In the wilderness, Moses strikes the rock, and water flows to sustain the people. The act is both provision and sign, meeting immediate need while pointing to something greater.
Later Scripture returns to this moment, drawing connections between the rock and Christ. The provision in the wilderness becomes a figure of a more complete provision to come.
This essay explores that connection, considering how the striking of the rock speaks of a singular sacrifice.
As in so many New Testament passages, this one draws on an event in the Old Testament to show the Father’s redemptive plan through his Son. Unfortunately, a turn of affairs poses a problem. Moses, who in infancy is providentially saved from Pharoah’s edict to kill the Hebrew babies, who talks to God in the burning bush, who humbles a Pharoah to let the Israelites go from Egypt, who receives the Ten Commandments, and who pleads with God for his people and speaks with God face to face, is barred from entry into the Promised Land because he strikes a rock rather than speaks to a rock. In the heat of a moment’s frustration with the people’s relentless stubbornness, it seems like a comparatively simple sin to commit, followed by an outsized punishment. But from our feeble perspective, it always does.
God tells Moses to bring water from the rock on two separate occasions. The first time, God indeed says, “You shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink” (Exodus 17:6). The second time, God only says, “Tell the rock before their eyes to yield its water,” yet “Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his staff” (Numbers 20:8, 11). God then tells Moses and Aaron they would not enter the Promised Land because “you did not believe me” (Numbers 20:12) and “broke faith in the midst of the people” (Deuteronomy 32:51). Obedience by faith in God is crucial to our relationship with him. Without it, we are lost, for “without faith it is impossible to please him” (Hebrews 11:6). Faith that leads to obedience is the underlying premise of our whole spiritual walk, and if that goes wrong, it all goes wrong.
Jesus is that Rock in the desert, providing them with water, both literal and spiritual. Moses describes this Rock as separate but of identical purpose of the Father: “The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity” (Deuteronomy 32:4) and “You were unmindful of the Rock that bore you, and you forgot the God who gave you birth” (Deuteronomy 32:18). They scoffed at the Rock of his salvation” (Deuteronomy 32:15), salvation that only comes through his Son. Later, Jesus tells the woman at the well that “Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again” (John 4:13). This describes the certainty of the singularity of Jesus’ work of the cross in our lives which, once given to him, never changes. Romans says, “The death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God” (Romans 6:10). But two promises are at work with these two encounters with the Rock.
In the first instance, God says, “I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb” (Exodus 17:6). In the divinity of Jesus, God is there, on the rock that is struck. Later, as a man fully human and fully divine, he is struck many times and on the cross, “one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water” (John 19:31). But notice in the second instance that God isn’t on the rock in the second instance, for he is resurrected and off that cross on which he was struck. After we accept Jesus’ gift of mercy, we never need to strike him again to gain it again. In fact, we must never strike him again, for to do so would be a lack of faith that the first time wasn’t enough. From the moment of salvation on, just one requirement now exists for spiritual water: “Ask, and it will be given to you” (Luke 11:9).
Moses only needs to ask for water the second time. This hearkens again to God’s justice and mercy. In striking the rock, justice is satisfied–forever. Henceforth, in mercy, water flows from the rock simply by asking–also forever. Hebrews speaks of this once-only sacrifice in several places when the writer says Jesus was offered up “once for all” (Hebrews 7:27, 9:12, 26, 10:10), but this passage is the clearest:
“For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.” (Hebrews 6:4-6)
The rock that is Christ may not be struck again; it cannot be struck again, for it is impossible to crucify Christ again, and to want to do so would be to show contempt for his sacrifice. In justice, the first rock is struck, which begins the flow of the waters of salvation into the world. “We esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted” (Isaiah 53:4). We do not want to do this twice. In mercy, the second rock flows freely with the living water whenever we ask, quenching our spiritual thirst.
His mercy is always present after we stumble in sin or drift away from faith. He never leaves us. “Give me a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water” (John 4:10). Let us not lose sight of that gift! The Mekhilta, a first-century Jewish commentary, says of these passages about the Rock: “As it says in Scripture, ‘He brought forth streams from a rock’ (Ps. 78:16). ‘Streams’ means only ‘living water’.” (emphasis added). The rock that produced that living water is Jesus, and all we need do is speak to him to quench our spiritual thirst.
Moses knew this Christ, for he had “considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt” (Hebrews 11:26) and ultimately did appear in Canaan when he joined Jesus and Elijah, together transfigured on the mount. Jesus says, “For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me” (John 5:46). The path to trusting God has never changed. Jesus was struck once for our justification then pours forth living water for our sanctification. As members of the church, we build our “house on the rock” (Matthew 7:24) with “Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone” (Ephesians 2:20).
This essay is part of Shadows of Christ: Twelve Essays.
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