Christ, The Smitten Rock

[Posted by permission. Chippenham Old Baptist Chapel.]

Sermon preached for Studley Chapel by Mr. G. D. Buss on Friday 10th April, 2020

“Behold, he smote the rock, that the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed; can He give bread also? can He provide flesh for His people?”—Psalm 78:20

Throughout the Old Testament, the gospel of the grace of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, was proclaimed in many prophetic ways. In the Book of Isaiah, especially, we have many precious prophecies. Isaiah 53, for example, very clearly sets before us the suffering Saviour. But also, in some of the mighty miracles of which we read in other parts of the Old Testament, there was a gospel preached. And those that had eyes to see, ears to hear and hearts to receive, could see the day of Christ that was yet to come. The very gates of the Garden of Eden, from where our first parents were banished and clothed at the expense of the life of a beast that they might be covered, sets forth the “Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” We could speak of the Passover night. We could speak of the Red Sea. We could speak of Marah – those bitter waters made sweet. We could speak of the brasen serpent, lifted up. All these were precious types and pointers to the work of the coming Saviour and what was needed that sin should be put away.

And so, it is in our subject this morning; we have another incident referred to here which, in a very remarkable way, sets forth the suffering Saviour. For the ‘Rock’ spoken of in our text, as Paul says in his Second Epistle to the Corinthians, is Christ. The waters that gush out are the fruit of His holy sufferings on behalf of sinners, and these overflowing streams are streams of mercy, streams of grace, streams of love and streams of pardon. So, with God’s help, may we meditate for a few moments on this subject. Firstly, the background to it, then how it speaks so eloquently of the suffering, but now victorious Saviour.

The incident is well known. The children of Israel were now some weeks already in the wilderness. One of the greatest blessings they had (though they often forgot it), was the presence of God with them in the wilderness. The fiery, cloudy pillar was their guide and the visible token that the Lord was with them. How rarely they seemed to look up! They often looked around and saw danger, want and need. Friends, may we be enabled to look up when we come into times of danger and times of need, for there we find the answer to whatever extremity the wilderness journey may bring us. And here is one very precious thought that we might just remember: just as Almighty God was with His dear people in the wilderness, so the Lord Jesus Christ came into this wilderness world in God’s time – verily God, verily Man – to provide for His dear people in their wilderness journey. And maybe for one of you this morning hour it seems a wilderness journey. With the corruptions of your old nature, its hardness and unbelief, the world in which we are living, the opposition of the evil one and that demand of a holy law against your sins, you may well feel it is a wilderness journey. It is a rocky one too, with thorns, rocks and stones in the way, making it not easy to make any rapid progress. Every step seems to be a laboured one.

Well, the dear Saviour came. He came into this sin–cursed earth, not as an angel, but as a Man. “For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor.” Yes, He came to journey through the wilderness of this world. We know how He was tempted of the Devil in the wilderness for forty days. Blessed be God, He gained a holy victory there which is the source of every victory that God’s dear people may gain as they seek to wield the sword of the Spirit as He did on behalf of His Church. But, the point is that He came into the wilderness for His people, that He might furnish a table for them, as the previous verse says, and provide for them as they hunger and thirst here below.

Now, the children of Israel had gone some weeks into the wilderness. The water they had taken with them from Egypt had long since gone. Now they were in a time when they needed water. Their families and their flocks were no doubt crying out for water. And sadly, because they were a mixed multitude, the mixed multitude often made them come to wrong conclusions. Friends, you and I have a mixed multitude in our hearts, in our wilderness journey. We are often coming to wrong conclusions. We are often writing bitter things, even against our God, left to ourselves. How sad and solemn it is!

So, these rebels went to Moses. They accused him of bringing them into the wilderness for no other reason than to slay them. They thought they would have to dig graves in the wilderness rather than in Egypt. How differently the prophet Hosea speaks about it! “I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness.” What, to slay her? No. To “speak comfortably to her.” The Lord had brought His people into the wilderness that they might prove Him to be a prayer hearing and a prayer answering God; a promise giving and promise fulfilling God, that they might prove that He cared for them. “In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the angel of His presence saved them.” If only they could view the reason as to why they were in the wilderness! Instead, they were ready to stone poor Moses. But Moses sets a wonderful example. He did not pick up stones to throw back at them, but he took his case – his hard case – to the Lord, even as we are exhorted to do in Deuteronomy 1; words that Moses himself spoke (and he knew what he was talking about): “And the cause that is too hard for you, bring it unto Me, and I will hear it.” Moses was faced with a hard case, a hard cause. How could he provide water for this vast multitude? He could not provide for himself, let alone for them. He was indeed in a great extremity. His life seemed to be in danger. But he cried unto the Lord. He brought his need before the Lord. And you may bring your wilderness need before the Lord this morning hour. The Lord knows the need you have. He knows the wants that are before you. He bids you look up. As one good man said: ‘Bring your hard causes to Jesus, today.’ May you do so.

