Ex. 17:5-6
5 The Lord answered Moses, ‘Go out in front of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go.
6 I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.’ So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel.

Num. 20:7-8
7 The Lord said to Moses,
8 ‘Take the staff, and you and your brother Aaron gather the assembly together. Speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water. You will bring water out of the rock for the community so that they and their livestock can drink.’

Drinking of water from the rock by the Israelites, in Exodus 17, was a type of the early rain of the Holy Spirit.It took place on the first Feast of Shavuot (Pentecost). After wandering in the desert for thirty-nine years, the Israelites drank water from the rock once again; a type of the latter rain of the Holy Spirit. The latter drinking of water from the rock happened not long after the first month of the ancient Hebrew calendar and it must have been during a Feast of Shavuot.

In comparing the two episodes of Israelites drinking water from the rock, we can see that God commanded a paradigm shift in the second episode. In the first episode, Moses was instructed to strike the rock with his staff; whereas in the second episode, Moses was instructed to speak to the rock. Moses failure to implement the paradigm shift disqualified him and Aron from leading the Israelites into the Promised Land.

How do we interpret this paradigm shift in the New Testament?