And the LORD said unto 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.
5. the elders ] to witness what takes place, and be able to certify it to the people.
thy rod, &c.] see Exo 7:17 b, 20 b.
the river ] the Nile: see on Exo 1:22.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Take with thee of the elders of Israel, that they may be eye-witnesses of this glorious work, and may report it to the people.
The river; either the Red Sea, for an arm of the sea is sometimes called a river; or the river Nilus.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
5. the Lord said unto Moses,c.not to smite the rebels, but the rock not to bring a stream ofblood from the breast of the offenders, but a stream of water fromthe granite cliffs. The cloud rested on a particular rock, just asthe star rested on the house where the infant Saviour was lodged [Mt2:9]. And from the rod-smitten rock there forthwith gushed acurrent of pure and refreshing water. It was perhaps the greatestmiracle performed by Moses, and in many respects bore a resemblanceto the greatest of Christ’s: being done without ostentation and inthe presence of a few chosen witnesses (1Co10:4).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And the Lord said unto Moses,…. Out of the pillar of cloud:
go on before the people, lead them on nearer to Mount Sinai or Horeb, within sight of which they now were. Jarchi adds, by way of explanation, “and see if they will stone thee”; fear not, go on boldly, no harm shall come to thee:
and take with thee of the elders of Israel; some of them for a witness, as the above writer observes, that they may see that by thine hand water comes out of the rock, and may not say there were fountains there from the days of old. These were taken, because they were the principal men among the people, who, as they were men of years, so of prudence and probity, and whose veracity might be depended upon; and since so great a multitude could not all of them see the miracle, the rock being smote, and the water only flowing in one part of it, and perhaps the road to it but narrow, it was proper some persons should be singled out as witnesses of it, and who so proper as the elders of the people?
and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine hand and go; wherewith the river Nile was smitten, and the water became blood, when Moses and Aaron first went to Pharaoh; and which, though smitten by Aaron, yet being with the rod of Moses, and by his order, is attributed to him; or else with which the Red sea was smitten by Moses, and divided; which being but a narrow channel, or an arm of the sea, might be called a river: and this circumstance is observed, as the afore mentioned writer thinks, to let the Israelites know, that the rod was not, as they thought, only designed for inflicting punishment, as on Pharaoh and the Egyptians, but also for bringing good unto them; and when they saw this in his hand, by which so many miracles had been wrought, they might be encouraged to hope that something was going to be done in their favour, and that water would be produced for them to drink.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
5. And the Lord said unto Moses. He commands him to go out into the midst, as if He would expose him to the danger of immediate death; but because Moses is persuaded that it is in His power to calm the passion of men, however fierce, as well as the waves and storms of the sea, he neither trembles nor retreats. But, thus did God magnify His power, so as to brand them with ignominy whilst He withheld the people from their previous attitude. In fact, Moses passes before them all, but he only takes the elders with him, before whom to bring the water from the rock, that they may be eye-witnesses of the miracle. This middle course, whilst it does not permit the glory of God’s bounty to be obscured, still shows the multitude that they are unworthy of being admitted to behold His power. To remind him that his rod would not be inefficient, He recalls to his memory what he had already experienced; yet does he not recount all the miracles; but only adduces what we saw at first, that, by its touch, the waters of the Nile were turned into blood. The declaration of God, that he will stand upon the rock, tends to remove all hesitation, lest Moses should be anxious or doubtful as to the event; for otherwise the smiting of the rock would be vain and illusory. Moses, therefore, is encouraged to be confident; since God, whom he follows in the obedience of faith, will put forth His power by his hand, so that he should undertake nothing vainly or ineffectually. Meanwhile, although He employs the operation of His servant, still He claims to Himself the honor of the work.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
THE SMITTEN ROCK
Exo 17:5-6.
OUR selection of a second study concerns The Smitten Rock, an Old Testament type of great New Testament truths, as we shall learn by careful study. As the pillar of cloud and fire speaks of the Spirit, so this smitten rock anticipates our crucified Christ.