But the Lord had an answer for Moses. Remember, Moses was a man of “like passions, as we are.” No doubt, left to himself his natural man would have said it would be much easier to go back to those few sheep in the wilderness that he tended for so many years. They never rebelled against him and never caused him the trouble that these people were causing him. But he did not look back, and nor must you look back either. We read the dear Saviour set His face “as a flint” towards Jerusalem. Flint is one of the hardest of rocks. Our Saviour did not set His face in a hard, unfeeling way, but in a determined way. It was a determination that could not be undone. He set his face “as a flint” toward Jerusalem, knowing the things that were to be accomplished there. He did not go back. He did not turn back. He went forward. And the Lord says to Moses: ‘You, Moses, are to go on.’ ‘But how can I go on?’ Moses might say, ‘it seems an impossibility to go on!’ The Lord said: ‘You are to take with you the rod; that rod that I have used more than once for your help. The rod that you stretched out over the Red Sea, and I divided it. That rod that was even used against Pharaoh in those many plagues that came upon Egypt.’

It is very significant to notice that the rod was never used against God’s people. It was used against their enemies. It was used to provide for them, but never against them. You may feel to be under the rod this morning hour in some way. God brings His people under the rod in the bond of the Covenant. Friend, that rod is for you. There may be some chastening strokes of love and mercy to teach you God’s ways, but that rod is for you. What David said in Psalm 23 is true: “Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me.” And the rod was a comfort to Moses at this time. It brought to his memory the great things that God had done for him – the answers to prayer and the deliverances he had already proved. It was a moment when he could look back and perhaps say like the hymnwriter did:

“Brought safely by His hand thus far, 

Why dost thou now give place to fear? 

How canst thou want if He provide,

Or lose thy way with such a Guide?”

‘Go on, Moses. Take the rod.’ The Lord bids His wilderness people this morning: “Go on.” Even as our dear Saviour set His face as “a flint “toward Jerusalem, so we are commanded to go on.

“Jesus Christ, your Father’s Son, 

Bids you undismayed go on.”

Where was Moses to go on to? To the rock in Horeb. You will remember that when he was tending the sheep, the Lord told him that he would worship God in that mountain; the mountain of Horeb. Well, here was one of the answers to that promise the Lord gave. Something mighty was to be done that would bring great praise and honour to Moses’s God. He would indeed worship God when he saw what the Lord would do for him and for His people there. Moses must take the rod and he must go to the rock. He was to smite the rock. He was not to smite the people who had been speaking unkindly to him. He must not smite the rebels, though they deserved to be smitten. No, he must smite the rock.

In a sense, as we may see in a moment, the rock was the substitution for the punishment that the rebels deserved. The rock received the strokes, not the rebels. What a mercy! What wonderful grace! What lovingkindness! “Smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it.” As our text says: “He smote the rock, that the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed.” And Moses did smite the rock. And, in obedience to God in so doing, God honoured the faith that He gave to Moses, and the rock opened. We read in another place: “He opened the rock, and the waters gushed out; they ran in the dry places like a river.” So, the rock was smitten, the rock was opened, and from it came this miraculous supply of water; so abundant that it “ran in the dry places.” In dry, sandy places water is absorbed by the sand very quickly. But so abundant was the water here that even the sand could not contain it. It became a river; a river running in the wilderness for God’s people. And friends, we have sandy hearts, haven’t we? We quickly absorb the water, but we cannot retain it. But, if the Lord comes with His abundant mercy and that mercy overflows into our hearts, even our poor, sandy, dry hearts will be like a river. It would be a great mercy if it was so this morning hour, as we meditate on what our Saviour has done for poor sinners.

So, the people were supplied. Their wants were met. Although they were ungrateful and though they did not look for it, the Lord had mercy upon them and cared for them in this time of need. What wonders, then, were done by God through the rod that Moses took! “He smote the rock, that the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed.”

I want with God’s help to, firstly, look at the rock, secondly, the smiting of it, thirdly, the waters gushing out and fourthly, the overflowing, overwhelming streams.

