ATTRIBUTES OF GOD - INTRO 4
The solidity of the God of the Bible called
forth the figurative expression, "Rock,"
to depict His absoluteness. By means of this image-bearing word, God is placed
as an absolute. Elsewhere He is referred to as the "God of truth" [Amen-Heb.], meaning firm, stable,
absolute (Isa. 65:16; Rev. 3:14).
Even in that day, the darkened intellects of men and the pagan reasoning of
false religion ran in the area of the relative. An ever shifting and changing
evaluation produced frustration and despair. But for the children of Israel and
the saints of the Church there was a Rock, an Absolute which imparted its
solidity, its stability, its sturdiness, its strength to all other areas of
reality. The pagans beholding this people in their worship and behavior had to
admit that "their rock is not as our
Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges" (Deut. 32:31).
The moral qualities of God as a Rock, solid,
stable, sturdy, strong, are sounded forth in the praises of the saints. Moses
proclaims His performance perfect, "for
all his ways are justice: A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, Just and
right is He" (Deut. 32:4 ASV).
In parenthood as a Rock, God provided for all that Israel needed (Deut. 32:15, 18). In demonstrations of
power for Israel as a Rock, God came to the defense of Israel (Deut. 32:30-31). And upon numerous
occasions the protection of the Rock was experienced by the nation of Israel (2 Sam. 22:2-3, 30-33, 47; Psa. 62:2, 6, 7).
Without a
doubt the constant reference to God as the Rock of salvation means more than
just physical and material deliverance. In many of these instances it rises to
heights of spiritual deliverance from sin. In the song of Moses, the lawgiver
was concerned about Israel as begotten and made by God, and in return lightly
esteemed by Israel (Deut. 32:15, 18).
David, in many of the Psalms, ascends to the point of his spiritual
relationship with the Lord when he makes reference to God as a Rock (Psa. 28:1; 62:2, 6, 7).
When Moses
made reference to God as the Rock in his song, we do not learn until we reach
the New Testament that that Rock was Christ (1 Cor. 10:4).
But Isaiah
does point forward to a coming king who will reign in righteousness, who will
be to the people "as the shadow of a
great rock in a weary land" (Isa.
32:1-2). This one is the rock upon which the Church will be built (Matt.16:18), and the rock foundation
upon which lives may be erected (Matt.
7:24, 25; 1 Cor. 3:10-11). Christ is a stone of stumbling and a rock of
offense to the unbelieving (Rom. 9:33; 1
Pet. 2:8), but to those who come to Him in faith, He imparts to them the
qualities of character found in the Rock, as for instance in the case of Peter
(John 1:42).
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