(1 Corinthians) Christ the Rock — Brian Brodersen

Christ as the Spiritual Rock in 1 Corinthians

Looking today at just a few verses in the 10th chapter, verses 1 through 4, Paul says, Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the Red Sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, all ate the same spiritual food and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ.

Let's have just a quick word of prayer. Lord, we pray now as we consider the significance of this reference to Christ, our rock. Lord, we pray that we would be encouraged today. Lord, we thank you that you are the rock of our salvation.

We thank you for all that that signifies, and we pray when we leave here today, we would leave here on a firmer foundation. Lord, understanding more fully the significance of you being our rock. In your name we pray.

So here Paul makes reference to the experience of the children of Israel as they made their journey from Egypt to the Promised Land. And what I do want to draw your attention to today is the specific reference to the rock, which Paul says was symbolic of Christ.

Now, Paul is alluding to an event in the history of the children of Israel. That event is recorded back in the 17th chapter of the book of Exodus. The children of Israel, as you remember, they had gone down into Egypt and they had become slaves in Egypt, and they were there in bondage some 400 years.

And then at the appointed time, God sent Moses to be their deliverer. And through a process of events, God bringing his judgment upon the Egyptians. The Israelites were finally led out of Egypt and being led out of Egypt, they were led into the wilderness, they were led into the desert.

And one of the things that they encountered in the desert was a lack of water. And so at an appointed time, God, as he had been doing, was going to continue to demonstrate his ability to take care of them, his sufficiency for them.

And the situation was that they had been wandering in the wilderness and they hadn't been able to find any water. Now, the people were very prone to complaining. It's amazing as you study the history of the children of Israel.

These people that that saw things that we would only dream of seeing, they were there in Egypt and they saw God bring his judgment upon the Egyptians. They saw how God made a difference between the Israelites and the Egyptians.

And as these 10 plagues came upon the Egyptians, the Israelites there being in Egypt, yet none of the plagues touched them. God protected them. And then, of course, God had ultimately led them out of Egypt.

And you remember, he led them to the Red Sea and there they were with their backs up against the sea and the Egyptian army pursuing them. And the Lord opened the sea and they walked across the Red Sea on dry land and the Egyptians seeking to follow after them were destroyed in the sea.

So these were the kinds of experiences that these people had. Now they're out in the wilderness they're traveling for some time and they haven't been able to find any water and immediately they begin to complain.

They have apparently forgot everything that God had already done for them. And they began to complain to Moses and they said to him, have you brought us out into this wilderness to kill us? Oh, that we would have remained in Egypt.

Oh, it was so, so much easier back in Egypt, Moses. Oh, it was so nice. We had we had water in Egypt. There was security there. Oh, sure. It might have been a bit miserable building the palaces of Pharaoh and, you know, being slaves.

But, oh, you know, here we are out in the desert and we're going to die of thirst. And so they're complaining to Moses about this and Moses is perturbed by their complaints. But he goes to the Lord and the Lord spoke to Moses and he said, Moses, I want you to go ahead and I want you to go and stand on this rock.

God showed him a rock there in Horeb. He said, I want you to stand on this rock and then I want you to take your rod and I want you to smite the rock. And as you smite the rock, as you strike the rock with your rod, I'll bring forth water from the rock.

And so Moses did just as God commanded him, he went to the rock, the people followed him there. Moses stood up on the rock, took his rod, smote the rock and water gushed forth from the rock and refreshed the people of Israel.

And they named the place Meribah, for there the people contended with the Lord over water. But Paul, looking back on that event and referring to it here in his epistle to the Corinthians, he says they all drank from that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ.

Christ the Rock: Strength and Permanence

Now, what we want to do is we want to look at three ways that the rock is symbolic of Christ. First of all, the rock is symbolic of the nature of Christ. All throughout the scripture, we have allusions to the Lord being our rock.

We have allusions to Christ being the rock, being the stone which the builders rejected or the precious cornerstone that is laid in Zion, or as Jacob said in his prophecy, that from the Lord comes the stone, the shepherd of Israel, a reference to the Messiah.

The rock speaks of Christ in his strength and his permanency. So with this symbolic language, the scriptures are speaking to us of the strength and the permanency of Christ. The scriptures are full of references to God as our rock.

