“Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock in Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink” (Exodus 17:6 NKJV).

The people of Israel complained of thirst, threatening to stone Moses for leading them into the desert. Moses brought their complaint to the Lord and the Lord answered. God told Moses to take his rod and some of the elders with him as witnesses, and to strike the rock at Horeb, and water sufficient for the people would come forth. Moses obeyed the Lord. Some have tried to estimate the amount of water it would have taken to quench the thirst of so vast a people with all of their flocks. Suffice it to say, the water would have had to gush forth like a great fountain to have met everyone’s need. The apostle Paul wrote that this “Rock was Christ” (1 Cor. 10:4). In other words, the rock was a Spiritual Rock, a Christological Type, pointing to its fulfillment in Jesus. For He was “struck” for us that living water unto eternal life might pour forth to those who believed. The Israelites had their thirst quenched by the waters from the rock at Horeb that day. Yet, their thirst returned the next day. But those who have drunk from the Spiritual Rock, which is Christ, will thirst no more. For Christ has said, “Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:14).