All the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of Sin by stages, according to the commandment of the LORD, and camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, "Give us water to drink." And Moses said to them, "Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the LORD?" But the people thirsted there for water, and the people grumbled against Moses and said, "Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?" So Moses cried to the LORD, "What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me." And the LORD said to Moses, "Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 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. And he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the quarreling of the people of Israel, and because they tested the LORD by saying, "Is the LORD among us or not?"
Exodus 17:1-7
The miracle itself, by which water was made to gush out of the smitten rock, was wonderful enough in itself, apart from any significance it could have had for Israel. It underlines of course the sheer grace of God, in making such a bountiful provision in face of the bitter murmuring of the people; but it does more. It teaches a 'sacramental' lesson, in the same sense that, although the water from the rock quenched their physical thirst, it also was a spiritual experience to them, being the material symbol of a spiritual reality behind it. Paul makes this very clear in his interpretation of the passage in 1 Corinthians 10 'that Rock was Christ'. The smitten Rock speaks of a crucified Saviour whose wounds are the healing of the nations. It is perhaps significant that it should be in the Corinthian epistle that Paul should make mention of this story, for the Corinthians were the counterpart in New Testament times of Israel in the Old, with their murmuring against their God-appointed leader and their carnal desires and attitudes. And what Moses did in symbol with Israel we see actually fulfilled in Paul's dealings with the Corinthians, for he confronted them with the Cross and challenged them to allow its disciplines to touch the deep places in their lives. There is little doubt that the real need of both the Corinthians and the Israelites was to allow the ploughshare of the Cross to go deep into their carnal hearts, to slay the carnality and self-will there. The spirit of murmuring can be done away only by crucifixion, and the association of living water with the Cross reminds us that real blessing in spiritual life is not known apart from it.