Let me give you a Deuteronomy chapter 32, verses three and four. We read, for I proclaim the name of the Lord, ascribe greatness to our God. He is the rock. His work is perfect for all his ways are justice, a God of truth and without injustice.

Righteous and upright is he. In 2 Samuel 22, verses two and three, the Lord is my rock and my fortress. He is my deliverer, the God of my strength and whom I will trust my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold and my refuge, my savior.

And then in Psalm 62, verses five through seven, my soul wait silently for God alone for my expectation is from him. He only is my rock and my salvation. He is my defense. I shall not be moved in. God is my salvation and my glory.

The rock of my strength and my refuge is in God. So on and on and on throughout the scriptures, we have these references to God being our rock to Christ, the Messiah being the rock of our salvation. And the implication, again, is that of strength and permanency.

Now, the Bible, of course, was written. In the east. And it was written by men who knew the value and the security that you might find under a large rock being protected from the heat, say, for example, references to that in the scripture being protected from your enemies, the rocks being in some cases a fortress.

When David was fleeing from King Saul, he spent much of his time hiding out in a place called in Getty. And in Getty is a beautiful oasis down near the Dead Sea. But there are many rock formations there.

And it would have been in these formations that David would have hid himself, finding their safety from the enemy. But yet, as he would be sitting there under the protection of one of these large rocks, suddenly he would he would think, you know, this is how the Lord is to me.

The Lord is my rock. The Lord is my refuge. This rock is shading me presently from the heat of the sun or maybe protecting me from some of Saul's men. But in looking at the bigger picture of life. The Lord, David would often say, is my rock.

Now, only Jesus Christ can bring total stability. And permanence to life, that's something that I think we all agree on, but people need to realize that everyone needs to realize that only Christ can bring total stability and permanence to life.

And only those whose lives are built on him can make a statement like this. We will not fear, though the earth be removed and the mountains be moved into the midst of the sea. Now, nobody else can make that kind of a statement as we've been under the.

Well, I don't know if threat is so much the word. We haven't necessarily been being threatened, but as we've seen threats going out to other nations about possible military action and we've talked about, you know, bombings and missile exchanges and things like that, I mean, there certainly is a possibility that we ourselves could be struck by a nuclear missile or a biological or chemical weapon or something like that.

And of course, our lives don't seem so. Certain or sure when we think of those kinds of things, but when our lives are built on Christ, we realize that even if that were to be the case, we would still not be moved.

Jesus made an interesting statement. He talked about persecution and he talked about his people suffering even to the point of death. But then he said this, but don't worry, because not one hair of your head shall perish.

But Jesus is just talking about the possibility of of dying because of faith in him, but he says, don't worry about it, not one hair of your head will perish. You see, if our lives are founded on Christ, Christ is permanent.

He is the rock. This material world is temporal and it's not going to go on. And even though this material world be blown out of existence as it potentially could be, we who trust in Christ, we will not be moved.

He's permanent. Nothing outside of Christ is permanent, though. Not family, not friends, not health, home, your job. Life is so fragile. But yet we delude ourselves into thinking that somehow we are immortal.

Nothing's ever going to harm us or nothing's ever going to, you know, do anything to deprive us of the things that we're confident in, the things that bring us security. You probably read in the papers just recently about the tornadoes that struck the east coast of the United States.

And I was amazed as I looked at some of the photos and looking at houses where the roofs had been literally torn off the houses and cars were picked up and thrown into into the homes. You look in a bedroom and there's there's a car and one man described his experience.

He was standing before the mirror shaving and suddenly the house around him was gone. He didn't have a mirror to look in. It was it had flown away with the rest of his house. But, you know, so often we're trusting in these kinds of things where we're thinking that we're secure.

Everything's all right. I have my home. I have my health. I have my job. I have my friends. I have my family. But if we're trusting finally in those things, then we're trusting in something that is really very unstable because none of these things are permanent.

And in just a matter of moments, those kinds of things can be taken from us. We can be deprived of those things so quickly. And yet how many people are putting their trust in those things? Only in Christ can we have confidence.

