Now I want you to know, brothers, that our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from a spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. (1 Cor. 10: 1 - 4). Paul says that the “rock” at Horeb (Ex. 17: 6) was the same “rock” at Kadesh (Num. 20: 6 – 11) and that “rock” was actually The Rock—the Lord Jesus Christ.
That’s the reason Moses’ penalty for his intemperate explosion was so final. Moses failed to do the very thing he was placed here to do – present Christ and His Cross. Since the rock had already been struck at Horeb where the Law was given the picture of a once-dying Savior for all lawbreakers was already drawn. Therefore, God told Moses to simply speak to the rock and water would be provided to slack the desert thirst of the ancient people of God. In a fit of fury, Moses screamed at the people, “Listen, you rebels!” (20: 10) and struck the rock twice more. The picture of the Cross was marred in the mind because of his madness. Moses, the quintessential servant of God, failed at life’s basic point – he messed up the message he was sent to deliver.
Instead of picking on Moses, I find myself quite convicted by this entire episode. I, unlike Moses, live on the lighted side of the Cross. He did not fully understand the typology and theology of our Lord’s Cross but we do. Yet, we are often less faithful than Moses and have less opposition to blame our dereliction of duty on.
Our Savior has already been struck with the wrathful blow of the Hand of Heaven. On the Cross the LORD was pleased to crush Him (Is. 53: 10). All we have to do is tell people that if they will speak to The Rock in prayer that the water of life will flow to them forever (Jhn. 4: 14; 7: 37 – 39). Our mission is so simple: Tell people that they too can drink from the spiritual rock… and that rock [is] Christ. (1 Cor. 10: 4). God even further simplified the mission for us by providing word pictures for us and our hearers but still we fail. The most basic need of every person populating the planet is water. We have the message to see to it they never thirst again. Let’s not fail them!