1 Cor 10:4 And did all drink the same spiritual drink for they drank of the spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.
In this verse, the Greek word for rock is petra, G4073 and collates to the Hebrew word סלע, H5553 which used in the Septuagint for petra. If we just begin to look at the verses that this word סלע is used in we immediately see the truth of 1 Corinthians 10:4:
Numbers 20:8 Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly together, thou and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the סלע before their eyes; and it shall bring forth to them water out of the סלע so thou shalt give to the congregation and their beasts drink Numbers 20:10 And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the סלע and he said unto them, Hear now, ye rebels must we fetch you water out of this סלה 11 And Moses lifted up his hand and with his rod he smote the סלע twice: and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts also.
It’s easy to see from the full passage in 1 Corinthians 10 that this is exactly what is being referenced. Let’s look at the full passage in 1 Corinthians 10 which is about the wilderness:
1 Cor 10:1-6 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 were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; And did all eat the same spiritual meat; And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of the spiritual סלע that followed (G190 a road, in the same way with, accompany) them: and that סלע was Christ. But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted.
1 Corinthians 10 is speaking of this exact time in Numbers chapter 20. Yeshua said living water would flow from us if we drink from Him.
37 In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. 38 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. 39 (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.) John 7
I want to show you the other verses in the Old Testament where סלע is used. It’s really very eye opening that King David uses this word many times in the Psalms.
Ps 31:1-3 In thee, O יהוה do I put my trust; let me never be ashamed: deliver me in thy righteousness. Bow down thine ear to me; deliver me speedily: be thou my strong זור (cliff, rock or boulder, refuge), for a house of defence to save me. For thou are my סלע and my fortress;
זור is such a word picture to me. I will only touch on it briefly. A place in a cliff, Moses was placed in the clift of the rock and covered with a hand. David hid in a place in a cliff, I’ve been to Eiyn Gedi and seen this location. Sheep are placed in caves in the field at night and a rock wall or corral is built around the mouth of the cave and the shepherd guards them there at night. Israelis hid in caves on the steep rock bluffs of Mount Arbel here in the Galilee during the Great Jewish War, they also fought from these locations and held the Roman enemy at bay for several months. The Essences were in bluff caves at the Dead Sea, they lived and survived there for about 300 years. Israel is well aware of these bluffs or places of refuge and the safety of them. I see all of this in my mind when I read this Psalm.
King David said the יהוה is the סלע. Yet the book of 1 Corinthians says that the Messiah Yeshua is the סלע. If we humans relegate Yeshua to only the pages of the New Testament we miss the truth in these two references. Many people will accept 1 Corinthians 10 as saying that Yeshua is the סלע in the wilderness, but they stumble on Yeshua also being יהוה.
Let’s go on with Psalms:
Ps 40:1-2 I waited patiently for יהוה, and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon סלע and established my goings.
Ps 42:9 I will say unto אל (El) my סלע, Why hast thou forgotten me? Why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?
Here the Psalmist is speaking to El. El אל is the root of Elohim אלוהים. The most important thing I can tell you about Elohim is that from an etymological perspective Elohim is a masculine plural word. Many will tell you lots of reasons that my statement is not true, but if we included that patterns that we are given and add it to the etymology of the words then the true is unmistakable. From a purely etymological perspective El is the singular version of Elohim. Who would this single El be other than Yeshua Messiah the סלע? In Revelation it is written:
I Yeshua have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star. Revelation 22:6
Ps 71:1 In thee, יהוה, do I put my trust: let me never be put to confusion. Deliver me in thy righteousness, and cause me to escape: incline thine ear unto me, and save me. Be thou my strong habitation, whereunto I may continually resort: thou hast given commandment to save me; for thou art my סלע and my fortress. Deliver me, אלהים (Elohim), out of the hand of the wicked, out of the hand of the unrighteous and cruel man. For thou are my hope יהוה אדני (Adonai Yehovah or my lord Yehovah): thou art my trust from my youth.
Ps 78:13 He divided the sea, and caused them to pass through, and he made the waters to stand as an heap. In the daytime also he led them with a cloud, and all the night with a light of fire. He clave the זור in the wilderness, and gave them drink out of the great depths. He brought streams also out of the סלה and caused waters to run down like rivers.
I believe that Psalms 78 is what Paul was touching on in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 and what Yeshua is reference in the passage of John chpater 7 that is given in a previous paragraph here. Psalm 78 is a good read and overview of what happened to the nation of Israel. But it is quite evident that King David understood the that Yeshua El was the Rock in the wilderness and that the Elohim are the Fathers, of Malachi 4:
Mal 4:6 And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.
Luke 1:17 And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.
Seeing Yeshua as part of the Elohim is not hard to find in scripture:
John 1:1-5 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,( אלהים, Elohim who are the Fathers) and the Word was God, (אלהים, Elohim who are the Fathers). The same was in the beginning with God, (אלהים, Elohim who are the Fathers). All things were made by him Yeshua); and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him (Yeshua) was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light (Yeshua; Gen 1:3-5) shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not 14 And the Word (Yeshua) was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
You will notice that I have crossed out the word ‘with’ in this passage. I crossed it out for one simple reason. The Hebrew word behind the with is את, et. Et does not mean ‘with’. עם, im is the Hebrew word for ‘with’; in Greek, it is ‘meta’. The Greek word that is used in this verse is ‘pros’ meaning: forward to, pertaining to, by the side of, destination. Simply saidthe way the King James version is written is a near miss because et is a connector and not a stand alone word. When et is said or written alone it means nothing. Without this knowledge the verses in John 1 become muddled and it is hard to see the truth behind them.