Only in Christ is there stability and permanence. Outside of Christ. There's nothing that is ultimately stable or permanent. And so Christ as our rock speaks to us, first of all, about the stability and the permanence that he brings in life.

The Smitten Rock and Christ's Redemptive Work

Secondly, Christ as the rock. And particularly the rock that was smitten speaks to us of the work of Christ. Now, it's interesting Moses is instructed by God to stand on this rock, to take his rod and to smite this rock and water is going to come forth from it.

Now, Moses did that. And I'm sure he was impressed with the miraculous power of God to bring forth water out of a flinty rock. But I don't think Moses understood at all the significance of what he was doing and the prophetic picture that he was being used to paint at that moment.

You see, when Paul looks back on the event, he says that rock, that smitten rock, that rock that they drank from, that rock was Christ. And when Moses struck that rock, God was prophesying through Moses about the Messiah being smitten.

And as a result of the smiting. The life of God would flow forth from him, water being representative of life. And so the smitten rock speaks of the work of Christ. It speaks of his work of redemption on our behalf, because it was through his death on the cross that Jesus redeemed us.

The death of Jesus, although something that people are not all that keen to talk about today. Is the most significant aspect of his life. In other words, Jesus did not come into the world as just another religious leader to give us a good example or to lay down for us some beautiful teachings on how we are to conduct ourselves.

He did do that. But that wasn't the primary purpose of his coming. And tragically, even in the church today, there are many that see that as being the main significance of the coming of Christ, that he came and he left us a good example or he laid down for us some excellent teaching.

And we ought to follow his example and we ought to take to heart his teaching. All of those things are fine, but that wasn't the main reason for his coming. And over and over again, he made that clear.

He made clear himself that he came into the world to give his life as a ransom. He came into the world to die. His mission was, above all else, to give his life in exchange for the life of the world. That was the great mission of Jesus Christ.

And so any person purporting to be a Christian, but not wanting to talk about the death of Christ or wanting to downplay the significance of it, has missed entirely the whole message of the Christian gospel.

Because if you take the death of Christ out of the gospel or you reduce it to some unfortunate mishap in the life of this great man, rather than the primary purpose for his coming, we miss the whole message.

Jesus came in order to be smitten, in order to die for the sin of the world. And Moses was prophesying that, even though he didn't realize it, way back when the children of Israel were led out of Egypt there in the wilderness.

When he struck that rock, he was prophesying Christ's death and the redemption that would come through it. And so he came to seek and to save that what was lost, that which was lost. Isaiah 53 actually uses that terminology.

He was smitten by God. The Lord said to Moses, smite the rock. And then later we read about the Messiah. He was smitten by God. The third significance is that the rock bringing forth water speaks of the gift that Christ has brought to us through his death.

Living Water, Fulfillment, and Spiritual Life

Now, for the Israelites, when Moses struck the rock, three things happened for the Israelites. Number one, their lives were saved. They were apparently in real danger of perishing for lack of water. Beat out in that environment there where the temperatures can go up to maybe 120 degrees Fahrenheit.

Wandering about in that type of a climate, of course, they would have easily been prone to dehydration and could have easily perished. For lack of water. So when Moses struck the rock and the water came forth, it brought life to Israel.

It brought life. It also brought satisfaction. Oh, there's nothing quite like a nice cold glass of water when you're really thirsty, is there? There's nothing quite as satisfying as that. Isn't it funny how, you know, something so simple as water, something so common, can be so refreshing.

Now, we've got all of our soft drinks and, you know, all of these other things, you know, that we might enjoy, whether it be Coca-Cola or, you know, something like that. Or Virgin Cola. It's actually even replaced Coca-Cola in popularity.

And oh, how great it is. Or some, you know, whatever. People have the thing, oh yeah, when I'm really thirsty, this is what I like. But, you know, I would imagine that most people would agree, if you're really thirsty, there's just nothing quite like a glass of water.

It's just such a simple, common thing. And so, for the people, there was the satisfaction, there was the life, there was the satisfaction, there was the refreshment that came. Oh, the refreshment. Cool water on a hot day.

There's nothing quite so refreshing as that. Now, what they experienced through this actual water, we experience in the spiritual realm through the work of Christ. Of course, Christ, through his death on the cross, he has brought life to us.

