Read it: Genesis 49:1 & 49:22-26
Live it:
Here, we find Jacob on his deathbed giving his sons what he called their final blessing for their future (I’m not sure I’d like some of those provisions from my parents in their last will and testament).
In verse 24 Jacob attributes a new name for Yahweh: “the Rock of Israel.” By this time, Jacob had begun to think of a rock as being significant. In Genesis 28:12, he had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. In Genesis 31:13, God said, “I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and where you made a vow to me. Now leave this land at once and go back to your native land.” And later in Genesis 31:45-50, we read about a rock to establish the covenant between him and Laban, later called the Mizpah Blessing.
In Exodus 17:6, God tells Moses, ‘I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.’ Moses obeys, and water flows from the rock in the sight of the elders of Israel. Later, in Numbers 20:11, Moses again strikes a rock, this time in frustration, rather than speaking to it as God had commanded. This disobedience cost Moses his entrance into the Promised Land.
In Exodus 17:6, God tells Moses, ‘I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.’ Moses obeys, and water flows from the rock in the sight of the elders of Israel. Later, in Numbers 20:11, Moses again strikes a rock, this time in frustration, rather than speaking to it as God had commanded. This disobedience cost Moses his entrance into the Promised Land (Numbers 20:8-12).
In Paul’s letter to the Corinthians (1 C.10:1-4) he equates that Rock with Jesus Christ, and all of them drank the same spiritual water. They drank from the spiritual rock that traveled with them, and that rock was Christ.
David calls Him “my rock” several times in the Psalms: 18:2, 31 & 46; 19:14; 28:1; 62:6; 78:35 and 92:15.
Ps. Gary