Moses, the Rock, and Christ in the Wilderness

[00:00:00]What did C.S. Lewis mean by the phrase God in the dock?

[00:00:05]And how does that relate to Moses striking the rock in the wilderness and water flows?

[00:00:13]And why does Paul say and the rock was Christ?

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[00:01:18]All right. Well, as we continue to look at types and shadows, typology, we come to this great passage uh that Paul says and the rock was Christ speaking of the rock that was struck in the wilderness.

[00:01:38]For they all drank from the spiritual same spiritual rock that followed them and the rock was Christ. And this part of 1 Corinthians 10 is talking about the Exodus. It talks about all eating the spiritual food, that being the manna, uh all being in the presence of the cloud and the pillar of fire. And these things are examples. As a matter of fact, that section in 1 Corinthians 10, in two places, is calls these things as examples for us.

[00:02:08]1 Corinthians 10:6 and verse 11. But, the word that we have in English translated examples is actually the word that we transliterate to get the word types.

[00:02:19]It's tipoi or tupos.

[00:02:22]Types for us.

[00:02:25]You know, we've talked about types and shadows from the book of Hebrews and from the book of Romans and here in 1 Corinthians it's telling us that these things are for us examples, but really types.

[00:02:38]And the word in the Greek actually comes from a word that means like to stamp an impression.

[00:02:46]You could even think of like typeface in the original typewriters.

[00:02:51]Typewriters would punch those letters in metal into into ink and then onto paper and those were called movable type in uh the printing press. So, that's where we get uh this word for types. It's something that represents another thing. It's an example. It's a metaphor. It's an analogy.

[00:03:14]And so, you have that uh going on and Paul tells us again, For they all drank from the spirit same spiritual rock that followed them and the rock was Christ.

[00:03:27]Now, what does it have to do with God in the Dock and C.S. Lewis? So, I I mentioned that earlier. Here's a quote from his book on essays. The book is entitled God in the Dock, Essays in Theology and Ethics.

[00:03:42]And in this he says he he writes this.

[00:03:45]So, in this one essay that becomes the title of the of the book that is the collection of essays, it says this. The ancient man approached God or even the gods as the accused person approaching his judge."

[00:03:59]For the modern man, the roles are quite reversed. He is the judge. Modern man is the judge and God is in the dock. And in British jurisprudence, the dock is the place where the accused sits.

[00:04:12]So, in other words, God is in the dock.

[00:04:13]God is in the position of the accused, not the position of the judge. He's in the position of the one being judged.

[00:04:22]It says he is quite a kindly judge. If God should have a reasonable defense for being the God who permits war, poverty, and disease, he is ready to listen to it. The trial may even end in God's acquittal, but the important thing is that man is on the bench and God is in the dock.

[00:04:41]Now, that's a great analogy. I I disagree with one thing C.S. Lewis is saying there. Where he says, "The ancient man approached God or the gods as the accused person approaches his judge."

[00:04:53]And so, Lewis is is implying that man understood his place underneath the gods. And certainly I understand what he's saying, that we are in this period and he's writing in this period of modernity. You know, I know we're in a post-modern world now, but this period of modernity where we uh barely believe in God as as society in Western civilization. And if we do, he he is subject to us and not the other way around. But what we see in in the story in the wilderness is God in the dock.

[00:05:26]In the striking of the rock.

[00:05:29]Which means this has always been in the heart of man.

[00:05:34]That we place God in judgment under us.

[00:05:40]Adam does this in the garden, does he not?

[00:05:44]"That woman that you gave me." He blames God. He judges God for his sin.

[00:05:50]Now, to the specific story of the rock being struck, what you have going on there, as I'm toggling screens, in Exodus chapter 17, and then this is is is chapter 17 verse 6 is the main focus, but chapter 17 basically have the people grumbling and quarreling in the wilderness. And they're they're angry at Moses because they have no water to drink. And they'd already been through this, by the way, earlier in in Exodus, a few chapters before, where they come to the bitter waters that the Lord purifies for them when they were thirsty. Well, here they're thirsty again. It's as if they forget about that, or they don't really care. Moses says, "Why are you angry with me? You're really angry with God." And God says to Moses says to God, "What What am I going to do with this people?

[00:06:49]They're ready to stone me," he says.

