Subject Twenty-six

THE ROCK AND THE LIVING WATER

Scripture: Exo. 17:1-6; 1 Cor. 10:4; John 4:14; 7:37-38; Rev. 22:17; Isa. 55:1

1. The wilderness of human life
   This passage describes the desolation of human life.
   1. First tell how the children of Israel walked in the wilderness in that day.
   2. Human life itself is just a wilderness. Man’s whole life is just a vast wilderness full of desolation; there is only labor and heavy burdens without rest and joy. Give a full portrait of the desolation of human life in this passage.
   3. The reason human life is just a wilderness is that man is sinful and apart from God. Originally, God was the meaning of the human life, but sin separated man from God. Therefore, human life became vain and desolate, like a wilderness.
2. The thirst of human life
   This passage describes the needs of human life.
   1. Tell how the Israelites had no water to drink in the wilderness. They were thirsty and desperate for water to quench their thirst.
   2. There is also a great need in the human life, a desperate need for a certain kind of water to quench man’s thirst. Fully portray the condition of the dissatisfaction of human life. Everyone in the world, whether a farmer, soldier, laborer, business man, housewife, child, young or old, is thirsty and dissatisfied.
   3. Man is thirsty because he does not have God. God is the meaning and the satisfaction of human life. Only God can quench man’s thirst. A man without God cannot help but be thirsty.
3. God meeting man’s needs
   1. Man could not meet his needs by himself, just as the Israelites who were thirsty in the wilderness could not do anything for themselves.
   2. Only God can quench man’s thirst and meet man’s need. It takes a work of God to quench man’s thirst. To have water coming out of the rock is a miracle; human hands could never do such a thing.
   3. God satisfies man through Christ. This Christ was typified by the rock in the wilderness in that day. First Corinthians 10:4 says, “That Rock was Christ.” In the Bible, a rock is the symbol of solidity and dependability. The Bible shows us that Christ is as solid and dependable as a rock. Here we will not say too much about the solidity and dependability of Christ. Instead we will pay attention to how the living water which came out of Him can quench man’s thirst. The problem in the wilderness was not a question of solidity nor dependability, but of thirst. Only the living water which comes out of Christ can quench the thirst of man.
   4. The living water coming out of the rock and quenching the thirst of the Israelites typifies Christ broken on the cross and that out of Him came the living water to quench our thirst. The rock was solid and dependable, yet it cracked so that water could flow out to meet the needs of the Israelites. So also Christ was broken, and the living water came out of Him to meet our needs.
   5. The water came out of the rock after Moses had smitten it. Moses represents the law, and his rod represents authority. Moses’ rod represents the authority of the law. Moses’ rod smiting the rock represents the authority of the law smiting Christ so that He might be broken and the water of life might flow out to quench man’s thirst. Man lost God because of sin. For man to receive God, man’s sins must first be judged by the authority of the law. Christ was smitten by the law in the sinner’s stead; thus the requirements of the law were satisfied, and now the sinners can receive the living water which came out of Him.
   6. The very water flowing out of Christ is God’s life, God’s Spirit, and God Himself. Whoever this living water flows into, God’s Spirit and God Himself also flow into him. Whosoever gets this water will be satisfied.
4. The way of quenching man’s thirst
   1. The Rock is already split open, and the living water is flowing out. The water is available for people to come and drink.
   2. Today God is calling, “Let him who is thirsty...come... take the water of life freely” (Rev. 22:17; Isa. 55:1).
   3. Drinking is receiving—receiving the water of life and the Spirit. The Spirit is everywhere. All that man has to do is open his heart and receive God’s Spirit with his human spirit. Whether or not man can touch God all depends upon whether or not he will drink.
   4. Drinking is free. Man does not have to pay anything. There is no need of money; it is a free gift.
   5. When a man opens his heart and uses his human spirit to receive the Lord Jesus as the Savior in this way, he will feel comfortable and satisfied within.