Permit me then to remark first of all concerning this rock, that it was
THE WILDERNESS WATER SUPPLY
Once in my class in the Old Testament in the Northwestern Bible and Missionary Training School, the question was asked whether this rock went with the Israelites through their desert wanderings; or whether there were more rocks than one smitten; or whether the stream from one stone followed after them? The circumstance that two sinkings occurred, one in the wilderness of Sin at Rephidim, and the other in the wilderness of Zin near Kadesh-barnea, a long way to the North, answers the latter questions; the stream did not follow them. Water does not flow up hill. Touching the former, I felt the necessity of study, and after a comparison of Scripture with Scripture, and symbol with substance, I am persuaded that the stone was one that went with them through their wilderness journey. How it went we are not told. It could have been borne on a cart, as was the ark; or moved by supernatural power, as was the cloud. That it did go seems clear upon three lines of argument.
First: The language of the Old Testament looks to one stone. Wherever this stone is spoken of, specific language is employed. In its very selection God seems to have a special stone in mind. Listen,
The Lord said unto 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.
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 (Exo 17:5-6).
Mark you, it was not the rock Horeb, but the rock in Horebthe rock in that mountain; the rock of that desert place.
In Numbers, the twentieth chapter, the people were abiding in Kadesh, where Miriam died and was buried, but there was no water for the congregation; and
they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron. And the people chode with Moses, and spake, saying, Would God that we had died when our brethren died before the Lord!
And why have ye brought up the congregation of the Lord into this wilderness, that we and our cattle should die there?
And wherefore have ye made us to come up out of Egypt, to bring us unto this evil place? it is no place of seed, or of figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates; neither is there any water to drink.
And Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and they fell upon their faces: and the glory of the Lord appeared unto them.
And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly together, thou, and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes; and it shall give forth his water, and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock: so thou shalt give the congregation and their beasts drink.
And Moses 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 20:2-11).
In this second instance where water from the rock is referred to, the definite article qualifies it, as if it were well known.
Again, its location is just outside the door of the tent of meetinga natural place if it were looked upon as the source of the water supply. It is a significant fact that when they were assembled about it the glory of the Lord appeared unto them. Go back to Exodus and you will find that God had definitely promised that He would stand before Moses upon the rock, and here He fulfils that a second time. This rock is made the place of His meeting with the Law-giver, as was the mercy-seat of His manifestation to the priest.
However, the acme of argument in favor of one stone exists in this phrase, Take thy rod and assemble the congregation, thou and Aaron thy brother, and speak unto the rock, before their eyes, that it give forth its water (Num 20:8). Not that it give forth water, but that it give forth its water, as if that water were of a peculiar kind which characterized this rock and this rock alone. Now go with us through the Scriptures and see whether that interpretation be justified. In Deu 32:13, we read of Jacob, or Israel, So the Lord alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him. He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields; and he made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock. The Psalmist, speaking of this same instance, says, He brought streams also out of the rock and caused the waters to run down like rivers. Matthew Henry thinks that for this delicious draft the people digged canals for the conveyance of it, and pools for the reception of it, that while their tabernacle was struck in one place, they might have easy access to its living, healing flood.
