Christ, Our Rock

Dear Weekly Readers!

May the Peace of the Risen Lord Jesus be in your hearts each day of your Christian life!

Please enjoy the following article by our guest Pastor, Wayne Juntunen.

 

CHRIST, OUR ROCK

The Apostle Paul, in his Epistle to the Romans, wrote about the importance of the Old Testament saying:  “For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.” (Rom. 15:4)  There is much that we can learn from the Old Testament.  The Lord has brought two incidents from the life of Moses that all of us ought to seriously take to heart.  They both occurred during the wilderness wanderings of the Israelites after being delivered by God from Egyptian bondage.

Both incidents had to do with the need for water.  In the first instance, God told 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. ⁶ 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. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel” (Ex. 17:5,6).

The second time there was need for water, God told Moses to take his staff and speak to the rock and water would come forth (Num. 20:8).  But Moses did not obey God.  He “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” (Num. 20:9-11)

There are many lessons we can learn from this second incident.  Perhaps Moses did not believe that water could come from a rock by simply speaking to it.  We know from the Scripture that Moses was angry.  He was, also, prideful as he said, “must we fetch you water out of this rock.”  Because Moses did not honor God, he lost his position of leading the Israelites into the Promised Land (Num. 20:12).  But there is another truth, the most important of all, that is not so quickly seen.

This truth is clarified for us in the New Testament because the New Testament Scriptures interpret the meaning of the Old Testament.  So we turn to the Apostle Paul’s first epistle to the Corinthians wherein we read: “¹ Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; ² And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; ³ And did all eat the same spiritual meat; ⁴ And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ” (1 Cor. 1-4).

Coupled with that passage is the one from 1 Peter 3:18 wherein we read:  “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit.”  What this reveals to us is that Christ suffered only once for our sins.  When He cried on the cross, “It is finished”(Jn. 19:30), His suffering in the flesh was done, once for all forever!  Christ did not and does not need to suffer again.

Therefore, when Moses struck the rock, not only once but twice, he was, in effect, repeating Christ’s sufferings.  Our joy, and His, is that now we need only speak to the Rock.  Jesus, Himself, said:  “Ask and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you” (Mt. 7:7).

Another truth that all of this brings to light is that as Moses was telling the Israelites that they were “rebels”, he was being rebellious himself.  Furthermore, these brothers and sisters in faith were the anointed of the Lord, also, because they had been baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.  In effect, they were part of his body and, in truth, a part of Christ’s body since they were all in the cloud; meaning they were enveloped by God.  God tells us in Psa. 105:15, not to touch his anointed, and his anointed are not only those who hold the office of priest or prophet because we believe in the priesthood of all believers (1 Pet. 2:9) since Christ has made us kings and priests in his kingdom (Rev. 5:10).

Finally, Jesus warns us that at his Second Coming some of His servants will have lost their love for Him and for our fellow believers by mistreating one another; as a consequence, the “…master will appoint him his  portion with the unbelievers” (Lk. 12:46).  The reason for this tragedy is the fact that however we treat one another, we do it as unto the Lord (Mt. 25:40).

Lord, have mercy upon us!  You are our Rock.  Grant us grace that we do not cause you to suffer, striking you out of anger towards one another, our anointed ones!

Pr. Wayne Juntunen