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CHAPTER  8

THE ROD OF GOD

Delivered, Strengthened, Protected,

Empowered, Enabled, Refreshed

and Ruled as Redeemed

Synopsis

	The word 'rod' from a notably consistent usage of the same root in the Hebrew, is found in a diversity of situations: in the case of Moses, from the time of the Exodus vision, commissioning him from God to lead Israel out of  Egypt, to the smiting of the sea to enable the famed Exodus escape, echoed in so many Psalms and sites, to the striking of the rock for water which came in such floods as to feed hundreds of thousands of people in the desert, as needed, so that they in fact kept alive.
	It was also used in the double stroke on the rock when Moses, roused to almost apoplectic anger by the constant fussing and fuming of the people, their lack of faith and their dissatisfied use of food and water as  miraculously and continually given from the Lord.
	The rock - and there is but one for the Lord's people in  all  ages,  (I Corinthians 10, Psalm 62, Isaiah 44:8 , where God Himself declares He knows no other, nor is there any other, and Deuteronomy 32:4-6, for "He is the Rock"),
	this symbol for God, was struck with angry power by Moses.
	Once came the legitimate stroke, though the anger was not so, twice it fell again with the words, "Must we ..."  get water for you.
	God's power was used, but man's name was placed with it. Moses was excluded, not from God, but from the special consummation of personally entering the promised land. Papacies and imposing condescending prelates were once and for all warned (cf. Matthew 23:8-10, cf. SMR pp. 911ff.,1032-1088H)), but there is far more in this.
	THAT SECOND STRIKING has spiritual significance in many ways, and this is the setting for spiritual meditation of no mean significance, for our hearts, one which God having given, it is our responsibility to take up.

ONE ROD WITH MANY FUNCTIONS

BUT ONE MESSAGE

There is a Hebrew word for rod or staff, which is used in Exodus 4:17, when Moses is instructed to take a notably used staff of confirmation as he reasoned with the Lord about being sent back to Egypt. It is also found in Numbers 17, where Moses is instructed to use the consecrated rod from the sanctuary, to smite the rock in order to obtain water, and again the issue arises  in Numbers 20:8, when the repetition of water from rock via a holy rod was in view. Alas as noted in Ch. 4 above, in this last instance, Moses gave a testy testimonial, temper the tenor, and autonomy evidently seeking outlet.

The Hebrew term noted may be translated rod, or staff, and as such, it accordingly has a history back to the call of Moses to his great commission, to lead the children of Israel to the promised land (Exodus 3:16-17). This object, as a mode of display of the divine power, was used to impress Moses that God being with him, he need not fear man, and with him it went by the order of God, "the rod of God" as in Exodus 4:17, to Egypt. With the same style of implement, and possibly the same one, Moses and Aaron went out to engage plague over Egypt (as in Exodus 8). We read in Exodus 9:22-23, we find the Lord commanding Moses to stretch out his hand  in order to cause hail to assail the livestock;  and so he did, and they did.

It is interesting in this regard, that the Lord is STATED to have told Moses to stretch forth his hand toward heaven that there might be hail, and in the obeying of this command, Moses here evidently understood that of course it would follow the divine mandate of the past, and so used the rod, without rebuke,  as normal. This has implications regarding the event of Numbers 20, when he was told to communicate with or address the rock, and he used the rod there also. As noted in Ch. 4 above, there seems nothing at all extraordinary in his use of the rod in that case, this being established procedure. The text in Numbers 20 gives no clue of divine concern at the smiting any more than in Exodus 9; but there was in the former,  far  more than this in terms command as noted and result as observable in Moses' action.

The rod figured greatly. It was a signal to the divine power that protected the people of Israel in this excursion from  Egypt to their own land. When it came to the crossing of the sea to escape the trap of being hemmed in by army and water, as shown in Exodus 3:16-17, Moses is directed to stretch forth his hand with the rod over the sea, in order to divide the waters: so making a maritime pathway, for them to go dry out of Egypt on their way to the land appointed for them, from the days of Abraham (Genesis 12, 17, 22).