The symbolism almost necessitates the same stone. Mr. Spurgeon has a sermon on this stone, the opening sentence of which is this: It is a fact which we have one record that there were two rocks, both of which gave forth water in the wilderness to supply the needs of the multitudes. I regard Mr. Spurgeon as one of the best students of the Bible known to the past century, and one of its sanest and most spiritual interpreters. I have seldom dissented from a single opinion which he has expressed. But, touching his opinion here, it would seem to me that his opening sentence accounts for strange and unwarranted conclusions to which he comes in his sermon. For instance, he says, Some may argue that if there were two rocks, there may be two Christs, and answers, By no means, my friends. There was a fresh scapegoat every day of atonement, but that does not imply that there is to be a new Christ every year. A lamb was to be offered every morning and every evening, but who would infer from this that there were as many Christs as lambsan argument which overlooks the fact that every scapegoat was treated in the same way; sins were confessed over its head and it was sent into the wilderness, and thereby became the type of one phase of Christs work, namely, that of removing our sins from us as far as the east is from the west. Every lamb-offering was treated in the same way; it was smitten and slain, and thereby became the perfect type of Christs work when He suffered the Just for the unjust, and by His shed Blood, secured our remission. But if there were two rocks, they were differently treated under different circumstances. And we would have the strange procedure of selecting one stone to be smitten, and another and different rock to be spoken to, as if the crucified Christ was not also the same to whom we address our prayers.
But the second and more evident mistake into which Mr. Spurgeon falls is to make this second rock the mystical Christ, or, the body of Christ the Church. Touching this, he says, You will notice the way in which the water was to be gotten out of the second rock. It was not by smiting but by speaking. It was Gods revealed will. He would have this rock bless people, not by being smitten, but by speaking. So, beloved, it is Gods revealed will that Christmysticallyshould bless the world by speaking. Christs Church sends forth rivers of Living Water every day by speaking. It is by the foolishness of preaching that the world is saved. All of which is true, but none of which is suggested in this Scripture. The rock never spoke; it was spoken to instead. It is not a symbol, therefore, of a witnessing Church; but is a symbol of an answering Christ, who, when addressed in prayer, pours forth the stream of healing, through the opening of the old wound. It is the crucified Jesus to whom we pray; and our every petition uncovers afresh that fountain of which Jesus spake to the woman at the well, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that said, Give Me to drink, thou wouldst have asked of Him and He would have given thee Living Water.
The New Testament teaching harmonizes with this idea. Paul, in his Epistle to the Corinthians, speaking of this very experience, says,
I would not brethren, that ye should be ignorant how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea;
And were all baptised unto Moses, in the cloud and in the sea;
And did all eat the same spiritual meat;
And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of the spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ (1Co 10:1-4).
Language could scarcely be more definite, for they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them. The reference must be to this rock, for he is recounting this very history. The fact that he calls it a spiritual rock in no sense militates against that idea. The meat which they ate was material; but it was also spiritual, in that it came by a daily miracle, through Him who is a Spirit. The rock of which they drank was natural; but it was also spiritual in that God overshadowed it, and indwelt it. Jesus Christ Himself was natural; He was a man and human; but in Him all the fullness of the God-head dwelt bodily.
And the text says, This rocka type of Christ followed them.
I do not know whether Faber was thinking of this very time, but it would seem to be so when he wrote:
In the shadow of the Rock, Abide! Abide!
This Rock moves ever at thy side.
Pausing to welcome thee at eventide.
Ages are laid beneath its shade.
Rest in the shadow of the Rock.
But we pass from the consideration of a water-supply to the suggestion as
THE SYMBOL OF OUR SAVIOUR
First of all, a stone is stable in character. The Lord speaks of this stone as a flinty rock suggesting peculiar stability. In that respect it is a type of Christ, the Unchangeable One. You remember that when Peter first heard the Masters call, his name was Simon, or hearkening. But it is one thing to hear, and it is another to hold out. Jesus knew the lack of stability in Peters character, and He also knew that when the Holy Spirit came upon him, this would change, so He said to him, Thou art Simon, the son of Jonas, thou shalt become Cephas, which by interpretation is stone. But no such change ever needed to come to Christ! From the first He was The Unchanging One, fitly symbolized by a stone. Dr. Lorimer, reciting the instances in which unbelievers have paid tribute to Jesus, quotes from Thomas Chubb, a celebrated English deist, who pays to Jesus this tribute: In Him we have an example of a quiet, peaceable spirit, of a becoming modesty and sobriety, just, honest, sinceretraits of stable character. I never think of the many concessions which unbelievers have made to the stability of Jesus without remembering also the Scripture, Their rock is not as our rock, our enemies themselves being the witnesses. No wonder John Campbell Shairp wrote of Him:
Subtlest thought shall fail and learning falter,
Churches change, forms perish, systems go,
But our human needs, they will not alter,
Christ, no after age shall eer outgrow.
