The Metaphor of the Rock

TORAH

Deuteronomy 32:1-52

HAFTORAH

2 Samuel 22:1-51

B’RIT HADASHAH

Ro. 10:14-21; 12:14-21; Heb. 12:28-29

In Deut. 32:3, Moses says he will proclaim God’s name and immediately gives it to us in v. 4. In the Bible the name of a person, place, thing or idea often describes some essential quality of the named. Yeshua received His name because God intended Him to be the saviour of His people. Yeshua is a variant of the name Joshua (Yehoshuah in Hebrew) meaning “Yah (God) saves.” Jesus is the English rendering of the Greek Iesous (which itself is a phonetic transliteration from the Hebrew, and in Greek has no intrinsic meaning).

In our parsha, Moses calls God “the Rock.” While this is the name of God in this particular passage, it is not the only name of God in Scripture. (God’s “personal” name is the tetragrammaton, Y-H-V-H variously pronounced Jehovah, Yahveh (Yahweh) or Ye’hovah.

However, in this passage, Moses is giving God a name that is descriptive of His immanence or His nature as creation proclaims it (Psalm 19:1; Rom. 1:20). It occurs here nine times, interspersed with other natural descriptive names such as father and eagle.

God is the Rock of the OT (Numbers 20:8-11; 1 Sam. 2:2; 2 Sam. 22:2; Psalm 18:2; Isa. 8:13-15 etc.) as well as the NT (e.g. Matt. 7:24-25). In Numbers 20:8-11 God uses the water-providing rock as a metaphor for Himself. He—as the rock at Meribah-kadesh—gave life-sustaining, living waters to His people, “Take the staff, and assemble the congregation, you and Aaron your brother, and tell the rock before their eyes to yield its water. So you shall bring water out of the rock for them and give drink to the congregation and their cattle.” And Moses took the staff from before the Lord, as he commanded him. Then Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, ‘Hear now, you rebels: shall we bring water for you out of this rock?’ And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his staff twice, and water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their livestock.” See also Deut. 32:51.

This rock in the wilderness is symbolic of God’s abundant faithfulness and of He as the provider of even the most basic of human needs.

In the same way, Christ compared Himself to the life-giving water of the rock in the wilderness, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water” (John 4:10). By comparing Himself to the rock, Yeshua is making Himself co-equal with the God who brought the people out from Egypt.

In one controversial passage, Christ says, “’Who do people say that the Son of Man is?’ And they said, ‘Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’ He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Simon Peter replied, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ And Jesus answered him, ^‘Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hades shall not prevail against it” (Matt. 16:13b-18).

In this passage, Yeshua says of Peter that he is a pebble—a small stone, (Gk. Petra)—that is, Peter had a tiny portion of the kingdom (because of Peter’s answer to Christ in 16:16), and that Christ would build His Church (Ekklesia) on this mighty rock, (Gk. Petros)—referring to Himself. (See also Dan. 2:34, 35b; Matt. 7:24-25.)

And just to ensure there is no misunderstanding, the apostle Paul says of Christ, “and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the [spiritual] Rock was Christ” (1 Cor. 10:4).

But just as Moses has been warning the Israelites that there will be curses as well as blessings, (e.g. Deut. 30:19) so God once again warns them through Paul that for His obedient children, the rock will be a blessing and source of abundance, strength and joy, but for all those who reject Him, the rock will be a “stone of stumbling and a rock of offence” (Rom. 9:33).

Some there are who will not find Christ’s yoke to be burdensome. Even as Moses told the people, “For this commandment that I command you today is not too hard for you, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend to heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it” (Deut. 30:11-14).

But those who are not His—that is, all who will be found unregenerate, whose names are not written in the book of life—will stumble against Christ and will be scandalized and made ashamed by Him. And all they that fall on the stone of Christ as King of the Universe will be “broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him” (Matt. 21:44). To which group—there are only two—do you belong?

God's Compassion in the Face of Sin Repented

TORAH

• Deut. 31:1-29

HAFTORAH

• Hos. 14:1-9
• Micah 7:18-20
• Joel 2:15-27

The necessity for regular reading of the Scripture (the book of the law) is described many times in both the OT and the NT. It is found here, in Parsha Vayalech, (Deut. 31:9-13), as well as in Joshua 8:33-35. The consequences of not knowing God's Word is made evident in such passages as 2 Kings 22:8-13,18-19.

In that passage, we see that King Josiah realizes his predicament and its consequence. His response is to humble himself, to tear his clothes in contrition and to weep in sorrow. Without a regular reading and study of God’s Word, we will inevitably fall away into deeper and deeper sin.

 

God is omniscient and knows His people would always turn away from Him if left to themselves. There are two intertwined themes in the Bible:

·         First, the sinfulness of man and His inability to be obedient to God’s commands and decrees and

·         Second, the quickness of God’s forgiveness of the repentant sinner. God’s gracious forgiveness is made plain from our Haftorah reading from Micah 7:18-20 “Who is a God like You, Who forgives iniquity and passes over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He does not maintain His anger forever, for He desires loving-kindness. He shall return and grant us compassion; He shall hide our iniquities, and You shall cast into the depths of the sea all their sins. You shall give the truth of Jacob, the loving-kindness of Abraham, which You swore to our forefathers from days of yore.”  This idea is reinforced compellingly in passages such as Joel 2:12-13.

Nevertheless, God makes it plain that sin must be paid for, that sinners must be brought into reconciliation with God.

God will not forgive everyone who sins but only the repentant. It is the quality of repentance (seen in the passage about Josiah in 2 Kings) that determines if one is of God’s remnant. We all turn to our own ways; we are in our hearts depraved in the sense that we put ourselves above God, both from fear and pride.
 

The remnant is repentant. But what is repentance? It is a posture or bearing characterized by spiritual sorrow for sin as well as humility and contrition in the presence of God. (Joel 2:12-13.) Repentance is not righteousness; it is not being a “good” person. Repentance is recognition of an agreement with God’s perfect righteousness and our own inability to be commensurately righteous. How does repentance arise? It arises because of God’s merciful benevolence toward those who do not deserve such benevolence but through grace are brought to a state of deep sorrow and shame for their own unrighteousness by the working of the Holy Spirit, “Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged” (John 16:7-11).

We get a wonderful glimpse of true repentance from King David after he had sinned with Bathsheba.

Read (or better yet sing) Psalm 51