The Bible is a wonderful book. In Exodus when the children of Israel were thirsty in their wandering in the wilderness, God told Moses to take his rod and smite the rock. When he smote the rock, water flowed out of it, the people drank, and their thirst was quenched. We cannot find such a story in any other classical book. Although this story seems to be simple, its connotation is not simple. In Exodus we cannot find the significance of this story, but when we come to the New Testament, we find John 7:37-38, which says, “Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes into Me, as the Scripture said, out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.”
The main points in the writings of John are the same as those in Exodus. In Exodus there is the lamb, and John writes, “Behold, the Lamb of God” (1:29). At the end of Exodus there is the tabernacle, and at the conclusion of his writings, John also says, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men” (Rev. 21:3). In Exodus there is the lampstand, a crucial item in the tabernacle related to the administration of God and the actions of those who serve God, and in John’s writings, the churches are called the lampstands. By this we can see that the writings of John and Exodus reflect each other.
As we have seen, John refers to the living water that flowed out of the rock in Exodus. John speaks about this in a marvelous way, saying that if anyone thirsts, he may come to the Lord Jesus and drink. He does not say that the Lord Jesus is the rock; rather, he says that out of the innermost being of the one who believes into the Lord shall flow rivers of living water. According to the Greek, rivers is plural. It is not one river but many rivers. The connotation here is that the drinkers eventually become small “rocks.” In Exodus, the water flowed out of a single rock to quench the people’s thirst; in John’s writings, the living water flows out, but the flowing is not out of one rock but out of many “small rocks.” When we drink the water supplied by the Lord Jesus, we become “small rocks,” each one flowing out rivers of living water, river after river. We do not flow out only one river; we flow out many rivers from within us.
Exodus is the “nursery” of a great number of truths, and John’s writings are the “farm” of the truths. In Exodus there is one rock, whereas in John’s Gospel there are many small rocks. In Exodus there is one river, but in John’s Gospel there are many rivers. Not only the rocks are many, but even the rivers that flow out of each rock are many. This signifies multiplication and increase. One rock has become many rocks, and one river has become many rivers. Perhaps some may argue that this is merely our own interpretation. However, if we read 1 Corinthians 10, we will see Paul’s interpretation. Paul said, “All our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and all were baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink” (vv. 1-4a). How wonderful this is! In Exodus the water flowed out of the rock on Mount Horeb, yet Paul said that it was spiritual drink. Was that physical drink or spiritual drink? We all should say, “According to figure, it was physical, but according to reality, it was spiritual.” In Exodus the water that flowed out of the rock was a figure, a sign, a symbol, a picture, portraying a spiritual condition. Exodus uses physical water to signify spiritual water, which is the Spirit.
This water is not merely the Holy Spirit. Before the Lord was smitten, before He as the smitten rock was cleft, the Holy Spirit was already there, but “the Spirit” was not yet. We may say that before the rock was smitten, there was already rain water in the atmosphere, but it was not until the rock was smitten and cleft that the rain water became the living water flowing out of the rock. Before the rock was smitten, the rain water was there, but the living water was not yet. This signifies that before the Lord Jesus was crucified and resurrected, the Holy Spirit was there, but “the Spirit” was not yet. When the Lord Jesus was cleft by being smitten on the cross, immediately there came out blood and water (John 19:34). That was the flowing out of the living water, of which John tells us that Jesus spoke “concerning the Spirit, whom those who believed into Him were about to receive” (7:39). John points out clearly that the water which flowed out of the smitten Jesus is the Spirit.
In 1 Corinthians 10:4 Paul tells us that what the children of Israel drank was spiritual drink. What Paul says next is even more marvelous. He says that this water came out of a spiritual rock which followed them. Paul says that the rock was following the children of Israel. How can we explain this? Could that rock walk? Was it drawn by a wagon? If we ask orthodox theologians today, they may say that Paul is twisting God’s word. Perhaps they would ask Paul, “The rock smitten by Moses was on the mountain, and it remained there after it had been smitten. How can you say that the rock was following them?” The rock is in the same principle as the water which the Israelites drank. As we have said previously, the water was physical, yet as a symbol or picture it denotes the spiritual water. A picture of a tiger does not move, but in reality, the tiger itself moves. In the same way, the rock in the picture does not move, but in God’s eyes, that rock is Christ. “They drank of a spiritual rock which followed them, and the rock was Christ” (1 Cor. 10:4b). As a physical object, the rock could not move, but as Christ, the rock moved and followed the Israelites. Wherever the Israelites went, the rock followed them there. Hallelujah, we are confident that in our midst there is a rock, which is a spiritual rock! When we meet on Jen-Ai Road, this rock is here with us; when we meet in a stadium, this rock is there; when we go to Mount Ali, this rock also goes to the mountaintop. This is a spiritual rock that follows us.
The rock is Christ, and the water, according to our study of the Bible, is the Spirit. The water flowing out of the rock refers to the Spirit flowing out of Christ. Here we have another problem: Orthodox theology teaches that the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit, that Christ is Christ, and that the two are completely separate. But are these two absolutely separate? As we have seen, the Lamb is Christ and the seven eyes of the Lamb are the Spirit. To say that They are absolutely separate, since the Holy Spirit is one and Christ is another, is to remove the eyes from the body, saying, “The eyes are the eyes, and the person is the person.” In principle, this is the doctrine of the Trinity as taught by orthodox traditional theology.