What Does Exodus 17:6 Mean?

"Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink." And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. The "I will stand before you on the rock" is the Rephidim miracle's most remarkable theological element: YHWH stands on the rock before Moses strikes it. The rock from which water flows is rather than rock: it is YHWH-standing-on rock. The water that comes out comes from beneath YHWH's feet, as it were, from the rock where the divine presence stands.

Paul's interpretation in 1 Corinthians 10:4 makes this identification explicit: "for they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ." Paul identifies the Rephidim rock with Christ. YHWH standing on the rock before Moses strikes it is the pre-incarnate Christ providing life-giving water to Israel in the wilderness. Every subsequent drinking from the Rephidim water is drinking from the provision that YHWH-standing-on-the-rock gives. The rock is the wilderness's Christological crux.

"Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel": the witnessed execution is the compliance formula: Moses did exactly as YHWH commanded, before the elders who are the community's witnesses. The water from the rock is not a private miracle but a publicly witnessed covenant provision: the elders who watched will be the testimony-bearers to the community. The pattern of YHWH-commands / Moses-executes / elders-witness will govern the Sinai covenant's formation as well: what the community cannot directly witness, the elders attend as representatives.