Sermon Text:

Every now and then in our journeys to get somewhere we will see something so unique or unexpected that we are compelled to take a short detour from our travels and take a closer look. That happened to me last week. Our tour bus suddenly pulled over so we could get a look at some bears that were playing around in a clearing off the side of the road.  That sometimes happens in the Bible as well and today’s message is a bit like that.

We are continuing our series Growing in Grace, working our way passage by passage through the letter of 1 Corinthians. As we begin chapter 10, Paul’s main point, which we will come back to next week, is a warning against idolatry. In making his point he uses several illustrations from the Old Testament and in doing so he says something so remarkable that I think it is important we look a little closer at it. So, we will pick up with Paul’s main point next week but this morning we are going to take a short detour and dig into a stunning observation Paul makes in the beginning of the chapter.

If you have your Bible, please turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 10 beginning at verse 1. If you are using the blue pew Bible, we provide it is on page 1194. If you do not own a Bible or have need of one, please take that one with you as our gift to you. Paul says,

10 For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, ² and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, ³ and all ate the same spiritual food, ⁴ and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.

These are all examples from the story of Israel’s exodus from Egypt and the wandering in the wilderness. The first three of these are easy to find, God led Israel in a cloud and pillar of fire, He parted the sea so they could pass on dry land, and He fed them with manna which was bread from heaven so that they would not starve. But look at what Paul says in verse 4, they “drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.”

He says that Jesus was with the Israelites when they were brought out of Egypt and that Jesus was the rock from which they drank. Think about that. The Exodus occurred around 1,400 years before Jesus was born and in a quick read through Exodus, there is no obvious mention of Christ. So, where is Paul getting this?

Many Bible scholars and commentators conclude that Paul is either using a symbolic interpretation of the Old Testament or that he is relying on a Jewish rabbinical tradition that a literal rock followed the people through the wilderness.

That raises a relevant question for us. Are the rules of interpretation we use simply forcing modern or western assumptions onto the Bible? To put it another way, if we apply the Bible study methods we teach at this church to these passages, will we see what Paul sees?

I hope to show this morning that Paul is operating according to the same plain historical-literary process of interpretation we use. The reason that Paul sees things in the text that many modern Bible scholars do not isn’t because Paul is less rigorous in his faithfulness to the text, he is simply a better Bible scholar than they are. It is the plain teaching of Scripture that the preincarnate Son of God was with Israel in the Exodus. 

Jesus Christ is at the center of the teaching of the entire Bible. That is the main point of the message this morning:

God’s redemption through Jesus is the central message of the entire Bible and every text, properly understood, points to Christ. 

Paul’s observation about Jesus being the Rock from which they drank comes from his meticulous observation of the details in the text and careful meditation on the Old Testament as a whole. To see where Paul gets this from, we must try and read our Bible the way Paul does. Not back to front, inserting Jesus where we want Him, but front to back, watching the promise of salvation unfold.

The doctrinal teaching in the New Testament is in many ways simply a commentary on the Old Testament, showing how Jesus is the fulfillment of the redemptive promises. This approach of beginning with a biblical truth, explaining it, and expanding it, however, does not start in the New Testament. Much of the Old Testament is itself explanation of earlier Old Testament teaching.

The Jews divided the Old Testament into 3 groups of literature [special slides]. First is the Torah or books of the law recorded by Moses. These are the first five books of the Bible, and this is where the Exodus account is. After the Torah, or instruction, comes the Nevi’im, which are the prophets, and then comes the Ketuvim or the writings.

The way this works is that a concept is first introduced in the Law, then it is interpreted and expanded upon in the prophets and in the writings. The Gospel message is like a seed planted in the Law that begins to steadily grow throughout the prophets and the writings until it bears mature fruit in the New Testament.

Often when the New Testament quotes or references the Law it is connecting to not only what is included in that original passage, but the interpretation and expansion of it in the rest of the Old Testament as well.