Through him being smitten and dying in our place, he has brought life. Life is now available to us. Jesus, he said these words to the woman of Samaria. He said, whoever drinks this water will thirst again.

He was pointing to a well. They were actually having a conversation about the water in this particular well. Maybe you remember the story. Jesus had come into this city of Samaria, and he was there at a well that had originally been dug by Jacob, the father of the nation.

And he was weary, it was hot. And a woman came to draw water from that well. And as she began to do that, Jesus spoke up and he said, give me a drink of that water. And she was puzzled because she was a Samaritan.

She wasn't a Jew. She was partially Jewish. But there was racial tension between Jews and Samaritans, and they weren't on the best of terms. And so she was surprised that a Jewish man was actually asking her, a Samaritan woman, for water.

And she spoke up and informed him of her surprise. And he said to her, if you knew who I was, if you knew the gift of God and who it was that was speaking to you, you would ask me and I would give you water.

And then she looks at him and says, well, where are you going to get water to give me? You're asking me for water, but now you're telling me you're going to give me water. Now, of course, she was thinking of water in the literal, material sense.

Jesus was speaking of water in a spiritual sense. And that's what he meant. He said, whoever drinks of this water will thirst again. It was the well, that very well. He was pointing to it as he spoke to this woman, no doubt.

Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again. And the water there represents every pursuit that a man might follow in order to obtain fulfillment for himself. The water. There was an all-inclusive way of referring to everything that life has to offer.

If you drink of this water, Jesus said, you'll thirst again. But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.

See, this is the promise. Jesus came to give us living water. He came to give us life. And he tells us in advance that everything that the world has to offer us will ultimately leave us unsatisfied. And we know that.

By experience, we know it, even though we might not have yet been convinced of it in our minds. Yet we know by experience, the things that we pursue, thinking that this is going to bring me satisfaction.

And we obtain it and we find that it doesn't do it. How many things have you sought after in your life, thinking that if you could just get it? Oh, that would end your problems. If you could just obtain that, everything would be wonderful from that point on.

You'd never again complain. You'd never again have a have a sense of dissatisfaction or that that sense of longing for more. And so you pursue it and you obtain it. And then you're left right where you were before you ever got it.

You know that experience? That's the common experience of all people. That's the common experience of man. Because of this, man was created by God and for God. And until man comes into a relationship with God.

His thirst, so to speak, can never be quenched. The thirst in man is insatiable. It cannot be quenched apart from the water of life that Jesus gives. Now, we know that by our own experience, but again, sometimes we're still not convinced of it in our mind.

We think, oh, well, OK, I know that's that's the way it's been up until this point. But if I get this, it's because I haven't gotten to the top yet. When I get to the top, that's when that's when the fulfillment is going to come.

Well, all you have to do is read about the people at the top and you'll find that that certainly isn't true. Read the biographies of the so-called great men and women of history and you'll find that although they were at the top, maybe in a social sense, yet they, in many ways, were just as miserable as the person at the very bottom of the ladder.

And we find that over and over again as we perhaps read an interview with someone in a magazine or something, maybe somebody you looked up to and somebody that you thought has it all together. And then you're reading about them and you find they're insecure.

They're afraid about the future. You find that they're expressing the very things that you feel that you were thinking you wouldn't feel if you were in the position they were in. You see, this is the plight of man, the plight of man, apart from God, is that fulfillment eludes him.

It's not to be obtained apart from a relationship with God. And that's what Jesus was talking about. If you drink this water, you'll thirst again. But if you drink the water that I give, you'll never thirst.

It'll become a fountain of water springing up inside of you. When I think back on my life before I was a Christian, I wasn't raised as a Christian. But when I think back to my own conversion. And I look back at the at the thing that I think more or less led me to the conclusion that I needed Christ.

For me, it was the overwhelming sense of futility about life. Everything that I thought was going to bring satisfaction or to fill that void that I sensed within me, everything that I thought would do it never did it.

And by the time I was just in my early 20s, I realized that this is an endless pursuit. No matter what I obtain, I still am left with the same futile sense. But yet, in coming to Christ, that futility has forever been done away with.