It figured greatly with Christ also, Himself the Rock in Person as Messiah (I Corinthians 10:4).  The ROCK which followed them in the wilderness, Paul states, WAS CHRIST. The "chastisement for our peace was upon Him," the prophet Isaiah is divinely inspired to write of the Saviour, the Son of God and of David, by paternal replacement and maternal replenishment (Isaiah 7, 9, 11); and "by His stripes we are healed." WHO are the we ? Whose is the benefit ? Why those who are healed (Isaiah 53:5), these are the "we", and on Him was laid the iniquity of "us" all.

No healing, no laying on Him (cf. Romans 8:32); no faith, no healing; no faith, therefore,  no clearance, and indeed, nothing more than the universal offer to all with great divine cordiality and desire, so that ANY might receive it, and so figure amongst the redeemed, known to God from eternity (Ephesians 1:4). God does not do things by halves; nor by doubles.

What He comands, He does, HIS way. Thus when, as in Numbers 20,  Moses struck the rock twice, it was tantamount to killing Christ twice, which staggeringly, is precisely what is implied in those who fiddle with the faith and find a certain great closeness to the Lord as they parade with facade: but falling in the midst of their confused superficiality, they but taste and do not swallow what is offered (Hebrews 6:1-6, 10:29). Unrepentant experientialists,  they "trample underfoot" the blood of Christ. These are those whose hearts remain hard ground, on which the heavenly seed falling in vain, gives them joy for a season; yet alas when the trials come they have no root! They are spiritual will-o'-the-wisps who flicker, their unregenerate hearts unlit.

The kingdom of heaven and the ransom of the cross ?They treat it as negotiable, parable or intellectual  toy in some other such manner, and fiddling, they fail. A certain fiery prospect thus draws near to them (Hebrews 10:27-30, 12:25-29), to which none would seek to invite them, and from which few would fail to seek to deter them.

Let us return to the symbolic usages of the Exodus, and the time of the crossing of the sea in such notorious style. For that particular incident, since it is water and not rock that is being dealt with,   naturally enough, the rod is  to be stretched out over the sea. Just as it figured in the convincing of Moses to go back to deliver the people from Egypt, through the divine assignment of the same to go with him to Egypt to confront Pharaoh, so it is this instrument which figures prominently in the production of persuasive plague notoriously over Egypt, to render the episode more convincing as to WHO was sending for His people; and again, Moses uses it to stretch out over the sea for escape in short order, when the time is ripe. At least once in every episode, Moses is used; and so is the rod. In each of these instances, the same term for 'rod' is used.

Thus as to Moses, his rod was a commanded equipment for the journey to Egypt as in the exit from that land and the provision of water  to exit from an ugly confrontation with the people, in grumbling mood which later went on to become direct rebellion, as in Numbers 16.

By this time, we are becoming very accustomed to this "rod of God" concept, but in particular to that as a theme in the actual personal life of Moses: a way used to convince him, amongst other things, to go in, a way to call on God to bring them out; and when water and popular enthusiasm threatened alike,  by their absence in both cases, it was the appointed means by which Moses under instruction, STRUCK THE ROCK. We have already considered in Ch. 4 above, the matter of the mode of communication for Moses, in view of all the circumstances, in addressing the rock.  In the disastrous case of Numbers 20, however, the basic point is simple: he used this rod and it was commanded as before, to go with him, and he was this time to communicate with the rock. In fact, he made just  that mode of address used in the past, towards the rock.

The smiting occurred, the water came, but blessing went. Twice! never so instructed, he smote the rock, a fragment of fury in his hand, not a mode of appeal to God. He judged the people rebels and made of himself almost a priest, as if to command God in terms of some appointed mode, adjusting at will any constraint AT HIS ASSURED COMMAND as intermediary. More than this, in so acting he was involved what  appeared  to be autonomous riot. The leader in riot, the people in rebellion; but his was single and short; theirs alas repetitive like a cracked record.

