In the endeavor to express their understanding of God, inspired writers have employed a variety of figures explaining spiritual truths by comparison with objects and experiences which are familiar and easily understood. Like many another Scriptural metaphor, the symbol of the rock contains opposite illustrations, according to whether the spiritual or the material standpoint is exemplified. This word is well adapted to contrary application; for, among the definitions of its merely physical aspects, "rock" is described as a firm and immovable foundation or support, a source of strength or protection, a defense, and also as that on which one may be wrecked. In her interpretation of the Scriptural use of the word "rock," as given in the Glossary to "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 593), Mrs. Eddy elucidates the opposite meanings of the word: she however, wrests the sense of foundation from all materiality, and definitely recognizes but one foundation,—that is, the spiritual. Whatever rests not on that base is the perverse and obdurate belief in materiality. Thus, in Scriptural allegory, "rock" shadows forth the warfare between Spirit and the flesh, the real and the unreal, substance and illusion.
The Biblical writers lived in a mountainous region, a land of many rocks. This feature constituted part of the strength of the country; for in times of danger the people retired to the crags and found refuge against sudden invasions of the enemy. That the Israelites recognized their location in such a territory as the result of divine direction and protection is shown in many texts. Moses sings of the people's entrance upon the high places of the earth, where they were made "to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock." Out of low-lying Egypt, subject to inundations they came, guided by their understanding of the one God; and they found their place in Canaan, a country of great fertility, the hills of which were laden with vines and olive trees, and in whose rocks the bees stored ample hoard of honey. Whenever they turned to the one true God as the only power, they found that their human needs were met and that limitation was not in God's plan.
When the people were encamped at Rephidim and were famishing for water, the divine instruction came to Moses to smite the rock, that water might issue therefrom and the people drink. Among the twelve tribes of Israel. Moses, of the tribe of Levi, stands as the great expositor of the divine law. As a result of this single leader's sublime faith in God as the foundation of all being, his faith in the exclusive reality and power of spiritual law, the waters gushed out of the rock abundantly to supply the need of a multitude. The utilization of the true idea of spiritual power in this difficult human circumstance proved, not only in that specific instance but for all time and conditions, that the understanding of the operation of divine Principle is equal to any exigency.
