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From Eternity Past
daily taught that they were as secure from want as if surrounded by
fields of waving grain on the fertile plains of Canaan.
The manna was a type of Him who came from God to give life
to the world. Said Jesus, “I am that bread of life. Your fathers did
eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which
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cometh down from heaven... . If any man eat of this bread, he shall
live forever: and the bread that I will give is My flesh, which I will
give for the life of the world.”
John 6:48-51
.
After leaving the wilderness of Sin, the Israelites encamped in
Rephidim. Here there was no water, and again they distrusted the
providence of God. The people came to Moses with the demand,
“Give us water that we may drink.” They cried in anger, “Wherefore
is this, that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our
children and our cattle with thirst?” When they had been so abundantly
supplied with food, they remembered with shame their unbelief and
promised to trust the Lord in the future; but they failed at the first trial
of their faith. The pillar of cloud that was leading them seemed to
veil a fearful mystery. And Moses—who was he? What could be his
object in bringing them from Egypt? Suspicion and distrust filled their
hearts, and in the tumult of rage they were about to stone him.
Water From a Rock
In distress Moses cried to the Lord, “What shall I do unto this
people?” He was directed to take the elders of Israel and the rod
wherewith he had wrought wonders in Egypt, and to go on before the
people. And the Lord said unto him, “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.” He obeyed, and
the waters burst forth in a living stream that abundantly supplied the
encampment. The Lord in His mercy made the rod His instrument to
work their deliverance.
It was the Son of God who, veiled in the cloudy pillar, stood beside
Moses and caused the life-giving water to flow. All the congregation
beheld the glory of the Lord; but had the cloud been removed, they
would have been slain by the terrible brightness of Him who abode
therein.
The unbelief manifested was criminal, and Moses feared that the
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