The wreath of thorns, the scarlet robe, the nails, the cross, the spear, and even the vinegar offered him in his agony, were all according to his Father’s counsel. He knew the necessity, and said—“Thy will be done!” The Shepherd of Israel would bow under no other stroke than that of the Lord of Hosts. A cradle, a cross, and a grave, all of his Father’s appointing, must Jesus have, in order to open a fountain of living water to the world. The rock must be smitten in a public manner, in the sight of the sun, and before all the elders of Israel, that God might be sanctified in the eyes of his people. This was intended to foreshadow the publicity of the death of Christ, which took place during one of the great public festivals of the Jews, in the presence of nearly the whole nation, and on the hill Calvary; and to denote the proclamation of Christ crucified throughout the world, as the true propitiation and object of faith, to be looked upon by Jews and Gentiles, to the softening of the heart, and the flowing of repentant tears, according to the prophecy—“They shall look on him whom they have pierced, and mourn for him, as one mourneth for an only son.” The Spirit of grace directs the eyes of men to the cross, upon which the prophet Isaiah, with transcendent sublimity of language, describes the Saviour as passing from Calvary to the grave, from the grave to the empyrean, and thence back again to earth, crying—“Look unto me, and be ye saved, all ye ends of the earth; for I am God, and beside me there is no Savior!” The rock must be smitten in the presence of God. “Behold, I will stand before thee there on the rock in Horeb.” (Ex. xvii. 6.) He stood upon the rock in Horeb, though invisible, in the glory of his loving-kindness and his power, to guide the hand of his servant Moses, and open a source of timely succor to his perishing people. But when the rod of the law smote the Rock of our salvation, when the curse fell upon the sinner’s Substitute and Surety, then God stood forth before the world upon the rock of Calvary, amid the darkened heavens, the trembling earth, and the opening sepulchres, as if all the machinery of nature had been suddenly disordered and disorganized—stood forth in the plenitude of his power, his wisdom, his justice, his mercy, and his truth, to prosper the work of man’s redemption, and open a channel through which the river of life might flow out to a famishing race. On Calvary still he stands, with the cup of salvation in his hand, and streams of living water rolling at his feet, and cries—“Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters!”