Chapter Three- Water From The Rock
by Wade Wright
And the LORD said unto Moses, Go on before the people, and take with
thee of the elders of Israel;
and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine hand, and go. 6
Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt
smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may
drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7
And he called the name of the place Massaha, and Meribah, because
of the chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted
the LORD, saying, Is the LORD among us, or not? [1]
Through out the bible, there are certain
things which are consistently used symbolically. In this text there are three
of these; Moses, water and rock. Moses, who went up on the mountain to receive
the Law and commandments from the hand of God, is representative of that law. Jesus
is portrayed as the cleft of the rock [Exodus 33:18-23], where God hid Moses,
as the cornerstone of our faith [1 Peter 2:7], as the stumbling stone to Israel [1 Peter
2:8], and the rock cut out without hands [Daniel 2:34], which smites, and
judges the nations. Water is often representative of the Holy Spirit.
Imagine, if you will, the nation Israel,
at the time of this story, nomads, two million strong journeying in a barren
wilderness. Their travels are directed by the LORD, and they are fed
supernaturally by manna from heaven. For four hundred years they had been
slaves in Egypt, where they had recently witnessed the awful plagues brought
against Egypt by God. They had watched as Pharaoh’s army drowned in the red
sea, where moments before they had walked with water standing on either side of
them. Still, they had not learned to trust in the Lord, for upon making a dry
camp, they began to complain to Moses.
Moses, who stood before Pharaoh and
proclaimed plagues sent from God, who cast his rod on the ground to become a
serpent, who stretched his rod out over the red sea in the sight of all Israel causing
it to part. He was a symbol of the power and authority of God, yet Israel
complained and argued with him. In keeping with his character, he represents
God’s judgment in this story.
Israel is like a lost man,
wandering through life in a dry and inhospitable place. Although we may not see
our condition, for it is spiritual rather than physical, we wander in just such
a place. We may go happily along for years, our basic human needs well met, but
in a spiritual desert. Some will go through all of life without coming to grips
with their spiritual poverty, and others will, as Israel did, pitch, or camp, in “Rephadim”.
The word means a “bed of rest”. It pictures a lost man, who comes to the
understanding of his lost condition; a bed of rest, for there is no hope for
anyone until they see their need, and yet, they still have a great problem. Two
million Israelites, with their livestock, and the mixed multitude which came
with them out of Egypt,
are now in a dry camp, and the trouble soon begins.
No sooner are they pitched, or camped,
than they begin to struggle with Moses about the lack of water. Moses has led
them, and been a guide to them, and brought them to this bed of rest and yet he
cannot satisfy their thirst, and so it should be. For Moses is the symbol of
the law, that is the man who represented Israel in giving of God’s holy law.
God’s law; it is the standard of holiness. It is the standard by which God, the
supreme authority of all creation judges the nature and the works of his
creature, man. If we seeing ourselves as under God’s sovereignty, study his
law, observe it in our conduct, and measure ourselves by it, it will guide us
through this spiritual wilderness to a place rest. That place for us is the
realization that we are condemned by God’s law in that we have violated it in
every way imaginable. When a man comes to know that he is far removed from God
by sin, it is perhaps the most significant moment in his entire life, for he
will never seek to reconcile himself to God, while he thinks himself a good
person. Having seen his problem, a man will begin to struggle with the law,
just as Israel
argued with Moses. They were in the place of rest, but could not be at rest
until there was water to drink. In the same way, knowing our lost and undone
condition before a Holy God does not fix our need. We may complain against
God’s law all we want to, but it remains the same standard, and we remain in
violation of it. To mankind the law is condemnation, but thank God, there is a
provision made for us, just as there was for Israel.
When Moses, a symbol of the law, and
therefore the authority to judge, took up his rod, a symbol of judgment and
struck the rock [Jesus], water [Holy Spirit] came forth; Sweet life giving
water; satisfaction to a thirsty soul. In Ezekiel 36:26, 27 God tells us he
will put a new spirit in us and place his spirit within. Jesus, the rock struck
upon the cross of Calvary, yielded himself
unto the judgment of God, paid the price of sin by his death. He satisfied the
commandments of the law, having never sinned against it, and fulfilled the
ordinances of the law, by submitting to a death he had not earned. The rock in
the wilderness had no need of being struck by Moses’ rod, just as Jesus had no
need of being nailed to the cross, but went there entirely for our good. The
law and being guided by the law cannot give eternal life, just as Moses could
not provide water to Israel.
What he could do was to carry out an act of condemnation, which is the function
of the law. Judgment having been satisfied, in that a suitable object had been
found to be struck, and had been struck, life giving water flowed from the
wound caused by that act of judgment. In the same way, the judgment being
satisfied in striking Jesus on our behalf gives us life eternal.
When Christ died for our sins, his blood
flowed freely, just like the water from the rock. But that water was of no use
to anyone who would not drink from it. That is a ridiculous thought isn’t it.
Why would anyone stand there by this life giving flow, and be thirsty? Is it
any more absurd to know the story of Jesus and refuse him? Perhaps you have
never given it serious consideration. Israel only received the picture of
life giving water from the rock after being guided by Moses to the place of
rest, and there coming to terms with their guide. My prayer is that you will
make the journey they pictured, that you will allow the holy law of God to show
you your true condition, and that you will partake of this life giving flow.
[1]The Holy
Bible : King James Version. 1995 (Ex 17:5-7). Logos Research Systems, Inc.:
Oak Harbor, WA
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