This office the Lord Jesus did most willingly undertake, which that He might discharge He was made under the law, and did perfectly fulfill it, and underwent the punishment due to us, which we should have born and suffered, being made sin and a curse for us; enduring most grievous sorrows in His soul, and most painful sufferings in His body; was crucified, and died, and remained in the state of the dead, yet saw no corruption: on the third day He arose from the dead with the same body in which He suffered, with which He also ascended into heaven, and there sits at the right hand of His Father making intercession, and shall return to judge men and angels at the end of the world (LBCF 8.4).

Let’s talk about Jesus.

In Exodus 17, Moses recorded a time when the freemen of Israel put God to the test. The Israelites’ thirst grew, causing an uptick in their persuasion that death by dehydration may befall them. Under intense pressure from the thirsty people, Moses sought God’s help. The Lord responded to Moses’ prayers by commanding him to use his staff to strike the rock. Miraculously, water gushed out of the rock, and the people consumed life-sustaining water.

Exodus 17:1-7,

All the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of Sin by stages, according to the commandment of the Lord, and camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.” And Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?” But the people thirsted there for water, and the people grumbled against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?” So Moses cried to the Lord, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” And the Lord said to Moses, “Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink.” And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. And he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the quarreling of the people of Israel, and because they tested the Lord by saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”

God could have simply told Moses to lift his staff so that water would spring forth in thirst-quenching abundance. Yet, the Lord told Moses to strike the rock. The image of Moses striking the rock points to the striking of a different Rock. The rock is a shadow of one to come, the one who produces living water.

In 1 Corinthians 10, Paul recalls this story in his instructions to the church at Corinth. He warns the Corinthians to learn from the bad example set forth by those wilderness wandering Israelite complainers. Within his letter, Paul reveals a detail of enormous significance, “For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ” (v. 4, emphasis added). The rock in Exodus 17 points us to the Rock whose name is Jesus.

1 Corinthians 10:1-5,

For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.

Paul’s identification of Jesus as the Rock in the wilderness informs our understanding of Exodus 17. By God’s grand design, humans need water to sustain their physical lives. Unfortunately, the children of Israel trudged through a geographical area lacking an abundance of this life-sustaining drink. Without divine intervention, the people were going to die. Thankfully, since God designed humans, he knew the needs of Israel and provided for his people. Then, in grace, God commanded Moses to strike the rock so that the people may live.

Likewise, by God’s design, humans need living water to sustain their spiritual lives. Without this soul sustaining provision, man dies and goes to hell. This provision is not without pain and sacrifice, however, for just like the rock that produces water in the wilderness, living water only comes by striking the Rock. 

In Isaiah 53, the prophet foretells of a Lamb who will endure much affliction. This sacrificial Lamb will be stricken, afflicted, pierced, crushed, chastised, wounded, grieved, and anguished. One could say this treatment is like a rock beaten in the wilderness to satisfy many people’s thirst. The prophet also reveals the purpose for the Innocent One’s affliction: to make many accounted righteous (v. 11).

Isaiah 53:4-5; 10-11,

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed . . . Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.

Notice in Exodus 17, the rock took the beating, and the people reaped the benefits. This exchange is what happens when one partakes in living water at salvation. The Rock, Jesus, took the beating, and believers reap the eternal benefits. Jesus took the beating wrought by our sinful lives, and we took the righteousness wrought by Jesus’ sinless life. The rock, stricken for the production of water, points to the Rock, stricken for the provision of living water.

God still provides his chosen people with inexhaustible streams of this supernatural, thirst-quenching, Spirit-giving, life-saving water through the striking of the Rock, who cries, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink” (John 3:37).