[00:06:52]And I don't know if there's a wordplay going on there with them wanting to stone Moses, and then God striking a stone and bringing water.

[00:07:00]But God says something to our modern ears that we don't even really hear. But he tells Moses, "Assemble the people, and I will stand before them."

[00:07:12]Now, we just read right over that. And honestly, we're used to having our leaders stand in subjection to us. But in the ancient world, that would never be. And this maybe goes to C.S. Lewis's point. Like, a people stand before the sovereign. The sovereign doesn't stand before the people.

[00:07:30]The language is such that those become assembled underneath, and they are before the sovereign, the more important one, the ruler, the one in authority.

[00:07:41]But God says he will stand before the people. In other words, God here is permitting, for some weird reason, that his people will stand in judgment of him.

[00:07:53]Verse 6 says this, "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."

[00:08:09]And so, you know, we have to really picture the the scene. So, God says, "I'm placing myself in the in the dock, in the place of judgment, not the the one who's judging, but the one who's being judged, and you will render judgment. You will swing that staff and strike where I'm standing.

[00:08:32]Judge me.

[00:08:33]And from that, water will flow."

[00:08:37]And as I've already said, Paul says, "And the rock was Christ."

[00:08:43]And so, that makes so much sense then of what you see in uh John's gospel, and there's so much water imagery in John's gospel, and we've already uh talked about in a former episode a little bit, uh the well, and the living water there, but let's grab that right slide. John 7:37 and 38. This is at the Feast of Tabernacles. In the Feast of Tabernacles, the imagery that the people would be seeing that is like exaggerated and overdone is that of lights, and not of water. And Jesus stands up at the festival, and he says, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water." It then goes on to say he's speaking of the Holy Spirit, which he had not yet given, because he had not yet been glorified.

[00:09:39]Now, we think of Christ glorified in his ascension, so his resurrection and his ascension, but for John's gospel, Christ is more glorified as he is high and lifted up on the cross. We talked about that in a former episode. And so, the cross is where God is judged.

[00:10:00]Is where God is struck. Christ is struck on the cross. As a matter of fact, Christ even uses this language. He goes, "Haven't you read that the shepherd will be struck and the sheep scattered?" And so, they're kind of conflating the metaphors, I know, mix mixed metaphors there between him being the shepherd and the shepherd being struck and then the rock being struck and there's just layers upon layers, but but the point is on the cross, God is in the dock. Humanity is judging God and he somehow in his providence allows it. Not in the wickedness, again, think back to to Joseph, you know, you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. Or in the book of Acts, Peter says that this God whom you crucified according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of of God.

[00:10:48]And so, all of that is is there and and a part of it, but as Christ is is struck, God is judged. He takes the judgment for the people's grumbling.

[00:11:02]He takes the judgment for you you and me.

[00:11:06]And I think that's why it's so significant that when the the soldier then pierces his side with that spear and blood and water flow, it's it's a picture of the rock being struck and water flowing.

[00:11:20]And then we are sustained. We are we are given life.

[00:11:25]That's just a beautiful picture that we hear about. I mean, there's so many imagery and so much imagery in the Bible about Christ being the rock. He's the stone that the builders rejected. He's the cornerstone and in some sense he's the capstone. He's the firm foundation on which we stand.

[00:11:40]All these things, but in the analogy of and the type of the rock of the wilderness where God emblematically stands there. Moses strikes the place of God in judgment and water flows that feed the people. You have a picture of the cross of Jesus Christ that he takes the penalty and the judgment for our sins and from that he gives us the gift of the spirit which gives us life.

[00:12:06]Water indeed is life-giving.

[00:12:09]And you know, I think to conclude this as we think about judging God. Like we all do this. We all do this by implication. We all do it subconsciously. It it always starts with you know, us not being happy with how God is superintending various things in our lives and we get angry. And while we don't actualize that on God, at the end of the day, that's who we're angry with.

[00:12:36]And yet we have such a loving God that for God so loved the world, he gave his only son that for whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. And then later in John's gospel, Jesus says I came to give life and life abundantly, Zoe.

[00:12:50]Life. Overflowing life.

[00:12:55]The rivers and streams will never fail that flow from Christ cuz he is the God who lives and he lives in us.

[00:13:03]I'm George Sayour for the EM Network.

[00:13:05]Thanks for watching again.

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