4 Ways the Wilderness Rock Foreshadowed Christ

The following is from Matthew Poole's commentary, edited and modernized.

Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea … and did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.

1 Corinthians 10:1-4

For, the apostle says, that rock was Christ; that is, that rock did signify or prefigure Christ; the rock was Christ in the same sense that the bread in the Lord’s supper is the body of Christ, that is, a sign which, by Divine institution, signified Christ.

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For the analogy between the rock and Christ, theologians make it to lie in these particulars:

1. That Christ is the firm and unmovable foundation of his church, called therefore a stone, a tried stone (Isa. 28:16; Rom. 9:33; 1Pe. 2:6).
2. As this rock sent out no water for the refreshment of the Israelites until Moses had struck it, so all the benefit we have from Christ as Mediator flows from him as smitten of God, and afflicted.
3. As the water of the rock served both for cleansing and upholding life in satisfying thirst, so the blood of Christ is useful to the soul, both for washing from the guilt of sin, and the upholding spiritual life in a soul.
4. As the rock that followed the Israelites afforded water not only to that generation that was alive and present when the rock was smitten, but to all the succeeding generations, until the Israelites came into Canaan, so the blood of Christ is useful not only to his people in this or that place or age, but to all who shall believe in him, and that until they shall come into the heavenly Canaan.