The Rock Smitten: Blessings from Unlikely Sources

When Yahweh commanded Moses to smite the rock at Horeb, He demonstrated a principle woven throughout human history: His greatest mercies flow from the most unlikely sources.

Consider the secular realm. Demosthenes, a stammerer, became Athens' greatest orator. Homer and Milton, both blind, composed immortal epics. Shakespeare, son of a butcher, revolutionized drama. Temperance societies, asylums, and institutions for human welfare have sprung from humble origins. Political liberty itself—won through Moses and Luther—emerged from unexpected quarters.

Yet the spiritual department reveals this principle still more powerfully. The Deliverer of humanity came as a babe in a manger, carpenter's son, man of sorrows, malefactor on a cross. Saint Paul wrote: "This rock is Christ." The rock's value mirrors Christ's threefold work: the blessings emanating from Him are most needed and most adequate; the method of securing blessing required the rock's smitten state, as redemption required His sacrifice; and the unlikelihood of the source—a mere stone—magnifies the miracle.

The first preachers were poor fishermen. Carey was a shoemaker; Williams, a blacksmith; Moffat, a gardener. Hiacoomes, an early Indian convert prepared by Mr. Mayhew in 1743, faced opposition from Paw-Waws and Sachems, yet testified: "I had one hand for injuries and another hand for God; while I received wrong with the one, I laid the faster hold on God with the other."