Introduction
The
Gospel is wider and more complete than many Christians appreciate.
To come into the good of “our Passover, Christ” is a blessing beyond
price, knowing that He “has been sacrificed” (1 Cor. 5: 7) on our
behalf and has “suffered for sins” as our substitute, “[the] just
for [the] unjust” (1 Pet. 3: 18). His precious blood is the means by
which we escape the judgment of God since, as having “faith in his
blood” (Rom. 3: 25) and “justified in [the power of] his blood, we
shall be saved by him from wrath” (Rom. 5: 9). For many, this is the
limit of the deliverance provided in the Gospel, but it is not how
Scripture presents things. Even after the Passover blood was
sprinkled, Israel was not clear of Egypt and to meet that need, God
provided the path through the Red Sea. Earlier, God had promised to
redeem (or free) Israel (see Exod. 6: 6), and the Passover brought
that about for, in the antitype, we have “been redeemed … by
precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, [the
blood] of Christ” (1 Pet. 1: 18). However, just as Israel could not
serve Jehovah in Egypt, so believers need “freedom from sin” in
order to be “bondmen to God” (Rom. 6: 22) in a practical sense.
Thus, as having crossed the Red Sea, the children of Israel praise
God, singing, “Thou by thy mercy hast led forth the people that thou
hast redeemed”; Thou hast guided them by thy strength unto the abode
of thy holiness” (Exod. 15: 13). The Passover deals with sins (what
I have done), the Red Sea with sin (what I am as having an evil
nature). Both the Passover and the Red Sea picture Christ’s death,
but in the former the blood is stressed, while in the latter death
itself is emphasised. Not only has God saved the believer from
judgment, but He has also saved the believer from the domination of
sin—and
it is not without interest that
the word salvation
is found in association with the passage of the Red Sea (see Exod.
14: 13; 15: 2) rather than the Passover. Much later in Israel’s
history, we have the crossing of the river Jordan (see Josh. 3, 4),
which, since it also pictures the death of Christ, has many points
of similarity with the Red Sea. However, while the Red Sea speaks
largely about what we are saved from (Egypt), the
Jordan tells of what we are saved to (Canaan), for
crossing the Jordan brings the believer into the land.
Now in Exodus 12,
the issue that needed to be settled was between Israel and
divine judgment—for
although the tenth and final plague was brought upon “Pharaoh and
upon Egypt” (Exod. 11: 1), God’s chosen people still had to seek
refuge from that judgment in the blood of the Passover Lamb. In
Exodus 14, however, the issue was between Israel and
their enemies, the Egyptians.
Salvation from Egypt was provided by the Red Sea. The one was
deliverance from judgment, the other was deliverance from the house
of bondage.
The one was settled by the blood; the other was settled by passing
through the Sea.
The salvation of God is therefore a complete salvation. Not only has
“Christ died for our sins” (1 Cor. 15: 3) and been “delivered for
our offences” (Rom. 4: 25), but the power of sin itself
is broken in His death such that “we should no longer serve sin”
(Rom. 6: 6).
A True Type
Of course, the subject of typology (of which the
passage of the Red Sea is a prominent example) has often been
undermined by well-meaning but fanciful interpretations. Is there
then, any real justification for calling the Red Sea a distinct
picture of what God has secured for His people in the death of
Christ? Yes, indeed there is, for in 1 Cor. 10, the apostle Paul
(speaking of Israel) declares that “all our fathers were under the
cloud, and all passed through the sea; and all were baptised unto
Moses in the cloud and in the sea” (vs. 1, 2). He then goes on to
say that “these things happened [as] types of us” (v6). Now the use
of the word us means that the typology cannot be limited to
Israel’s unfaithfulness as described in vs. 5-6 but also includes
their position as “baptised unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea”
(v2). It must do, because Paul employs the illustration of Israel
not because Christians are “lusters after evil things”
(though some may be) but in order “that we should not be”
(v6, my emphasis).
Keeping in mind
this representative character of “Israel according to flesh” (1 Cor.
10: 18), it is evident that a parallel can be drawn between what was
set out in Israel’s baptism to Moses in the Red Sea (and, mark, it
was baptism not just a figure of it), and what is
pictured in Christian baptism. Yes, I recognise that baptism
itself is also a figure (see 1 Pet. 3: 21), but figures signify
realities. Now the essence of baptism is dissociation and
association, and in the case of Israel, the severance was from
Egypt, and the new authority was established in Moses. They were
“baptised unto Moses in the cloud and in the Sea” (1
Cor. 10: 2, my emphasis)—that
is, they became his disciples.