That is what we have here in verse 4 of our main text. Let’s see if we can follow Paul’s logic.

As Israel was delivered out of Egypt there were several occasions where God used literal rocks to provide for them while they were in the wilderness. Speaking of Israel, Deuteronomy 32:12–13 says,

¹²  the Lord alone guided him, no foreign god was with him. ¹³ He made him ride on the high places of the land, and he ate the produce of the field, and he suckled him with honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock.

The most dramatic example happened at a place called Massah and Meribah. The people were thirsty and accused God of being unfaithful and planning to kill them in the desert. In response, God says in Exodus 17:6–7,

⁶ 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. ⁷ And he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah …”

 In Numbers 20:8–11 we get a bit more information, God said…

⁸ “Take the staff, and assemble the congregation, you and Aaron your brother, and tell the rock before their eyes to yield its water. So you shall bring water out of the rock for them and give drink to the congregation and their cattle.” ⁹ And Moses took the staff from before the Lord, as he commanded him. ¹⁰ Then Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, “Hear now, you rebels: shall we bring water for you out of this rock?” ¹¹ And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his staff twice, and water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their livestock.

God performed a miracle bringing streams of water out of an actual rock. Reflecting on this miracle, God’s character and the faithfulness of God to the grumbling Hebrews, Moses describes God Himself as the rock that protects and provides.

In Deuteronomy 32:3-4 Moses says,

³ For I will proclaim the name of the Lord; ascribe greatness to our God! ⁴ “The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he.

God Himself went before them and Moses is using Rock as a name and description for YHWH. According to Moses, God is solid, strong, immovable, and life-giving. The first person to make a connection between God as Savior and the Rock wasn’t Paul, it was Moses. Moses further develops this theme of God as the Rock in In Deuteronomy chapter 32, which I encourage you to look at when you can.

This imagery is then picked up and expanded in the remaining prophets and writings as the Old Testament progresses. Significantly, this name for God is generally used in contexts relating to salvation for God’s people. For example, the Psalms are frequently use this language. Let’s look at a few examples and as we do, I want you to pay close attention to the connection between God as Rock and God as Savior.

Ps 18:2: The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

Ps 19:14: Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.

Ps 28:1: To you, O LORD, I call; my rock, be not deaf to me, lest, if you be silent to me, I become like those who go down to the pit.

Ps 62:7: On God rests my salvation and my glory; my mighty rock, my refuge is God.

This is a key theme that runs throughout the Psalms. The prophets say similar things. For example, 2 Samuel 22:3 says,

³ my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold and my refuge, my savior; you save me from violence.

This language is not only applied to God by the prophets as the savior of Israel in the past or present, but of the future as well. The promise of the New Covenant and the final redemption to be accomplished by the Messiah are also sometimes described in terms of a rock or stone.

Zechariah 3:9 says,

⁹ For behold, on the stone that I have set before Joshua, on a single stone with seven eyes, I will engrave its inscription, declares the Lord of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of this land in a single day.

It is through a promised stone that the iniquity of the land will be removed in a single day. This is a clear reference to the coming of the Messiah. Isaiah also speaks of the Messiah this way. Isaiah 28:16 says,

¹⁶    therefore thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I am the one who has laid as a foundation in Zion, a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation: ‘Whoever believes will not be in haste.’

Isaiah says that saving faith is built upon the foundation of a stone God will lay in Zion. Several chapters earlier Isaiah reveals that this stone is actually a person. The same person that is the cornerstone of God’s redemption will be a stumbling stone to many others. Isaiah 8:14–15 says,

¹⁴ And he will become a sanctuary and a stone of offense and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel, a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. ¹⁵ And many shall stumble on it. They shall fall and be broken; they shall be snared and taken.”

Paul understood that God was the one who provided the water from the rock. He also recognized that the gracious salvation provided by bringing streams of water out of a rock in the desert was only one example of the faithfulness of YHWH as a savior of His people. Paul also knew from the Old Testament that the promises of God’s salvation would culminate in the coming of the Messiah.

