Follow – through baptism into freedom

The jour­ney of the peo­p­le of Isra­el from Egypt to the Pro­mi­sed Land is like a pic­tu­re book for fol­lo­wing Jesus Christ. The pas­sa­ge through the Red Sea is a para­ble for bap­tism. After bap­tism, they do not head straight for the Pro­mi­sed Land, but through the desert for for­ty years. The desert is the place whe­re we are set to zero and the pre­pa­ra­ti­on for the future home­land takes place.

A pas­tor and a hip­pie are sit­ting on a bench in a park. The hip­pie is rea­ding the Bible. Sud­den­ly he calls out loud­ly «Hal­le­lu­jah». The pas­tor then asked him what was wrong. «Oh, isn’t it mar­vell­ous how God led Moses and the peo­p­le through the sea?» repli­es the hip­pie. The pas­tor imme­dia­te­ly explains that the sea was only about 40 cm deep at this point and the peo­p­le were wading through it. Five minu­tes later, the hip­pie com­ple­te­ly freaks out and shouts even lou­der «Hal­le­lu­jah». «What’s going on now?» the slight­ly annoy­ed pas­tor asks him. The hip­pie repli­es: «But that is a mira­cle! God drow­ned an enti­re army in water only 40 cm deep.»

«Exodus» is the name of the book in the Bible that descri­bes the exodus of the Israe­li­tes from cap­ti­vi­ty in Egypt under the lea­der­ship of Moses. This his­to­ri­cal event con­ta­ins many refe­ren­ces and illus­tra­ti­ons for fol­lo­wing Jesus Christ.

In Hebrew, Egypt means Miz­ray­im. This means con­fi­ne­ment or oppres­si­on. The dual ending ayim indi­ca­tes a two­fold oppres­si­on, an inner and an outer one. In the begin­ning, every human being is sepa­ra­ted from God in an inner oppres­si­on (Romans 3:23). This is the start­ing point in life. Miz­ray­im is the domi­ni­on of Pha­raoh and is also a meta­phor. That is why the exodus of Isra­el from cap­ti­vi­ty is an image for the tur­ning of a per­son to Jesus Christ, i.e. for the time when he «res­cued from the power of dark­ness and trans­fer­red to the king­dom of the bel­oved Son» (Colos­si­ans 1:13 NLB). The first important sta­ti­on after the exodus is the Pas­sa­ge through the Red Sea.

Diversions to the Red Sea

The huge crowd of 600,000 men, women and child­ren were tra­vel­ling bet­ween Egypt and Cana­an. A pil­lar of fire ser­ved as a navi­ga­ti­on sys­tem at night and a cloud during the day. Howe­ver, they were not tra­vel­ling straight to the Pro­mi­sed Land, but rather to a very uncom­for­ta­ble posi­ti­on from a stra­te­gic point of view. When Pha­raoh was disp­lea­sed that he had let his slaves go, he pur­sued them with hor­se, cha­ri­ot and the best war­ri­ors. The peo­p­le of Isra­el found them­sel­ves defen­ce­l­ess in a dead end; the Red Sea in front of them and the ene­my breathing down their necks. For the peo­p­le of Isra­el, this lea­der­ship was neither com­pre­hen­si­ble nor understandable.

This is also the case in the suc­ces­si­on. It is not the shor­test rou­te to the Pro­mi­sed Land and we hard­ly under­stand some of the ways of life from our per­spec­ti­ve or they seem like an annoy­ing diver­si­ons. «When the Israe­li­tes saw Pha­raoh approa­ching with his army, they were ter­ri­fied and cried out to the LORD for help» (Exodus 14:10 NLB). This is a more than typi­cal situa­ti­on. In fol­lo­wing Jesus, things hap­pen to us that sim­ply frigh­ten us; an ope­ra­ti­on, a rela­ti­onship break­down, a dis­mis­sal, an unful­fil­led wish, … «But Moses said to the peo­p­le: «Don’t be afraid! Wait and see how the Lord will save you today. For you will never see tho­se Egyp­ti­ans the­re again. The LORD hims­elf will fight for you. Stay calm!» » (Exodus 14:13, 14 NLB).

