The Rock – Bible Study

THE ROCK

What does the Bible mean when it uses the word “rock”?

This study is an invitation to see the whole picture, not a handful of familiar verses, but the pattern underneath them. Some of it will confirm what you already sense about God. Some of it may not. Find out why, of everything He could have compared Himself to, this is the one He chose.

THE ROCK’S CHARACTER

The Hebrew word behind “rock” in these verses is tsur, a massive cliff or boulder, the kind ancient Israel actually climbed into for safety from enemies and weather. It is the Bible’s natural choice of image for a God whose character cannot be moved or worn down.

Deuteronomy 32:4
The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he.

Psalm 92:15
to declare that the LORD is upright; he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.

Isaiah 26:4
Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD GOD is an everlasting rock.

Malachi 3:6
For I the LORD do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.

Have you been looking for that same kind of unshakable reliability in something other than God, a job, a relationship, your own performance? How has that gone?

THE ROCK’S PROVISION

Deuteronomy 32:13
He made him ride on the high places of the land, and he ate the produce of the field, and he suckled him with honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock.

NOTE: Flinty rock translates a different Hebrew word here, challamish, meaning flint, the hardest stone known in the ancient world. The image intensifies mid-verse, from a general rock to the least likely source of oil imaginable.

Exodus 17:6
Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink. And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel.

Psalm 78:15-16
He split rocks in the wilderness and gave them drink abundantly as from the deep. He made streams come out of the rock and caused waters to flow down like rivers.

NOTE: Rocks in verse 15 translates tsur. Rock in verse 16 shifts to sela, a craggy cliff

John 7:37-38
On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, “Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”’

These verses describe provision coming from the least likely place, oil from flint, water from stone. Where in your life right now does provision feel impossible rather than simply delayed?

FORGETTING THE ROCK

Deuteronomy 32:15
But Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked; you grew fat, stout, and sleek; then he forsook God who made him and scoffed at the Rock of his salvation.

Deuteronomy 32:18
You were unmindful of the Rock that bore you, and you forgot the God who gave you birth.

Isaiah 17:10
For you have forgotten the God of your salvation and have not remembered the Rock of your refuge; therefore, though you plant pleasant plants and sow the vine-branch of a stranger.

Numbers 20:10-12
Then Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, “Hear now, you rebels: shall we bring water for you out of this rock?” And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his staff twice, and water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their livestock. And the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not believe in me, to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.’”

NOTE: The rock here translates a different Hebrew word, sela, the same word from Psalm 78:16.

1 Corinthians 10:1-13
For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, ‘The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.’ We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

NOTE: Rock here translates the Greek word petra, a large mass of rock or bedrock.

Why do you think comfort, more than hardship, is often what makes people forget the Rock?

THE TRUE ROCK

Deuteronomy 32:30-31
How could one have chased a thousand, and two have put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, and the LORD had given them up? For their rock is not as our Rock; our enemies are by themselves.

Deuteronomy 32:37-38
Then he will say, ‘Where are their gods, the rock in which they took refuge, who ate the fat of their sacrifices and drank the wine of their drink offering? Let them rise up and help you; let them be your protection!’

1 Samuel 2:2
There is none holy like the LORD: for there is none besides you; there is no rock like our God.

Isaiah 44:8
Fear not, nor be afraid; have I not told you from of old and declared it? And you are my witnesses! Is there a God besides me? There is no Rock; I know not any.

What are the rocks people around you take refuge in that cannot actually rise up and help when trouble comes?

BUILDING ON THE ROCK

Isaiah 28:16
therefore thus says the Lord GOD, ‘Behold, I am the one who has laid as a foundation in Zion, a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation: Whoever believes will not be in haste.’

NOTE: Stone here translates the Hebrew word even, the ordinary word for a building stone, not tsur or sela.

1 Peter 2:4-8
As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”  So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,” and “A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.” They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.

NOTE: Stone in verses 4 through 7 translates lithos, the Greek equivalent of even. Rock of offense in verse 8 shifts to petra, the same word already used for Christ in 1 Corinthians 10:4

Matthew 16:18
And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

NOTE: Peter translates Petros, and this rock translates petra, the bedrock word again. Catholic tradition reads the rock as Peter himself. The historic Protestant reading holds it is either Peter’s confession the verse before, or Christ himself, with Peter as one stone built on that foundation.

Matthew 7:24-27
Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.

NOTE: Rock here is petra again

What is one thing in your life right now, a habit, a relationship, a decision, that is currently built on sand rather than rock?

REFLECTING ON THE ROCK

Psalm 18:1-6
¹ I love you, O LORD, my strength.
² The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
³ I call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies.
⁴ The cords of death encompassed me; the torrents of destruction assailed me;
⁵ the cords of Sheol entangled me; the snares of death confronted me.
⁶ In my distress I called upon the LORD; to my God I cried for help. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears.

Psalm 18:30-32
³⁰ This God—his way is perfect; the word of the LORD proves true; he is a shield for all those who take refuge in him.
³¹ For who is God, but the LORD? And who is a rock, except our God?—
³² the God who equipped me with strength and made my way blameless.

This study opened with a promise about God’s character in Deuteronomy 32:4 and closes here with David saying that same promise held true in his own life. Where are you still waiting to say the same thing?

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.