RODS OF PROTECTION AND OF JUDGMENT:

ONE LORD, ONE ROD, ONE RULE

The ROD OF GOD has figured greatly in the Bible. It is with the Shepherd's type of rod and staff that the Lord looks after His personal sheep and with a rod of iron that the Lord will deal with the obstreperously and outrageously rebellious nations, as in Psalm 2. There we find that these,  having thought to murder the Messiah and take over from God and His modes, means and indeed Messiah, in due time inherit wrath for their eternal pertinacity, as if they would live forever with their folly. However this cannot be for the flesh would fail in this flailing, man not being inherently eternal (Isaiah 57:15ff.) in his own power, but merely gifted with the way to be so, through redemption or provided with the residual way to the spiritual tip.

Seeking to destroy the Redeemer is not conducive, therefore to the eternal life with reality and holiness which He alone gives, but in the end, when the Lord having performed his strange and wonderful work (Isaiah 28-29), and brought news of it throughout the earth (as in Isaiah 50-66, Matthew 24, 28), and the world scorns, scoffs,  coughs or sighs,   there is nothing short of disaster. The rod of iron breaks the imperviously impenetrable wills and power-thrills of the hiving nations (Psalm 2:9ff.), and they having no honey, become mere scenes of disaster.

Not with the shepherd's rod, therefore, but with a rod of iron they are smitten; and not with resilient pertinacity do they proceed, but with fragmentation, like broken pottery.

The ROD OF GOD has a long pedigree, has been used in systematic ways, paradigm has entered, power has flowed, challenge has been issued by it, comfort obtained by it, destruction wrought through it and in the end, judgment will be executed, not just as in the former case, on one nation, but on all as they seethe against the Lord as forecast for example in Revelation 19:19.

Obviously, the rod is used as an implement in a practical demonstration lesson to convince Moses, and another very different practical lesson to convince Pharaoh, who was much slower on the uptake, having an axe to grind, or more precisely the 'faces of the poor' to grind according to the custom of many rulers. In this case, it being the face of the people of the Lord whom he was grinding, in his come-uppance, he received the compliment of being used for all coming history to observe, to show several things.

Firstly, if God chooses to specify a people as His own, it is unwise to fight about it with him. 

Ask Hitler! ask Assyria, or Babylon if you can find it in you to interpret the offer by seeking relevant knowledge! In the coming years, you may also, if still free and about, wish to ask the assembly of nations noted in Micah 7 and Ezekiel 38-39, who take it into their heads to have a go as did Pharaoh, to challenge God over the question: Who has ultimate control over the destiny of this people whose future as in Hebrews 11, is most clearly designed for the future, as it was for the past. In the past, it was to prepare the way for the Messiah in the prophets, and for the testimony of truth in the land; and in the future, it is an illustration of a divine mercy so profound that even the oceans seem shallow by comparison in this, that it surpasses all that could be imagined.

In what was does it do so ? How does the Lord striking the aggressive, repressive, annihilatory nations with a rod for their invasive pride, constitute such a signal of inimitable mercy ? It is in this way. This people of Israel were called in grace, given a stupendously interesting and sacred task, their prophets producing the definitive scriptures which told the identification mode for the Messiah, date of death and such testable things. Yet they failed in morals and even in faith, in large measure and often. In the end, it was even THEY, as a nation that is, who joined with Gentiles in the killing of the Messiah.

To be sure, this was a divine strategy of profound wisdom, for if the rulers of this age had known what He was about, we read in I Corinthians 2:5, "they would not have "crucified the Lord of glory." They would presumably not have wanted to start the procedure which would lead to resurrection and the Christian Church and the return of the crucified and resurrected Lord to rule and to judge, including their own machinery of political power!  At all events, they would not have acted as they did. They fell into the love trap, which has some resemblance to the 'parent trap', in this, that it is the love of God which moves many to return to Him, the love here and in this way displayed, just as it is the love of the children which might induce some parents to return to each other.

