Moses and Jesus

Last week I wrote about Moses and the snake he grabbed at the burning bush, and now I want to think about the rock that Moses used to get water for Israel in the wilderness. In Exodus 17 God told Moses to strike a rock with his staff (the same staff that was turned into a snake in chapter 4), and when Moses obeyed, water gushed out of the rock. There were an estimated two million people, not to mention animals, in this wilderness caravan, so a substantial amount of water would be needed to satisfy the group. About forty years later God instructed Moses to speak to a rock in order to get more water (Numbers 20), but instead of speaking to it, Moses hit the rock with his staff, but this time he struck it twice. For this act of disobedience Moses was told he would not be able to enter the Promised Land with the rest of Israel, and that Joshua would be his successor.

This seemingly harsh punishment for Moses makes a little more sense when we factor in Paul’s words in I Corinthians 10:4; speaking of those years in the wilderness, the apostle said they “all drank from that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.” We need to think about that rock Moses struck as a picture of Christ. As the Suffering Servant, Jesus needed to be struck, or crucified, only once (Hebrew 9:28); because of that we can speak directly to Him (Hebrews 4:16). Moses misrepresented the Messiah by his actions.

It is actually fitting that Moses was not able to lead Israel into the Promised Land. In that same passage from 1 Corinthians Paul said Israel was “baptized into Moses (v.2),” who was the mediator of the Old Covenant law and its system of works. Jesus became the mediator of a New Covenant (Hebrews 12:4) by His shed blood. Moses is the face of a system of works that cannot save, so he could not have led the nation into the land that is a picture of eternal life with God. His successor, Joshua, was the perfect man for the job; Joshua, after all, means “Jehovah saves,” so he serves as a picture of Jesus, the only way to the Father (John 14:6). Jesus’ Greek name was actually the equivalent of Joshua.

If you are relying on your own goodness to earn you a spot in heaven, you need to instead focus on Jesus, the only one able of taking you to the Promised Land.