Rock of Ages, Cleft for me...

You might recognize the title as the old hymn..."Rock of Ages, cleft for me...let me hide myself in Thee..." As with many of the old hymns I grew up with, as an adult I realize there are words in them that I have sung over and over and have no clue what they mean! So when I began to sing this song a while ago, the word cleft kept jumping out at me. I decided to spend some time studying it and was deeply moved by what the Lord showed me.
Exodus 33:22  "When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by." A quick check revealed cleft is a noun meaning hole, but it's root is naqar, which is a verb with the following definitions:
In Exodus

Brown-Driver-Briggs' Definition

1. to split, cleave, break open, divide, break through, rip up, break up, tear
   1. (Qal)
      1. to cleave, cleave open
      2. to break through, break into
   2. (Niphal)
      1. to be cleft, be rent open, be split open
      2. to be broken into
   3. (Piel)
      1. to cleave, cut to pieces, rend open
      2. to break through, break down
   4. (Pual)
      1. to be ripped open, be torn open
      2. to be rent
      3. to be broken into
   5. (Hiphil)
      1. to break into
      2. to break through
   6. (Hophal) to be broken into
   7. (Hithpael) to burst (themselves) open, cleave asunder 
   
   That day on the mountain with God, Moses was hidden in the space that had been created as a result of the rock being split open, rent, forcefully cut. As this began to sink in and I began to see some things. Christ is very often referred to as the Rock in scripture. Christ was cleft, split open by force for us. His body was ripped open, and it is in this cleft that I am hidden, in this split open space. When I enter into Christ, I enter into a space created by brute force. Surrounded on all sides, hiding in this cleft, I am not just reminded of an event that occurred, I am abiding in the reality of what happened. My place of abiding is a place created by great suffering, suffering that affords not just my salvation, but CONSTANT safety, and provides me the opportunity to be in God's presence. Grace is not cheap, beloved. Sin has a cost...a cost that Christ paid dearly for. The gravity of this cost is meant to be a grounding thing for us. I can just imagine, the body of Christ before me, split and torn open, and the Father pointing to Him saying, "You need to step inside here. This is your safe place. This is your place of abiding."  Can you imagine physically stepping into that body pierced, beaten, flesh ripped open? What would it do to our understanding of sin and grace? I don't want to be reminded of that all the time. I want to think about it on Good Friday and that's about it. But to be in Christ, is to live in a place where that reality is not something we just visit once in a while. It was the very act of Him being split open that created a space for me, for us. His resurrected body bears the holes in his hands and feet for all of eternity. I believe this message is important in a day and age where often sin is looked at as no big deal. Just ask for forgiveness, and wallah it's nothing more than a memory! In a day and age where often times the church is compromising morality in order to not turn people away...claiming the standards are just too high and people can't and don't want to accept those, and yet we still think we can offer them Christ? But, look at what sin did to our Saviour! He is a physical picture of the absolute and total destruction and death that sin will reap now in the spiritual and in our relationships. Yes, He is compassionate, and will easily and readily forgive, and has grace for us, but let us not forget how the cleft was formed as we receive this forgiveness and grace.