Yea, Amen! O changeless One, Thou only,
Art lifes guide and spiritual goal,
Thou the Light across the dark vale lonely,
Thou the eternal haven of the soul.
What unspeakable blessing in this fact! In such a time as this when the knowledge of yesterday will not suffice for today; when skepticism is trying the very foundations of our faith; when so-called Christian teachers make it their business to explode the creeds of their yet-living fathers, it is good to know that something abides. Dr. Buxton says, When the unfortunate traveler wandering along the doons of Scotland finds himself in the quick-sands, and gradually sinking in his awful grave of living death Oh, what would he not give for a solid rock beneath his feet! Thank God, the Christian traveler, though he must walk the way of Sinais desert, can sing as he goes, On Christ the Solid Rock I Stand.
This rock is also a symbol of our Saviour in its unpromising aspect. Horeb is a barren and dry land; the very word itself signifies barrenness. It was from this mount that one of the stones, which had made it barren, was taken to become a fountain of life to the famishing multitudes. Who could have thought of it? In the desert one may look for an oasis with a spring in it; in the valley of Baca some forefather may have digged a well that weary travelers might be refreshed. Even had the great ledge of stone been smitten and cleft for a few hundred feet, there had been some promise that far down into the depths water would have been found; but to take this flint, as it is called in Deuteronomy, this boulder from a mountain side, and speak of finding water in its granite bosom, is to talk of the impossible. But with God all things are possible. And just such a round-head is the fittest illustration of the Son of Man, who Himself, according to Isaiah, is like a root out of the dry ground, and of whom the Prophet further said, When we shall see Him there is no beauty that we should desire Him. As Spurgeon says, He came out of a family which, although once royal, was then almost extinct. His father and mother were but common people of the tradesmen class; the glories of the royal line of David had been forgotten in the crowd. We often palliate the guilt of the Jews for rejecting Jesus by saying, How could they recognize in Him the King of kings, and the Lord of lords, when He was born in a peasants house, brought up under the hand of a carpenter, lived in the despised burg of Nazareth, and presented no kingly appearance, nor voiced any pretention of power until He was thirty years of age? But as far back as the wilderness God was showing the Jews by this very stone to look not on the outward appearance. He was saying to them then in symbol what He afterward said to Samuel, Man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart. He was trying to teach them that when the seed of the woman should appear as Saviour He would not be, as Joseph Parker puts it, A superior Adam, with finer tint of flesh, with keener glance of eye, and with subtler and more varied eloquence of tone. But He took upon Him the flesh that had no beauty of outline or feature. It was not beauty of form; it was beauty of expression. It was not the beauty of statuary; it was the beauty of life as God, Himself, put it to Samuel. It was not an Apollo that God was giving to the world to excite our admiration for His outward appearance, but it was the Son of Man underneath whose humility of appearance there beat the heart of Deity itself, which, when once the rough exterior was smitten and the swords point had found its way into that heart, the fountain such as no natural man ever possessed would break forth for the refreshing of a famished world, just as this unpromising stone poured forth streams of salvation and caused waters to run down like rivers.
Oh, Christ He is the Fountain,
The deep sweet well of love!
The streams on earth Ive tasted,
More deep Ill drink above:
There, to an ocean fulness,
His mercy doth expand,
And gloryglory dwelleth
In Immanuels land.
Again, it was a symbol of our Saviour, in that it went with them. The Hebrew word in our King James version translated followed means literally, went along with. Suggestive symbol! Christ says, Lo, I am with you alway, even to the end of the age. Abraham Coles has then a warrant for his words:
What things shall happen on the morrow
Thou kindly hidest from our gaze;
But tellest us, in joy or sorrow,
Lo! I am with you all the days.
