The physical liberation that ancient Israel experienced on the very first Passover through the outstretched arm of Yahweh, their God, was not an end in itself. It was only the beginning, the corporeal freedom that made possible their pilgrimage to spiritual redemption. Every observant Jew since the time of the Exodus from Egyptian bondage has affirmed the fact that man’s freedom does not consist in physical liberation alone because immediately after remembering the day of deliverance, he begins the countdown toward Pentecost and spiritual redemption. This is the time of the counting of the omer, the seven weeks and one day from which we get the term Pentecost (fiftieth). The only reason which Moses and Yahweh gave for commanding Pharaoh to "let my people go!" was "so that they may worship" their God. Without the fifty days that followed that first Passover, Israel’s deliverance would have been meaningless, for without the giving of the Torah, the exodus was not complete.

The first fifty days of Israel’s journey toward the Promised Land were replete with miracles confirming God’s will that his people come to worship him and receive his Torah. Foremost among these was the Red Sea event. With impassable waters in front of them and Pharaoh’s armies behind them, Israel stood on the brink of annihilation. They had just been delivered from bondage when Pharaoh relented commanded them to leave Egypt after the tenth plague in which his own firstborn son had died. But Pharaoh had second thoughts and initiated how pursuit of his slaves.

In the midst of the swirling emotions of impending doom, Moses relayed God’s simple word to his people: "Stand still and see the salvation of God." An east wind then parted the waters of the Red Sea, invitation the children of Israel to use a newly – opened highway of public access to safety. Six hundred thousand men, plus women and children, then began the march between walls of water, in what must have been a terrifying challenge. Each Israeli had to have profound faith in God and in his prophet. They left Egypt because Pharaoh commanded it. They walked into the Sea because they chose to believe God would save them from the turbid waters that towered above their heads. The extent of their faith is underscored by the fact that shortly after the last Israeli passed between the waters, Pharaoh’s entire army drowned where Israel had crossed unharmed!

ISRAEL’S CORPORATE BAPTISM

In I Corinthians 10:1-4, the apostle Paul compares the Red Sea crossing with baptism, making it and Israel’s subsequent actions spiritual events. "…our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and did all eat the same spiritual meat; and did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ." All of Israel was baptized in the Red Sea, and all of Israel drank spiritual drink from Jesus the Rock. What a profound statement, pregnant with meaning!

First Israel was physically delivered from bondage when Yahweh "passed over" their housed because he saw the blood circling their doors. Then, they were baptized in the Red Sea in what was both a physical and spiritual exercise. All of Israel that had just escaped death now experienced a death, burial, and resurrection in the Red Sea. When they walked down the slopes into the sea’s bottom, they surrendered their lives to the authority and will of God. They died to self. Then, they were buried for a time between the walls of water. Finally, they were resurrected to a new life of freedom from Pharaoh’s pursuing armies when they climbed up the eastern shore of the Red Sea. Their lives were no longer their own; they had surrendered them to the pleasure of God and had received them again as his gift of life and freedom.

The timing of the Red Sea event coincided with what would later become the festival of unleavened bread. Could it be that God was using this exercise to remove the leaven of Egypt from the lives of the Israelis just as he was physically removing them from Egypt? It could well be that this event even occurred at the time of what would later be the festival of firstfruits. What better metaphor could God have chosen than to reveal the coming death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ the firstfruits (I Corinthians 15:20,23) in the figurative death, burial, and resurrection of Israel in the Red Sea?

In a very real sense, Israel had been reborn. Now, they were ready to journey to the mountain of God, there to enter into a covenant to become God’s bride. When Yahweh thundered from Sinai in a voice that shook the earth and was heard abound the globe in all languages, only Israel that had been reborn in the waters of Red Sea baptism responded to his commandments: "We will do, and we will hear." The moment they agreed to accept and do God’s Torah, their Passover experience was complete, they were delivered from spiritual bondage to sin and death. For the first time since Adam and Eve in the garden, man was offered the choice of life or death, blessing or cursing (Deuteronomy 30:19). Whereas before that time sin and death reigned over all men (Romans 5:14), now some could chose to live, to drink of the Rock physically for life in the desert and to drink of the Rock spiritually unto life eternal.

THE CONCEPT OF BAPTISM

The concept of baptism is encapsulated in the word immersion. To be baptized is to be immersed in something, whether it be in repentance, in sanctification, in the Holy Spirit, in the body of Messiah, in suffering, in death, or in water. In whatever form it is manifested, it represents a complete surrender to God, to his will and his Word.

