of their genealogy, but through the transforming work of God.
FROM DEATH UNTO LIFE
Jesus Himself spoke of passing from death into life.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.
John 5:24
Notice that Jesus did not describe this as something that could happen only after physical death.
He said the person who believed hath everlasting life and is passed from death unto life.
This is a present spiritual reality.
And when we examine this within the historical transition from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant, the connection becomes especially meaningful.
Israel had lived under the administration that Paul called the ministry of death. Through Jesus Christ, believers were entering the life of the New Covenant.
The issue was no longer whether they could trace their ancestry to Abraham. The issue was whether they would receive the Messiah whom God had sent.
THE FRUIT OF REPENTANCE
Now we must return to the statement John made immediately before mentioning the stones.
Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance:
Matthew 3:8
What was John preparing Israel to do?
The apostle Paul gives us an important explanation of John’s ministry.
Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.
Acts 19:4
John was preparing Israel to believe in Jesus Christ.
Jesus Himself explained the central importance of belief when the people asked what they must do to work the works of God.
Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.
John 6:29
John’s call to repentance was directing Israel toward the coming Messiah.
Repentance involved a change of mind and direction, but it was not merely an intellectual exercise. John also expected the fruit of repentance to appear in people’s conduct, as Luke 3:10–14 demonstrates.
Nevertheless, believing in the coming Christ was central to John’s ministry.
Those who relied upon their ancestry while rejecting the Messiah were missing the very purpose for which John had come.
THE AXE WAS ALREADY LAID TO THE ROOT
Now the next verse becomes especially significant.
And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
Matthew 3:10
Notice that John says now.
The axe was already laid to the root. The warning was immediate and directed toward the generation standing before him.
But notice something else.
John did not say every tree would be cut down.
He said every tree that failed to produce good fruit would be cut down.
That is an important distinction.
Not every Israelite rejected Christ. The apostles were Israelites. The earliest disciples were Israelites. Thousands of Jews believed the Gospel.
The judgment John announced was not an indiscriminate rejection of everyone descended from Abraham.
It was a warning against continued unfruitfulness and unbelief.
And this brings us to a parable Jesus told about a fig tree.
THE BARREN FIG TREE
He spake also this parable; A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came and sought fruit thereon, and found none.
Luke 13:6
Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard, Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none: cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground?
Luke 13:7
And he answering said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it:
Luke 13:8
And if it bear fruit, well: and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down.
Luke 13:9
Here Jesus describes a tree that had been given time to produce fruit.
But no fruit appeared.
The owner wanted it cut down, yet the dresser requested additional time to cultivate it.
Notice the patience demonstrated in the parable. The tree was given another opportunity.
But that opportunity was not indefinite.
If it continued to produce no fruit, judgment would follow.
When read alongside John’s warning about the axe, this parable provides a powerful illustration of God’s patience and the seriousness of refusing repentance.
Both passages speak of fruitlessness, an opportunity to repent, and the threatened removal of an unfruitful tree.
Within the historical setting of Jesus’ ministry to Israel, these warnings take on particular significance.
THE JUDGMENT THAT WAS COMING
John had already warned the Pharisees and Sadducees about the wrath to come.
Jesus later warned Jerusalem about the consequences of failing to recognize the time of its visitation.
For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side,
Luke 19:43
And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.
Luke 19:44
In AD 70, Jerusalem and its temple were destroyed by Roman armies.
From a fulfilled-prophecy perspective, that judgment was the historical culmination of the covenant warnings announced by John and Jesus.
The axe had been laid to the root.
The unfruitful trees faced judgment.
But those who believed in Christ had received something greater than physical descent from Abraham could ever guarantee.
They had received life in Him.
SO WHO WERE THE STONES?
I believe we should seriously consider the possibility that John’s stones represented hardened Israel, the very people God had promised to transform through His Spirit.
The Scriptures establish that Israel had been described as having stony hearts, that the Old Covenant was written upon stone and characterized by Paul as a ministry of death, and that God promised to bring His people into life through His Spirit.
These connections do not prove that John intended the stones in Matthew 3:9 to symbolize hardened Israelites. The more familiar interpretation, that God could raise Abraham’s children even from ordinary stones, remains consistent with the immediate context.
But I find the covenantal connection compelling enough to investigate.
John was not telling the Pharisees and Sadducees that their ancestry guaranteed their place among God’s people. He was announcing that God was able to raise children unto Abraham apart from their confidence in the flesh.
And the prophets had already declared that God would give His people new hearts, put His Spirit within them, and bring them from death into life.
Perhaps the stones were not primarily pointing to a different ethnicity at all. Perhaps John was pointing to what God was able to do with hardened Israel itself.
The ultimate distinction was not Jew versus Gentile. It was faith versus unbelief, life versus death, and fruitfulness versus unfruitfulness.
And the life God promised was found in Jesus Christ.