In 1 Corinthians 10:2 Paul says that the children of Israel were all “baptized unto Moses.” Moses was a type of Christ and a representative of Christ. Hence, by being baptized unto Moses, the children of Israel actually were baptized unto Christ. Christ, not Moses, is the real leader. Moses was simply a figure of Christ. Today we who believe in Christ have been baptized unto Christ. For this reason, Galatians 3:27 speaks of being “baptized into Christ.” Having been baptized into Christ, we are now under the leadership of Christ. Before the children of Israel crossed the Red Sea, they took Moses as their leader, but not to a very great extent. However, after they crossed the Red Sea, “the people feared Jehovah, and believed Jehovah, and his servant Moses” (Exo. 14:31, Heb.), for they had been baptized unto Moses. Likewise, we have been baptized not unto a denomination, practice, belief, or doctrine, but unto Christ, our Leader and our Head.
In 1 Corinthians 10:2 Paul says that they also were baptized “in the cloud and in the sea.” The cloud signifies the Spirit. When we were baptized, we were baptized into the Spirit. In one Spirit we were baptized into one Body.
Furthermore, God’s people were baptized in the sea, which signifies the death of Christ (Rom. 6:3). In the death of Christ, signified by the water of baptism, we are terminated and buried. When a new believer is baptized, he should realize that he is being baptized both into the Spirit and into the death of Christ. The Spirit should not be separated from Christ’s death. Just as the cloud and the sea were one, so the Spirit and the death of Christ are one.
The death of Christ deals with matters on the negative side, whereas the Spirit takes care of matters on the positive side. On the one hand, a number of negative things must be dealt with. On the other hand, the believers need to be encouraged positively to go on with the Lord. Negatively, the water terminated Pharaoh and his army. Positively, the cloud was the means by which the children of Israel were led on their journey. Praise the Lord for both the negative and positive sides of baptism! When a new believer is baptized, all negative things are terminated and buried. Then the Spirit as a pillar of cloud leads him on in his journey with the Lord.
Baptism requires faith. Hebrews 11:29 says, “By faith they passed through the Red Sea as through dry land, which the Egyptians attempting to do were swallowed up.” In Colossians 2:12 baptism is also related to faith. The children of Israel needed faith in order to cross the Red Sea. At first, however, they had no faith at all. Seeing a mass of water in front of them and the Egyptian army behind them, they cried out to the Lord and complained to Moses: “Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt?” (14:11). Although the people had no faith, faith came when God came in to speak a word. The Lord was not angry with the people for their lack of faith, even though they had just witnessed His mighty and miraculous acts in Egypt. To Moses, who as a human was no doubt troubled by the situation, the Lord said, “Wherefore criest thou unto me? speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward: but lift thou up thy rod, and stretch out thine hand over the sea, and divide it: and the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea” (14:15-16). When Moses received this word from the Lord, the children of Israel spontaneously had the faith to cross the Red Sea.
According to 14:21 and 22, the “waters were divided” and were a “wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left.” Furthermore, 15:8 says that “the waters were gathered together, the floods stood upright as an heap, and the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea.” On the one hand, the waters were heaped up; on the other hand, they were congealed. For the waters to be heaped up means that they were piled up like stones. But for the waters to be congealed means that they were changed from a liquid to a solid state. Although the waters had been divided, heaped up, and congealed, it still required faith for the children of Israel to pass through them. Without the necessary faith, the people certainly would have complained to Moses about entering a watery tomb. If we had been there, we probably would have been afraid to step into the midst of the divided waters. The children of Israel, however, became people of faith. Following Moses, they walked into the sea and crossed it.
By crossing the Red Sea, the children of Israel were saved from Egypt and also brought into a realm of freedom. What a salvation! In principle, baptism is the same for us today. It saves us from bondage and brings us into absolute freedom in Christ. As Colossians 2:12 makes clear, this is accomplished “through the faith of the operation of God.” Therefore, as we baptize people, we must encourage them to exercise faith in God as the One who operates. There is no doubt that the crossing of the Red Sea was accomplished through God’s operation. As we baptize new believers, we ourselves need faith, and we need to help those who are being baptized to have faith as well. The new converts need to realize what is happening to them at the time of baptism. They need faith to enter into the water of baptism and to pass through it. What a difference it makes when everyone participating in a baptism is full of faith!
The Egyptians presumed to follow the children of Israel into the sea. Exodus 14:23 says, “And the Egyptians pursued, and went in after them to the midst of the sea, even all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen.” However, the Lord confused the army of the Egyptians, and took off their chariot wheels (vv. 24-25, Heb.). Then God commanded Moses to stretch out his hand over the sea so that the waters would “come again upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen” (v. 26). When Moses did so, “the waters returned, and covered the chariots, and the horsemen, and all the army of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them; there remained not so much as one of them” (v. 28, Heb.). Pharaoh and the Egyptian army were buried in the sea. This is a clear picture that in baptism Satan and the power of the world are buried. It is a fact that the Egyptians were terminated in the Red Sea. But the significance of this fact is that when we were baptized, Satan and the world with its tyranny were terminated. When we baptize others, we must tell them that as they are buried in baptism, Satan and the world will be buried also. How impressive is the crossing of the Red Sea as a picture of baptism! When we consider this picture in the light of the New Testament, we have a clear view of the significance of baptism.