12 May 2019

The Cleft in the Rock of Ages

The Cleft in the Rock of Ages – by P.K. Odendaal – May 2019

It is well covered in the Bible that Jesus Christ is The Rock and that This Rock has got a cleft in it, made by a sword wound in the side of Jesus Christ during crucifixion. The meaning of this cleft is that we can hide in it and so escape the presence, righteousness or wrath of God.

This cleft is not only for us to hide in, but there is a river of living water streaming out of it, which saves and heals us. It also serves as an anchor for our souls and it serves as a foundation for God to build His Church on. It really signifies the part of Jesus Christ which protects us and where we can find refuge.
Of course, Jesus Christ is also other things, like a Lion and a Lamb and many others, but He, as The Rock, signifies a part of Him which we desperately need and which is steadfast and true and immovable.
It is quite interesting that God tells Moses, in Exodus 33, that he must take shelter in the cleft of a specific rock near Him, so that God can cover Him with His hand when He passes by. I take the incident as meaning that God here takes the cleft of the rock as testimony that Jesus Christ is protecting Moses here from the presence of God, which presence would otherwise have killed Moses. Similarly, we may also hide in the Rock Jesus Christ to escape the wrath of God.
The reason why this rock was cleft we find sixteen chapters earlier in the Bible. God instructed Moses to hit The Rock with his staff so that it can cleave and so that water can flow out of it for the Israelites. Of course, this chapter is also a prophecy of how Christ would be slain on Calvary, and similarly, the episode with Moses was a prophecy of how Christ would protect us in the cleft of The Rock once He had been slain, and even before that when He protected Moses.
Moses was instructed by God a second time to speak to The Rock, so that water could flow from of it, but Moses did not realise that This Rock was cleft already the previous time, and that he only needed to speak to it now. Moses, having acquired faith in striking it the previous time, struck it again in stead of speaking to it, thinking God must have had a slip of the tongue.

You may ask why Moses was not allowed to bring the Israelites into Canaan, just because he struck the rock at Meribah twice in stead of speaking to it as God had commanded him. The answer is that Christ only had to be cleft once and die once, and should we hit Him with the object of cleaving Him a second time, Hebrews 6 tells us: To their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace.

As water came out of the rocks Moses had hit, similarly water flows from this cleft in The Rock Jesus Christ. This water is His Holy Spirit which He sent us after He ascended to Heaven. How do we know this? At the time Christ died, the curtain in the temple was rent in two signifying the outpouring of the Holy Spirit from the Rock which was cleft, bringing direct communication between God and us through His Holy Spirit. Also, when the spear was thrust into His side, both blood and water flowed out of His side.
It is quite important to understand the connection between His blood and water, as water, called the Living Water, was specifically set by God as a sign or metaphor for His Son’s Blood.
In fact, we read already in Exodus 4 that Moses took water from the river and poured it onto dry land and it turned into blood. Similarly Jesus Christ pours His Holy Spirit on our dry souls so that His blood can cleanse and renew us.
Secondly, we read in 1 John 5 that Jesus Christ came by water and blood, and that there are three witnesses of Him on earth, namely the Spirit, and the water, and the blood and these three agree in one.  
Ultimately this Rock will crush all kingdoms on earth when Jesus Christ comes to earth in the flesh again. This is substantiated by the vision of Daniel when he interpreted Nebuchadnezzar’s dream:
Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.
And this will be turned into reality one day as written in Revelations 17:

And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast. These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast. These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful.

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