Mark Fox February 9, 2025

The Rock was Christ

When the children of Israel got to Rephidim in the wilderness, there was no water. They complained, just as they had at Marah where the water was undrinkable. God had healed the water there, but their memories were short, as ours often are. So they threatened Moses to the point that he thought they would stone him. He cried out to God and the Lord had him pass before the people with a few elders and take his staff with him. The staff that he struck the Nile with and God turned it to blood. Take your staff, Moses, and I will meet you at the rock at Horeb. Remember Horeb? It is where Moses first met God at the burning bush. It is where God commissioned him to go deliver the people from slavery. It is where Moses will meet with God later and receive the 10 Commandments. 

Moses is back at Horeb and God says, “I will stand before you there on the rock…and you shall strike the rock.” Notice this is the only time Moses was told to strike the rock. Years later, Moses finds himself in the same place again, back at Meribah with the people of Israel, and again there is no water. Again the people grumble and accuse Moses of trying to kill them. God tells Moses to take his staff and a few elders and speak to the rock. “Tell the rock before their eyes to yield its water,” God says. Instead, in his anger at the people, Moses disobeyed God and struck the rock. Twice! The water flowed. Because of his disobedience, Moses was not able to enter the Promised Land. Why would this one sin disqualify Moses from going into Canaan? He was allowed to see it before he died but would never step one foot there. Why? I believe the reason is two-fold, first because of Moses’ disobedience, but second because of the significance of the rock.

 Remember, Scripture interprets Scripture! Paul wrote, “For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.” There has been much written about this, and we cannot say for sure what Paul meant. We know that God was with them in the wilderness. Does this mean that it was the pre-incarnate Christ who was there? We know about the cloud and the fire, but was there a rock that also followed the people in the wilderness? One thing we know for sure. This rock was a type. A shadow in the Old Testament that found its fulfillment in the New. 

God would send His Son to be born of a virgin some 1500 years after Moses. Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, came to Israel and said, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall never hunger.”  He said, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.” All that the people in the wilderness had grumbled about would be provided by Christ, their spiritual food and drink. Jesus also said, “This is my body, broken for you.” And He said, “This is my blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for many.” The people had wanted to stone Moses in the wilderness, but God did not allow it. But God did send His Son so that they would crucify Him. It was not the Jews or the Romans who put Jesus on the cross. It was God. For your sake and for mine, the Father struck the Rock and gave His Son as a sacrifice for sin.

The Rock of Ages was cleft for you and for me.

Read More
Mark Fox February 9, 2025
Mark Fox February 2, 2025

Our Daily Bread

Every day except Saturday, the people of God went out in the morning and gathered manna. On Saturday they rested. But every day but Saturday they went out and got their food for the day. Fresh bread. Fresh provision from God. Fresh opportunity to trust that morning by morning when they opened their tent flaps and stepped out, it would be there. Manna from heaven. Which gave them a fresh occasion to praise and thank God! Every day was the same. They started each morning receiving something from the Lord, but they did not receive it passively. They had to go out and pick it up, gather their “omer,” their half gallon of manna. And some people might say, so what’s the big deal? Well, on the physical level, they had to wake up and get out of bed every day. They had to get blanket victory and go out to work! We all have to do that. And there are consequences if we don’t. Paul said, “If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.” The idea is that everyone in the wilderness who was physically able to gather manna would be expected to do that. Every day except one. 

But there is another application we need to make, and Moses helps us with it in his fifth book. He  wrote, “And (God) humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.” There’s the greater truth of this manna miracle. The Lord was teaching His people through daily provision that we do not live by bread alone. That the sustenance of our soul is not found in bread but in the very words of God. Every word that comes from the mouth of God is for our sustenance, our spiritual health, and that is why we need to feed on it every day. Anyone who eats and drinks enough to sustain the body can live. But only in Jesus can we have life

Did you know that Jesus quoted from Moses when He was hungry? Jesus had been in the wilderness for 40 days and had not eaten. That is about the time that your physical body starts to consume itself. He needed bread. The tempter, Satan, was there to offer Jesus a way to get food. He said, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” Jesus answered, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” The temptations of Jesus were real. Jesus was hungry. Nearly starving. But His answer was that He would trust God, He would look to His Father, He would not take even one day off, not even one moment off, from being nourished in His very soul from His Father’s love and care for Him.

 God was training His people in the wilderness, sanctifying them, teaching them to look for His provision every morning, first thing. He was teaching them to look forward to it! It will always be there for you. They didn’t have the Bible like we do. Moses hadn’t started writing the first five books yet. But we now have the Word of God scattered all over our houses and on our phones and tablets and laptops. 

I look forward every morning to three things. A cup of coffee. Time in the Word and prayer by myself and then with my wife. And breakfast. 

We talk about spiritual “disciplines” as believers, and we should. But here’s something to think about: anything that becomes a habit does not require discipline. I don’t have to discipline myself in the morning to fix a cup of coffee. It is not a discipline to read the Bible and pray. 

It is a habit. And a delight!

Read More
Mark Fox February 2, 2025