Every time the Bible uses a rock as a type, who does it always refer to?
The rock as a type consistently refers to Christ. Paul makes this plain when he explains that the rock from which Israel drank was Christ. It is always Christ in typical language, never deviating, whether in Exodus, Numbers, Daniel, or Matthew.
Les explains that Paul goes back to Israel’s wilderness experience, where the people cried for water and Moses, by God’s instruction, struck the rock, and water came out. Paul makes it plain in chapter 10 that the rock was Christ. Les emphasizes that all through Scripture, from the beginning of the Old Testament to the end, whenever there is a typical reference to the rock, the rock is Christ—none other, and it never deviates. Whether in Exodus when the rock was struck, or in Numbers when Moses was supposed to speak to it but struck it, the rock is still Christ. In Daniel chapter 2, the rock cut out without hands that strikes the image on its feet pictures the Second Coming of Christ as a smiting stone. In Matthew, after Peter’s confession, the Lord says flesh and blood did not reveal it but the Father in heaven did; Peter means a stone, but upon this rock—capital R-O-C-K—speaking of Himself, upon Christ, He would found the Church. So all through Scripture, the rock is always Christ in typical language.