The Rifted Rock

HELLO EVERYONE!

Steve Hershberger here. Welcome to my blog. This is my first blogging experience though my second site. My website: chainsbrokenatthecross.com, contains a lot of material like the material I hope to share here, on a platform that is more reciprocal . I am looking forward to your comments and questions on this journey. I hope to use this as a platform where we can learn together! That being said, let’s dive right in.
The rifted rock is the one pictured on my home page. The setting is Exodus 17:3-6
³  And the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against Moses, and said, Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?
⁴  And Moses cried unto the LORD, saying, What shall I do unto this people? they be almost ready to stone me.
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.
⁶  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.
Apostle Paul says this about what God did through Moses in Ex. 17.
1 Corinthians 10:4 (KJV)
⁴  And (our fathers) did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.
What a picture of the suffering of Christ! Who was in the for-front in his sufferings? The elders of Israel. Who was in front with Moses when he struck the rock? The elders of Israel,
Moses struck the rock, just like Jesus was “stricken” or smitten for our transgressions, as it were by God himself. It is very meaningful that Moses, “the law”, should be the one to strike the rock because sin, the culprit, “is the transgression of the law”. I Jn. 3:4 Gods’ holiness expressed in the law of Moses demanded justice, and the price was death for the guilty sinner, or in the plan of God, for a perfect substitute. When Moses struck the rock, water gushed out for the millions of Israel, and according to archeologists, left permanent water marks on the rocky landscape below. (Click on picture to hear about the discovery)
So also when Christ was “stricken” for us, blood and water flowed from his riven side. There was a fountain opened for sin and uncleanness, as in Zechariah 13. Living water was provided so that the thirsty, sin-sick millions may drink, and” partake of the water of life freely” as in Rev. 22! The song, Jesus Thou Joy of Loving Hearts, brings home to us the truths embodied in this beautiful glimpse of Christ in the Old Testament.

Next post we want to go deeper into the mysteries of the smitten rock! I look forward to your comments and questions! God bless!