Exodus 17.6  Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock in Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink.”

The nation of Israel is grumbling and complaining at the providential dealings of God with them. First, they complained about the lack of food. Now they are ready to stone Moses because there is a lack of water. Okay, you are God; what do you do. All I can say is you can be glad that I am not God! Listen to how Jehovah so graciously deals with His grumbling, complaining and discontented people. Amazingly, God instructed Moses to strike not at the grumblers but at the Lord, Who is symbolized in Scripture as The Rock.

Deuteronomy 32.4 reads, “The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is He.” Is that grace or what? God smites His Son to provide a blessing for His wayward children.

But therein is the gospel of Jesus Christ. When the judgment of God fell on The Lord through the rod of Moses, it resulted in rivers of water streaming out to give refreshment and life to sinners. When God’s wrath fell upon Christ on the cross of Calvary, The Holy Spirit, like rivers of living water flowed from heaven to give life to those who called upon His Name (John 7:37-39; Gal. 3:13-14). Let us never cease to marvel at the vastness and depth of God’s grace, that enables us to drink deeply of the streams of life that He has bought for us with His blood.