GOD IS THE ROCK
by Jan Magiera

Have you ever felt like fleeing and did not know where you could go? What could you do? Do circumstances or life in general ever threaten to overwhelm you? There is an answer. You can flee to the Rock.

Deuteronomy 32:3,4:
Because I will publish the name of the Lord: ascribe ye greatness unto our God.
He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.
God is the Rock. This is from the Old Testament showing His relationship to Israel, but as the Rock, God has not changed.

Malachi 3:6a says: "For I am the Lord, I change not." So He is a Rock for us also. How is God a rock and what does He provide?
Psalm 18:2:
The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.
The Hebrew word for rock is zur and means "a rocky wall, a cliff". It is a sharp precipice with clefts and overhangs. The Hebrew word for trust in Psalm 18:2, chasah, is very often associated with the rock. Trust means "to flee for refuge". The rock offers security and refuge; it is a place to flee for safety. God is being compared to a rocky mountain with sharp cliffs and overhangs. A person can go and sit under these cliffs and be protected from the elements and be safe. The rock represents God taking care of us. We can trust Him and go to Him as a refuge in any situation. This picture of God as a Rock is the same as to flee for refuge in the "shadow of his wings" in the next verse.
Psalm 61:2-4:
From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I.
For thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy.
I will abide in thy tabernacle for ever: I will trust (chasah) in the covert of thy wings. Selah.
In the Old Testament, there are four major things which come out of the Rock: water, fire, oil and honey. Understanding what these things represent will show how God is a refuge. He has provided these things for us also and so we, too, can trust Him day by day to continue to pour them out. In the Bible, water represents life and salvation. When the children of Israel were in the wilderness and had no water, God told Moses to strike the rock and water poured forth. Without the water, the people would have perished in the wilderness (Exodus 17). This was physical water, but the rock also represented God's promise to Israel that He would send the Messiah and they would have salvation. Physical water sustained physical life in this particular instance. But it was also a "type" that God would sustain and nourish His people by sending the Messiah.

John 14:4:
But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.
Jesus Christ was the source of living water to Israel. By him, God gave eternal life, not only to Israel, but to us, too, when we confess him as our savior.
John 7:37,38:
In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.
He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
God as our source of refuge has provided eternal life in Christ by way of the spirit. This spirit is life quickening and gives us wholeness or salvation. This is what water represents, complete salvation, particularly eternal life.
The second thing that comes out of the Rock is fire. In Judges 6 when the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon to call him out to take care of the Mideanites, Gideon asked for a sign to show that he had found grace in God's sight. The angel told him to take flesh and cakes and lay them on a rock.
Judges 6:21:
Then the angel of the Lord put forth the end of the staff that was in his hand, and touched the flesh and the unleavened cakes; and there rose up fire out of the rock (zur), and consumed the flesh and the unleavened cakes. Then the angel of the Lord departed out of his sight.
In the Bible, fire represents judgment and can be either positive or negative. The fire burning up the cakes was positive judgment showing to Gideon that God accepted him and his offering. Later in chapter 7, Gideon built an altar there and called it Jehovah-Shalom or "the Lord (gives) peace". Peace is always a result of God's acceptance.
Fire has come out of the Rock to us also and God has judged us lovely and acceptable in his sight (Ephesians 1:6). His acceptance includes providing us with all the sonship rights including justification, righteousness, redemption, sanctification. Because of these, we have peace and rest. We can manifest this peace by trusting - fleeing for refuge - to the Rock, where God continues to provide true security and comfort in Christ Jesus.
Fire also represents protection and defense. In the wilderness, the pillar of fire by night was God showing Israel that He would defend and protect them. There are many verses, especially in the Psalms, which explain how God as the Rock will protect His people.

Psalm 71:1,3:
In thee, O Lord, do I put my trust (chasah): let me never be put to confusion.
Be thou my strong habitation (lit. my rock of habitation), whereunto I may continually resort: thou hast given commandment to save me; for thou are my rock and my fortress.
When we flee for refuge to God as the Rock, we will never be put to confusion or ashamed. This reminds one of the literal according to usage of Romans 10:11: "whosoever believes on him will never be disappointed in his expectations." We need never be ashamed because God has made us righteous and is our constant caretaker and provider.
The third thing that comes out of the Rock is oil. In the Bible, oil represents prosperity and abundance. In Old Testament times oil came primarily from the olive trees and when the harvest was abundant, this meant great prosperity. Olives were a primary source of food, medicine and income. Job was one of the most prosperous men recorded in the Old Testament. He acknowledged that the Rock had poured to him "rivers of oil".
Job 29:5,6:
When the Almighty was yet with me, when my children were about me; When I washed my steps with butter, and the rock poured me out rivers of oil;
Acknowledging God's grace as the source of all prosperity, we too can abound today. God has given us all sufficiency in Christ Jesus.
II Corinthians 9:8:
And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work:
Oil was also used to anoint and sanctify. The anointing oil is described in Exodus 30:22-25 and was used to anoint the altar and the things of the tabernacle and to set apart the priests as ministers.
Exodus 30:29:
And thou shalt sanctify them, that they may be most holy: whatsoever toucheth them shall be holy.
Oil was used in the meal offerings and wave offerings. Leviticus 14 delineates what had to be done on the day of the cleansing of a leper and specified the use of the oil.
Leviticus 14:18:
And the remnant of the oil that is in the priest's hand he shall pour upon the head of him that is to be cleansed: and the priest shall make an atonement for him before the Lord.
The priest made atonement for the leper with the oil. Atonement means reconciliation, being brought back to God. We also have that reconciliation and peace from being cleansed from all our sins.
Romans 5:1,11:
Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:
And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.
The fourth thing that comes out of the rock is honey, which is closely related to oil.
Deuteronomy 32:12,13:
So the Lord alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him.
He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields; and he made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock;
Honey represents all that is sweet in life, for example, gladness and rejoicing, and all that brings satisfaction. Prosperity would definitely be linked with this.
Psalm 81:16:
He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat: and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee.
The greatest satisfaction in life that brings gladness and rejoicing comes from knowing and finding the wisdom of God and understanding from His Word.
Proverbs 3:13,17:
Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding.
Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.
Today we have the greatest wisdom available - the greatest source of joy and gladness - the wisdom of the mystery.
I Corinthians 2:6,7:
Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought:
But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:
This wisdom is unfolded in the Church epistles addressed to us about who we are in Christ. What honey and sweetness lies therein for the born-again believer!
In conclusion, we have seen that God as the Rock has not changed. What God provided for Israel, He continues to provide for us today: water or eternal life and wholeness, the fire of acceptance and righteousness and care, the oil of having all our needs supplied abundantly and cleansing of our sins and the sweetness of the wisdom of the Word. God truly has not changed! When we flee for refuge to the Rock, we will never be ashamed or disappointed. There is no circumstance or situation in life that will not be covered!
Isaiah 26:3,4:
Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. Trust ye in the Lord for ever: for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength:
The words for "everlasting strength" is verse 4 are literally, the rock (zur) of ages. God is the Rock and He has given all to us in Christ Jesus.