Firstly, the rock. This is Christ Jesus set before us; this unmoveable, unchangeable, unshakeable One; God’s dear Son in our nature: the Foundation of the Church on which the Church of God is built. “For other Foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” He is that Rock. The waves of eternal wrath beat upon Him. The waves of the sins of His people beat upon Him. The waves of temptation beat upon Him. But, dear friends, when all had subsided, He remained still the same. He was unmoved, undiminished and unchanged – the Rock. We sung in that hymn; so confirming:

“He’s the Rock of our salvation.”

J. Kent

Friends, in these changing times, these uncertain times and these perilous times, you and I need a Rock. We need something certain, something unchanging, something to rely upon, something to lean upon, something to be built upon and something that will not desert us when the storms come against us. They may beat against the Rock, but if we are on that Rock, then we are safe.

Christ Jesus, then, is the Rock. He is the Rock in several ways. Firstly, He is the Rock as the Son of God. There is His power. There is His infinite ability. There is His Godhead. Then He is the Rock as the Son of man. That means, dear friends, there was precious feeling in Him. This Rock opened. Again, there was an opening of the heart of the dear Redeemer, as well as the wounds in His dear hands, feet and side. Oh, the Rock was opened! There was a depth of feeling that we cannot begin to measure which the dear Redeemer endured when the Rock was opened at Calvary.

And then again, dear friends, remember it was for others. I believe Moses got just a glimpse of this as he looked on and saw this amazing miracle. He was a man of faith, looking toward the coming of the dear Saviour. One would believe that his eyes were opened to see two things. One, what the dear Saviour would suffer for sinners like himself, for he needed the water that flowed from the Rock as well as the others. But secondly, he would see just a hint of the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings. Did they threaten to stone Moses? Did they falsely accuse him? Did they write bitter things against him? ‘Ah, Moses. This is just what your Saviour will endure.’ We read of it in John 19. He will be spat upon. He will be cursed by sinners. He will be reviled. He will be scourged. He will be smitten. ‘Moses, cannot you see that you are in the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings? As the hymnwriter put it:

“At most we do but taste the cup, 

For Thou alone hast drunk it up.”

J. Kent

But we read in Hebrews 11 that Moses esteemed “the reproach of Christ.” He esteemed this path of fellowship “greater riches than the treasures in Egypt.” Friends, you are in a good place if you can do that this morning. Esteem the cup God has put into your hand. Esteem the path in which you are called to walk. Esteem even the strokes of divine chastening in love that are infinitely better than anything this world can ever give you. For, “Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness.” So, firstly we have this precious Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ – the Rock – the Rock of our salvation. May we prove it today.

Secondly, He was smitten. We know Moses smote the Rock. He was the type of the law of God, smiting the substitute, the Rock on behalf of others. We can look at this in two or three ways. Of course, our dear Saviour was smitten by men. They scourged that holy back. They smote Him on the face. They crowned Him with thorns. They nailed Him to a tree. He was smitten by men, smitten by His enemies and yes, He was smitten by His friends. They forsook Him, they went back in the Garden and fled from Him. He was smitten when Peter denied Him; that was a smiting in the tender heart of the dear Redeemer.

“From sinner and from saint 

He [met] with many a blow.”

Yet that was nothing to be compared with the smiting of God. We read in Isaiah 53: “Smitten of God, and afflicted.” If men smite each other, there is a finite power to the smiting. But, when God smites, what a power! Even at this very moment, God is smiting the earth with this virus. It is God’s hand. He is smiting the earth in judgment. He is calling sinners to repentance. May we hear the voice! But even this smiting is nothing to be compared to what the dear Redeemer endured at Calvary. For there the strokes of divine justice were exacted from Him – the sinner’s Substitute, the sinless One, the Holy One – the payment due to the sins of His dear people.

“On Him almighty vengeance fell, 

That must have sunk a world to hell;

He bore it for a chosen race,

And thus became their Hiding–place.”

Oh, friends, He was smitten of God! Isaiah says: “The chastisement” – the smiting – “of our peace was upon Him.” He received the strokes that we, His dear people, the Church deserved to endure. He received in His holy body and soul the punishment that His Church deserved to endure to all eternity, in a lost eternity. He has taken that cup. He has drained that cup and left not a drop of condemnation in it. “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.” Oh, to be in this Rock! To benefit from what was done for sinners in it! What a mercy, dear friends, to understand it savingly for ourselves! “He opened the rock, and the waters gushed out; they ran in the dry places like a river.” Friends, what are Christ’s smitings compared with your path? You may be under the rod this morning hour. The Lord may be chastening you; not in vengeance, but in love. The chastenings of the Saviour were in vengeance; holy revenge against the sins of His people.

“How bitter that cup, no heart can conceive, 

Which He drank quite up that sinners might live! 

