Chapter 37—The Smitten Rock
This chapter is based on
Numbers 20:1-13
.
From the smitten rock in Horeb first flowed the living stream that
refreshed Israel in the desert. During all their wanderings, wherever
the need existed, they were supplied with water by a miracle of God’s
mercy. The water did not, however, continue to flow from Horeb.
Wherever in their journeyings they wanted water, there from the clefts
of the rock it gushed out beside their encampment.
It was Christ, by the power of His word, that caused the refreshing
stream to flow for Israel. “They drank of that spiritual Rock that
followed them: and that Rock was Christ.”
1 Corinthians 10:4
. He was
the source of all temporal as well as spiritual blessings. Christ, the true
Rock, was with them in all their wanderings. “They thirsted not when
He led them through the deserts: He caused the waters to flow out of
the rock for them; He clave the rock also, and the waters gushed out.”
“They ran in the dry places like a river.”
Isaiah 48:21
;
Psalm 105:41
.
The smitten rock was a figure of Christ, and through this symbol
the most precious spiritual truths are taught. As the life-giving wa-
ters flowed from the smitten rock, so from Christ, “smitten of God,”
“wounded for our transgressions,” “bruised for our iniquities” (
Isaiah
53:4, 5
), the stream of salvation flows for a lost race. As the rock had
been once smitten, so Christ was to be “once offered to bear the sins of
many.”
Hebrews 9:28
. Our Saviour was not to be sacrificed a second
time; and it is only necessary for those who seek the blessings of His
grace to ask in the name of Jesus, pouring forth the heart’s desire in
penitential prayer. Such prayer will bring before the Lord of hosts the
wounds of Jesus, and then will flow forth afresh the life-giving blood,
symbolized by the flowing of the living water for Israel.
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The flowing of the water from the rock in the desert was celebrated
by the Israelites, after their establishment in Canaan, with demon-
strations of great rejoicing. In the time of Christ this celebration had
become a most impressive ceremony. It took place on the occasion
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