Thus, to the point, a people called in grace, all but ending as a nation in definitive disgrace and even murder of their own Prince of peace as in Isaiah 9 and 53, dispersed throughout the nations according to covenant as in Leviticus 26, were not only restored to their land, but given the self-same Gospel which the killing of the Prince involved, themselves co-producers of the Gospel core, being murderers, as were the other nations. Many of these sought death,  if not for the Jews, in whole or in part, then for Christians as people,  or of the Gospel grace and truth in their nations, and this, more and more as time has gone on, through mental, cultural, social and educational assault.  ALL have sinned.

Some even crucify Him afresh, says Hebrews 10. Let not the other nations exalt themselves, boast! says Paul in Romans 11! If Israel, being nothing, was given stature, and lost it, being cut out of the tree of faith, then the Gentiles were out of it altogether, and brought in as if grafted into a tree where they had held no place (Ephesians 2:11-13). If Israel went out  for a time because of sin, were not the Gentiles brought in despite sin, by the Gospel ? And if the Gentiles are brought in, is it not to the same grace through faith as awaits likewise the Jews as a people, when in faith many are  foretold to come back to that same Lord whom they crucified (Zechariah 12:10ff.)! And when much of Israel later  does come as foretold (cf. It Bubbles Ch. 10), is it not in the heart of those Gentiles who understand what the Lord is doing, to welcome them (as in Deuteronomy 32:43), and to delight in this predicted fulfilment of a mercy so prodigious that the heart is stirred, the mind startled and the spirit of a person, delighted!

When, then, amid all this, what is to meet the haunters of horror and cruelty, who rejecting the mercy of God and joining with others of like mind, constitute a Gestapo of disgrace, actively seeking to coerce even the elect if possible, into their vicious ways to meet God as a consuming fire rather than a gracious giver ? Revelation 19 leaves us in no doubt, specifying the birds as needing invitation for helping to consume the slaughter resulting from the confrontation! Is this not force ? you may ask. Yes it is, but it has nothing to do with faith, rather being the judgment which results from rejecting mercy obtainable through prodigious cost on the part of God, the end of the road where every available turn-off has been chosen. God however IN so using judgmental power, does deliver His people, whether as in Micah and Ezekiel, or more broadly as in Revelation 19.

If Israel sinned in one way, the Gentile peoples sinned in others, often making use of Christ, just like Israel of old, with their lips, while breaching faith, even sometimes with contempt, in their hearts (Isaiah 1, 29:13). Yet in profound mercy, to the one or to the other, to the end God has made available the Gospel of this Age, than which there is no other, which coming from previous ages, lands in this as the criterion for the conclusion of the whole matter, as in Ephesians 3:10. It is in the "fulness" of times that He completes this profound exercise of compassion; and just as man is trying desperately to flirt with failure, but trying to find some other mode of unity, so God remains immovable. It is He who SHOWS mercy and it is HIS WAY by which He shows it. What! would you insist if bailed out of hideous debt by a benefactor, that you  be paid your way, say in a P.O. Money Order, and not by cheque?

You might, and you might inherit what you deserve with it: nothing. If some men may not be trusted, God is to be trusted, and if we prefer to trust ourselves, it is as if an airplane, gloriously produced, were it able, should insist on trusting its own understanding and capacity, despising its makers; except that if that is a comparative case, this is an infinite one, for such is the disparity between the wisdom of God and that of man!
 

THE ROD AND STAFF WHICH COMFORT

What however of the more salutary, the primary order of work of the rod of God ? or more amply, of that gracious power and delivering dynamic which God is pleased to provide for the human race ?

