Holly Bible - KJV with Concise Commentaries by Z Selam - HTML preview
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2. Upon Christ's grace: That rock was Christ, 1Co 10:4. The graces and comforts of the Spirit are compared to rivers of living water, Joh 7:38,39,Joh 4:14. These flow from Christ, who is the rock smitten by the law of Moses, for he was made under the law. Nothing will supply the needs, and satisfy the desires, of a soul, but water out of this rock, this fountain opened. The pleasures of sense are puddle-water; spiritual delights are rock-water, so pure, so clear, so refreshing--rivers of pleasure.
6 Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and
thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.
7 And he called the name of the place Massah [temptation], and
Meribah [chiding or strife], because of the chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the Lord, saying, Is the Lord among us, or not?
A new name was, upon this occasion, given to the place, preserving the remembrance, not of the mercy of their supply (the water that followed them was sufficient to do that), but of the sin of their murmuring--Massah, temptation, because they tempted God; Meribah, strife, because they chid with Moses, Ex 17:7. There was thus a remembrance kept of sin, both for the disgrace of the sinners themselves (sin leaves a blot upon the name) and for warning to their seed to take heed of sinning after the similitude of their transgression.
War with Amalek
We have here the story of the war with Amalek, which, we may suppose, was the first that was recorded in the book of the wars of the Lord, Nu 21:14. Amalek was the first of the nations that Israel fought with, Nu 24:20. Observe,