
THAT rock was Christ. In the Divine thought the position of Moses, first on the  rock, and afterward in its cleft, was a moving emblem of the position in which  alone we can dare to look out on the sublime progress of God's glory.
God  is always passing by. - In the great movements of history which evolve His  plans, and are leading to Christ's advent; in the passage of the ages, which are  His swift chariots; in storm and catastrophe, which break up old forces and  forms of evil; in the goodness of His daily mercy; in the revelation of His  character - we are always living in the very midst of God's presence and  power.
In our condition of weakness and sinfulness we need a position of  stability and shelter from which to look on God. - No man can see that face of  awful holiness and love and live. Sir John Herschel says that when sweeping the  heavens with his telescope the brilliant Sirius suddenly burst on his view, he  nearly fainted. Who then could behold God! But in Jesus, we are stable,  established in Him, accepted in the Beloved; and in Him we are covered. The full  blaze of the Divine glory is tempered to our gaze; it comes to us through the  medium of the pierced hand. We stand on the rock; we are hidden under the  covering hand.
Our Rock was cleft. - How scarred are the great Alps!  Their sides have been split by the action of tempest, avalanche, earthquake,  frost, and glacier. Hence their clefts. But who shall enumerate all that has  been borne by our dear Lord for us! What storms have pelted on Him, that we  might have a safe hiding. On Calvary, a niche was hollowed in which a world of  sinners may take shelter!