Baptism in the Old Testament

A quick preface

This article is a work in progress and is not exhaustive. As instances of baptism come to my attention and time permits, I would like to add more examples below. As such, the intro below may seem silly when I say "a few instances" and the article only has one or two... please bear with me lol

Introduction

Baptism was a command from our Lord Jesus Christ for all believers to perform (Matthew 28:18-20), one demonstrated several times through the New Testament as full or partial immersion of an individual in water as a confession of their belief, and for remittance of sins.

I have heard some people ask me why we as Christians do it, or where the scriptural basis for it is found. For a layman, it may appear to be a random tradition that was tacked on around the time of Jesus for believers to perform, without any significance in scripture.

I am here to tell you that it's quite the opposite; There are actually numerous instances of symbolic or literal baptisms through the Old Testament, and some are even cited as much by the Apostles during their own ministry.

In no particular order, I would like to discuss a few of these instances and show how it all points to Jesus' Ministry.

I will attempt to summarize the context for each instance, but I strongly encourage you to read the passages referenced yourself so you can actually understand the stories better.

King David and half of Israel are Baptized

The full story can be read in 2 Samuel chapters 18 & 19

The Backstory

A revolt by King David's Son Absalom has broken out; the assembly of Israel had anointed Absalom king over Israel against God's wishes, and King David was forced to trample the rebellion of his son. In the process, Absalom is killed against David's wishes (that he be spared and brought alive). Joab, Commander of King David's army, disobeyed the King and killed Absalom while he was stuck in a tree. When David got news of this, he was mortified; Joab returned to the King, expecting David to be happy he won the battle for his kingdom, but found a dejected King who mourned the loss of his son.

Turning to David, Joab says in 2 Samuel 19:5-6 (ESV):

5 Then Joab came into the house to the king and said, “You have today covered with shame the faces of all your servants, who have this day saved your life and the lives of your sons and your daughters and the lives of your wives and your concubines, 6 because you love those who hate you and hate those who love you. For you have made it clear today that commanders and servants are nothing to you, for today I know that if Absalom were alive and all of us were dead today, then you would be pleased.

His criticism is not unfounded, but what Joab fails to see is that David was not looking to show his strength or to terrify Israel, but to show his power to show mercy even when he has the upper hand. King David is like a prototype of Christ. Not a perfect image, but a reflection of the True Image of God. David forgave his brothers who sinned against him (Matthew 5:22-24; Matthew 18:21-35), he prayed to God for deliverance from those who persecuted him (Matthew 5:43-48) and gave all glory to God while doing it (Psalm 18:43-50). Is this not exactly what Christ taught us to do?

For our purposes, I will not elaborate on every aspect of David's life and how it resembles Christ, but I will touch on a few points more later that demonstrate it also, but back to the story now.

David Forgives Judah

2 Samuel 19:8-14

Now David has to deliver a message to the people following his victory over his son. Murmurs are spreading already about Absalom's death, and the people are afraid that they threw their hat in the ring with the wrong king. God has a plan for David, and no group of men will stop Him in achieving His divine purpose; that much has been shown to Israel now.

How should the King respond? Would God want him to strike them down as the traitors they were? David — being a man after God's heart — doesn't answer their treachery with vengeance, but immediately begins to show them all mercy, because in reality they acted out of ignorance (1 Timothy 1:13-16). The murmurs become a question of why the King has not returned to his throne.

In verses 12-13 David sends word to his tribe that they should be the ones to bring him back as the rightful King of Israel. He selects Absalom's commander in place of Joab to now run his army following Joab's disobedience.

The Meeting by the Jordan River

2 Samuel 19:14-38 (ESV)

14 And he swayed the heart of all the men of Judah as one man, so that they sent word to the king, “Return, both you and all your servants.” 15 So the king came back to the Jordan, and Judah came to Gilgal to meet the king and to bring the king over the Jordan.

The people of Judah got David's message, and have now decided to meet him at Gilgal to cross over the Jordan together. Hmm. Doesn't that sound familiar? That's because it is a proto-baptism: the exact thing I was telling you is found throughout the Old Testament.

Now, several other tribes in the area noticed this meeting, and they rushed to meet with the men of Judah to meet King David and to also cross the Jordan with them. Many of these people were the very same people who sided with his son Absalom against him.

Each of their leaders comes, and they meet with David to confess their wrongdoings and seek his forgiveness, and each time, David forgives them.

22 But David said, “What have I to do with you, you sons of Zeruiah, that you should this day be as an adversary to me? Shall anyone be put to death in Israel this day? For do I not know that I am this day king over Israel?” 23 And the king said to Shimei, “You shall not die.” And the king gave him his oath.

