That Rock was Christ
a December series on how the Old Testament points us to Christ
Scripture Reading: Exodus 17:6; 1 Corinthians 10:4
Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink.
For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ…
An illustration is coincidental. It depends on the creativity and discernment of the person employing it. The object, person, or event used to illustrate another thing doesn’t exist for that purpose, but the speaker or writer sees helpful parallels and employs them to make that which he is trying to explain clearer.
A type is not an illustration. I type is brought into existence by God to foreshadow Christ and the gospel. A type is intentionally illustrative. It is a kind of divine prophecy of the New Covenant.
We can find many things that are illustrative in the Old Testament, but there are a lot of things that are not illustrations but serve as types – divinely inspired pictorial prophecies of Christ and the gospel.
The rock from which Moses miraculously received water is one of those types. One of the reasons we know it was meant as a type is because the New Testament tells us so. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians about it and said, “The Rock was Christ.”
What are some of the ways the rock from which water came points us to Christ?
· The people were going to die without water and the rock became the source of life-giving water for them.
· Moses, the Law-giver, struck the rock to make the water flow. Jesus was struck by God on the cross and water flowed from His side. In His death, He became the water of life to all who believe in Him. (One should also note that Moses was strongly condemned by God when he struck the rock a second time. He was only supposed to speak to the rock. Jesus is crucified for us once. He need not be crucified again. All subsequent blessings come by speaking to Him, not by crucifying Him again.
· Notice that in the Old Testament account, Yahweh stands on the rock. Moses, in striking the rock was essentially striking Yahweh, thus identifying Christ as none other than God Himself who would be struck for us.
There is more that we could delve into here. Paul calls the Rock a “spiritual Rock.” He isn’t spiritualizing the Old Testament account. In reality, he is properly exegeting what happened and how Moses and subsequent Old Testament authors viewed this rock and its relationship to the rest of the wilderness wanderings. Hint – they didn’t see the physical stone as the source of life, they viewed Yahweh as the true source of life. Thus, throughout the rest of the Old Testament, it was not uncommon for God to be called a “Rock.”
There is much to contemplate about this topic. But for now, let us rejoice that Jesus Christ is the Rock that was struck so that life-giving water can flow freely to us who believe.
