Stomping Out the Rock Juice
God gave manna to His people every morning as with the dew on the ground and Paul called it “spiritual food” (1 Corinthians 10:3) because it came from God directly rather than through natural channels. God gave water to His people from a rock and Paul called it “spiritual drink” (verse 4) also because it bypassed the expected means. You don’t typically stomp on rocks in a big bucket to get the rock juice out.
God also gives spiritual food to His people today at the Lord’s Table. In our case, it is bread baked in someone’s kitchen from known and grown ingredients. But it is spiritual because the food does something for our souls as well as our stomachs. When we eat by faith as well as by teeth, God feeds us on another level. The same is true of the spiritual drink here at the Table. It also is produced by human means. The grapes have been sown and harvested and crushed and fermented and bottled and transported and poured. But it is spiritual because an eternal craving is being quenched, not just a physical thirst.
And all of it can be taken for granted if we’re not careful. None of it, of itself, keeps us from taking what is a gift and turning it into an entitlement for more; His grace brought us to a beautiful peak, but we could focus on the peak further away that we couldn’t even see until now. We become calloused to the graciousness of God to us, and we either look for different blessings or additional blessings that He hasn’t promised to us. Let us not crave other than communion. May Christ and His people be our greatest gratification.