Exodus 17

Exodus 17:5-6

THE SMITTEN ROCKExo_17:5-6.OUR selection of a second study concerns “The Smitten Rock”, an “Old Testament type” of great New Testament truths, as we shall learn by careful study. As the pillar of cloud and fire speaks of the Spirit, so this smitten rock anticipates our crucified Christ.Permit me then to remark first of all concerning this rock, that it wasTHE WATER SUPPLYOnce in my class in the Old Testament in the Northwestern Bible and Missionary Training School, the question was asked whether this rock went with the Israelites through their desert wanderings; or whether there were more rocks than one smitten; or whether the stream from one stone followed after them? The circumstance that two sinkings occurred, one in the wilderness of Sin at Rephidim, and the other in the wilderness of Zin near Kadesh-barnea, a long way to the North, answers the latter questions; the stream did not follow them. Water does not flow up hill. Touching the former, I felt the necessity of study, and after a comparison of Scripture with Scripture, and symbol with substance, I am persuaded that the stone was one that went with them through their wilderness journey. How it went we are not told.

It could have been borne on a cart, as was the ark; or moved by supernatural power, as was the cloud. That it did go seems clear upon three lines of argument.First: The language of the Old Testament looks to one stone.

Wherever this stone is spoken of, specific language is employed. In its very selection God seems to have a special stone in mind. Listen,“The Lord said unto Moses, Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel; and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine hand, and go.“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, that the people may drink” (Exodus 17:5-6).Mark you, it was not the rock Horeb, but “the rock in Horeb”—“the rock in that mountain”; “the rock of that desert place”.In Numbers, the twentieth chapter, the people were abiding in Kadesh, where Miriam died and was buried, but there was no water for the congregation; and“they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron. And the people chode with Moses, and spake, saying, Would God that we had died when our brethren died before the Lord!“And why have ye brought up the congregation of the Lord into this wilderness, that we and our cattle should die there?“And wherefore have ye made us to come up out of Egypt, to bring us 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.“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.“And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,“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.“And Moses took the rod from before the Lord, as He commanded him.“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?“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” (Numbers 20:2-11).In this second instance where water from the rock is referred to, the definite article qualifies it, as if it were well known.Again, its location is just outside “the door of the tent of meeting”—a natural place if it were looked upon as the source of the water supply. It is a significant fact that when they were assembled about it “the glory of the Lord appeared unto them”. Go back to Exodus and you will find that God had definitely promised that “He would stand before Moses upon the rock”, and here He fulfils that a second time.

This rock is made the place of His meeting with the Law-giver, as was the mercy-seat of His manifestation to the priest.However, the acme of argument in favor of one stone exists in this phrase, “Take thy rod and assemble the congregation, thou and Aaron thy brother, and speak unto the rock, before their eyes, that it give forth its water” (Numbers 20:8). Not that it “give forth water”, but that “it give forth its water”, as if that water were of a peculiar kind which characterized this rock and this rock alone.

Now go with us through the Scriptures and see whether that interpretation be justified. In Deuteronomy 32:13, we read of Jacob, or Israel, “So the Lord alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him. He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields; and he made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock”. The Psalmist, speaking of this same instance, says, “He brought streams also out of the rock and caused the waters to run down like rivers”. Matthew Henry thinks that for this delicious draft the people “digged canals for the conveyance of it, and pools for the reception of it”, that while their tabernacle was struck in one place, they might have easy access to its living, healing flood.The symbolism almost necessitates the same stone. Mr.

Spurgeon has a sermon on this stone, the opening sentence of which is this: “It is a fact which we have one record that there were two rocks, both of which gave forth water in the wilderness to supply the needs of the multitudes.” I regard Mr. Spurgeon as one of the best students of the Bible known to the past century, and one of its sanest and most spiritual interpreters.

I have seldom dissented from a single opinion which he has expressed. But, touching his opinion here, it would seem to me that his opening sentence accounts for strange and unwarranted conclusions to which he comes in his sermon. For instance, he says, “Some may argue that if there were two rocks, there may be two Christs,” and answers, “By no means, my friends. There was a fresh scapegoat every day of atonement, but that does not imply that there is to be a new Christ every year. A lamb was to be offered every morning and every evening, but who would infer from this that there were as many Christ’s as lambs—an argument which overlooks the fact that every scapegoat was treated in the same way; sins were confessed over its head and it was sent into the wilderness, and thereby became the type of one phase of Christ’s work, namely, that of removing our sins from us “as far as the east is from the west”. Every lamb-offering was treated in the same way; it was smitten and slain, and thereby became the perfect type of Christ’s work when He “suffered the Just for the unjust”, and by His shed Blood, secured our remission.