With Moses, it was an expression of the divine desire to CONFIRM, to EVIDENCE, to  ATTEST to the believer, Moses, that the Lord was active, involved, imperial, available and concerned, compassionate and capable, willing and even eager to fulfil a grand design which He specified. It was to be nothing less than the 'redemption' of an entire nation from an imperial ruffian with no moral accountability, that Egypt which having been blessed inordinately through the Jew, Joseph, had turned on his people, at first welcomed into the land, then at last treated with an acrimonious intolerance, resulting in slavery. This in passing serves to remind us of the work of some European nations, not least Britain, which for its part lost much of its 'greatness' in doing a deplorable work: visiting another nation or continent with the view of

	1) taking people who did not wish to come, to do work without due recompense
	2) holding them on voyages in which many died, in circumstances more than deplorable, and
	3) giving to them at the upper end, a patronising usage, or at the other,  an abusive  misuse so profound, that many animals if given the same quasi-care, might it find exceedingly harsh beyond their norms!

NO TRADITION EXCUSES ANYTHING. It may explain the happening; it does not justify the occurrence. HENCE nations and churches alike need to examine themselves and their ways, not as to whether the elders or pastor or ministers or creatures of State find it palatable, but beyond rule, in morality, whether it is right. It has become common for statistical or even psychological analysis to be used to find out what the people want and then to enshrine this in party platforms or procedures; but where is the VISION which sees, as in the former slavery issue (though not so former in China in effect! in some prisons and factories by a large and extensive body of report), by which a person considers well what he or she is doing ? It is lost in the marble palaces of superannuated comfort ? Is it forgotten in the competitive scramble for seats ? Christian, Wilberforce,  spent much of his life and fortune to implement the vision of removal of this disgraceful  cruelty.

Government ? What do you want a seat for ? for your comfort, for this in continuity as long as possible, for power ? but to do WHAT! Man without vision is like a centipede without legs. He cannot go forward. He is an encumbrance.

DELIVERED,  STRENGTHENED,
PROTECTED, EMPOWERED,
ENABLED, REFRESHED

When however you rule in the fear of the Lord, you are a blessing, as David, high in popularity and treasured, declared after many years of service as King. II Samuel 23 tells us this:

"The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spoke to me:

He who rules over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God,

and he shall be like the light of the morning when the sun rises,

a morning without clouds,

like the tender grass spiring out of the earth, by clear shining after rain."

There the King has a staff which brings comfort as coincident with the rod that rules.

As in Psalm 23, the sheep, led by the quiet waters, the soul of life restored, led in the right paths, finds from the ROD OF GOD comfort, strength, reassurance and respite. The rod is like strength, for while the sheep cannot overturn the sneaky feet of the fox, the rod can, and while the staff cannot debar the wolf, the one who wields it may!

As for Israel with Moses, so with David, the rod and staff bring comfort: that is their dynamic WHEN and BECAUSE, either by commission or by action, by symbol of power or chosen mode of its deployment, it is sent from the Lord. A sea may indeed part; a plague may be brought; water may come from rock, whether metaphorically or literally.  It is the God who does it who is crucial, appointing such items as the  rod of Moses or the Lord's Supper^*1, or the day of atonement, to  represent in a figure, or a reminder, core events that speak of truth and impart wisdom to the naked soul.

As to the application, conditions as hard as rock, hearts as brazen as metal, souls as unyielding as marble may be made to yield, as when Britain banished slavery amid its very profits and traditions! As Abraham Lincoln is reputed to have said - during the American civil  war which led to the liberation of  slaves in due course -   to the authoress of Uncle Tom's Cabin, in effect: Are you the little lady whose words have led to this ?

This of course was evidently said in a honouring fashion. The words of one small and not young had contributed to the stirring of many hearts which would in due course, lead to the relief of thousands tied to horror. But let us return to the actual historic cases with Moses.

