Rock
The Rock of Salvation
We’ve all thrown rocks as children, and many of us have skipped rocks on the placid surface of a lake or large river. Some collect rocks for their shapes and colors, and others even climb rocks for the sheer exhilaration and sense of accomplishment. But just as we strive to see the forest for the trees, we must also strive to see the Rock amidst the rocks. Deuteronomy 32 thoroughly develops the doctrine of the LORD God of Israel being the Rock:
Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass: because I will publish the name of the LORD: ascribe ye greatness unto our God. He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he. They have corrupted themselves, their spot is not the spot of his children: they are a perverse and crooked generation. Do ye thus requite the LORD, O foolish people and unwise? is not he thy father that hath bought thee? hath he not made thee, and established thee? Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations: ask thy father, and he will shew thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee. When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel. For the LORD’s portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye. . . . So the LORD alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him. . . . But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked: thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered with fatness; then he forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation. They provoked him to jealousy with strange gods, with abominations provoked they him to anger. They sacrificed unto devils, not to God . . . . Of the Rock that begat thee thou art unmindful, and hast forgotten God that formed thee. . . . And he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be: for they are a very froward generation, children in whom is no faith. They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God; they have provoked me to anger with theri vanities: and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation. For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell . . . . For they are a nation void of counsel, neither is there any understanding in them. O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end! . . . For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah: their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter: their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps. To me belongeth vengeance and recompence; their foot shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste. See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand. For I lift up my hand to heaven, and say, I will live forever.” (Deuteronomy 32:1-10, 12, 15-17a, 18, 20-22a, 28-29, 32-33, 35, 39-40, KJV)
This Rock supports, nourishes, and heals—indeed, makes people, forms them, and gives them life! But this Rock also kills, wounds, and deals out vengeance to those that hate Him. To the believer, the Rock of Israel is the Rock of salvation. Furthermore, in 2 Samuel 22 and in Psalms 18, David refers to the LORD God as his rock; fortress; deliverer; shield; stronghold; refuge.; and “the horn of my salvation.”
In 1 Corinthians 10:1, 4-5, Paul teaches that the sons of Israel that passed through the wilderness were followed by Christ, that is to say, the spiritual Rock that is Christ. In other words, when the sons of Israel had a cloud pillar to follow during the day and a fire pillar to guide them at night, they were actually being led by Christ Himself: “Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea . . . . and did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ. But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness.” (KJV) In other words, Christ aided and supported the sons of Israel during their ordeal in the wilderness, but Christ was not to be mocked. The Rock of Israel led the sons of Israel through the Red Sea and gave them a cloud for direction in the wilderness—and for all of that, He would not countenance idol-worshippers, fornicators, and murmurers among them (1 Corinthians 10:7-8, 10).
Metaphors for the Rock of Salvation
It is interesting to note that after losing many thousands of men in a battle against the men of Israel, 600 Benjamites escaped through the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon, where they abided for four months (Judges 20). So many Benjamites had been slain in the fighting that the congregation of Israel decided that these escaped Benjamites ought to have wives so that a tribe of Israel would not be destroyed. The congregation of Israel devised a method by which the escaped Benjamites would get wives. During the yearly feast of the LORD in Shiloh—on the north side of Bethel, on the east side of the highway going from Bethel to Shechem, and on the south side of Lebonah—the escaped Benjamites would lie in wait in the vineyards while the daughters of Shiloh would come outside to dance, and whle the daughters of Shiloh were dancing the Benjamites would spring up to catch a wife and take her back to the land of Benjamin (Judges 21). By way of summary, then, the Benjamites were severely decreased in battle, given protection by the rock of Rimmon, and given dancing wives in order to replenish their numbers and repair the cities of the land of Benjamin. From the standpoint of those early Benjamites, the rock of Rimmon was a place of refuge, even a place of rescue, providing a metaphor for the saving and healing work done by the Rock of Salvation, Jesus Christ. Then 3,000 men of Judah bound Samson with two new cords and so delivered him to the Philistines; however, with the help of the Spirit of the LORD, the cords were loosened and Samson broke free and slew 1,000 Philistines using the jawbone of an ass; Samson was on the verge of dying of thirst and God revived him by causing water to come out of the jawbone! Later, Delilah betrayed Samson, weakened him by having his seven locks shorn off, and had him delivered into the hands of the Philistines—they put his eyes out and celebrated by sacrificing to their god, Dagon. As the Philistines were readying to make sport out of Samson, Samson prayed to God for strengthening, and pushed down the two pillars of the house of the Philistines, thereby slaying more at his death than he did in his lifetime. (Judges 15 and 16) Just as the rock of Rimmon provided a place of rescue before the Benjamites married and undertook the rebuilding of their cities, similarly the rock Etam provided Samson rest before he undertook to destroy the enemy. The rock Etam, as such, would seem to provide another metaphor for the saving power of the Rock of Israel, Jesus Christ. Even so, Samson is listed in Hebrews 11 as one of those who died in faith, confessed they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth, and sought a better country, a heavenly country (i.e. God prepares for them a city, the New Jerusalem).
In Exodus 33:19-23, Moses asks to see the LORD’s glory. The LORD has Moses stand upon a rock—but before He passes by, He puts Moses into the cleft of a rock for Moses’s own protection: “And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy. And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live. And the LORD said, Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock: and it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by: and I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts; but my face shall not be seen.” (KJV) Thus here again we see how God uses rocks for the protection of His people. God took so much care with His servant Moses, that He not only put him into a cleft of the rock, but also covered him with His hand while passing by. This example of protection by a rock is amazing because Moses was simultaneously protected by a rock as well as by the hand of the Rock of Israel Himself!
In Exodus 17:5-6, 11-14, one can see that it is a rock that enables Moses to ensure that Israel would snatch victory in its battle against Amalek. “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. 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. . . . And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed: and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. But Moses’ hands were heavy; and they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat thereon; and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. And Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword. And the LORD said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua: for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.” (KJV) The Rock of Israel stood before Moses at the rock in Horeb—and when Moses struck the rock, the Rock of Israel then caused water to come gushing out of the rock. From the creative aspect, the Rock of Israel changed an ordinary rock into a water-gushing (and life-saving) rock, because He stands outside of and above His creation, and can revamp it at will. Moreover, Moses’s hands were kept up, for the good of Israel in battle, by friends and with the aid of a rock, effectively providing yet another metaphor for being sustained by the Rock of Salvation.
In Luke 6:47-49, the Lord Jesus Himself said it this way: “Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like: He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock. But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great.” (KJV) The man who hears Jesus’s sayings and does as He says is like a man who has built his house on a solid, deep-going foundation that itself is set on another foundation—a rock! Thus, the man who hears Jesus and follows His sayings is held up by the Rock of Israel, the Maker of man and the Maker of rocks. Indeed, the spiritual Rock that is Christ, spoken of in 1 Corinthians 10, is the most solid of all the rocks—He made the rocks and can push them up or bring them down at will.
In the case of Samson, after he had taken revenge against a band of Philistines, he took rest on top of the rock Etam.