Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.
Ver. 6. Upon the rock.] If God had not stood upon the rock, in vain had Moses struck it. Means must be used, but God only depended upon for success. It is he alone that sets the rock abroaeh.
Thou shalt smite the rock.] Herein a type of Christ "stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted." Isaiah 53:4 1Co 10:4
And there shall come water out of it.] Not fire - that had not been so miraculous - but water. This "cleaving the" hard "rock," Psa 78:15 this "turning of the flint into a fountain," Psa 114:8 was a work of Onmipoteney, and is therefore much celebrated. Deu 8:15 Psa 105:41 Neh 9:15 Dioseorides tells us of the stone Galactites, quod succum emittat lacteum, that it yields a kind of moisture like milk: which, if it "be true, is very strange.
That the people may drink.] And so be cooled and comforted in their weariness and wanderings. "Ho, every one that thirsteth," &c. Isa 55:1