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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