His way was much rougher and darker than mine;

Did Christ, my Lord, suffer, and shall I repine?”

But, when the last stroke of divine justice fell on the Saviour which He received in His holy person in holy meekness and submission, then He cried: “It is finished.” As good Augustus Toplady puts it in another place:

“Payment God cannot twice demand, 

First at my bleeding Surety’s hand, 

And then again at mine.”

Oh, this smitten Saviour! This stricken Saviour! This broken-hearted Saviour! This broken-bodied Saviour! Yet not a bone of Him was broken. There was no severance of a limb, showing to us that He kept His Church close to His heart and close to His holy soul as He suffered. He would not let them go while He suffered for them, “the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God.”

The third thing we have to consider are these waters gushing out. There is power. We read in John 19 that when the spear pierced the Saviour’s side, the blood and the water came out. It came forth. The original Greek has it as ‘gushing forth.’ There was a power to it. It was an unusual power. “The waters gushed out.” Blood to atone, and water to cleanse. This shows the love of God; the compassion of God in supplying the needs of His people. It shows the force of strength behind it. When I was in the United States many years ago, we were shown what was supposed to be the shortest river in the world. It is only about a mile long. The source of it is a spring seven hundred feet below the ground. And such is the power of the underground water, it forces itself up, seven hundred feet, to the surface to bring water to that short river. I looked at that, and when I saw it, I thought: ‘Yes, the river of God has come through far, far greater obstacles than that to poor sinners. Yes, the love of God in Christ Jesus to sinners has forced it up to the very surface of the earth, as it were, to feed His dear people in their wilderness journey. And it is not a short river. It is not the shortest river, dear friends. It is the longest river that time or eternity will ever know. It still flows and it will flow when time shall be no more. We have it in Revelation 22: “…a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.” And we read that blessed word: “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” May God give us that blessed freedom to take the water of life with living faith, even this morning hour. These waters gushed out in love, they gushed out in power and they gushed out in purpose. They were irresistible and they were invincible.

The waters gushed out, and we read “the streams overflowed.” Here we have a wonderful truth. We read in Psalm 68: “The rebellious dwell in a dry land.” That parched wilderness, that the children of Israel were in, was typical of the hardness of their heart by nature. But the desert condition of the fall is overcome in the hearts of God’s people by these living streams. And God’s people often feel their desert condition. They know that in their “flesh, dwelleth no good thing.” When the Lord withholds His power, they are in a desert condition. In prayer, praise and meditation everything seems dried up. Often there is a voice in it. There is a voice in it when we wander and stray. The Lord withholds His power to teach us deeper lessons concerning our need of these sacred streams. What will put it right? No sparks of our own kindling! No streams that we can invent! Nothing less than these overflowing streams coming into our hearts will put it right. And, just as it was for the rebels – the very ones who had stones in their hands to stone Moses – these waters flowed for them. Sinner, look at Calvary’s cross. See the nails that held Him there! See the crown of thorns on His head! There are your sins, and mine. We nailed Him there. We crowned Him with those thorns. Yet, just as in this wilderness, these streams were for the rebels, so the blood and the water that poured from the holy body and soul of the dear Redeemer speak peace. Abel’s blood cried for vengeance, yet the blood of Christ cries for mercy.

For Jesus’ blood, through earth and skies, 

Mercy, eternal mercy, cries.”

It cries to the thirsty; to those who are longing for a sip of living water this morning hour; to those who know it is the only answer to their hardness, deadness, coldness, distance, unbelief, pride, wretchedness, guilt and sin. They know the only answer to it is in these streams. Often, we are rather like David when he was in the wilderness. He longed for a sip from the well of Bethlehem. It had such precious memories for him, naturally speaking. But, of course, spiritually speaking it spoke of a precious Christ. Bethlehem at that time was in the hand of his enemies. They were surrounding Bethlehem and its well. No one could get near it. But three mighty men, who were good friends of David, fought their way through to get him some water from the well of Bethlehem. We know he poured it out before the Lord; that was an act of gospel truth in another sense (we may speak of that another time). But the point is the Lord Jesus Christ is that well of Bethlehem in this sense: His victory over all that would hinder us from the well has been overcome. And, when He comes with that power, even those things that seem to hinder us from getting to the well, have to yield. We read here: “the streams overflowed.” We might say it overwhelmed. And so, it comes into our hearts from time to time we trust by the gospel. It overwhelms its pride, it overwhelms its hardness, it overwhelms its prejudice, it overwhelms its guilt, it overwhelms its corruptions and it overwhelms the world that is in us. It sweeps all those things to one side and brings life where there was death, light where there was darkness, and life where there was a felt insensibility. Friends, this is what these streams can do. There is nothing too hard for the Lord. Even your poor, hard heart this morning hour, child of God, cannot resist these overwhelming, overcoming streams. Oh, to feel more of them! “Behold, he smote the rock, that the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed.” They overwhelmed. As one hymnwriter put it:

“It rises high, and drowns the hills; 

Has neither shore nor bound; 

Now if we search to find our sins, 

Our sins can ne’er be found.”

