THAT SPIRITUAL ROCK

As the children of Israel traversed the wilderness between Egypt and the promised land, they tried God’s patience to a tremendous extent. He had delivered them with a strong arm; they had not only come out of Egypt with the initial blessing of the Egyptians, but they had had gold and jewels thrust upon them. God even parted the sea so that they passed through on dry ground, and then closed the waters over the advancing Egyptian armies and destroyed them. Yet, in the wilderness they grumbled. They longed for the fleshpots of Egypt, for leeks and garlic. They disobeyed God, rebelled against Moses, and lacked the faith to believe that God could overcome the giants in Canaan.

Yet despite all this, God showed them great grace. He fed them with quails, turned bitter water sweet, and ensured that during their forty years of wandering in the wilderness, though their bodies would be strewn in the desert, so that none but Joshua and Caleb went in to the promised land, their shoes and clothes did not wear out. He even gave them manna from heaven, small white loaves of bread that looked like angels’ food. When they grumbled at the lack of water, God instructed Moses to strike a rock and out of it came a fountain of fresh water. This water, and the manna, are described as ‘spiritual food’ and ‘spiritual drink’. This may mean both the manna and the rock were pictures of the spiritual sustenance that God gave them, or it may mean that they were spiritual in the sense of being supernaturally provided. Christ is still the spiritual nourishment and refreshment of His people today.

God is often described in the Old Testament as a Rock. Ascribe ye greatness unto our God. He is the Rock, his work is perfect’, wrote Moses, Deut. 32. 3-4. He was the rock of Israel’s salvation, the one that had formed them. ‘The Lord is my rock... and my deliverer’, wrote David, as an individual believer, 2 Sam. 22. 2. That tangible rock, smitten by Moses, was indeed a type of Christ smitten by God on behalf of His people. The spiritual rock, even Christ Himself, never left His people unaccompanied, though God was not well pleased with many of them. He still does not. Let us learn not to share their attitudes.