What Is In A Name – The Rock

The Rock

For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. 2 They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. 3 They all ate the same spiritual food 4 and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. (1 Corinthians 10:1-4, NIV)

In this passage from 1 Corinthians, the Apostle Paul is issuing a warning to the people of the church at Corinth. The church at Corinth lacked understanding of Jesus’ true message and failed to change their world lifestyle upon accepting Jesus as their Lord and Savior. To emphasize his warning, the Apostle Paul referred back to the Torah, reminding them of what happened to Israel when they disobeyed.

God gloriously raised the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt, bringing them through the desert to a fertile land. But the Israelites failed to trust in the Lord, leading to them wandering the desert for 40 years. During that time, the Israelites complained – frequently! And the Lord always provided for them.

One dire problem the Israelites faced was thirst. They were in a desert. There was little natural water available, especially for a group of their size! And dehydration is a serious condition. Twice God instructed Moses to use a rock to provide the people with much-needed water. The water that came from the rocks was needed for the Israelites and their livestock to survive. Without the water, they would have died.

The Israelites remembered the Lord God providing for them through a rock, and throughout the Old Testament, the Lord is referred to numerous times as their Rock. Jesus, as God manifested in the flesh, is the Rock upon which all salvation is based. Just as water flowed from the rocks in the desert, so the Living Water flows from the Rock that is Christ (more on the Living Water next week!).

So what does this mean for us? Several weeks ago, we looked at Jesus being the Cornerstone. This week’s name, the Rock, is very similar. The foundation of our faith is built upon Jesus Christ. He is the Rock upon which our faith grows and builds. When storms come into our lives, our solid foundation, a Rock, keeps us secure. We can place our worries, our fears, our discomfort into His hands and know that we are not alone. Is your faith built upon a solid foundation of rock? When you face storms, are secure in your Rock?

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