When round our head the tempest rages,
And sink our feet in miry ways,
Thy voice comes floating down the ages,
Lo! I am with you all the days,
O Thou who art our life and meetness!
Not death shall daunt us or amaze,
Hearing those words of power and sweetness,
Lo! I am with you all the days
There are other points of symbolism which I will not take time to discuss. Let us conclude the discourse with
SOME SPIRITUAL SUGGESTIONS.
Christ, like the rock, was to be smitten but once. Though He were raised from the dead, they could never send Him to the Cross a second time. In his Epistle to the Romans (Rom 6:9-10), Paul writes, Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead, dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over Him, For in that He died, He died unto sin once; but in that He liveth, He liveth unto God. In his Epistle to the Hebrews (Heb 9:26-28), this same Apostle says, But now once in the end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin, by the sacrifice of Himself * * so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many. Peter in his first Epistle adds, For Christ, also, hath once suffered for sin; the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God (1Pe 3:18). Thank God, when the last enemy, Death, has smitten the Christian once, he cannot touch him again; On such, the second death hath no power.
Again, as the smitten rock was only to be spoken to, so with the smitten Christ. Moses was expressly commanded not to smite the rock the second time, but to speak to it. And our way of blessing is not by searching for the heart of Christ with the sword point; but by sending to the heart of Christ a sincere prayer. I love to turn through the Bible and see what blessings were secured from Jesus by speaking to Him. When, at the wedding in Cana of Galilee, they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus spake unto Him, saying, They have no wine. When a certain nobleman, whose son was sick at Capernaum, heard that Jesus was come out of Judea into Galilee, he went unto Him, and besought Him that He would come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. When Jairus daughter was at the point of death, he addressed Jesus, I pray Thee, come, and lay Thy hands on her that she may be healed. When the leper saw Him, he came kneeling down to Him, saying, If Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean. When Lazarus lay dead, his sisters said, Lord, if Thou hadst been here, our brother had not died * * and even now we know that whatsoever Thou shalt ask of God, He will give it to Thee. When the two blind men followed Him, they cried, saying, Thou Son of David, have mercy on us! And lo! the wine was provided; the noblemans son was restored; Jairus daughter was raised again; the paralytic was given fresh powers; the leper was cleansed; the eyes of the blind were opened; and Lazarus was called from the grave.
Speak to Him! Follow the example of those two blind men by the wayside, who cried, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, Thou Son of David! And though the multitude rebuke thee and tell thee to hold thy peace, cry the more, since He Himself has encouraged it. Oh, it is blessed to feel that we have a great High Priest that it passed into the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, who can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, having been, in all points, tempted like as we are. It is when thinking of Him that Paul says, Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Speak to Him! He has been pleased to make His promises of prayer. Beseech Him! His special pledge is to the importunate. Why go on thirsty in soul, when the Smitten Rock is ready and waiting to give forth your every need in answer to a word? Ah, truly has some one said, Prayer is so mighty an instrument that no one ever yet mastered all its keys. They sweep along the infinite scale of mans wants and Gods goodness!
Finally: Learn from this symbol that if you smite Christ a second time, you exclude yourself from Canaan. Those who crucified Him the first time had preached unto them repentance and forgiveness. Not so with those who smite Him the second time. For is it not written, touching those who were once enlightened and tasted of the heavenly gift, which were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and tasted the good Word of God, and the powers of the age to come, and then fell away? It is impossible to renew them again unto repentance, seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put Him to an open shame. There are people who imagine that Jesus was never crucified but once, nor yet but by one people, and that was that day in old Jerusalem when legalist and the lawless combined to take away His life, and nailed Him to the wooden Cross! On the contrary, Christ is crucified every day.
