The Foundations of Baptism in the Old Testament
If you’ve ever heard of baptism, even if you don’t know much about it, you’ve probably heard that being baptized in water is something people do when they’ve decided to follow Jesus. But what did people do before Jesus? Has baptism always been a thing, or was it a brand new idea that came about when Jesus walked the earth?
When we study biblical history, we see that baptism (the way Christians have practiced it since the time of Christ) was brand new at the time of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. But back in the Old Testament, we see that God was paving the way for this fundamental Christian practice even before Jesus came to earth.
One of the earliest places we see a type of baptism is in Genesis during the time of Noah. God brought a flood over the whole earth, Noah and his family were saved through the flood, and the earth found new life once the waters receded (see Genesis 6:5–8:22). Peter made this connection between the Great Flood and baptism in 1 Peter 3:20–21, where he wrote that “God patiently waited in the days of Noah while the ark was being prepared. In it a few—that is, eight people—were saved through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you (not as the removal of dirt from the body, but the pledge of a good conscience toward God) through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” So in some of the earliest days of humanity, God was showing people that he would use water as a mighty symbol of salvation.
Another early type of baptism was recorded in Exodus. When the Israelites were on the run from slavery to the Egyptians, it seemed impossible that they would be able to get across the Red Sea to create the needed distance between them and their captors. But God parted the water to give them a path to walk right through, and when the waters returned to their usual place, they eliminated the Egyptians who were in pursuit (see Exodus 13:17–14:30). The Israelites were saved! Paul notes the connection between this miraculous sea rescue and Christian baptism in 1 Corinthians 10:1–2, where he observed that “our ancestors were all under the cloud, all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.” Being baptized “into Moses” means that they identified with Moses as the one who rescued them from slavery, just as Christians identify with Jesus as their savior through baptism.
In these two examples, we see how God was foreshadowing the Christian practice of baptism. And today, we benefit from those Old Testament examples to show us how God is the same and has worked consistently throughout time.
If you want to learn more about baptism, or are considering getting baptized yourself, join us for one of our Baptism Services this coming weekend, November 9th–10th, or watch one of our baptism sermons here.