Passage through the Red Sea

How did God fight for the Israe­li­tes, what did they have to do them­sel­ves? In respon­se to God’s words, Moses had to extend his shepherd’s staff across the sea. The peo­p­le had to set out in faith befo­re the sea had par­ted. But when the time came, the sea par­ted and the who­le peo­p­le tra­vel­led through the sea on solid ground. When the high­ly mili­ta­ri­sed Egyp­ti­ans fol­lo­wed them, the waters came and buried the who­le army.

No mat­ter what impas­se we find our­sel­ves in, no mat­ter how hope­l­ess the situa­ti­on seems, the­re is always room for mano­eu­vre. When we use it in obe­dience and trust in the Lord, breakth­roughs and mira­cles come true.

The Israe­li­tes were saved through the water and were able to start a new life as a peo­p­le on the other side. The water rece­ded and cle­ared the way for a new begin­ning. This prin­ci­ple was alre­a­dy at play with Noah. It is pro­ba­b­ly no coin­ci­dence that the­se two epi­so­des are used as images for bap­tism in the New Testament:

• Peter wri­tes about the event with the ark, when God saved eight peo­p­le from drow­ning in the flood: «This is an image for the bap­tism that saves you now. Bap­tism is not a phy­si­cal cle­an­sing, but a request to God for a clear con­sci­ence. This is pos­si­ble through the power of the resur­rec­tion of Jesus Christ» (1 Peter 3:21 NLB).
• Paul builds a bridge from the crossing of the Red Sea to bap­tism. «All were bap­ti­sed into Moses in the cloud and in the sea as they fol­lo­wed him» (1 Corin­thi­ans 10:2 NLB).

Both com­pa­ri­sons are very hel­pful to under­stand what hap­pens in bap­tism. Bap­tism saves through the water and enables a new life on the other side as peo­p­le. That is why Paul wri­tes a litt­le later: «[…] But we have all recei­ved the same Spi­rit and belong to one body through bap­tism» (1 Corin­thi­ans 13:2 NLB). Bap­tism brings peo­p­le tog­e­ther into one body, the church, the peo­p­le of God. So the­re is no suc­ces­si­on wit­hout community.

Bap­tism saves. The Israe­li­tes» worst ene­my was ren­de­red harm­less in the Red Sea. From now on, the­re was an invi­si­ble line of pro­tec­tion behind the peo­p­le. The same hap­pens in bap­tism. A line is drawn behind a fol­lower of Jesus. Such a per­son is now libe­ra­ted to look ahead and set his sights on the Pro­mi­sed Land.

Bap­tism saves. Is that true? «He who belie­ves and is bap­ti­sed will be saved. But he who does not belie­ve will be con­dem­ned» (Mark 16:16 NLB). Belie­ving and being bap­ti­sed belong inse­pa­ra­b­ly tog­e­ther and save. In bibli­cal times, bap­tism was a mat­ter of cour­se for a per­son who belie­ved in Jesus Christ. Just as the peo­p­le set out in obe­dience and wal­ked mira­cu­lous­ly through the Red Sea, a per­son who has ent­rus­ted his life to Jesus Christ should be bap­ti­sed in water. In a three-part series on the Exodus, Aaron speaks to his brot­her Moses after the crossing of the sea: «My brot­her, we are free!»

Through the desert to the Promised Land

After being bap­ti­sed in the Red Sea, the peo­p­le of Isra­el were far from being in the land flowing with milk and honey. Alt­hough the most stub­born ene­my had been eli­mi­na­ted, for­ty chal­len­ging years in the desert followed.

Someone once said: «It took one night to bring Isra­el out of Egypt. But it took 40 years to bring Egypt out of Isra­el.» After bap­tism, the worst ene­my is drow­ned, but Egypt’s way of thin­king and acting is often still very domi­nant. We are free, we have a new iden­ti­ty, but we are not yet living by it. The 40 years of wan­de­ring in the desert, a hel­pful image for fol­lo­wing Jesus Christ, help us to unmask the fal­se ego and reve­al the new ego.

