Ep. 31. Exodus 14 | The Red Sea
EPISODE 31
THE RED SEA: EXODUS 14
This was absolutely one of my favorite stories as a child growing up in church. How could a young boy not be caught up in the magnitude of the Red Sea crossing? Just when it seems our band of exiles are bound to be overthrown by the Egyptian army, God makes a way through the sea and dries the ground before them. The Egyptians had no such luck as their chariot wheels stuck fast in the earth. God overthrows the Egyptians and rescues the Hebrews. This single act will echo The name of God through the ages. Rahab will remember it with trembling in her voice some forty years later. Charlton Heston would raise his hands, and the Red Sea would part. Okay, it was Moses who did that, but the image in my head is still the one of Charlton Heston. Better still, was the same scene as portrayed in The Prince of Egypt. Never has a cartoon gone so hard. The artistry of that movie sticks with me to this day. (It may be time for me to watch it again)
But in all my wonder for that story, I missed something the first hundred times or so I contemplated chapter fourteen of Exodus. Perhaps it was because I didn't consider the Bible as a whole. Paul says in First Corinthians, "Our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and the sea." Again, "all were baptized into Moses." I know these blog posts aren't meant to be a sermon, but I think it is essential to talk about this baptism at some length, so if you don't have much time, you might bookmark this and return to it later.
This may have only been my experience, but as I was growing up, the only concept I had of baptism was what we call "believer's baptism." After someone put their faith in Christ, they would be dunked in the tank at the front of the church to represent having been buried with Christ and "raised to walk in newness of life." It is a beautiful picture, to be sure. But the Bible also talks about John's Baptism (as in John the Baptist). His baptism is NOT the same as believer's baptism. It is said of Jesus that he will baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire. In Matthew 20, Jesus asks James and John if they could be "baptized" with the same "baptism" he would be baptized with. In that case, Jesus is referring to the suffering he was about to face. It should also be noted that various rabbinical teachers baptized their followers to indicate their loyalty to this teaching or that one. Baptism was further a Jewish concept associated with purification rites in the temple. In Corinthians, Paul refers to a baptism into Moses. My point in all this is to say there are at least six baptisms mentioned in the New Testament that vary from one another: John's baptism, believer's baptism, baptism of the Spirit, baptism of fire (which may be part of the Spirit or separate from. As always, I have thoughts), baptism of suffering, baptism for purification in the temple, and baptism into Moses.
Why does this all matter? It matters because we endeavor to know the Bible well. We endeavor to understand the truth as laid out for us by God and revealed to us by his Spirit, our teacher. In the Jewish culture, you would be baptized by whichever teacher you aligned with to show that you followed them and believed their teaching. John baptizes Jesus because God had already told John, "The one on whom the Spirit descends after you baptize him is the one." John's baptism declared, "Repent for the kingdom of heaven is near." Those who believed that were immersed by John in his teaching. But once John pointed to Jesus and said, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world," John's disciples turned to follow Jesus and were, in turn, baptized into his teachings. Jesus would ultimately be baptized (immersed) into suffering. He promises that his followers will also be immersed in suffering, as Christ was and will be. John the Baptist told of the baptism of the Spirit (a conversation that I think has taken on a life of its own). We know that all who put faith in Christ are sealed with and filled by the Holy Spirit. But Christ also comes with a baptism of fire. Is this separate from the baptism of the holy spirit, or does it align with the tongues of fire that descend on the apostles in the upper room? "He will baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire." If we read the "and" as joining the two, then the Spirit and fire are one baptism. If we read "and" as divisive, then the believers are baptized by the Spirit, and the unbelievers are ultimately baptized in the fire of Hell. I'm not smart enough to know, though I have thoughts on the matter. There is an immersion into Moses and the Law, but there is a different immersion into the grace of our savior, Jesus. I won't, at this time, talk about the pagan view of baptism that was present in the first century or of the baptism of purification as practiced by the priesthood, but those are also exciting conversations.
We generally only think of baptism from one aspect, which has done us a great disservice in understanding the Scripture. Now let us consider again "baptized into Moses." When the people passed through the Red Sea, they were "baptized into Moses," that is, baptized into the Law of Moses. They were followers of Moses, and they related to God through the Law, which had in its order an earthly priesthood, an earthly temple, and an earthly sacrificial system. But in the New Testament, we people of faith are baptized into Jesus, and now we relate to God through a perfect priesthood, a heavenly temple, and Christ, our perfect, spotless lamb. Here in the Red Sea, we see a picture of baptism into a particular covenant. And now we, by faith, have been baptized (the word in Greek means immersed) into a new covenant in Jesus Christ. It would do us good to consider what is meant in that particular context every time we bump into the word "baptize." I fear we've read that one from one dimension for far too long.
ADDITIONAL READING: 1 Corinthians 10:1-4, Matt 3:6-16, Matt 20:22-23, Mark 1:1-9, Luke 11:38, Luke 12:50, John 1:25-33, John 4:1-2, Acts 1:5, Acts 2:38-42, Matt 28:18-20, Acts 8:16-38, Acts 10: 47-48; Acts 19:3-6; Romans 6:1-3, Galatians 3:27
