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"THAT ROCK WAS CHRIST"
I. PAUL IS POINTING OUT THAT THE EXPERIENCES THAT THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL WENT THROUGH WERE INTENDED AS EXAMPLES FOR US AND WERE WRITTEN FOR OUR ADMONITION.
A. This is known as Biblical typology. These things become spiritual types.
1. Their bondage in Egypt is a type of our bondage in sin.
2. Pharaoh is a type of Satan, who sought to hold them in bondage, and even after they escaped sought to pursue them that he might keep them in bondage.
3. Their passing through the Red Sea on dry ground was a type of our baptism whereby we are separated from our old life through baptism.
4. Their receiving the life giving water out of the smitten Rock is a type of our receiving life from our Savior being smitten for us.
5. Their miraculous preservation through the wilderness wanderings while journeying to the promised land are a type of God's preservation of us as we journey toward the promised land.
6. Their crossing Jordan into the promised land is a type of our dying to the life ruled by the flesh and entering into the life governed by the Spirit.
B. Paul reminds them of the water that flowed out of the smitten rock that brought them life when they were perishing of thirst.
1. Paul declares to us that that rock was Christ.
2. Jesus spoke of the water of life that He would give to those who were thirsty.
C. Jesus spoke of the water of life that He could give to those who were thirsty.
1. To the Samaritan woman at the well.
2. Jesus said if she drank of that water she would thirst again but if she drank of the water that He could give to her she would never thirst again but that it would be like a well of living water springing up from within.
3. On the feast day Jesus cried to the assembled multitude. "If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink and he that drinks of the water that I give, as the scripture says, out of his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.
4. In the book of Revelation, the last invitation that is made by God to man concerns drinking of the water of life.
REV 22:17 And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.
II. THE ROCK IS OFTEN USED AS A SYMBOL OR A TYPE OF GOD.
DEU 32:3 Because I will publish the name of the LORD: ascribe ye greatness unto our God.
DEU 32:18 Of the Rock [that] begat thee thou art unmindful, and hast forgotten God that formed thee. When the Lord delivered David from the hand of Saul he sang,
2SA 22:2 The LORD [is] my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer;
2SA 22:3 The God of my rock; in him will I trust: He later asked:
2SA 22:32 For who [is] God, save the LORD? and who [is] a rock, save our God? In
Psalm 18 he declared,
PSA 18:46 The LORD liveth; and blessed [be] my rock; and let the God of my salvation be exalted. David said, The Rock of Israel spoke to me saying, he that ruleth over man must be just.
PSA 42:9 I will say unto God my rock, Why hast thou forgotten me? why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?
PSA 61:2 From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock [that] is higher than I.
A. In the book of Daniel as he interpreted the dream for Nebuchadnezzer of the kingdoms that would rule over the world, when he got to the next to last world dominating kingdom the feet of iron and clay, as he watched there came a Stone not cut with hands and it smote the image in its feet, so that the whole image crumbled and the Stone grew into a mountain that covered the earth.
1. This is a prophecy of the second coming of Jesus to set up the Kingdom of God that will rule over the whole earth.
2. Jesus is that stone not cut with hands.
3. He is the Rock that was smitten from which the water of life flowed out to the people of God.
B. In the first experience of the water out of the rock, the people of Israel had come to Rephidin, and there was no water there. They came to Moses and began to accuse Moses of bringing them out of Egypt that he might kill them with thirst. Moses cried to the Lord, and asked, "What shall I do for the people are ready to stone me?" The Lord commanded him to take his rod and smite the rock and that water would come out.
C. Later as they were in the desert of Zin again without water we read in Numbers the story:
NUM 20:1 Then came the children of Israel, [even] the whole congregation, into the desert of Zin in the first month: and the people abode in Kadesh; and Miriam died there, and was buried there.
NUM 20:2 And there was no water for the congregation: and they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron.
NUM 20:3 And the people chode with Moses, and spake, saying, Would God that we had died when our brethren died before the LORD!
NUM 20:4 And why have ye brought up the congregation of the LORD into this wilderness, that we and our cattle should die there?
NUM 20:5 And wherefore have ye made us to come up out of Egypt, to bring us in unto this evil place? it [is] no place of seed, or of figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates; neither [is] there any water to drink.
NUM 20:6 And Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and they fell upon their faces: and the glory of the LORD appeared unto them.
NUM 20:7 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
NUM 20:8 Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly together, thou, and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes; and it shall give forth his water, and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock: so thou shalt give the congregation and their beasts drink.
NUM 20:9 And Moses took the rod from before the LORD, as he commanded him.
NUM 20:10 And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock, and he said unto them, Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock?
NUM 20:11 And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice: and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts [also].
NUM 20:12 And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.
D. Later as Moses spoke to the Lord seeking to change the ban against his going into the promised land, Moses said:
DEU 3:23 And I besought the LORD at that time, saying,
DEU 3:24 O Lord GOD, thou hast begun to shew thy servant thy greatness, and thy mighty hand: for what God [is there] in heaven or in earth, that can do according to thy works, and according to thy might?
DEU 3:25 I pray thee, let me go over, and see the good land that [is] beyond Jordan, that goodly mountain, and Lebanon.
DEU 3:26 But the LORD was wroth with me for your sakes, and would not hear me: and the LORD said unto me, Let it suffice thee; speak no more unto me of this matter.
E. The Lord said that Moses was banned from going into the promised land because he rebelled against the commandment of God, and did not sanctify God before the people at the waters of Meribah in the wilderness of Zin. How so?
F. Did not God tell Moses to strike the rock in the earlier episode? Yes, but this time he told Moses to speak to the rock, and Moses in his anger with the people smote the rock twice.
1. Moses thus destroyed the type that God was creating for the future generations.
2. It was necessary that the rock be smitten the first time that the water of life flow forth to the people of God.
3. Once smitten the rock never needed to be smitten again, all one has to do is to speak to the rock and the water of life will flow forth to them.
4. Jesus had to be smitten in order that we might receive the forgiveness of our sins. Once smitten He never needs be smitten again. All we have to do is to speak to the Rock and the water of life will flow freely to us.
G. Salvation is so simple. If you will believe on the Lord Jesus Christ you will be saved is the answer that Paul gave to the Phillipian jailor when he asked, "What must I do to be saved?"
H. To the church in Rome Paul declared that salvation was not something that was far away or difficult to attain, but it was close to them as close as their mouths. For if they would confess with their mouths that Jesus Christ was Lord, and believe in their hearts that God had raised Him from the dead, they would be saved.
I. It is so simple that a child can receive, and they go around with the joy and assurance that Jesus is in their hearts.
Verse-Reference
Square — [Jhn 1:1 KJV]
Abbreviate Books
Use SBL Abbrev.