I think of that wonderful scene in the upper room where the dear Saviour showed to His disciples His hands and His side; the marks of this “same Jesus.” What He was saying was, ‘Look! See how the blood flowed through these open wounds. They do not cry for vengeance. They bring peace.’ He said to them: “Peace be unto you.”

“Peace by His cross has Jesus made; 

The church’s everlasting Head 

O’er hell and sin has victory won, 

And, with a shout, to glory gone.”

Come back to dear Moses for a moment. There are two things here. He could go on once he had tasted these streams, couldn’t he? All the people could go on. And so dear friends, when you and I come to a sudden stop; a halt in our pathway as we sometimes do, what will help us go on? A sip of these sacred streams. A gospel word. A smile from the Saviour. A living touch in our heart, and we can move on again. Then, remember there was another lesson to be learnt. Later on they wanted water again. It seemed, for a moment that the Lord had withholden the river that followed them. Again, they were ready to smite Moses and to deal unkindly with him. The Lord says: ‘Moses, go to the rock. Go back to the rock at Horeb. This time you are to speak to it, and it will bring forth its waters.’ We know, sadly, that Moses and Aaron did not believe that could be so, and they smote the rock. Yes, God kindly and lovingly gave the water. But He sharply reproved Moses for it. Moses could not go to the literal Canaan. It did not shut him out from heaven. What a mercy our sins don’t do that! But it did bring a reproving rod that he had to live with for the rest of his days. Why was the Lord so angry? Why was it? It wasn’t just the unbelief of Moses, although that was something God sharply reproved, and justly so. Unbelief makes God a liar; how offended God is by it! But, friends, the type was broken. Only once was our Lord to suffer! Only once was He to bleed at Golgotha and Calvary! That work never needed to be repeated. Moses, by smiting the rock again, was, as it were, breaking the type. It shows to us, dear friends, that He has died once.

“Once He died our souls to save.”

That never needs to be repeated. It is done; done forever. It is done eternally for His dear people. Everlasting love and everlasting mercy has ordained it. “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: So Christ was once offered” – note that – “to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation.” When He came to this earth, He came to bear the sins of His people. He was “a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.” But when He comes the second time those sins will not be resurrected. Those sins will not be brought forth as an accusation against God’s dear people. No, that work is done. It will be “a morning without clouds.” He will not come to suffer again. He will not come to bleed again. That work is done forever. Have you ever felt that in your poor heart, dear friend? Have you ever entered into Peter’s experience? “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, Who by Him do believe in God.” Have you ever felt the power of that precious fountain in your heart? Has it ever brought peace? Has it ever softened it? Has it ever drawn it? Has it ever enabled it? Then, friends:

“The mark of that celestial seal 

Can never be erased.”

You do want repeated touches – that I know. Repeated sips we need. We want an ongoing, present tense religion. Yet, dear friends, let us be very clear. That work begun will be carried on. Nothing can undo the seal you received when that precious blood touched your poor, unworthy heart. It is a celestial seal. It is an eternal seal. It will stand you in good stead on a dying bed. It will be a precious mark when you stand before the judgment seat of Christ, because He will acknowledge that it was His blood that melted your heart and His blood that cleansed your soul. He will not deny what He has done for unworthy wretches like you and I feel to be.

“He smote the rock, that the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed.” It was in the wilderness. We are yet in the wilderness. We still need this blessing again and again. May that river follow us step by step, day by day, week by week and month by month until the journey be done, the victory gained and Christ seen face to face. Then, what do we read? “For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.” Friend, child of God, born again sinner – the streams you drink this side of the grave are the same as those the other side. There is a deeper fulness within the veil; yes. But, as good Samuel Rutherford put it:

“O Christ, He is the fountain,

The deep, sweet well of love; 

The streams on earth I’ve tasted,

More deep I’ll drink above; 

There, to an ocean fulness, 

His mercy doth expand, 

And glory, glory dwelleth

In Immanuel’s land.”

May God one day bring us to the source of this blessed river, and we will have reason to thank Him and praise Him to all eternity. “He smote the rock, that the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed.” May God add His blessing.

Amen.