Remember how I said that King David is a prototype for the Messiah? Look at what he said very carefully: "do I not know that I am this day king..." and his oath to them before they cross the Jordan: "You shall not die". Is this not the very same message and oath sworn by our Lord, Jesus Christ?

That same oath is the same one we swear when we cross the proverbial Jordan with Jesus by being baptized in the name of The Father, The Son and the Holy Spirit, as commanded by Jesus. Unlike David, Christ has the keys to Hades and death (Revelation 1:17-18), and can actually stand behind his promise more than to just restrict His own hand from ending us; He has stopped death for good.

Next, a man named "Barzillai the Gileadite" who was 80 years old, also met the King down by the Jordan. This man had never wronged the King; he even cared for David when he was in Mahanaim in an earlier chapter of 2 Samuel, when Absalom was pursuing David. The King offered to care for him back in Jerusalem as a thank you for the hospitality. Barzillai refuses to come all the way to Jerusalem, but says to the King that he will still cross the Jordan. This man by no means had done anything wrong to the King, yet he, too, wished to cross over the Jordan with them as a sign of his commitment to David. (COUGH COUGH SOUND FAMILIAR?)

34 But Barzillai said to the king, “How many years have I still to live, that I should go up with the king to Jerusalem? 35 I am this day eighty years old. Can I discern what is pleasant and what is not? Can your servant taste what he eats or what he drinks? Can I still listen to the voice of singing men and singing women? Why then should your servant be an added burden to my lord the king? 36 Your servant will go a little way over the Jordan with the king. Why should the king repay me with such a reward?

Barzillai helped the King not because he was seeking his own glory or a reward, but because it was what was right in the eyes of God. He ends up sending a servant of his own with King David to accept the reward that David had offered him, showing his love to someone who didn't do anything to deserve it that we know of, a great example for us all, I think!

A Covenant Confirmation

2 Samuel 19:39-40 (ESV)

39 Then all the people went over the Jordan, and the king went over. And the king kissed Barzillai and blessed him, and he returned to his own home. 40 The king went on to Gilgal, and Chimham went on with him. All the people of Judah, and also half the people of Israel, brought the king on his way.

The people crossed the Jordan together as a sign of their loyalty and forgiveness to one another. By repenting of their sins against David, and passing through the waters of the Jordan as a baptism, Israel was saved from their transgression against David and against God by standing opposed to His Anointed King.

In the same way, we were commanded by Christ to perform a baptism as a sign of God's covenant with us.

We are the Israelites whom war against God's Anointed Son, Jesus; Whom grovel at His feet, asking to be forgiven. We are the old man who may be faithful to The King our entire lives, yet still should be baptized as a sign of our obedience to God's Anointed Son.

Jealousy in Jerusalem

2 Samuel 19:41-43 (ESV)

When the rest of Israel saw what was happening, they came to meet them (at least that's what it seems the scripture implies, it's not clear if they made it to Jerusalem first). The people of Israel are upset, they ask why this large group have done what they did.

42 All the men of Judah answered the men of Israel, “Because the king is our close relative. Why then are you angry over this matter? Have we eaten at all at the king’s expense? Or has he given us any gift?” 43 And the men of Israel answered the men of Judah, “We have ten shares in the king, and in David also we have more than you. Why then did you despise us? Were we not the first to speak of bringing back our king?” But the words of the men of Judah were fiercer than the words of the men of Israel.

The men of Israel are upset because they feel they deserve even more than the men of Judah do. They are jealous because they wanted a reward for their faithfulness, when David simply was reclaiming his throne.

This can be shown to reflect on those whom have rejected Christ and His message. In the case of the Jews, they invested so much into our God by keeping the law (imperfectly), transmitting the scriptures, and ultimately being the stump for the shoot of Jesse, Jesus Christ, to grow from (Isaiah 11:1-5). Unfortunately, they are partially blind to the truth, and we must pray for their salvation.

They so desperately wanted King David to return after beating Absalom, and reward them with riches and power for their loyalty, that they missed the King who wanted to cross the Jordan with them in forgiveness. Christ has already won the world for them, but they wanted Christ to come and to conquer the world for them so badly that they missed His true purpose on this Earth: To come to us, accept our repentance, and swear the oath: "You shall not die."

Praise God that I was able to see, hear and understand His message!

Noah, the Flood, and the Holy Spirit

Genesis 6-7

The New Testament Backstory

I would like to cover some New Testament backstory in order to establish some context for the flood narrative.

