“He is the Rock…”

Hallelujah!  It stayed on!  The power, that is.  After being threatened by four hurricanes in six weeks, even the most hurricane-seasoned residents had seen enough.  The reason for the rejoicing about the power is that our power company, having restored power after three storms, officially announced that if our power went down again, it would take 3 weeks — 3 weeks! — to get it back on.  There goes the food in the fridge.  There goes my work, since my office is in my home.  Etc., etc.  So when it flickered twice last night in the latest storm, well, the prayers shot up like bottle rockets.  It came back on every time.  Interestingly, with 4 hurricanes striking Florida in one year — not since 1887 had that happened — they are calling this “the hurricane season from hell”.  And we’re just past the midway point!

I’ve been through a lot of hurricanes, been in the eyes of at least three.  When the eye comes that close, the major damage comes from the backside of the storm.  The winds blow in one direction as the eye approaches.  Then the calm of the eye arrives with its creepy, surreal kind of calm.  You can actually see the eye wall as the wind and rain whip all around you, but not on you.  You are completely surrounded by people who are getting nailed.  Then the backside slams you with winds coming from the opposite direction.  That’s when everything that has been pushed one way suddenly breaks, snaps or tears apart.  It’s nature’s one-two punch.

Which brings us to the focus, the Rock, quite a common description all throughout Scripture.  The first time we see the word is in Exodus 17 when the newly liberated Israelites were on their way to Sinai.  Running out of water in the desert had them parched pretty good, so they were ready to lynch Moses — well, technically stone him (v. 4).  God told Moses to stand next to “the rock of Horeb” with some of the elders (v. 5).  On command, Moses strikes the rock and it does something unusual.  It gives them what they need — water.  Water doesn’t naturally come from rocks, especially after smacking them.  How many times has that happened for you?

Moses and the Jewish people were getting an initiation into object lessons and the use of illustrative metaphors, so rich in the Hebrew Scriptures.  God said, “I will stand before you by the rock…” (v. 6), the first such link that he would make with the hard, flinty material.  It was at the end of Moses’ life that he wrote, “I will proclaim the name of the Lord.  Oh, praise the greatness of our God!  He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just.  A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he” (Deuteronomy 32:3-4).  Moses’ initiation had turned into one experience after another conclusively demonstrating that God indeed was his Rock — strong, stable, an anchor in the storm, unmovable and unshakable.  This early object lesson had taken root in his heart.  Ditto with David (Psalm 18:2 among many), Isaiah (8:14) and Paul (I Corinthians 10:4).

While I can’t prove that this idiom comes directly from Scripture, it probably is drawn from it.  Frequently we’ll say someone who is cornered by a big difficulty and has no apparent solution is “stuck between a rock and a hard place”.  That applies to the thirsty Israelites who were surrounded by a stifling desert.  Notice again what God told Moses: I will stand before you by the rock, which Paul said was Christ.  Do you see what’s going on when you are stuck between a rock (the Rock!) and a hard place?  God uses the hard places in our lives to press us up against the Rock.  He uses them to draw us close to him.  As the water came from the rock to quench their thirst, so life’s solutions pour from the Rock to deepen our knowledge of him.  Notice what the Israelites said before God answered their need: “Is the Lord among us or not?” (v. 7).  There was real doubt in their minds — the plagues of Egypt notwithstanding — that he was still with them.  After all, that was then, back there, in Egypt.  Here they were now, in the desert, apparently all alone, with no resources in sight.  Was he still with them?  How would they know?  He was, of course, and he knew they needed to have his presence reaffirmed.  Thus, the hard place in the desert for them.  Thus the hard places for us.

All they had to do was look at the rock.  Has God brought you to some hard places lately?  Been through any hurricanes recently?  Are you looking to the Rock?