As I was reading Exodus 33, I was feeling puzzled.
“There is a place BY me and you shall stand there on the rock and it will come about, while My glory is passing by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with My hand until I have passed by.”
Exodus 33: 21
Moses wanted to see the intimate glory of God revealed to him personally. The true servant of God is concerned more about the glory of God than anything else. God gave Moses a guarded glimpse of His glory and Moses was satisfied. That made me think that I need to be content with the way God answers prayers, like Moses getting a guarded glimpse and not a huge display, but that was good enough for him.
Reading this verse made me think of how the Bible often uses the metaphor of a rock to give us an understanding of God and His nature. I learned that God is referred to as “the rock” around 128 times in the Bible.
“The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer. My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.”
Psalm 18:2
He is a firm and secure place to rest in battle.
I was curious if there was a rock reference prior to Exodus 33 and in Exodus 17:6 it says, “Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink.”
Moses struck the rock in the wilderness, that the people might drink. Like this rock, Jesus is a spiritual rock, who was struck, and gave us living water.
“All drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.”
1 Corinthians 10:4
“Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him, will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
John 4:13-14
“Each will be like a shelter from the wind and a refuge from the storm, like streams of water in the desert and the shadow of a great rock in a thirsty land.”
Isaiah 32:2
The streams of water is like Jesus, who quenches our thirst. God is our shelter from the wind, our refuge from the storm. God is the great rock that provides a shadow for us.
We are to stand on the rock, firmly plant our feet on God. We don’t have to fight the battle, we just need to rest in Him.
“Be like a dove that makes its nest at the mouth of a cave.”
Jeremiah 48:28
“Look to the rock from which you were cut and to the quarry from which you were hewn.”
Isaiah 51:1
We are cut from the rock, which is God, we are made in His image.
“His is the Rock, His works are perfect and all His ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is He.”
Deuteronomy 32:4
When I first read Exodus 33:21, this image from South Africa popped in my mind. It’s an image of us on the rock, looking out with the sun on our face, like we are waiting for His glory to pass us by.
The first mission trip I went on was in October 2022 to Nicaragua. I went with a team to build a church. Nicaragua is where my heart for missions was born. Even though we couldn’t speak the same language, it didn’t stop us from connecting with them through the love of Jesus. Nicaragua has a special place in my heart, so when Tory, one of the people I went to Nicaragua with, reached out to me last week to share how the Lord was leading him to raise money for a special project in Nicaragua, I knew I needed to help him. I added a page to my website to help him raise financial support and bring awareness to the needs of Nicaragua. Please check it out! The donation link on his page goes specifically to his project.
A year after leaving Nicaragua, we were sent a photo of the completed church and learned about how God filled it with His people. Praise God!!!
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138x wow, cool Stat!
Yes, moses striking the rock once in Ex 17 was a foreshadow of Jesus. Interestingly, the second time he struck the rock in Numbers 20, he was punished for his disobedience by not being able to enter the promise land . He was supposed to speak to the rock, but struck it instead due to the people’s grumbling. That scenario can be interpret as God showing us we can’t receive salvation by works of the law but only by faith in the one he sent, who died, was buried and resurrected, once and for all.
On another note, cute pic of you and David!
And that church looked like a big task, such a strong foundation, rock-solid!
Lol, just noticed the Stat error. Ah welp, can’t change it now!
I love this! Thank you for the thoughtful response. The reminder of faith not works, is always needed.