CREATION --> NEW CREATION
Genesis 1:1-5 – From the beginning there was God’s Spirit hovering over the waters. There was a transition from darkness to light, and a spoken word. This was the birth of the world, this mirrors our spiritual birth: John 3:1-8, born of water and Spirit. All the elements from the first few verses of Genesis 1 are mentioned in John 3: Spirit, water, darkness, light, the word. And then we have this verse from Paul's letter to Titus:
"For we were also previously foolish, disobedient, being misled, serving in various lusts and sensual-delights, leading lives in malice and envy, spiteful, hating one another. But when the kindness of God our Savior and his love of mankind had appeared: he saved us (not from any works done in righteousness, which we practiced), but according to his mercy, through the bath of rebirth and renewal of the Holy Spirit, which he poured out upon us richly, through Jesus Christ our Savior; that, having been justified by that grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of everlasting life." - Titus 3:3-7, MLV
He saved us by washing, or bath of rebirth and renewal by the Spirit: water and Spirit, just like Genesis 1 and John 3. The analogy is strengthened by use of the Greek word "palingenesias", which effectively means "A new Genesis", a rebirth, renewal or restart. That this is baptismal language is clear from the use of the word for bath/washing here, which is only used in the NT twice: here and in Ephesians 5:25-27. Among the early church fathers, both Clement of Alexandria and Tertullian also noted the connection between John 3, Titus 3 and Genesis 1.
CROSSING THE JORDAN RIVER
In Joshua 3-5 the Israelites cross the Jordan River as they had crossed the Red Sea, except this time it is Joshua who is leading them and the waters are parted by means of the Ark of the Covenant instead of Moses' staff. After crossing over, all the males were circumcised and then the Israelites had a Passover meal. John Oakes in his book, From Shadow to Reality, says the following:
"With this is mind, it becomes easier to make sense of the symbolism of the crossing of the Jordan River. As Israel was baptized into Moses when they passed through the waters of the Red Sea, so they were baptized into Joshua when they passed through the waters of the Jordan. It is true that this is never actually stated in the New Testament, but the symbolism is fairly obvious".
The analogy is further strengthened by the fact that they were circumcised (see also Colossians 2:9-14 for baptism as an antitype to circumcision) after crossing over, a seal similar to that of the Holy Spirit in the NT. And afterwards they ate the Passover, which is clearly a type for the Communion meal. We often see baptism and communion type-antitype constructions together (see Genesis 6-9 and 1 Corinthians 10:1-13 as examples, as well as the meals referenced after baptism in Acts 2, 9, 10 and 16) as will be shown in our next example, but first before moving on let's see what some of the early church fathers said about the crossing of the Jordan. In Everett Ferguson's book, Baptism in the Early Church, the following is stated, when talking about a Origen, a Christian apologist writing in the 3rd century:
"He paraphrases Paul's words about crossing the Red Sea as applicable to crossing the Jordan: 'I do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, that our fathers all passed through the Jordan, and all were baptized into Jesus in the Spirit and in the river'. This interpretation was facilitated by the equivalence in Greek of the names Jesus and Joshua."
It is interesting the parallel given between the two verses, and how they relate to Spirit and water. In the example with Moses, many equate the cloud that was overhead with the Spirit, and of course the sea on both sides is the water. In the Joshua example, Origen states they were immersed into Jesus/Joshua in the Spirit and in the river (water). Once again we have the idea of baptism being an immersion in water and Spirit. Also, in both cases after passing through the water there was a meal referenced almost immediately afterwards in Scripture: After the Red Sea, the Israelites drank water from the rock and ate manna from Heaven. After the Jordan River, they ate the Passover meal. Communion and Baptism (often called the two sacraments of the New Covenant) often appear foreshadowed together. Let's look at our third and final example below.
COMMUNION & BAPTISM FOR GENTILES FORESHADOWED
In Luke 4 Jesus makes reference to two OT stories when discussing the fact that no prophet is accepted in his home town.
"And he said to them, You will certainly say this parable to me, Physician, heal yourself. We have heard how much had happened in Capernaum, do it here also in your fatherland. But he said, Assuredly I say to you, No prophet is acceptable in his fatherland. But in truth I say to you, There were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was locked for three
years and six months, as such there became a large famine over all the land; and Elijah was sent to none of them, except to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed, except Naaman the Syrian." - Luke 4:23-27, MLV
Of all the stories he could have referenced, Jesus brings up these two stories to talk about how he would be rejected in his own home town, and also how the Jews would ultimately reject him as well. To make this point he talks about two times in Israel's history in which God's prophet was sent to help and heal Gentiles at a time when the nation of Israel was having difficulty in its relationship with God. Jesus citing these stories make the Nazarenes furious and they want to throw him off a cliff. Let's look at the two stories in further detail.
The first, comes from 1 Kings 17, where during a severe drought and famine the prophet Elijah goes to a Gentile widow and her son and does as miracle so that flour and olive oil meals do not run out. Additionally, the widow's son dies and Elijah brings him back to life. The meals are foreshadowing of communion and the raising of the son is foreshadowing of Jesus.
The second story, coming from 2 Kings 5, is the only mention of the prophet Elisha in the entire NT.
Naaman, a Syrian from a nation that had aggression toward Israel, was commanded by Elisha to dip/plunge/immerse himself in the Jordan River 7 times to be healed (John the Baptist would eventually baptize people in the same river – not a coincidence) of leprosy. The Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), uses the word baptizein for the dipping that heals the heathen Naaman from a skin disease called tzaraath. After some reluctance, Naaman decides to obey and dip and wash in Jordan River for cleansing, and when he does so his flesh becomes like a child (new birth?).
Christians have often interpreted the Naaman story as prefiguring baptism in the NT for the forgiveness of sins. See what Iranaeus, writing in the second century had to say about this story:
“'And dipped himself,' says [the Scripture], 'seven times in Jordan.' It was not for nothing that Naaman of old, when suffering from leprosy, was purified upon his being baptized, but it served as an indication to us. For as we are lepers in sin, we are made clean, by means of the sacred water and the invocation of the Lord, from our old transgressions; being spiritually regenerated as new-born babes, even as the Lord has declared: 'Except a man be born again through water and the Spirit, he shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.'" (Fragment, 34, A.D. 190).
One can easily see how these two stories from the book of Kings foreshadow Gentile inclusion in Communion and Baptism.
In conclusion, we can see that some implicit type-antitype constructions for baptism can be found in other OT stories as well. Just like every single foreshadow of Christ is not explicitly mentioned as such in the OT, we can be sure that every foreshadowing of Communion and Baptism may not be stated outright either. Two of our stories involve the Jordan River, which not inconsequentially would be the site where baptism for forgiveness of sins in the New Testament would begin with John the Baptist. Those same waters would be where Jesus himself was baptized. Finally, the first story mentioned today took us all the way back to the first few verses written in the Bible, showing how Creation was a foreshadowing of New Creation: the birth of the world began with water and Spirit, our new birth begins with water and Spirit.
Be strong in the grace,
Fenton
NOTE: All in-text verses are cited in the Modern Literal Version, while the links show the NIV translation.
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