The Jewish Sacraments a Type of Christ
1 Corinthians 10:1-13
Moreover, brothers, I would not that you should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud…


I. THE RESPECTS IN WHICH THE FOOD ON WHICH ISRAEL LIVED TYPIFIED OUR SAVIOUR. The manna to which the apostle refers —

1. Was supernatural. And did not this represent that the food of the soul mast descend from heaven? — that the person of Christ should not be produced in the ordinary course of nature?

2. Sufficed for the whole multitude. So Christ gave Himself for the world, and there is not an individual in the wide family of man for whom provision has not been made in the gospel.

3. Had any disdained it because it was common to all, he must have perished in his pride; had any loathed it because it was the same every day, hunger must have been unappeased. So there is but one mode of salvation for the king and the beggar; and as Christ died equally for the mightiest and the meanest, every man, whatever his station, may eat the bread of life, but none that refuse it can hope to escape eternal death.

4. Was ground in a mill, or broken in a mortar; so ere Christ could become the food of the world, He became a curse, and was pressed down by the weight of God's wrath against sin.

5. Was not to be kept. In this God taught that day by day Israel were to look to Him for a supply of their wants. So in spiritual things. We have no stock in hand; but when the necessity arises we must apply afresh to the Saviour. "As thy day so shall thy strength be."

6. It fell only when Israel were in the wilderness, ceasing as soon as they reached the promised land. So here in the wilderness, knowing but in part, and seeing only through a glass darkly, there are intermediate channels through which we must derive every spiritual blessing; but when we shall have entered the heavenly Canaan, then we shall eat of the corn of the land. and need not sacramental assistance. We shall still feed on Christ, but not through outward ordinances. The veil will have departed, and what need shall we have of instituted symbols?

II. HOW CHRIST WAS TYPIFIED BY THE ROCK WHICH ACCOMPANIED THE PEOPLE THROUGH THEIR WANDERINGS.

1. There is a peculiar fitness in the metaphor, which is frequently employed in Scripture. Christ is the foundation on which the Church is built, "a tried stone, a precious corner-stone, a sure foundation." As Mediator, Christ sustains such a relation to ourselves that upon Him must rest our every hope, whilst He has so discharged that office, that no hope thus based can ever be disappointed.

2. But it is not Christ's resemblance to a rock in general that we are required to trace, but to a particular rock. As this rock yielded no water till it was struck by Moses, so Christ must be smitten ere forgiveness could issue forth to a perishing world. It was by the rod of the lawgiver that the rock was smitten, and by what but by the curse of the law was Christ buried? And then gushed from His body a river which ever since has been rolling along the desert of creation, and it is so abundant that the invitation is, "Whosoever will let him come, and take of the waters of life freely."

(H. Melvill, B.D.)



Parallel Verses
KJV: 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;

WEB: Now I would not have you ignorant, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea;




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