| “And the Lord said unto Moses … 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” (Exodus 17:5-6). |
| “And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Take the rod … and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes; and it shall give forth his water” (Numbers 20:7-8). |
| In our verses today, we find two occasions when the Lord brought water out of a rock, so that the children of Israel and their animals could drink. The two occasions were almost forty years apart, for the first one happened at the beginning of the wilderness journey of Israel, and the second one was close to the end of that journey. In both cases the Lord brought water out of the rock. In the first case Moses was told to hit the rock, but the second time he was told simply to speak to the rock. Why was this? |
| The rock is a picture of the Lord Jesus, and when He went to the cross, it was as if He were struck with the rod. There God punished Him for our sins, and He suffered the judgment of God that we deserved. However, this happened only once; it did not need to happen again. We read in the Bible, “Now once in the end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself” (Hebrews 9:26). After the Lord Jesus died, blessing flows to us simply if we ask Him; He does not have to suffer again. |
| For this reason, when the people wanted water a second time, the Lord told Moses simply to speak to the rock. Sad to say, Moses was angry because the people had complained to him, and instead of speaking to the rock, Moses struck the rock twice. God was gracious, and the water came out just the same, but because Moses disobeyed the Lord, he was not allowed to go into the land of Canaan. It was important for Moses to listen to the Lord, for even though he did not understand why, the Lord’s instructions about how to get water for the people were a picture of the Lord Jesus. |