Even if we had no other information, we can already see that Paul is not pulling things out of thin air. The Old Testament plainly teaches that God is the Rock. It also connects the Messiah with this rock imagery. Simple logical deduction from a plain reading of the Old Testament leads to the conclusion that since Jesus is divine and is the Messiah, He is the rock.

But the Old Testament goes even further. You may recall that it was God Himself that led the children of Israel out of Egypt. Exodus 13:21–22 says,

²¹ And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night. ²² The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people.

Central to the teaching of Exodus is that God Himself delivered them from Egypt. But if we pay close attention as we read we will notice something interesting, they are also being led by an angel.  A few verses later in Exodus 14:19 Moses says,

¹⁹ Then the angel of God who was going before the host of Israel moved and went behind them, and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them,

 Did you notice the cloud of God’s presence moves with this angel? It turns out this is no ordinary angel. Listen to what Exodus 23:20–22 says about Him,

²⁰ “Behold, I send an angel before you to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared. ²¹ Pay careful attention to him and obey his voice; do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgression, for my name is in him. ²² “But if you carefully obey his voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries.

 This angel has the authority of God. He has the power to forgive or withhold forgiveness. His voice is God's voice and God says “my name is in him”. Here is a being that is distinguished from God who was speaking, and yet has the glory of the Lord upon Him, exercises divine rights that only God has, and is named with the sacred name of God who does not share His glory with anyone.

This Angel of the Lord shows up several times in the Old Testament and in each case, He is presented as being distinct from God and yet is also recognized as God.

When Hagar flees from Sarah in Genesis 16, she identifies the angel who speaks to her as YHWH. In Genesis 22 when Abraham is ready to sacrifice Isaac, it is the Angel of the Lord who stops him and commends him for his faith. But the angel is then identified as God. In Genesis 31:11 when Jacob wrestles with the angel, Jacob refers to Him, and the angel refers to Himself as God. Several more examples could be given.

Most important for us, however, is that this angel shows up multiple times in Exodus. We see Him at the beginning of Exodus in the burning bush. Exodus 3:2 says that it was the angel of the Lord who appeared to Moses in the burning bush yet verse 4 says it is God who is in the bush and in verse 6 He tells Moses that he is “the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” and Moses hides his face, because it says he was afraid to look at God.

We already saw that the Angel of the Lord was with the people as they left Egypt and went into the wilderness. Finally, they arrive at Meribah where we saw earlier the people lost faith, grumbled, and rebelled. Let’s look at Exodus 17:4-6 again,

⁴ So Moses cried to the Lord, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” ⁵ 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. ⁶ 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.

It was God who stood upon the rock and Paul, immersed in the teaching of the Old Testament, makes the connection between the Angel of the Lord, the divinity of the Messiah, and Christ as God the Son. He realizes the connection between the teaching of the Old Testament and the teaching of Jesus. It was Christ the rock who demonstrated grace by standing upon the literal rock and providing life-giving water. They drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. Paul is not being fanciful, he is being extraordinarily sensitive and faithful to the text.

Remember our main point. God’s redemption through Jesus is the central message of the entire Bible and every text, properly understood, points to Christ.

In this case, He is specifically mentioned though not by name. Paul is simply illuminating what was already there. It is like he is turning on a light in a dark room. When we turn on a light in a dark room the light doesn’t cause the objects in the room to come into existence, but it allows us to see more clearly things that were already there. The revelation of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus in the New Testament is like someone turning on a light so we can see clearly what was already in the Old Testament. What then do we see in the light of Christ?

First, we see that we are fallen people and need a savior. We see what kind of creatures’ human beings really are. There was no Law prior to Moses and without those specific instructions people followed their own course and it did not take long for it to be clear how sinful the human heart is.