At the Worlds Fair in Chicago, there was a work by Jean Beraud entitled, The Descent from the Cross, which represented the naked body of Christ as being taken down by the hands of loving friends. But the setting of the picture was strange, in that the Cross was not historically situated. The city was not Jerusalem, but Paris; the crucifiers were not Jews and Romans, but French, as was evidenced in the fact of their faces, complexion, and modern garments. Even the Centurion was no longer pictured as a Roman warrior, but represented, rather, as a plain workman in a blue blouse. Dr. Lorimer thinks the painter aimed to teach his fellow countrymen that the apparent decay of the French nation, and the increasing horrors of Parisian life, the debasement in public and private morality, were mainly due to their repudiation of primitive Christianity. But it has seemed to me that the artist had another idea, namely, that of showing the Parisians a picture of themselves in the very act of crucifying the Saviour afresh, of putting Him to an open shame by their practical rejection of His love and repudiation of His Gospel. Oh, that in this, the French stood alone! All over America men and women are doing the same. There may be those in this audience who were once enlightened, and tasted of the heavenly gift, and yet, have fallen away, and this day refuse Jesus, and who, consequently, are crucifying to themselves the Son of God afresh and putting Him to an open shame. Hugh Price Hughes, speaking one day in East London of this rejection of Jesus, said, Oh, this word impossible, how it pains me! This week when the text came I shuddered. I found that it was one word, the word Impossible. I would have fled from it as Jonah fled from Nineveh, but I dared not. Is there some one in this vast audience to whom, by my voice, God sends this last appeal? Do you know that every hour you delay to accept Christ, you are changing your heart; you are forming your final character; you are making your soul proof against the love of God? The hour of final choice draws nearer, nearer, nearer. You may have entered upon it now! Repent! Escape for your life. Flee to Christ, and all will yet be well.
Refuse, refuse; go away unsaved, and Christ may go compelled to follow your retreating figure with the bleeding heart, and with the irrevocable words with which He followed Judas Iscariot: It would have been a good thing for that man if he had never been born.
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley
(5) Go on before the people.The people were probably in no condition to move. They were exhausted. with a long days marchweary, faint, nerveless. Moses and the elders, who probably journeyed on asses, would have more strength.
Take with thee of the eldersas witnesses. Each miracle had an educational value, and was designed to call forth, exercise, and so strengthen the faith of the people.
The rock in Horeb must necessarily designate some particular rock of the Horeb region already known to Moses during his previous stay in these parts. It cannot possibly, however, have been the traditional rock of Moses in the Seil Leja, under Ras Sufsafeh, since that rock is a long days journey from the site of Rephidim, near which the miracle must have been performed. (See Stanley, Sinai and Palestine, pp. 46-48.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
5. Thy rod The rod which brought death to Egypt is to bring life to Israel; the power which made the life-giving Nile a channel of loathsome death is to bring from the dry rock waters of life . So, ever, the same truth is “to the one a savour of life, to the other a savour of death . ”
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
DISCOURSE: 89
MOSES STRIKING THE ROCK
Exo 17:5-6. And the Lord said unto 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. 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.
THE whole of mans pilgrimage on earth is but a succession of trials and deliverances. And God so ordains it to be, because it is for our greatest good: Trials work patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope. The frequent recurrence of difficulties to the Israelites in their journey through the wilderness may serve as a glass wherein to view the state of the Church in this world, and, more or less, of all the individuals that are in the world: and the interpositions of God on their behalf shew, what is the real, though less visible, course of his providence at this time. Scarcely had the waters at Marah been sweetened for their use, and manna been given them for their support, than they again experienced a most afflictive pressure (a want of water for themselves and their cattle); and again a miraculous deliverance, at Massah or Meribah.
We propose to notice in our present discourse,
I.
The circumstances of this miracle
And here there are two things to which we would call your attention:
1.
The time
[The Israelites had renewed their murmurs against God; and were so incensed at a renewal of their difficulties, that they were ready to stone Moses for having brought them into their present trying situation. As for their Divine Benefactor, they even questioned whether he were with them in the camp or not; assured that, if he was, he was unmindful of their necessities, or unable to relieve them.