St. Peter in his first epistle mentioned the story of Noah, and he directly links it to Baptism.

1 Peter 3:18-22 (ESV):

18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, 19 in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, 20 because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. 21 Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.

As you can see, St. Peter points to this event directly as a parallel for baptism. Something of note: he also says "they formerly did not obey ... while the ark was being prepared" and when he then points us towards baptism which now saves us, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This could be a direct appeal that Christ is the new Ark which we are to be saved by, which at that time had not been prepared for them.

Something the Pastor at my Church said when we were discussing the below scripture, sunk in with me as a parallel here in verses 21-22 when Peter says that it is an appeal through Jesus, "who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God". This, I believe, is inline with what Jesus teaches the disciples in when he promises us the Holy Spirit:

John 14:9-17 (ESV):

9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.

12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. 13 Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.

When we get Baptized, it's our appeal for Christ to do His work in us, to give us His Holy Spirit (the "good conscience" from 1 Peter 3:21), that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

Immediately following Christ telling them "I'm going to the Father," He promised us the Holy Spirit, but what does he say right before he does?

15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

By saying "you will keep my commandments," He's also including the one where we were told to get baptized. Now Peter is saying that our Baptism is an appeal to God, through Jesus, for a good conscience, and Christ is telling us to keep His commandments, and then He will ask The Father to give us the Spirit; this is too similar to not be related in my opinion. How similar, then, is the story of Noah to Baptism in this sense?

Noah was Righteous, but was His Family Though?

In Genesis 6, God has determined due to the fall of Man, and sins of the Angels taking Human wives (giving birth to what are referred to as "The Nephilim"), God has decided that He wants to start over, and flood the earth to wipe out the all sinful flesh on earth. He selects Noah, who found favor with God, to build a giant boat and to enter it with his family to take shelter in.

Genesis 6:17-18 (ESV)

17 For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life under heaven. Everything that is on the earth shall die. 18 But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you.

Notice something: God establishes His covenant with Noah, but God never refers to Noah's family as righteous.

At the start of Chapter 7, God instructs Noah to enter the Ark, and Noah takes his family and the animals inside.

Genesis 7:1, 4-5 (ESV)

1 Then the LORD said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation.

4 For in seven days I will send rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and every living thing that I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground.” 5 And Noah did all that the LORD had commanded him.

Only Noah found favor, yet God allowed him to bring his family into the safety of the Ark to save them from God's wrath.

Justified by Obedience

Now I'd like to make a point here, that in believing what God had instructed Noah — that they should get in and seal the Ark, and that God would flood the earth — Noah's family was Justified for their faith in God. The Ark, then, serves as a parallel for Baptism in that:

1. They were instructed to enter in the Ark by the minister of the covenant (Noah)
2. They obeyed by entering the vessel
3. They were saved from the floodwaters for their obedience and counted as righteous.

It doesn't take a scientist to realize that if they had disobeyed God, they would have died with the rest of humanity. St. Peter's passage now would be making the argument that in obeying Jesus when we get Baptized, we are following the same pattern that Noah did.

1. We were instructed to be baptized as a sign of the covenant made by Jesus with us (Jeremiah 31:31-34; Matthew 26:26-28; 2 Corinthians 3:3-6)
2. By doing so, we enter the "vessel" of the new covenant or rather The "Vessel" — who is the Holy Spirit — enters us (Matthew 3:13-17).
3. We are saved from the floodwaters of our sins and counted righteous, as was Noah's family (James 2:19-24).

The difference between us, and the demons who also believe in God from the last reference to James 2, is our obedience to God in what He tells us to do.

Later on in James 4:3-10 (ESV) he warns us about being friends with the world, as it puts us in opposition to God:

3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. 4 You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? 6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

The people in Noah's day very much chose to be friends with the world, and as such were enemies of God. Now if God has made his spirit to dwell in us, and obedience is very important what is the connection to baptism?

The Floodwaters of the Holy Spirit

Throughout scripture, water is used as imagery for the Spirit of God (Ezekiel 47:1-12; Zechariah 10:8-9; Revelation 22:1-2; John 4:10-14;)

In John 16:8-15 (ESV), Jesus tells us the role of the Spirit when He comes:

8 And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; 10 concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; 11 concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.

He will convict the world of their sin, righteousness and judgment for not believing in Christ, on whose authority?