To be specific: in the Sea crossing from Egypt, the rod betokened

	strength, deliverance, protection therefore,
	empowerment that the people went as if by air (but the temporarily evacuated sea bed was enough like it to serve!),
	enablement (of escape).

Similarly, the rod used to strike the rock as in Numbers 17, brought refreshment, in the form of vast quantities of water in the desert. These are things symbolised by the ROD OF GOD, and brought literally to be, by its action.

Like the brazen  serpent, it is not as symbol, to be invested in any divine power; it is just that BECAUSE it normalises the interest, compassion, protection, availability and power to act of God, it held the people to a focus which enabled them to see more sedately the strength of their Lord. It was a link by experiences, a testimony by naked power, an exhibit by the direct action of the supernatural God, that myths have no place in real and operational religion; that naturalism is mere myth; that the gods of the heathen are names only; that God is like a Father when by faith found; that He has a covenant, a stated method of relating to man, and intends to keep it; that without regard to this His chosen mode, He is unavailable with any assurance; and that these things being so, man is not without hope or help or redemption on this earth.

He is willing to deliver from worse foes than Egypt ever was, even from sin; and to evacuate from worse plagues than Egypt ever knew, even from death; and that He has a heart to pay for redemption, from sin itself. When therefore the ROD was used against Him, AS REDEEMER in the very act of redeeming, not by mere power, not by supernatural intervention as from afar, but by personal action being very near,  it was the precise point made in the striking of the rock for water. HE would bear the brunt of the regal operation of the rod of judgment, which was and is still to come to the nations, and let us not be impatient for God has ways of His own (II Peter 3:9), UPON HIMSELF FIRST.

There is the crux of all answers to those who are disposed, being mere products of God themselves, to argue the case with Him and virtually accuse Him of lacking their own delicacy and kind-heartedness. Have such people as these borne the sin of others ? have they been crucified for vicarious victory and deliverance to sinners ? Did they come from heaven to inhabit the precincts of hell in love, in order to rescue those who might be rescued ? Where is this heart of theirs!

God INSISTS on letting man made in His image have liberty to seek Him or not; and although sin is a heart-stealing rogue which benumbs the heart and befuddles the head towards God, yet He who knows all, knows His own, where freedom lodges even when man himself becomes confused, and being all-powerful and knowing all, He does not fail to find those who being sought before time, were found in Him before the very gates of creation were opened (Ephesians 1:4). Knowing them, He made sure of them in predestination (Romans 8:29ff.), and loses not one.

The ROD of GOD therefore operated on Himself before on any of us, and the salvation of God was ordered before our very fall as a race (Romans 5).

When the so-exposed nature of sin and iniquity, evil and unbelief (a sort of severance of the umbilical cord before the spiritual baby is born) is therefore preferred to the maturation of the child, and its (new) birth by regeneration by the delivering power of God who blights sin as He blighted the Egyptian army in the sea, the very sea of deliverance which it sought to use for evil, but which He employed for good: then evil grabs. Then it is like one who having the rod at the sea of crossing, curses that rod and abuses its symbolic power, pretending that this is all it has. In so doing, the rod of redemption by the rule of the One on whom that rod was used, that He might die a vicarious death for His people, being despised, the rule of evil is enhanced and the soul savours the stench of death. Very often, this makes it all the more rebellious, as in the case of cut flowers left long in stale water, and  cynicism sets in, as if there were REALLY no flowers, but only old cuttings in stale water. So do they eat the fruit of their own doings, to use the imagery of Proverbs 1.

That is, as they act, so they become; and as they become, if evil, unattractive indeed they are; and if their very eyes become too blood-shot with the despised blood of the sacrifice of Christ, which they cannot see since it is smothering their vision, then they may curse at this, and rant. But it is to no effect. If you do not believe your Maker, or trust the Redeemer, and if you want to tread under foot (that is despise or dismiss as irrelevant or inadequate) the very blood of His sacrifice, then you are as one refusing an operation to remove a tumour from your brain. It grows; you shrink.

