Strike the rock

Time passes as the children of Israel continue their desert wanderings. Nothing seems to be changing as their discontent continues to fill the ears of Moses, Aaron and more importantly God Himself. Their mantra went something like this “All we have is this manna to eat, no meat and there is no water for us and our livestock to drink. Why did you lead us out into the wilderness to die? We would have been better off if were still slaves back in Egypt.”

In Numbers 20:7 we read “Then The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Take the rod; you and your brother Aaron gather the congregation together. Speak to the rock before their eyes, and it will yield its water; thus you shall bring water for them out of the rock, and give drink to the congregation and their animals.’ So Moses took the rod from before the Lord as He commanded him.” So far everything is going as per plan, Moses takes the rod, they gather the people together and now all that is left to do is to speak to the rock.

“And Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock; and he said to them, ‘Hear now, you rebels! Must we bring water for you out of this rock?’ Then Moses lifted his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod; and water came out abundantly, and the congregation and their animals drank.” Numbers 20:7-11

I love Moses. He really was just an ordinary guy, submitted to God for sure but really just a humble, ordinary kind of guy. What happens next to Moses is what happens to all of us at one time or another in our lives, we disobey God. God says something like, “Dean, walk to the right” so after hearing God speak I turn and run to the left. He is always so patient with us, longsuffering through all of our self inflicted drama and detours. However, at this point in Moses life, as he leads a great gathering of God’s people, he has to be punished for his blatant disobedience.

One of the things I enjoy about studying the Old Testament is discovering places where God inspires the writers to pen analogies about Jesus Christ into the Old Covenant. Here we have disobedient, wretched and sinful people wandering around in the desert complaining while they wait to enter the Promised Land. What a beautiful picture of our own lives where we wander around here on earth waiting to enter eternity with God. The key to this analogy is to think of the rock as a symbol for our Lord Jesus Christ, Messiah and Savior.

The rock was given to them to provide water by God Himself. The first recorded incident of this can be found back in Exodus 17:5-7 where God told Moses to strike the rock and water would pour out for the congregation. This is a symbolic picture of how Jesus would be wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities. The King of all glory would be mocked, beaten and finally put to death on a cross by men who were created by His own hands! The water that pours out and flows from the rock represents God’s refreshing provision for eternal life through Christ that He freely gives to all of us.

The congregation once again returns to Meribah and are both tired and thirsty. God understands that the people have a legitimate need for water and wants to provide for them. He instructs Moses to simply speak to the rock and the living waters of life would flow out for them. However, In one brief moment, Moses carelessly disobeys God’s instruction to speak to the rock as he lifts up his hand and strikes the rock twice.

After forty years of utter misery, wandering around in a dry, hot desert environment, listening to two million people complain, Moses is not allowed to realize his dream to enter into the Promised Land. Today, many people insist that they need to continue to strike the rock to earn their salvation when God Himself has told us “Just speak to the Rock”.  Too many of us still believe we have “to do something” to earn our salvation when Jesus Christ Himself said “It is finished!” as He hung dying on the cross. You can’t add to what God has already provided for you. You see, God wanted to freely give the people water as they thirst out in the desert and He wants to give you His free gift of salvation and just asks that you simply “speak to the Rock”. The Rock of our salvation is Jesus Christ, the living water flows from Him and all who drink from that well will never thirst again!