12 “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14 He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 15 All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

It's on Jesus's authority — that is through The Father also since "All that the Father has is mine" — that the convictions come, the Spirit is then one with the Father, and one with Christ as Christ is also one with the Father. (The Trinity! Hooray! We just reverse engineered the most essential Christian Doctrine from a single passage of the Gospel of John)

Now when God declared his judgment in Noah's day, the waters of the flood was the Spirit's Judgment of the world for their sin. In a sense, they did not trust in God, that he would punish their sins and as such did not obey him and enter into the Ark. The floodwaters of judgment caused their deaths, but it also exalted Noah and his family as the chosen remnant.

The invitation at the time was probably not cast out to all men in the world like Jesus has commanded us to do now, but they were convicted by the spirit that they did not know.

In the flood Narrative, right before the flood, God informs us in Genesis 6:3 (ESV) that His Spirit dwells in man:

3 Then the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.”

The implication from this revelation in the New Testament that we now know Him as the Holy Spirit, but the world doesn't know him like we do and as such is not obedient to God.

The Ark of Many Covenants

It was the will of God that the Ark of Noah's Covenant (literally) was a boat to protect them from that Judgment. In those days, God's presence did not visibly dwell in the Ark with them as he did in the Days of Moses, David, and Solomon. In our current age, it's understood that the true temple is Christ's glorified body, as he alluded to when the Pharisee's questioned him saying "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." (John 2:19-21) The presence of God would have been over the Ark of the Covenant, "overshadowing" it. In the days of Christ, the same verbiage was used when Gabriel explained how Mary would conceive while being a virgin.

I believe that because Christ is The Temple, that the Ark would follow Him where He went, because the Ark contains the mercy seat where the presence of God would have sat. Christ, being God in human flesh, must have contained the presence of God and one could argue His claims of being "the bread of life" (John 6:35-40) and being the true vine that helps us bear fruit (John 15) also points to this as well.

Christ fulfilled the commandment tablets, He is the True "Manna" from Heaven, He is the real budding staff (true vine) that were all stored inside the last Ark of the old covenant to the Israelites. These all directly point to Christ as the new Ark. The men who assembled against Moses were swallowed alive into Sheol (Numbers 16:30-34); The 250 priests who tried to claim the priesthood from Aaron were burned as incense (Numbers 16:35-40), just as the branches who do not bear fruit from the true vine — the priesthood of Jesus Christ — are pruned and cast into the fire.

Our obedience to Christ — in getting baptized — is bearing fruit from the true vine. It is like getting into the Ark as instructed, to be saved from the floodwaters of our sin. Notice how he says in John 16:8 "because they do not believe in me", the world will be convicted of their sin. Now through our obedience, we show our belief, and we are made members of Christ's body due to our communion with the Lord and with the Spirit in us. Being made members of the household of God has special perks, the best of which is His Grace which allows us to pass through the floodwaters of judgment for our sin unscathed. Unlike those outside the Ark, however, which are utterly destroyed in the judgment of the world.

John 7:37-39 (ESV)

37 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ” 39 Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

Now if the Spirit is serving the same role — that we need to drink this "living water" that is the spirit from Christ — then we must understand here that our Baptism, and Peter's allusion to Noah's flood as being symbolic to this, must be significant and related. Noah was made a minister of his covenant to his entire family through the grace of God, allowing himself to be an instrument of salvation for them all, for God's glory.

Christ is the ultimate replacement for Noah in the next flood, with himself being the New Ark, protecting and perfecting each of us in the fires of purification through the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 3:10-17). That same Spirit makes us members of His body, and through Him, we are now members of His priesthood, being made ministers of the New Covenant, that is sealed with the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:11-14; Ephesians 4:30). The Author of Hebrews has lots to say on that last point if you are curious where that idea comes from.

Ministers of the New Covenant

St. Paul in 2 Corinthians 3:3-6 (ESV) refers to us as being "ministers of the New Covenant", that new covenant being the Holy Spirit. Through our obedience, we enter into the Ark of the new covenant — that is Jesus Christ — to be saved from our sins.

3 And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

4 Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. 5 Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, 6 who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

How else would we be ministers of this "New Covenant" mediated by Jesus Christ apart from the Sacraments defined by Him? Communion and Baptism being the main two, I can think of no other part we play in the matters of the salvation of others, and even then the part we play is not even our own doing. Without Christ's sacrifice, we would not have the Holy Spirit to do the actual work in and through us, all for God's glory. (John 14:12-19; John 16:7, 13-15)

The Spirit's final work in your flesh will be to wake it up at the day of resurrection; It will allow you to hear The Good Shepherd's voice when He returns. (John 10:3-5, 14-17; John 16:13-15; Romans 8:9-11) Understanding His "modus operandi" is an important thing, and considering scripture was inspired by the Spirit through the will of God, of course, these scriptures will describe how He operates also.