But if there were two rocks, they were differently treated under different circumstances. And we would have the strange procedure of selecting one stone to be smitten, and another and different rock to be spoken to, as if the crucified Christ was not also the same to whom we address our prayers.But the second and more evident mistake into which Mr.

Spurgeon falls is to make this second rock “the mystical Christ”, or, “the body of Christ —the Church”. Touching this, he says, “You will notice the way in which the water was to be gotten out of the second rock. It was not by smiting but by speaking. It was God’s revealed will. He would have this rock bless people, not by being smitten, but by speaking. So, beloved, it is God’s revealed will that Christ—mystically—should bless the world by speaking. Christ’s Church sends forth rivers of Living Water every day by speaking. It is by the foolishness of preaching that the world is saved.” All of which is true, but none of which is suggested in this Scripture.

The rock never spoke; it was spoken to instead. It is not a symbol, therefore, of a witnessing Church; but is a symbol of an answering Christ, who, when addressed in prayer, pours forth the stream of healing, through the opening of the old wound. It is the crucified Jesus to whom we pray; and our every petition uncovers afresh that fountain of which Jesus spake to the woman at the well, “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that said, Give Me to drink, thou wouldst have asked of Him and He would have given thee Living Water”.The New Testament teaching harmonizes with this idea. Paul, in his Epistle to the Corinthians, speaking of this very experience, says,“I would not brethren, that ye should be ignorant how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea;“And were all baptised unto Moses, in the cloud and in the sea;“And did all eat the same spiritual meat;“And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of the spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ” (1 Corinthians 10:1-4).Language could scarcely be more definite, “for they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them”. The reference must be to this rock, for he is recounting this very history. The fact that he calls it “a spiritual rock” in no sense militates against that idea.

The meat which they ate was material; but it was also spiritual, in that it came by a daily miracle, through Him who is a Spirit. The rock of which they drank was natural; but it was also spiritual in that God overshadowed it, and indwelt it.

Jesus Christ Himself was natural; He was a man and human; but “in Him all the fullness of the God-head dwelt bodily”.And the text says, “This rock”—a type of Christ —“followed them”.I do not know whether Faber was thinking of this very time, but it would seem to be so when he wrote: “In the shadow of the Rock, Abide! Abide!This Rock moves ever at thy side.Pausing to welcome thee at eventide.Ages are laid beneath its shade.Rest in the shadow of the Rock.”But we pass from the consideration of a water-supply to the suggestion asTHE SYMBOL OF OUR SAVIOURFirst of all, a stone is stable in character. The Lord speaks of this stone as “a flinty rock” suggesting peculiar stability. In that respect it is a type of Christ, the Unchangeable One. You remember that when Peter first heard the Master’s call, his name was Simon, or “hearkening”. But it is one thing to hear, and it is another to hold out.

Jesus knew the lack of stability in Peter’s character, and He also knew that when the Holy Spirit came upon him, this would change, so He said to him, “Thou art Simon, the son of Jonas, thou shalt become Cephas, which by interpretation is stone”. But no such change ever needed to come to Christ! From the first He was The Unchanging One, fitly symbolized by a stone. Dr. Lorimer, reciting the instances in which unbelievers have paid tribute to Jesus, quotes from Thomas Chubb, a celebrated English deist, who pays to Jesus this tribute: “In Him we have an example of a quiet, peaceable spirit, of a becoming modesty and sobriety, just, honest, sincere—traits of stable character.” I never think of the many concessions which unbelievers have made to the stability of Jesus without remembering also the Scripture, “Their rock is not as our rock, our enemies themselves being the witnesses”. No wonder John Campbell Shairp wrote of Him: “Subtlest thought shall fail and learning falter, Churches change, forms perish, systems go,But our human needs, they will not alter,Christ, no after age shall e’er outgrow.Yea, Amen! O changeless One, Thou only,Art life’s guide and spiritual goal,Thou the Light across the dark vale lonely,Thou the eternal haven of the soul.”What unspeakable blessing in this fact! In such a time as this when the knowledge of yesterday will not suffice for today; when skepticism is trying the very foundations of our faith; when so-called Christian teachers make it their business to explode the creeds of their yet-living fathers, it is good to know that something abides. Dr. Buxton says, “When the unfortunate traveler wandering along the doons of Scotland finds himself in the quick-sands, and gradually sinking in his awful grave of living death —Oh, what would he not give for a solid rock beneath his feet!” Thank God, the Christian traveler, though he must walk the way of Sinai’s desert, can sing as he goes, “On Christ the Solid Rock I Stand.”This rock is also a symbol of our Saviour in its unpromising aspect. Horeb is a barren and dry land; the very word itself signifies “barrenness”.