Yet at the very moment that they were so offending the Divine Majesty, did God interpose for their relief. What an exalted idea does this convey to us of the patience and long-suffering of God! And, if we were to mark the seasons of Gods interpositions in our behalf, we should find abundant matter for admiration and gratitude ]
2.
The manner
[This singularly displays the grace of God. God makes Moses, whom they were ready to kill as their enemy, the instrument of their deliverance. He orders the rod, which had wrought such wonders in Egypt and at the Bed Sea, to be used, not for their destruction (as might have been expected), but for the supplying of their necessities. He himself, whose very existence they had questioned, went to preside visibly on the occasion; and the elders, who had so unreasonably doubted his power and love, were suffered to be eye-witnesses of the miracle wrought for their preservation.
How remarkably does this illustrate the precept which God has given us, not to be overcome of evil, but to overcome evil with good! And what convincing evidence does it afford us, that, where sin has abounded, his grace shall much more abound! ]
But though these circumstances are instructive, the chief thing to he noticed in the miracle, is,
II.
The hidden mystery contained in it
We can have no doubt but that this part of sacred history was intended to typify and prefigure Christ [Note: 1Co 10:4.], as a source of all spiritual blessings to the world; as a spring,
1.
Divinely appointed
[No one would have conceived the idea of looking for water in that rock, any more than in any other spot throughout the plain whereon it stood: nor would it have entered into the mind of man to bring water out of it by the stroke of a rod or cane. But God appointed both the rock and the rod to be means and instruments of communication between himself and his distressed people. And who would ever have thought that Gods only dear Son should be given unto us; and that blessings should be made to flow down to us through the wounds inflicted on him both by God and man? Yet was all this done according to the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. He was smitten, stricken of God. and afflicted, that our souls might be redeemed from death: He was wounded for our transgressions, that by his stripes we might be healed. Yes, it is a faithful saying, that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. It pleased the Father that in Christ should all fulness dwell; and that we should receive out of his fulness every thing that pertaineth to life and godliness.]
2.
All-sufficient
[The water gushed out of the stricken rock, and flowed like a river; so that it abundantly supplied the whole camp of Israel, (both men and beasts,) following them in all their journeyings for the space of eight and thirty years. And who ever lacked, that has once drunk of the water that Christ gives to his Church and people? Never did any of them, never shall any, thirst again: for the water that Christ gives them shall be in them a well of water springing up unto everlasting life [Note: Joh 4:13-14.] ]
3.
Universally accessible
[The water from the rock flowed to every quarter of the camp; and the people instantly dug pools for its reception, so that men and cattle were supplied without the least difficulty [Note: Num 21:16-18.]. And how free is our access to Christ; free to all persons, and at all times! Hear his own invitation, and the invitation of his Spirit, of his Church, and of all that know the value of those living waters [Note: Rev 21:6-7.] As the vilest murmurers in the camp drank of that stream, so may even the most flagrant rebels in the universe drink of this [Note: Psa 68:18.] Christ has within him the residue of the Spirit [Note: Mal 2:15.] ; and pours out that Spirit abundantly [Note: Tit 3:6.] upon all who call upon him; upon all, without price [Note: Isa 55:1.], without parsimony [Note: Joh 7:37-39.], and without upbraiding [Note: Jam 1:5.] ]
WE may learn from hence
1.
The experience of real penitents
[Their thirst after the Saviour is urgent and insatiable [Note: Mat 5:6.] What a blessed sight would it be to behold a whole congregation as eager in their desires after Christ as the Israelites were after a supply of water for their bodies! The Lord hasten the season when this thirst shall prevail throughout all the world!]
2.
