I Peter 2:9 reveals how precious we are to God, a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, and a living stone fitted to join our spiritual siblings in a spiritual temple with Jesus Christ as the Chief Cornerstone. A living stone we could consider an oxymoron because a physical stone is about the deadest, most inert thing around. On the spiritual level, however, God's people must be dead to their sins to be alive in Christ. As the emergent Temple of God, we share characteristics with Solomon's temple built upon Mount Moriah, where Abraham prepared to sacrifice Isaac and where Solomon's father David had purchased property for erecting the temple. Solomon's temple, a prototype of God's spiritual temple, was a massive undertaking, requiring over 180,000 workers, quarrying stone from numerous quarries, with massive stones hewn in the quarry to prevent the noise of hammering at the site of the location at the Mount Moriah site. The corner stone, embedded in the granite surface, provided the foundation for the rest of the sites. The many stones taken from the quarries had to be pre-fitted so hammer and chisel would not be required at the temple site. The foundation or superstructure of Solomon's temple still exists while the rest of the Temple was razed to the ground. Josephus states that on the temple site, Solomon's temple showed no sign of hammering or chiseling. Likewise, when the Cornerstone of the future spiritual temple returns, the temple will have been previously quarried and assembled from scattered quarries throughout the greater church of God. Our integrity with Jesus Christ, the Cornerstone, is ensured by the trials and tests to which we are subjected, in order that we will be aligned to the Cornerstone.