Notice what Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 10:1-4: “Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.”

Here Paul clearly tells us that the God who directly accompanied Israel during the Exodus was the Being who became Jesus Christ. But why did Paul use the unusual term “Rock” to apply to Jesus Christ? Clearly he was pointing to the miracle of water coming from the rock (Numbers 20:11), but notice Moses’ repeated references to God as “the Rock” in Deuteronomy 32:

• “He is the Rock, His work is perfect; for all His ways are justice, a God of truth and without injustice; righteous and upright is He” (Deuteronomy 32:4).

• “He [Jeshurun, another name for Israel] . . . abandoned the God who made him and reject-ed the Rock his Savior” (Deuteronomy 32:15).

• “You deserted the Rock, who fathered you; you forgot the God who gave you birth” (Deuteronomy 32:18).

• “How could one man chase a thousand, or two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, unless the LORD had given them up? For their rock is not like our Rock, as even our enemies concede” (Deuteronomy 32:30-31).

Paul, an expert in the Old Testament Scriptures, seems to have had in mind these and other references to Israel’s “Rock” when he identified Israel’s “Rock” as Jesus Christ.