The mercy reserved for them
[They may feel many painful sensations, and be greatly disquieted for a season: but the promise which God has given them shall surely be realized by all [Note: Isa 41:17-18; Isa 43:20.]. ]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
Reader! observe with due meditation and thankfulness, the forbearance and long-suffering of the Lord. Remark also his kindness to his servant Moses. So God always will protect his people. Eze 2:6 ; Jer 1:8 ; Act 18:9-10 . Observe also, that in the mercy God intended the people, the elders were to be witnesses by whose power it was wrought.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Exo 17:5 And the LORD said unto 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.
Ver. 5. Take with thee of the elders. ] As witnesses of this great work of God; which the people for their unbelief might not behold. God puts up with their rebellion, and satisfies their thirst: but yet intimates his just displeasure, by denying them this privilege of seeing the rock smitten.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
the LORD (Hebrew. Jehovah. said. See note on Exo 3:7, and compare note on Exo 6:10.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Go on: Eze 2:6, Act 20:23, Act 20:24
thy rod: Exo 7:19, Exo 7:20, Num 20:8-11
Reciprocal: Exo 12:21 – elders Deu 8:15 – who brought Job 42:10 – when Psa 74:15 – cleave
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Exo 17:5-6. Go before the people Though they spoke of stoning him. He must take his rod with him, not to summon some plague to chastise them, but to fetch water for their supply. O the wonderful patience and forbearance of God toward provoking sinners! He maintains those that are at war with him, and reaches out the hand of his bounty to those that lift up the heel against him. If God had only showed Moses a fountain of water in the wilderness, as he did to Hagar, not far from hence, (Gen 21:19,) that had been a great favour; but that he might show his power as well as his pity, and make it a miracle of mercy, he gave them water out of a rock. He directed Moses whither to go, appointed him to take of the elders of Israel with him, to be witnesses of what was done, ordered him to smite the rock, which he did, and immediately water came out of it in great abundance, which ran throughout the camp in streams and rivers, Psa 78:15-16. God showed his care of his people in giving them water when they wanted it; his own power in fetching it out of a rock, and put an honour upon Moses in appointing the water to flow out upon his smiting of the rock. This fair water that came out of the rock is called honey and oil, (Deu 32:13,) because the peoples thirst made it doubly pleasant; coming when they were in extreme want. It is probable that the people digged canals for the conveyance of it, and pools for the reception of it. Let this direct us to live in a dependance, 1st, Upon Gods providence, even in the greatest straits and difficulties; and, 2d, Upon Christs grace; that rock was Christ, 1Co 10:4. The graces and comforts of the Spirit are compared to rivers of living waters, Joh 7:38-39; Joh 4:14. These flow from Christ. And nothing will supply the needs and satisfy the desires of a soul but water out of this rock. A new name was, upon this occasion, given to the place, preserving the remembrance of their murmuring; Massah Temptation, because they tempted God; Meribah Strife, because they chid with Moses. Several commentators have here quoted the following passage from Shaws Travels, as a wonderful confirmation of this great miracle: Here (in the plain of Rephidim) we still see that extraordinary antiquity, the rock of Meribah, which hath continued down to this day, without the least injury from time or accident. It is a block of granite marble, about six yards square, lying tottering as it were, and loose in the middle of the valley, and seems to have formerly belonged to mount Sinai, which hangs in a variety of precipices all over this plain. The waters which gushed out, and the stream which followed, (Psa 78:20,) have hollowed, across one corner of this rock, a channel about two inches deep and twenty wide, appearing to be incrustated all over, like the inside of a teakettle that had been long in use. Besides several mossy productions that are still preserved by the dew, we see all over the channel a great number of holes, some of them four or five inches deep, and one or two in diameter, the lively and demonstrative tokens of their having been formerly so many fountains. It likewise may be further observed, that art or chance could by no means be concerned in the contrivance; for every circumstance points out to us a miracle; and, in the same manner with the rent in the rock of mount Calvary, at Jerusalem, never fails to produce a religious surprise in all who see it. The Arabs, who were our guard, were ready to stone me for attempting to break off a corner of it. Shaws Travels, pp. 252, 253.