It was from this mount that one of the stones, which had made it barren, was taken to become a fountain of life to the famishing multitudes. Who could have thought of it?

In the desert one may look for an oasis with a spring in it; in the valley of Baca some forefather may have digged a well that weary travelers might be refreshed. Even had the great ledge of stone been smitten and cleft for a few hundred feet, there had been some promise that far down into the depths water would have been found; but to take this “flint”, as it is called in Deuteronomy, this boulder from a mountain side, and speak of finding water in its granite bosom, is to talk of the impossible. But “with God all things are possible”. And just such a “round-head” is the fittest illustration of the Son of Man, who Himself, according to Isaiah, is “like a root out of the dry ground”, and of whom the Prophet further said, “When we shall see Him there is no beauty that we should desire Him”. As Spurgeon says, “He came out of a family which, although once royal, was then almost extinct. His father and mother were but common people of the tradesmen class; the glories of the royal line of David had been forgotten in the crowd.” We often palliate the guilt of the Jews for rejecting Jesus by saying, “How could they recognize in Him the King of kings, and the Lord of lords, when He was born in a peasant’s house, brought up under the hand of a carpenter, lived in the despised burg of Nazareth, and presented no kingly appearance, nor voiced any pretention of power until He was thirty years of age?

But as far back as the wilderness God was showing the Jews by this very stone to look not on the outward appearance. He was saying to them then in symbol what He afterward said to Samuel, “Man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart”.

He was trying to teach them that when the seed of the woman should appear as Saviour He would not be, as Joseph Parker puts it, “A superior Adam, with finer tint of flesh, with keener glance of eye, and with subtler and more varied eloquence of tone. But He took upon Him the flesh that had no beauty of outline or feature. It was not beauty of form; it was beauty of expression. It was not the beauty of statuary; it was the beauty of life as God, Himself, put it to Samuel. It was not an Apollo that God was giving to the world to excite our admiration for His outward appearance, but it was the Son of Man underneath whose humility of appearance there beat the heart of Deity itself, which, when once the rough exterior was smitten and the sword’s point had found its way into that heart, the fountain such as no natural man ever possessed would break forth for the refreshing of a famished world, just as this unpromising stone poured forth streams of salvation and “caused waters to run down like rivers”. “Oh, Christ He is the Fountain,The deep sweet well of love!The streams on earth I’ve tasted,More deep I’ll drink above:There, to an ocean fulness,His mercy doth expand,And glory—glory dwelleth In Immanuel’s land.”Again, it was a symbol of our Saviour, in that it went with them. The Hebrew word in our King James’ version translated “followed” means literally, “went along with”. Suggestive symbol! Christ says, “Lo, I am with you alway, even to the end of the age”. Abraham Coles has then a warrant for his words: “What things shall happen on the morrow Thou kindly hidest from our gaze;But tellest us, in joy or sorrow,‘Lo! I am with you all the days.’“When round our head the tempest rages,And sink our feet in miry ways,Thy voice comes floating down the ages,‘Lo! I am with you all the days,’

“O Thou who art our life and meetness!Not death shall daunt us or amaze,Hearing those words of power and sweetness,‘Lo! I am with you all the days’”There are other points of symbolism which I will not take time to discuss. Let us conclude the discourse withSOME .Christ, like the rock, was to be smitten but once. Though He were raised from the dead, they could never send Him to the Cross a second time. In his Epistle to the Romans (Romans 6:9-10), Paul writes, “Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead, dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over Him, For in that He died, He died unto sin once; but in that He liveth, He liveth unto God”. In his Epistle to the Hebrews (Hebrews 9:26-28), this same Apostle says, “But now once in the end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin, by the sacrifice of Himself * * so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many”.

Peter in his first Epistle adds, “For Christ, also, hath once suffered for sin; the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18). Thank God, when the last enemy, Death, has smitten the Christian once, he cannot touch him again; “On such, the second death hath no power.Again, as the smitten rock was only to be spoken to, so with the smitten Christ.