God provided sun, rain, food of every kind, and instead of being grateful people gloried in themselves until the earth was filled with wickedness. The wise boasted in their wisdom, the rich trusted in their wealth, the strong forced their will upon the weak, and they forgot God and did what was right in their own eyes. As an act of Grace, God revealed His perfect law to teach us what a pure and holy life was like, but men and women served themselves rather than Him because their hearts were evil.

As we read the Old Testament, we see humans in every conceivable environment; in religious nations and pagan nations, under good kings and bad kings, in families that included faithful parents and those that didn’t. With the Law and without it. In every context the result was the same. 

The problem is not about the environment or external circumstances. It cannot be solved by better rules, better education, or better examples. The revelation of His perfect law only leads to further condemnation because now our sinful desires are pursued in open rebellion. The problem is not that we sometimes do wicked things, it is that we have wicked hearts. 

Every one of us knows this to be true of ourselves as well. The Almighty creator God created us to love and serve Him forever and to fellowship with Him in holiness but sadly, we have rejected His love, broken His laws, and sinned against Him. We try to ignore Him for a time, but we know we cannot avoid Him forever.

The day will come when His patience comes to an end, and judgment will fall upon us. Every person will stand before Him and He will render a just judgment upon our lives. Hebrews 10:31 tells us “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” And since we are guilty, what defense can we offer that will satisfy His justice?

That brings us to the second thing we see clearly in the light of the Gospel. God has kept His promise to save His people. In His amazing love and mercy, God the Father has sent God the Son to take on flesh, live the obedient life we should have lived, and to die the death we deserved. He died in our place on the cross, bearing in His body the punishment for the sins of all those who would ever place their faith in Him as their substitute. God has provided the only possible defense by providing payment for our sins with the most precious thing in the universe, the blood of Jesus Christ. He has made us acceptable by covering our rags with the robes of Christ’s own righteousness.

Jesus took our sentence of death at God’s command but three days later, God raised Him from the dead proving that He died not for Himself, but for us. Then Jesus ascended into heaven and was seated at the right hand of the Father proving that the sacrifice had been accepted and the payment was made in full. The wrath of God against the sin of all those who believe in Jesus was exhausted on the Cross.

God therefore calls us to repent of our rebellion against Him, to confess our sins, and put our faith in Jesus as our Lord and Savior. He promises that if we do this, although our sins are many, we will be forgiven, accepted, and loved. He promises that if we come in faith He will not reject us, and He will complete the good work He began in us until we are raised with Christ in glory.

I realize that is a great claim, but Jesus is a great savior. The entire scripture is one story of God’s unfolding plan to save sinners. From Genesis to Revelation, it is really the story of Jesus Christ. He is the lamb who was slain before the foundation of the world, and He is central to the story from beginning to end. He is the alpha and the omega, and the reason for everything in between. He has been there all along and it all points to Him.

He is a light in the darkness, a place of rest when we are weary. He is the rock upon which we can build our lives confident the wind and waves will not overcome us. He is the cleft in the mountain where we can hide for safety. He is the anchor that holds in the storm. He is the sacrifice upon the altar. He is the bread that has come down from heaven. He is the one who quenches the thirst of His people. He was there all along preparing the people and pointing them to the great salvation to come. To the salvation they longed for and which is offered freely to us.

In the wilderness at Massah and Meribah God instructed Moses to strike the rock to bring forth streams of life-giving water so the people wouldn’t perish. The text tells us God stood upon that rock as it received the blow.

It was Jesus on that rock pointing to a day when He would not only rescue His people from slavery in Egypt, but from slavery to sin and the devil. There He was preparing the faithful for a day when He would be lifted up upon another rock and would receive another blow that would bring salvation for eternity.

In John 7:37-38 Jesus cries out,

³⁷ …“If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. ³⁸ Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’

 It is a long journey through the spiritual wilderness of this world to the promised land. The only way to safely complete the journey is to depend upon the Rock for protection and provision, putting our faith and our trust completely in Jesus Christ who is God, the Rock of our salvation. 

Amen