And although the Christian life hasn't been an easy life. And it's not always, you know, smiling and being cheery and all of that. Yet, I can say this, I've never again since the moment I met Christ had that experience of futility and emptiness that I knew so well before I met him.

That has been forever taken care of. That's what Jesus promised. So just as water brought life to the Israelites, so Christ brings life to us. And that's what he said. He said, I have come that men might have life.

Think about the implication of that statement. The implication is that men do not have life. If you had to come to give people life, the implication is that they don't have life. Then what is this that we have?

It's something less than life, according to God's definition. You see, God's definition of life is living in a relationship with him, experiencing him, knowing your maker. And living according to the purpose for which you were made.

That's God's definition of life. So if I'm living apart from that, then the Bible says I'm not really living. That's why Jesus could say, I've come to give them life. And that more abundantly. That's why Jesus could say that those who lived and believed in him would never die.

Because death is not what we commonly think of it as. We think of death only in terms of the physical, the consciousness leaving the body. But the biblical description of death is your consciousness separated from God.

So actually, what the Bible teaches is that people are in a state of death rather than life. Naturally, they have physical life, but they're missing the real life, the life of God, life that is spiritual.

But Jesus came to bring life. And when we come to know Christ and experience the life that he brings, then we, like the Israelites, are satisfied and refreshed. We have a continual. A continual satisfaction and refreshment, listen to what Jesus said, again, recorded in John's Gospel, chapter seven, verses 37 to 39, on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, if anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink.

He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. If anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink. You see, that invitation that was given so long ago by Jesus, that same invitation goes out to all the world today.

Think of all the people around us who are thirsting. They're all longing for something more. They're all in pursuit of that one thing or that position or that person who's going to finally bring me satisfaction.

But again, it doesn't happen. You see, Jesus said, if anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink. He is the one. And let me remind you once again that Christianity is a relationship with a person. It's not a code of religious rules.

It's not organized religion, per se. It's primarily a relationship with a person. And we as Christians need to be reminded of that. Sometimes we can just ourselves get caught up in the rules and the regulations of it all.

There are certainly biblical guidelines and commandments and things that we live our lives by, but that's not the essence of it. The essence of it is a relationship with a person. And as we go out and we are talking to people about Christianity, I hope we're really talking to them about Christ.

You know, many people have have what they believe, an understanding of Christianity and have rejected it. Many people have weighed Christianity in the balance and found it wanting. But I suspect that everyone who's done that has seen only a Christianity apart from Christ.

Not a Christianity where Christ is actually the center of it. And that's one of the most difficult things we face as Christian people today in seeking to bring the life of God to other people. We face the difficulty of explaining to them that this over here, which calls itself Christianity, is not really Christianity.

Because it's left Christ out of the picture. It's a relationship with Christ. That's what we're talking to people about. That's what we've experienced. I grew up in a religion. I was thoroughly unimpressed with religion.

Had nothing to offer me. And when I was just an adolescent, I finally said to my parents, I'm not going to church anymore. I want to go be with my friends. I want to go do enjoyable things. I don't want to be bound to this Sunday tradition of going and sitting and listening to these people who don't seem themselves to be what they're saying.

There was no joy or there was nothing exciting about their lives, what they were communicating. I didn't need that. I didn't want that. So to me, that was Christianity. I don't need that. I'm not interested in that.

And sadly, that's what so many people have experienced. But that is not it, is it? We know that that's not it. Christianity is a person. That's what Jesus said when he stood up on that day. He said, if anyone thirst, let him come to me.

He didn't say if anyone thirst, let him go find a church, let him go join up, become a member. There's nothing the matter with becoming a member of a church and of course, going to church is proper and necessary for a Christian.

But Jesus called people to himself. That's what it's all about. It's all about a relationship with him. And as a result of that, Jesus said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. So this is what we receive as the Israelites received that water from the rock, it brought life, satisfaction, refreshment.

So as we receive Christ, we receive, first of all, life, we receive satisfaction, fulfillment and we receive refreshment. We're refreshed by the Lord, by his presence in our life. But you know what? We then become a source of refreshment for other people.

The world needs refreshing and God wants to use us to bring refreshment to other people. The fragrance of Christ being brought into people's lives, the presence of Christ. Now, as we close, there's another incident that I want to bring to your attention.

