Rock of Ages

This morning, I was preparing for a home Bible study that I host every other week. We study a hymn at each meeting and this week we will be studying ‘Rock of Ages’.

However, as I glanced at the discussion questions in the book I was using, I began to feel disappointed. The book seemed to say that the ‘Rock’ in ‘Rock of Ages’ was symbolic of the safety and solidarity that Jesus provides to us, which I do agree with. While He is, indeed, our refuge and provides everything we need according to His perfectly just will, I felt that there had to be even more to ‘Rock of Ages’. After all, it’s a song rich with Gospel imagery.

As I often do, I opened the concordance of my Bible. I looked up ‘rock’. and scanned the list of occurrences. That led me to the passage where God allows Moses to see some of His glory, but hides him in the crevice of a rock to keep him from seeing His face. God had to do this because Moses, being human, was unrighteous and anything unrighteous cannot exist in God’s immediate presence - it will disintegrate. In the same way, Jesus was our Rock that was cleft(broken) for us, so that God could hide our sin in the resulting crevice. This allows believers to experience God’s glory in their lives and, most amazingly, allows believers to be living, breathing dwelling places for the Holy Spirit.

Not only does God provide for our physical needs, but he also provides for our spiritual needs including the biggest spiritual need of all. Because of the Father’s sacrifice of His Son, the gift of God’s presence and love will never leave those who accept this salvation and continually aim to follow the Lord. Romans 8:38-39 says: “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”