Christ is my rock...

They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.--1 Corinthians 10:2-4

Sometimes I hear a sermon and I can’t help but think, “where have I been?”  Have I not heard this presented this way?  I had heard the story, heard the preaching but never fully saw Christ in the story.  And this is just one of the reasons that I love our Epic series at church....

A couple of weeks ago, we had our sermon over the Battle at Jericho but my post today won’t really comment on that specific story but more so what was added in the end.  As pastor Alex was closing out, he reflected on Moses, as we had heard that story a week before.  He began talking about the rock.  Moses was in the wilderness and his people were thirsty.  They began questioning him and confronting him.  They were unhappy.  They wanted to know why he had led them there.  They wanted to go back to Egypt, to slavery or even just die at this point.  So Moses cried out to God and sought His help.  God told him to strike the rock once and water would flow.  Moses did as God commanded, striking the rock and then the water began to flow as God said it would.  You stroll over to Numbers 20 and you see the same story picking back up.  The people are cranky, moody, and forgetting where they came from.  Moses again goes to God but this time he was told to simply speak to the rock and the water will flow.  Picture yourself as Moses for a second.  You are doing what God asked you.  You are being obedient.  Yet it seems like every time you turn around, people are contemplating killing themselves because of your stellar leadership skills.  He had gone through this scenario before and here he was having to coddle the masses once again.  So he seeks God because that worked before and God tells him again to get water from this rock.  But this time God tells him to simply speak to the rock.  Moses, I’m sure in anger and frustration and remembering that previously when he struck this rock the water flowed, struck the rock again and this time, he struck it twice.  And for this very action, he was denied being able to enter the Promised Land.  

Okay, okay...but where is Christ in this?  It’s just a rock.  God was just challenging him.  He failed.  And here we learn a story about what happens when we fail to listen and obey God.  You may get what you want in the short-term but you miss out on the blessing in the long term.  Right?  Is that not what you were taught?  Hmm.  You mean to tell me there may be more?   That this isn’t just a symbolic story to teach me to be obedient and follow the commandments??  Surely you jest? 

No there’s an immense more of teaching that comes from this story.  There are countless studies that go in great detail of the rock, its wordage in the old testament and even the placement of where the rock was throughout the two strikings.  For example, there is thinking that the rock was at a lower elevation during the first striking and higher at the second, symbolizing Christ’s lowering of Himself during His first coming and then Him being elevated during His second.  This is also looked at with the wording.  In Exodus, the word used is tsur, which simply means boulder but in Numbers the word Sela is used and this means exalted rock.  

But more important than even the above “rock” study is this simple statement....Christ is that rock that Moses is striking.  That rock is the same rock Paul speaks of in Corinthians.  Moses striking the rock symbolizes Christ having to be stricken in order for the water of life to flow from him to us.  And like the rock, Christ doesn’t have to be struck again.  That battle has been won.  And now, like the rock in Numbers, since Christ has been struck we simply need to just speak and ask Christ to release his living water on us.  

That’s it.  We just have to ask.  Because our savior died for us, because he was beaten, abused, crucified and died for our sin, we now only have to ask.  Ask!  It seems so simple.  For Moses, it was too simple.  I imagined he feared failure and more ridicule.  But God has promised us time and time again and we see it here, all the way back to Numbers, that all we have to do is ask God for his living water to fill us.  Just ask.  

Lord, I thank you for taking my place.  I thank you for dying my death.  i thank you for creating a rescue plan that allows a sinner like me to be filled with your holy living water and that because of You I now have life.  I now have an eternity with you.  I exalt you, Lord and your love endures forever.  You have been here since our day one and before.  You have always had a plan for us and I thank you for this study to get to know that plan more but most importantly to get to know you more.