Moses Strikes the Rock Instead of Speaking to It

And that incident is also an incident that occurred in the life of Moses and the children of Israel. Almost 40 years after this particular event. A very similar situation had arisen. The only difference is the people who were there at first and experienced the rock being smitten and the water flowing forth.

Those people had died in the wilderness because of their continual resistance to the will of God. Now, a new generation has arisen. The children of those people has now arisen and a similar problem has occurred.

And the people are once again thirsty. And like their parents, they were complaining about their plight and they were worried that they were going to somehow die of thirst in the wilderness. They had forgotten about this wonderful event that had happened near to 40 years ago.

So again, Moses goes to God and says, what do I do? The people are thirsty. And so the Lord said, OK, Moses, remember how you smote the rock? He said, now, this time what I want you to do. Is I want you to speak to the rock, I don't want you to strike it, but instead I want you to go to the rock and I want you to speak to it.

And as you speak to the rock, water will gush forth from it. So Moses left the presence of the Lord, the people had gathered together, they were complaining, Moses was angry. And he lashed out at the people, he said, must I get, we, he said, we, him and his brother, must we get water for you rebels?

And he took his staff and he struck the rock twice. And water did flow from the rock and the people were refreshed. But God called Moses to himself and he said, Moses, you didn't believe me. And because you didn't believe me and because you failed to sanctify me before these people, Moses, you will not fulfill your lifelong ambition of going into the promised land.

You're going to have to die this side of the river. And God said, Moses, you will not fulfill your lifelong ambition of going into the promised land, you will not fulfill your lifelong ambition of going into the promised land of the river.

What Moses did was an act of unbelief, Moses, this, this man who had seen all that God had done somehow at this point, he just didn't believe if he spoke to the rock, there was going to be any effect.

And so instead, he, he took his staff and he struck the rock twice, the water did come forth. But God said, Moses, why didn't you believe me? Instead of speaking to the rock, he struck the rock. Some people wonder, well, why was God so upset about something like that?

I mean, here's the guy, Moses, he served God his whole life and he makes one mistake and now he can't go into the promised land. Well, Paul's statement here that that rock was Christ gives us insight into God's attitude at this point, that rock was Christ.

God was seeking to to show a picture. To all the successive generations of what he would do, his son, the Messiah, would be smitten. And life would come and the life would be attained, not by a continual smiting, but simply by seeking, by requesting, by asking.

And so Moses, in a sense, ruined a picture that God was seeking to paint. The rock had already been smitten. All you need to do now is speak to the rock. Christ suffered once for the sin of man. And now all we need to do is speak to the rock.

Christ doesn't need to suffer over and over again. One of the great tragedies of Roman Catholicism is, in their mind, the necessity of Christ suffering over and over again. That's why there's a mass said daily, because Christ must suffer again.

Christ is smitten again every day. This is entirely contrary to everything the Bible says. Christ suffered once for sin. And having been smitten once, the life of Christ now comes to us by simply asking for it.

Speak to the rock, Moses. That's all you need to do. And that's all a man needs to do today. Christ does not need to be smitten again. All a man needs to do today to experience the life of God is to speak to the rock.

Whosoever will call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Oh, salvation is so simple. God has made it so simple. A few years ago, my uncle was dying in the hospital. I went to visit him. And, you know, he was in a real desperate condition and barely, barely even have any kind of a conversation with him.

And I'm thinking in my mind how to approach him and what is my goal? What do I want him to do? Do I lead him in a sinner's prayer? You know what? And the more I thought about it, the more I was able to reduce it.

You know, sometimes we make salvation more difficult than it really is for people. Now, in the U .S., among evangelicals in the U .S., there's sort of a formula known as the sinner's prayer. The sinner's prayer is this prayer that you say, and this is how you become a Christian.

Now, some people don't realize that the sinner's prayer was just a convenient prayer that was invented by Christians to help other people. Some people think it's absolutely mandatory to say the sinner's prayer to be saved.

And therefore, if you are professing to be a Christian, but you haven't said the sinner's prayer, it's probable that you're really not a Christian. Now, of course, this isn't right, but, you know, we can make it so complicated.