Anyone who has scratched the surface of ‘Psychology 101’ will probably be familiar with Abraham Maslow’s ‘Hierarchy of Needs.’ Maslow proposed that humans have needs that are arranged in a pyramid – the base of the pyramid is our physiological needs – air, water food, sleep – with the apex of the pyramid what Maslow termed ‘Self-Actualization need.’
It is common wisdom that you can live for 4 minutes without air, 4 days without water and 4 weeks without food.
In Numbers 20, the children of Israel begin to complain again to Moses and Aaron…they were in the desert and there was no water to drink. “If only we had died when our brothers fell dead before the LORD! Why did you bring the LORD’s community into this desert, that we and our livestock should die here? Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to this terrible place? It has no grain or figs, grapevines or pomegranates. And there is no water to drink!” (Numbers 20:3-5 NIV)
God commands Moses to strike a rock and water then came out of the rock. This presents us with one of the most curious theological issues in the whole Bible…In 1 Corinthians 10:4, Paul states the following about Israel…”They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.” (1 Cor 10:3-4 NIV)
This is where it gets tricky….Firstly water does not come out of rocks, secondly - rocks do not follow you around. The Israelites walked on dry land through the Red Sea, they followed a pillar of cloud during the day and camped around a pillar of fire at night – so I guess a rock following them through the desert was not so strange!
Commentators are divided – some say the rock followed the Israelites, others say that the water followed them…but you cannot get away from Paul’s insistence that the rock was in fact Christ…I think you can deduce from Scripture that there are a number of different pre-incarnate guises that Christ pops in and out of history with – ‘The angel of the LORD’, perhaps ‘The Commander of the army of the LORD’ – and as rock that sustained the nation of Israel for 40 years in the desert. (See also)
Consider this….
It is common wisdom that you can live for 4 minutes without air, 4 days without water and 4 weeks without food.
In Numbers 20, the children of Israel begin to complain again to Moses and Aaron…they were in the desert and there was no water to drink. “If only we had died when our brothers fell dead before the LORD! Why did you bring the LORD’s community into this desert, that we and our livestock should die here? Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to this terrible place? It has no grain or figs, grapevines or pomegranates. And there is no water to drink!” (Numbers 20:3-5 NIV)
God commands Moses to strike a rock and water then came out of the rock. This presents us with one of the most curious theological issues in the whole Bible…In 1 Corinthians 10:4, Paul states the following about Israel…”They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.” (1 Cor 10:3-4 NIV)
This is where it gets tricky….Firstly water does not come out of rocks, secondly - rocks do not follow you around. The Israelites walked on dry land through the Red Sea, they followed a pillar of cloud during the day and camped around a pillar of fire at night – so I guess a rock following them through the desert was not so strange!
Commentators are divided – some say the rock followed the Israelites, others say that the water followed them…but you cannot get away from Paul’s insistence that the rock was in fact Christ…I think you can deduce from Scripture that there are a number of different pre-incarnate guises that Christ pops in and out of history with – ‘The angel of the LORD’, perhaps ‘The Commander of the army of the LORD’ – and as rock that sustained the nation of Israel for 40 years in the desert. (See also)
Consider this….
“When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?" (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
The Samaritan woman said to him, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)
Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."
"Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?"
Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." (John 4:7-14 NIV)
Jesus sustained the Israelites for 40 years – He promises us now living water – a drink that sustains us eternally.
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