Moses was expressly commanded not to smite the rock the second time, but to speak to it. And our way of blessing is not by searching for the heart of Christ with the sword point; but by sending to the heart of Christ a sincere prayer. I love to turn through the Bible and see what blessings were secured from Jesus by speaking to Him. When, at the wedding in Cana of Galilee, they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus spake unto Him, saying, “They have no wine”. When a certain nobleman, whose son was sick at Capernaum, heard that Jesus was come out of Judea into Galilee, he went unto Him, and besought Him that He would come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. When Jairus’ daughter was at the point of death, he addressed Jesus, “I pray Thee, come, and lay Thy hands on her that she may be healed”.

When the leper saw Him, he came kneeling down to Him, saying, “If Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean”. When Lazarus lay dead, his ‘sisters said, “Lord, if Thou hadst been here, our brother had not died * * and even now we know that whatsoever Thou shalt ask of God, He will give it to Thee”.

When the two blind men followed Him, they cried, saying, “Thou Son of David, have mercy on us”! And lo! the wine was provided; the nobleman’s son was restored; Jairus’ daughter was raised again; the paralytic was given fresh powers; the leper was cleansed; the eyes of the blind were opened; and Lazarus was called from the grave.Speak to Him! Follow the example of those two blind men by the wayside, who cried, saying, “Have mercy on us, O Lord, Thou Son of David! And though the multitude rebuke thee and tell thee to hold thy peace, cry the more, since He Himself has encouraged it. Oh, it is blessed to feel that we have a great High Priest that it passed into the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, who can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, having been, in all points, tempted like as we are. It is when thinking of Him that Paul says, “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need”.

Speak to Him! He has been pleased to make His promises of prayer.

Beseech Him! His special pledge is to the importunate. Why go on thirsty in soul, when the Smitten Rock is ready and waiting to give forth your every need in answer to a word? Ah, truly has some one said, “Prayer is so mighty an instrument that no one ever yet mastered all its keys. They sweep along the infinite scale of man’s wants and God’s goodness!”Finally: Learn from this symbol that if you smite Christ a second time, you exclude yourself from Canaan. Those who crucified Him the first time had preached unto them repentance and forgiveness.

Not so with those who smite Him the second time. For is it not written, touching those who were once enlightened and tasted of the heavenly gift, which were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and tasted the good Word of God, and the powers of the age to come, and then fell away?

It is impossible to renew them again unto repentance, seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put Him to an open shame. There are people who imagine that Jesus was never crucified but once, nor yet but by one people, and that was that day in old Jerusalem when legalist and the lawless combined to take away His life, and nailed Him to the wooden Cross! On the contrary, Christ is crucified every day.At the World’s Fair in Chicago, there was a work by Jean Beraud entitled, “The Descent from the Cross”, which represented the naked body of Christ as being taken down by the hands of loving friends. But the setting of the picture was strange, in that the Cross was not historically situated. The city was not Jerusalem, but Paris; the crucifiers were not Jews and Romans, but French, as was evidenced in the fact of their faces, complexion, and modern garments. Even the Centurion was no longer pictured as a Roman warrior, but represented, rather, as a plain workman in a blue blouse.

Dr. Lorimer thinks the painter aimed “to teach his fellow countrymen that the apparent decay of the French nation, and the increasing horrors of Parisian life, the debasement in public and private morality, were mainly due to their repudiation of primitive Christianity”.

But it has seemed to me that the artist had another idea, namely, that of showing the Parisians a picture of themselves in the very act of crucifying the Saviour afresh, of putting Him to an open shame by their practical rejection of His love and repudiation of His Gospel. Oh, that in this, the French stood alone! All over America men and women are doing the same. There may be those in this audience who were once enlightened, and tasted of the heavenly gift, and yet, have fallen away, and this day refuse Jesus, and who, consequently, are crucifying to themselves the Son of God afresh and putting Him to an open shame. Hugh Price Hughes, speaking one day in East London of this rejection of Jesus, said, “Oh, this word ‘impossible’, how it pains me! This week when the text came I shuddered.

I found that it was one word, the word ‘Impossible’. I would have fled from it as Jonah fled from Nineveh, but I dared not.

Is there some one in this vast audience to whom, by my voice, God sends this last appeal? Do you know that every hour you delay to accept Christ, you are changing your heart; you are forming your final character; you are making your soul proof against the love of God? The hour of final choice draws nearer, nearer, nearer. You may have entered upon it now! Repent! Escape for your life. Flee to Christ, and all will yet be well.“Refuse, refuse; go away unsaved, and Christ may go compelled to follow your retreating figure with the bleeding heart, and with the irrevocable words with which He followed Judas Iscariot: ‘It would have been a good thing for that man if he had never been born.’”