We understand the truth of this concept when we recall that a long-standing Jewish immersion tradition was antecedent to Christian baptism. John the Baptizer did not simply have a heat stroke in the Judaean desert and suddenly invent the idea of baptism from whole cloth! He – as well as the Messianic believers after him – was continuing a Jewish tradition. Just as Israel had been delivered from Egypt by the blood of the paschal lamb, so Gentiles who were proselytized to Judaism were initiated into Jewish faith by circumcision. Just as Israel had been baptized in the Red Sea, so proselytes were required to be immersed in the waters of Israel’s mikvot (ritual immersion pools filled with "living water" either from a flowing stream or from rain). Then, just as Israel came before Sinai to receive God’s law, converted believers were taught the same Torah.

Not only Gentile proselytes but also the Jews themselves submitted themselves to the waters of the mikveh. When they experienced any ceremonial uncleanness, they immersed themselves in the water, not to cleanse themselves physically, but to demonstrate their submission to the washing of God'’ Word.

Many teachers among the Jews had come to characterize the mikveh experience as a death, burial, and resurrection. Some had even considered it an opportunity to reenter the waters of the womb and be reborn. Paul’s use of these metaphors is more clearly understood when they are returned to the Hebrew matrix from which they came. Believers in Messiah Jesus were considered to have been immersed in his death, buried with him in baptism so that they could be raised in a newness of life (Romans 6:3-5). They were born again (from above) in the metaphor that Nicodemus, the Israeli rabbi, understood as it applied to proselytes’ being born again when they accepted the Torah and were circumcised, but did not know how to apply to Jesus’ new teaching (John 3:3,5). Their initiatory baptism rite, like their Israeli ancestors, was not for physical uncleanness, but for the answer of a good conscience before God (I Peter 3:21). Anyone who did not repent from sins entered the water a dry sinner and came out a wet sinner! Water baptism was efficacious only if the heart was immersed in the Godly sorrow of repentance (II Corinthians 7:10).

BAPTISM AND REPENTANCE

When John came baptizing in Jordan, both the exercise and the location had profound significance. The Baptist was telling all of Israel that they, like Gentile proselytes, needed to immerse themselves first in repentance and then in water. He brought them to the Jordan at the same place where their forefathers had crossed on dry land (a second generation experiencing a second water baptism as the passed through the waters of the Jordan River). Here at the ford of the Jordan that had parted when the priests had taken the ark of the covenant from the wilderness into the promised land, John urged his fellow Jews to turn their backs on the land of Israel, reenter the water, and then turn in true repentance to renew their covenant with Yahweh. The Hebrew word for the repentance which John demanded is teshuvah, meaning to turn. A physical act of turning, of immersing in water, demonstrated what was occurring inwardly. Israel was receiving the opportunity to accept the kingdom of God, welcoming Yahweh’s dominion in their lives and preparing for the coming of their Messiah.

CHRISTIAN PASSOVER AND BAPTISM

Christians are empowered by God’s grace to allow faith to be produced in their hearts (Ephesians 2:8) as they hear the word of the gospel (Romans 10:17). The moment they do, they eat of the Lamb that was sacrificed on the day of Passover (I Corinthians 5:7, John 6:53), and in that act of faith, they are set free. God passes over their sins, accepting their faith and imputing to them in return the righteousness of Jesus Christ (Romans 4:22-24), Then, being freely justified by his grace, believers in Messiah have peace with God (Romans 5:1).

A new believer in Christ experiences the reality of that which Israel’s experiences foreshadowed. His Passover is not just a day of memorial – it is a person: Christ our Passover. His Shabbat is not merely a rest day – it is a person: Jesus, the Lord of the Sabbath. His Mikveh is not just a pool of water – it is the washing of the water by the Word of God (Ephesians 5:26) in which the truth sanctifies and cleanses (John 17:17). He receives not a law engraved by the finger of God on stone tablets – he receives the indwelling Lawgiver, himself, the Holy Spirit. He does not become Jewish in spirit when his heart experiences the circumcision which the prophet envisioned (Jeremiah 4:4; Romans 2:29). He comes not to a physical mountain burning with fire – he joins the spiritual Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem (Hebrews 12:21,22).

Each time a new believer is initiated into Christian faith through the baptism of repentance, he is participating in a long-standing tradition that church inherited from Judaism. He partakes of the Passover Lamb whose blood covers and removes his sins. He takes of the unleavened bread of sweetness that replaces the bitter leaven of his sin.

Through the waters of baptism he demonstrates to the sinful world just as Israel demonstrated to Pharaoh that the God of the Bible is a deliverer, one who helps his chosen people pass from the curse of death into the promise of everlasting life by being

Translated from the darkness of this world into the kingdom of Messiah (Colossians 1:13). He is dead to the world through the body of Christ, buried with him in baptism, and raised to the newness of life.