The Hebrew New Testament reads like this:
In the beginning was the Word and the Word was the Elohim and Elohim was the Word. v2 He was in the beginning the Elohim.
Let’s take this now to Genesis which is really the reference verse for John 1.
This term ‘in the beginning’ that we read in John 1 is said: בראשית, b’resheet or in English: Genesis and John 1 is referring to Genesis 1:1,2:
In the beginning אלהים, (Elohim who are the Fathers of creation), created את the heavens and את the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the רוח, Spirit of אלהים, (Elohim who are the Fathers of creation), (their Holy Spirit), moved upon the face of the earth.
Here again is our connector word. את, Et is connecting ‘created’ to ‘the heavens and the earth’. But look who was creating: Elohim, the Fathers of creation. Moreover, the verse says that it was their Holy Spirit that moved on the face of the earth.
Isa 45:18 For thus saith the יהוה that created the heavens; אלוהים (Elohim is are the Fathers) himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the הוה; and there is none else.
We do have a biblical pattern of being descended from multiple fathers. To see it I will take you to two of the early patriarchs: Abraham and Isaac. Both Abraham and Isaac claimed to have married their sisters. Abraham said twice that Sarah was his sister, once to the pharaoh in Egypt and once to Abimelech king of Gerar. Later on, Isaac tells the same king, Abimelech king of the Gerar, that Rebekah is his sister.
Let’s begin to untangle this and to do so I want to start with Isaac. Isaac’s father was Abraham, Abraham’s father was Terah. Rebekah’s father was Bethuel, Bethuel’s father was Nahor (Abraham’s brother), Nahor’s father was Terah. Terah was the common father that Isaac and Rebekah shared. This type of thinking is not seen much outside of the Middle East, but grandfather or grandpa is a fairly new word to Hebrew.
When we look at Abraham we see that he had two brothers: Nahor and Haran. In Gen 1:26 we are told that Haran died before his father Terah. We are also told that Lot was born to Haran. Yet we see Lot journeying with Abraham until Lot went to Sodom and Gomorrah. We also see in Gen 20:12 Abraham tells Abimelech that Sarah is the daughter of his father but not his mother. I personally do not think that Sarah was Abraham’s half sister. I think our clue is that Haran’s son Lot stayed with Abraham as a kinsman redeemer and we see further evidence of this when Abraham rescued Lot from the four kings, Amraphel of Babylonia, Arioch of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer of Elam, and Tidal of Goiim. I want to suggest to you that Abraham’s brother Haran had a different mother than Abraham’s mother. And that Haran’s children were Sarah and Lot. Which would make Abraham being the oldest son born to Terah the kinsman redeemer who took Sarah for his wife and Lot as his son. In our modern understanding, we would say that Sarah was Abraham’s half niece.
Can you show another place where the oldest was the kinsman redeemer? Yes. In Ruth chapter three Boaz says these words to Ruth:
And now it is true that I am thy near kinsman: howbeit there is a kinsman nearer than I. Ruth 3:12
In Luke 20:27-40 the Sadducees either know of or create a senario where a widow marries seven brothers and yet there is no child born in the name of her original husband.
29 There were therefore seven brethren: and the first (brother) took a wife, and died without children. 30 And the second (brother) took her to wife, and he died childless. 31 And the third (brother) took her; and in like manner the seven(th brother) also: and they left no children, and died. 32 Last of all the woman died also. Luke 20
All of this points to Sarah’s father was Haran and Haran’s father was Terah. So that Abraham and Sarah shared a common father whose name was Terah, but they did not have a common mother.
Nine verses in the New Testament say ‘our Father Abraham’ in speaking to the believers in the New Testament: Mat 3:9, Luk 1:73, Luk 3:8, Joh 8:39, Joh 8:53, Acts 7:2, Rom 4:1, Rom 4:12, Jas 2:21.
I went through this long discourse to show you that the idea of more than one father is not a foreign concept in the Middle East. It’s not a foreign concept in the pages of the bible either. Today we still call Abraham our father, both the Jew and the Arab. In the western world, grandfather, grandpa, granddad has become an independant title that distances us from the understanding a grand is still our father, dad or pa.
One When I think of the first time that the water gushed out of the Rock in the wilderness we see that the Rock split, that which was whole became two, and water gushed out from the deep as a river. This certainly is a symbol of what was to come.
Psalms 2 says:
6 Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. 7 I will declare the decree: the יהוה hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.
The book of Hebrews is referring to Psalms 2 when it says:
Heb 1:5 For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son?
This understanding gives new meaning when the Psalmist says in Psalms 110:1:
יהוה said unto אדון (Lord), Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies they footstool.
In light of our two Fathers and One of them being born of a woman, a descendant of David we can see that the rod of strength out of Zion in the next verse of Psalm 110:2 was none other than Yeshua the Messiah, the Word of Elohim, made flesh. I believe this is the verse that Paul is referring to when he said in 1 C or 15:25-28:
25 For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him. And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God (אלהום, Elohim) may be all in all.
A very good companion read for this bible study is The Head Covering of 1 Corinthians 11 because it will fill in the missing spaces in your understanding for this next statement I am going to make:
Just as Elohim took Yeshua from an aspect of Himself, just as Eve was taken from a side or aspect of Adam, so was the Bride of the Messiah born from the side of the Yeshua when they pierced Him at His crucifixion.
Just as Yehovah and Yeshua will become the Elohim, an ‘all in all’ expression again, so it was said of the man and women at creation: ‘they shall be one flesh’. And so it will be for us, the lively stones of the Temple of the Holy Spirit, we will come together make up the heavenly temple, we will be the ‘one new man’ that Paul spoke about.
1 Peter 2:5 Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
2 Cor 5:1, 2 For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven:
Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; Ephesian 2:15