Speak to the Rock, don’t strike it!
When God’s people needed water in the dry desert, God told Moses to speak to a Rock but he struck it twice instead and pure water gushed out as a stream. Numbers 20:8
God was not pleased by this act as he was told to speak to the Rock, not strike it, for this Moses was not allowed to enter the Promised Land. Numbers 20:12
I see the Rock as a symbol of the separation between Law and Grace, Christ being the Rock, Moses the Law.
For the law was given through Moses, but God’s unfailing love and faithfulness came through Jesus Christ. John 1:17 NLT.
In the Book of Exodus Moses was told to strike the Rock which he did.
I will stand before you on the rock at Mount Sinai. Strike the rock, and water will come gushing out. Then the people will be able to drink.” So Moses struck the rock as he was told, and water gushed out as the elders looked on. Exodus 17:6 NLT.
But when told to speak to the Rock he struck it twice in disobedience to God’s word. Christ died once to redeem us from our sins, striking the Rock again would symbolize Christ being crucified again!
Paul the Apostle was angry when the Galatian Church embraced Jewish Law brought to them through some Jews who confessed Jesus as their Messiah. This Church had been blessed while walking in the Spirit and liberty. When they embraced the Law of Moses they fell from grace but not from salvation.
Paul also said in the Book of Hebrews that those Jewish believers who returned to the Temple and participated again in sacrifices for sin had crucified the Lord anew, putting him to open shame, striking the Rock a second time!
It is impossible, I say, to keep bringing them back to a new repentance, for, to their own undoing, they are repeatedly crucifying the Son of God afresh and exposing Him to open shame. Hebrews 6:6
The pure water that flowed from the Rock is a symbol of the Holy Spirit that Jesus sent on the Day of Pentecost, he was there in the desert with Moses and his people.
* And all of them drank the same spiritual water. For they drank from the spiritual rock that traveled with them, and that rock was Christ. 1-Corinthians 10:4 NLT.
He said, “The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; 2-Samuel 22:2 NASB.
The LORD is my rock, my fortress, and my savior; my God is my rock, in whom I find protection. He is my shield, the power that saves me, and my place of safety. Psalm 18:2 NLT.
Be my rock of safety where I can always hide. Give the order to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress. Psalm 71:3 NLT.
*Jesus Christ is our solid Rock, upon which he himself is building his Church, his Spiritual Body. The Greek word Jesus used for Peter was “Petros”, a pebble or small stone, Jesus as shown in God’s word is our Rock of Ages, our firm foundation!
Together, we are his house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself. Ephesians 2:20 NLT.
Author Ken
May 2013