THE ROD AS REPRESENTING THOSE RULED AS REDEEMED

When on the other side, one does receive redemption, then one can love the rod of rule. It is not just a measure of majesty or a testimony to power (rather like a sceptre) in that case, but reminds of the use first made upon the Person of the Ruler, before the place could be found by THIS, HIS MEANS as victim, for those to be ruled. No human being, ruled by Him, will ever be found that was not paid FOR by Him,  for the privilege of entry to that self-same kingdom, so that the rule of the Lord comes from the death that gives life, that each one, and all might be ruled. Symbolised  by this self-same rod, it has regality of history for thousands of years, the wisdom of life from eternity and the help of holiness that never varies,  flickers or is subject to extraneous invasion

His rule will finally and so fully banish iniquity that we look for the "spirits of just persons made perfect" (Hebrews 12:23), or complete, and into that city of congregation, no evil is able to enter, nor is there ground or reason for pain or grief, for the former things have then passed away, all testing is concluded and the position of children of God is not only paid for, but accomplished in consummation. We are not so conceived now, merely so born, all over again (John 3, Titus 3:4-7);  but then, being bred, raised and realised among His family, we live with Him as His, where His glory is uniformly relished and His grace consistently felt.

Ah to have government where wit and wisdom, vision and vitality, knowledge, grace, understanding and power, prudence and judiciousness mingle with compassion and pride has neither power nor place! To be so governed is a glory of grace, a testimony of truth, a relish for justice and a dream for compassion, but one where one is yet waking! When I awake, says King David in Psalm 17, "I shall be satisfied in Thy likeness", as I John 3:1ff. echoes.

Praise the Lord, for there is none like Him, eternal, vernal,  vital, vigorous, inventive, transcendental, but so humble as to inhabit even our habitat and the very house of our being, as a man yet without sin, so that we might inhabit His habitat, as children of God, re-invented for eternity by the  final extradition of sin, willingly (cf. Psalm 110).

NOTE

*1

The comparison is not at all so tenuous as might at first sight appear. Thus in each case, the symbol is not at all significant in its own right. It is as a rite that it figures. The one is in one sense, in memory of the call of Moses, the miracles wrought with rod when the Lord first revealed Himself as calling, when he was in another land with another vocation. It reminds also of the confrontation with Pharaoh,  Moses' rod being used for plying Egypt with plagues (cf. Exodus 7:20), while he so stretched it out over the waters,  to call for that deliverance which became the Exodus maritime trip on dry land!

In Exodus 17:5, the rod is related to the previous maritime marvel with the rod, and the mode now was to strike the rock, to gain issuance of vast quantities of water, at once.

In these ways, there was an institution of Rock and of Rod and of their togetherness, explicitly spelled out. Since the symbolism, with the Lord MOST emphatic that He only is the Rock throughout both testaments, is clearly revelatory of the bruised heel Saviour of Genesis 3:15, of the Lord Himself being stricken so that man might be saved: this is an anticipatory symbolism of Calvary to come, just as the Lord's Supper is a retrospective symbolism of Calvary past.

It is not to re-invent it, any more than the rod re-invented the call of Moses, or the crossing of the sea, but to do as the Lord commanded: to constitute a memorial.

It is necessary to note that just as in the prophets, not only is the Lord the only ROCK for His people (Psalm 62, II Samuel 22), but HE KNOWS NO OTHER!  (Isaiah 44:8). In the New Testament, we learn that the Rock which so followed the people of Israel in the desert was CHRIST (I Corinthians 10:4), so that the dual testament testimony is there is one God, one Rock, that Christ in His redeeming power is that Rock, and for man to gain access to God, there is simply no other. Those who affect to know another are posing by implication, therefore as wiser than God. That, in turn, is reminiscent of Ezekiel 29, where the profane prince is said to have "corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendour."