Page 79 - Through New Eyes

72 THROUGH NEW EYES

Trust in the Lord forever, for in God the Lord, we have an
everlasting Rock. (Isaiah 26:4; cf. 30:29; 44:8)

We can summarize what the Bible says about God as our
Rock by taking note of five things. First, the rock points to
strength. A rock is hard and firm, and if it is a large rock, it is
pretty much unbreakable.
Second, God presents Himself as a rock to hide in, a~ortre.rs.
God put Moses in the cleft of a rock to protect him from God’s
consuming glory (Exodus 33: 22); and since this rock is said to be
a place “next to Me ,“ commentators have often associated it with
Jesus Christ, our Protector.
Third, God as Rock points tojudgment. If a large rock falls on
you, you are crushed, and just such a judging rock is God. Jesus
called Himself “the Stone which the builders rejected,” and said
that “every one who falls on that Stone will be broken to pieces;
but on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust” (Luke
20:17-18). Falling on the Stone and being broken is an image of
salvation, but the Stone falling on you is an image of judgment.
Along these lines, we remember that the prescribed method of
execution in the Bible was by stoning (Deuteronomy 13:10, etc.).
Daniel’s vision of world history saw the Kingdom of Christ as a
“stone cut without hands” that would strike and shatter the king-
doms of the world (Daniel 2). In an ambiguous passage, the
saints are said to rejoice when they dash the children of Babylon
against the rock (Psalm 137: 9) — but in the light of Luke 20:18,
does this point to destruction or salvation? Since the Church has
always seen the waters of baptism as waters of judgment unto
salvation, baptismal fonts have often been made of stone.
Fourth, God as our Rock is thejioundation of His house, His
Kingdom. The wise man builds his house on this Rock (Mat-
thew 7:24-25). Christ is chief Cornerstone, and we are all living
stones (Ephesians 2:20; 1 Peter 2:6).
Fifth, a mighty rock gives shade, a picture of God’s provision
and protection. We have seen that God’s glory-cloud gave shade
to Israel in the wilderness (Isaiah 4:6; 25:4). A large shade-
giving rock is like this cloud, in shape and function.
God’s people, as His images, are also like rocks. God is the
Great Rock, and we are little rocks. We have already mentioned