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as circumcision can only be interpreted now in a spiritual sense. They must both stand
together.
Before the institution of the Levitical law, there had been a more comprehensive
"baptism" concerning Israel, which is mentioned by the apostle in I Cor. 10: 1, 2:
"Moreover brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant how that all 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."
This "baptism unto Moses" in the cloud and in the sea is referred to in Psa. 106:, and
by Isaiah:
"He rebuked the Red Sea also and it was dried up; so He led them through the depths,
as through the wilderness" (Psa. 106: 9).
"That led them by the right hand of Moses with His glorious arm, dividing the water
before them, to make Himself an everlasting name? That led them through the deep, as
an horse in the wilderness, that they should not stumble?" (Isa. 63: 12, 13).
In the song of Moses, sung by him and the children of Israel on the banks of the
Red Sea, we read:
"And with the blast of Thy nostrils the waters were gathered together, the floods stood
upright as an heap, and the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea" (Exod. 15: 8).
Here is the initial baptism of the Bible. This baptism took place before the institution
of the Levitical ceremonials, and is entirely disconnected with them. Everything is said
to ensure that the reader shall be aware that at the baptism of Israel unto Moses, water
was miraculously absent! Israel were led through the deep as a horse is led through a
wilderness, the floods stood in an heap, the depths were congealed.
"He divided the sea, and caused them to pass through; and He made the waters to
stand as an heap" (Psa. 78: 13).
At the crossing of the Jordan under Joshua, once again the waters are said "to stand
upon a heap" as far back as the city of Adam, while the Israelites passed over on dry
ground (Josh. 3: 13-17). Although the figure is not actually stated, this crossing of the
Jordan was as much a baptism, as was the crossing of the Red Sea.
"The sea saw it and fled. Jordan was driven back" (Psa. 114: 3).
If we read the opening of this Psalm, we shall see that the sea that fled must refer to
the Red Sea, thus linking together the two crossings, one under Moses at the beginning,
and the other under Joshua after the long interval of temptation and wandering. "The
depths" and "the deep" through which Israel were led are described by the same word as
is employed in Gen. 1: 2 "the deep", whose fountains were broken up at the flood
(Gen. 7: 11). This baptism at the Red Sea has no discernible connexion with the
subsequent "baptisms" practiced by Israel up to and including the days of Christ and the
apostles. The law had come in, and had relegated the earlier and fuller baptism into the