The fal­se ego is fabri­ca­ted from the social cons­traints of an unre­de­e­med world. It is defi­ned by what I achie­ve, what I attain and what others say about me. When Jesus was led by the Holy Spi­rit into the desert (Matthew 4), he was atta­cked by three tempt­a­ti­ons: important to be spec­ta­cu­lar and powerful. Jesus par­ried all attacks by con­fron­ting them with the word of God.

For many peo­p­le, the desert is a place to be avo­ided, a place of exi­le or sor­row, or sim­ply use­l­ess and emp­ty. In the Ara­bic lan­guage the­re is the verb asha­ra. It means ente­ring the desert wil­lingly, becau­se the­re are springs, wells of water and places of life. This is why Isai­ah so aptly descri­bes the core of the desert expe­ri­ence: «The desert and the bar­ren land shall rejoice and the step­pe shall be glad and blos­som like a field of cro­cu­ses. Flowers will grow the­re in abun­dance and she will sing, rejoice and be glad! […]» (Isai­ah 35:1 NLB).

In the vast­ness of the desert, we are left wit­hout «scaf­fol­ding»: no fri­ends to talk to, no mobi­le pho­nes to dis­tract us, no music to enter­tain us – naked, vul­nerable, weak, bereft. The desert sets us to zero. It is the place of puri­fi­ca­ti­on and chan­ge, the place of gre­at strugg­le and deep encoun­ters with God. It is the place of strugg­le against the cons­traints of the fal­se ego and the place of encoun­ter with the loving God, who gives hims­elf as sub­s­tance for the new ego.

It was not an acci­dent, but the Holy Spi­rit that led Jesus into the desert (Matthew 4:1). I am con­vin­ced that the Spi­rit of God wants to do the same with the fol­lo­wers of Jesus. He lures us into soli­tu­de, into silence, and some­ti­mes he also does so through cri­ses in life such as ill­ness or strokes of fate. The desert is the fur­nace of trans­for­ma­ti­on. We need desert times in order to find our true self, which is nou­ris­hed by God’s love. The­r­e­fo­re, let us not har­den our hearts to the desert! «It took one night to bring Isra­el out of Egypt. But it took 40 years to bring Egypt out of Isra­el.» During the 40 years, the Israe­li­tes were pre­pared for the Pro­mi­sed Land.

In the Book of Esther, the beau­ty of the Jewish girl Esther was honed for a who­le year until she was rea­dy to meet and mar­ry the king: «When it was a young woman’s turn to go to the king, twel­ve months had pas­sed accor­ding to the regu­la­ti­ons, becau­se that was how long the women’s beau­ty care las­ted: For six months they were mas­sa­ged with myrrh balm and then six months with spe­cial balm oils and creams for women» (Esther 2:12 NLB). The enti­re­ty of Jesus» fol­lo­wers is refer­red to in the Bible as the bri­de. Fol­lo­wing Christ is the pre­pa­ra­ti­on for the time after earth­ly life. The point is, «more beau­tiful» to be rea­dy for the wed­ding with the King of Kings. It takes time and good care to final­ly meet the king of all kings.

Ester was mas­sa­ged into beau­ty for a year (pas­si­ve­ly!). The trans­for­ma­ti­on from the fal­se self to the new self of Jesus Christ hap­pens to us. Neither a strugg­le nor a spasm, but a let­ting-it-hap­pen. Our task is to seek out the springs, the water foun­ta­ins and the places of life in the desert and allow our­sel­ves to be mas­sa­ged into beau­ty the­re. And then – comes the wedding!

Possible questions for the small group 

Read Bible text: Gene­sis 14

1. Whe­re have you been led on detours that did­n’t make sen­se to you?
2. What hap­pens at bap­tism? The bibli­cal com­pa­ri­sons with Noah’s ark and the crossing of the Red Sea pro­vi­de inte­res­t­ing insights.
3. What is the mea­ning of wan­de­ring in the desert (loneli­ne­ss, being alo­ne, dif­fi­cult times) bet­ween bap­tism and ente­ring the Pro­mi­sed Land?
4. What cha­rac­te­ri­ses the fal­se ego? Whe­re is it most likely to show its­elf in you?
5. What thought touch­ed your heart? Whe­re does Jesus invi­te you to take the next (small) step?