In this sermon, Pastor Chuck Smith discusses the significance of the rock in biblical stories. He starts by referencing the interpretation of Daniel's dream, where the rock symbolizes the coming of Jesus Christ to establish God's reign on earth. Pastor Chuck then recounts the story of Moses and the Israelites in the wilderness, where Moses struck a rock to provide water for the thirsty people. However, he emphasizes that Moses' anger and disobedience in striking the rock a second time resulted in God's displeasure. The sermon concludes with a reminder of the importance of God's restraining power in our lives and the need to resist the temptation for revenge.

Oh, let the Son of God enfold you With His Spirit and His love Let Him fill your heart and satisfy your soul Oh, let Him have the things that mold you And His Spirit, like a dove Will descend upon your life and make you whole Welcome to The Word for Today Featuring the Bible teaching of Pastor Chuck Smith Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa, California Pastor Chuck is currently leading us on a verse-by-verse study through the entire Bible And on today's edition of The Word for Today We'll be picking up with Jacob's last words regarding Joseph So let's turn in our Bibles to Genesis 49, verse 22 As Pastor Chuck Smith provides us with the details Now he comes to Joseph The son that he loved and the son that he had in his mind Established as the heir The one to whom he gave the double portion By claiming his two sons as his own Ephraim and Manasseh And thus by dividing the portions and giving portions To both Ephraim and Manasseh Joseph received the double portion And Joseph is a fruitful bough A fruitful bough by a well His branches run over the wall Here is a tree that is planted by a well Its roots go down and draw from the subterranean water source And thus it's a tree that is green And a tree that produces abundantly Joseph A tree that's loaded with fruit Probably the reference to The opulent style of life that he enjoyed as second in Egypt Only under the pharaoh He had his own physicians And he had no doubt multitudes of servants And he lived in a very opulent style And thus he is called a fruitful bough His life bears abundance of fruit But his branches run over the wall What that means is that he doesn't hoard it all to himself He's willing to share That which God has blessed him with With others The branch runs over the wall Others also can partake of the benefit and the blessing That God has bestowed upon him And this is always the purpose of God If he has blessed your life It is that you might share those blessings with others Never blesses us just that we might hoard it for ourselves But blesses us in order that we might share those blessings The fruitful bough whose branch hangs over the wall Thus others are benefited and blessed By what God has done in my life So should it always be The archers have bitterly grieved him Though he was prospered abundantly Though he had the great wealth of Egypt at his fingertips He had gone through some really heavy trials Life was not always easy for Joseph He had experienced a lot of grief in his lifetime The archers have sorely grieved thee And they have shot at him and they hated him There was a deep hatred in the brother's hearts Concerning Joseph It says that they hated him and then he told the dreams And they hated him all the more Hatred so great that they actually conspired to kill him Then opted later to just sell him as a slave He's been shot at Arrows of jealousy, arrows of envy Arrows of hatred from his brothers Lies from Potiphar's wife Forgetfulness from the butler Oh, the arrows that have gone his way But his bow remained in strength That is, he did not retaliate And take revenge against the wrongs that were done to him Though it was in his power to do so So many times when I'm shot An arrow sticks in my side I turn and I let fly with everything I have Before I even find out who shot it I've been wounded I'm hurt, I want revenge I want to get even, who did that? And I just start shooting at anything that's moving It's a part of our nature to desire revenge to get even You push me, I'll push you You shoot me, I'll shoot you I'll get even with you It takes great strength Not to get even when it's in your capacity to do so His brothers had sold him as a slave He had the capacity now to make them his slaves He doesn't do it He doesn't get even His bow abides in strength That is, it's there, it's ready He could release the arrow He could destroy those that had sought to destroy him But he doesn't His bow remains in strength The secret of that strength is the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob God was the one that was the restraining power in his life God is a restraining power in our lives God is able to help us if we have a flash temper If we have that habit of just sort of flying off God can be a restraining force in your life You can know the power of God He will hold the arms of your hands So that you will not just strike back From there is the shepherd, the stone of Israel God in the figure of a shepherd It's something that becomes quite common as we move through the scriptures This is the first direct reference to God as a shepherd In the 48th chapter, the 15th verse He declares that God who has fed me all the days of my life until now The word fed there is the word shepherd, ruach And could be translated the God who has shepherded me And that is possibly the first reference to shepherd But it's translated the God who has fed me The God who has tended me And it's equivalent to the Greek word tend Which Jesus said to Peter, tend my sheep Shepherd my sheep God who has shepherded me And from thence is the shepherd God as a shepherd Then the stone And the first reference to God as a rock Or God as a stone And again through the Psalms This symbolism for God is used over and over The Lord is my rock, my strong defense Actually even in the song of Moses Deuteronomy 32 Their rock is not as our rock And the many references to God as a rock In the song of Moses The rock was a symbol of strength The symbol of protection Hide me in the rock That is higher than I And so the place of defense, the place of protection The place of safety And that is what God becomes to us The place of safety The place of defense Sheltered in the rock But for Israel there came a special symbolism of the rock Of course in the book of Daniel you have that classic Dream of Nebuchadnezzar Seeing the progressive kingdoms that would rule Over the world Until he came to the Ten toes Which are ten kings And during the reign of these ten kings I saw a rock Out of the mountain Not cut with hands It hit the great image in the feet So that the whole image crumbled And the rock grew into a mountain that covered the world And in the interpretation of Daniel for that dream That rock was the coming Of the Lord Jesus Christ To establish God's reign over the earth And in the time of those ten kings Shall the Lord come and establish a kingdom that shall never end The rock But for the children of Israel When they were in the wilderness and were perishing because of thirst And they came to Moses and they said to Moses You know you've brought us out here to die Our children were dying of thirst We're going to die soon if you don't give us water And Moses said you know Who am I that I can give you water He went in before the Lord and said Lord Out there complaining they need water And God said take your rod and strike the rock And water will come forth And Moses went out and he took his rod and he smote the rock And the water came flowing forth And the people drank And they were saved In Corinthians Paul said and there was that rock With them in the wilderness And that rock was Jesus He is the rock from which the water of life flows The rock that was smitten Smitten for your sins and for my sins But in the smiting of Christ The water of life Flows to us today And thus in the New Testament the beautiful invitation Oh everyone that is thirsty let him come to the water and drink A sort of a repetition of Isaiah's Call to the thirsty souls Jesus the final invitation of the book of Revelation He that is a thirst let him drink of the water of life freely Jesus said if any man thirst let him come unto me and drink And if you'll drink of the water that I give Out of your innermost being there will just flow rivers of living water And so Jesus the rock from which the water of life flows That's why the second time when they came to Moses saying We're thirsty we're gonna die And they've been in the wilderness now for 40 years They said and you haven't even brought us into the land like you said you were going to And Moses went in before God and said God I can't take it I've had it I'm up to here Lord these people nothing but complaining for 40 years And I've just had it Lord I can't stand it anymore And God says well Moses they're thirsty Go out and speak to the rock that it might give forth water But Moses was angry He didn't want to just go out and speak to the rock He's mad at the people he went out and said you bunch of hypocrites How long do I have to put up with you Tired of all your complaining must I hit this rock again and give you water And he smote the rock the second time The water came forth God said Moses come here son What did I tell you to do He said speak to the rock Yeah Moses but you hit it Yeah Lord I was really mad wait a minute Moses You can't lead the children of Israel into the promised land What do you mean You've got to be kidding me what do you think I've been out here 40 years for No Moses can't do it Lord that isn't fair Moses don't talk to me anymore about it it's settled You failed to represent me before the people there at the Waters of Meribah the waters of strife But what happened You see the rock Jesus once he was smitten Needs never be smitten again He suffered once and for all once Jesus was that rock Moses in smiting the rock the second time destroyed the beautiful symbol That God was setting up For you see all you need to do to receive the water of life is to speak to the rock All you have to do is ask Come to Jesus and ask and you will receive the water of life freely The rock doesn't need to be smitten again And so Moses paid heavily for that little outburst Where he let his arrows fly Did not hold his bow in strength By the God of your father who will help you And by the Almighty who will bless you Your hands are being held by the mighty God God holding your hand makes you strong Your hand is being held by the God of your fathers Or your father singular Jacob who will help you The Almighty Who will bless you And so the blessings that were to come upon Joseph The blessings of heaven above The rain that shall come down The blessings of the deep that lies beneath The reference to the subterranean water the wells of water The blessings of the breast and of the womb The multiplying of the tribe the people Large tribes Ephraim and Manasseh Ephraim became a dominant tribe The blessings of your father have excelled the blessings of my ancestors And unto the utmost bound of the everlasting or the ancient hills And so the establishing of the boundaries To the ancient hills They shall be on the head of Joseph All of these blessings that God has bestowed on me They're going to be bestowed now upon Joseph You know sometimes I think That I have to be one of the most blessed men alive And that's only because of the grace of God Surely not because I deserve it But I look around at what God has done The blessed privilege of being able to minister God's word and God's truth To so many hungry people And I look at the pictures of all my grandkids Blessed to have such a marvelous wife I don't deserve her Blessed to have such beautiful kids The blessings of God Upon those who he holds in his hand The strength of God The abundance Actually you're the fruitful bough God as a shepherd is related to the fruitful bough concept The obligation of the shepherd really was that of providing good pasture for the sheep That the sheep might grow and be strong The ability to be strong in the face of the temptation to take revenge God the stone, the rock He is my defense I don't need to defend myself He will defend me And so the beautiful blessings that Jacob pronounces upon Joseph The crown of the head of him who was separate The word is Nazarite in Hebrew From which later came the Nazarite vow Which was the vow of separation or consecration unto God Now interestingly enough Benjamin who was another favorite of Jacob Because he also was the son of Rachel Benjamin doesn't really come in for much In fact very little Benjamin is a ravenous wolf In the morning he shall devour the prey And at night he will divide the spoil Not much for Benjamin is there He's a ravenous wolf In the morning he'll devour the prey At night he'll divide the spoil Benjamin produced the tough fellows He didn't want to tangle with the Benjamite They were tough As the history will unfold The tribe of Benjamin And these guys were fierce in battle The first king of Israel came from the tribe of Benjamin, Saul And there were a group of Benjamites Who were fighting with David And these fellows were skillful with the slings Tremendous All of them left-handed sling throwers The Benjamites But not much for them Now these all are the 12 tribes of Israel And this is what their father spoke to them And he blessed them And he blessed each one according to his own blessing Then he charged them and said to them I am to be gathered to my people Bury me with my fathers in the cave That is in the field of Ephron the Hittite In the cave that is in the field of Machpelah Which is before Mamre in the land of Canaan Which Abraham bought with the field of Ephron the Hittite As a possession for a burial place So they buried Abraham And there they buried Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebekah And I buried Leah The field and the cave that was purchased from the sons of Heth And when Jacob had finished commanding his sons He drew his feet up into his bed He breathed his last And was gathered to his people So this was his final action Looking around, pronouncing these prophecies And then the commanding of the sons Look, take me back and bury me in the cave there at Machpelah And pulls his feet up in the bed And that's it We'll return with more of our verse-by-verse study of Genesis In our next lesson As we continue with the death and burial of Jacob And we do hope you'll make plans to join us But right now I'd like to remind you That if you missed any part of today's message Or perhaps you'd like to order a copy For that special friend or loved one You can do so by simply contacting One of our customer service representatives And they'd be more than happy to assist you With the ordering details Simply call 1-800-272-WORD And phone orders can be taken Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific Time Once 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Box 8000 Costa Mesa, California 92628 And be sure to include the call letters of this station With your correspondence And now, on behalf of The Word for Today We'd like to thank all of you Who share in supporting this ministry With your prayers and financial support And be sure to join us again next time As Pastor Chuck Smith Continues his verse-by-verse study Through the book of Genesis That's right here On the next edition of The Word for Today Now, once again Here's Pastor Chuck Smith May the Lord be with you now And watch over you this week May He fill you with His Spirit May the love of Jesus Christ Just abound In all things Towards you And may you be blessed of God As you walk In fellowship with Him May God by His Spirit Increase your faith As you study the Word And may you grow up in all things In Christ, come into a real Maturity in your walk With Him Beginning to experience the fullness Of God's power Love and blessing Upon your life As you live in fellowship with Him In Jesus' name It's a blessing to be able to have these resources With you at all times Especially when you're in a place to minister to another person If you have an e-reader Then you know the advantage of being able to Search, find, and minister within seconds And with all of Pastor Chuck And Kay's insights into Biblical wisdom This is a great opportunity To be able to gain from their books So you can share the good news with others If you would like more information On how to download Pastor Chuck And Kay's e-books You can call the Word for Today Customer Service Department At 1-800-272-WORD Or visit us online At thewordfortoday.org This program has been sponsored by The Word for Today In Costa Mesa, California