What, however, do these
two contrary power centres of Egypt and Moses represent for the
Christian?
The House of Bondage
It is
not too difficult to see Moses as typifying Christ as the Sent One
of God and preaching deliverance. Initially rejected by his brethren
(see Exod. 2: 14), He was also the third child of
Amram, and the third generation from Levi (see 1
Chron. 6: 1-3)—the
number three in Scripture consistently speaking of resurrection (see
Gen. 1: 9-13; Matt. 12: 40 etc.). Just as Moses passed through the
sea, so Christ “became dead” (Rev. 1: 18) but “has been raised up
from among [the] dead by the glory of the Father” (Rom. 6: 4).
What though does
Egypt represent?
Egypt is a
picture of the world away from God, for, unlike Canaan which “drinketh
water of the rain of heaven” (Deut. 11: 11, my
emphasis), Egypt depended on the Nile, of which Pharaoh arrogantly
declared, “My river is mine own, and I made it for myself” (Ezek.
29: 3). It is a place characterised by independence of God “doing
what the flesh and the thoughts willed to do” (Eph. 2: 3)—in
essence, a
world of sin. It is there that the people whom God had
chosen were slaves, for “the Egyptians made the children of Israel
serve with harshness” and “embittered their life with hard labour”
(Exod. 1: 13, 14). Yet if Egypt was a “house of bondage” (Exod. 20:
2) to Israel, in what sense is this present world a
house of bondage to us? The Lord Jesus Himself
provides the answer: “Verily, verily … Every one that practises sin
is the bondman of sin” (John 8: 34). Men and women away from God
sin habitually because sin is their master, their house of
bondage,
for “by whom a man is subdued, by him is he also brought into
slavery” (2 Pet. 2: 19). They
are bondmen of sin (see Rom. 6: 17, 20)
and not only do things that “are worthy of death”, but they “have
fellow delight in those who do [them]” (Rom. 1: 32).
Sin reigns over them (see Rom. 5: 21; 6: 12) and sin dominates them
(see Rom. 6: 14) and so sin is practised by them (see 1 John 3: 8).
In the type, the
situation of the children of Israel in Egypt was hopeless: Egypt was
an “iron furnace” (Deut. 4: 20), a prison of suffering from which
there was no escape. God,
however, was not oblivious to their plight and “looked upon the
children of Israel” and “acknowledged [them]” (Exod. 2: 25). In
grace, He sent Moses to them with a message of deliverance from
bondage, and although Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let the people
go, the power of God forced his submission. Thus, on the night of
the Passover, “Jehovah smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt,
from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn
of the captive that was in the dungeon … And the Egyptians urged the
people, to send them out of the land in haste; for they said, We are
all dead [men]” (Exod. 12: 29, 33).
However, although
the children of Israel were set free on the night of the Passover to
serve another master (see Exod. 12: 31), they were not yet delivered
from Egypt.
The power of Egypt may have
seemed to be defeated (for the Egyptians said, ‘We
are all dead men’) but on the shores of the Red
Sea, the oppressor terrifyingly reasserted his claim over Israel
(see Exod. 14: 5, 8-10). The blood of the Lamb, fundamental as it
was, did not bring Israel out of Egypt (indeed,
the first Passover, as picturing the believer in his state of sin
was necessarily celebrated in Egypt (see Exod. 12: 1,
2)—for that is where the believer is
when he receives the forgiveness of his sins.
The Believer Unsettled
Now the
children of Israel “had gone out with a high hand” (Exod. 14: 8)
from Egypt. Here the type closely reflects the antitype, for many
newly in the good of Christ as the Passover Lamb are rightly marked
by a euphoria in sins forgiven and freedom from judgment. This
manifests itself in a determination to have done with sin (hence, in
the type, the Passover is also the start of the feast of unleavened
bread—see
Exod. 12:
18-20; 39; Lev. 23: 5, 6 etc.—leaven
being a well-known symbol of sin).
The believer, however, does not yet appreciate the extent of his
need, nor the scope of God’s salvation. Israel’s quickest route to
the Promised Land avoided the Red Sea altogether, but the people
were not ready for conflict with the Canaanites. Thus, God did not
lead Israel “the way of the land of the Philistines, although that
was near” (Exod. 13: 17) but turned them into the desert in order
that they “encamp before Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea”
(Exod. 14: 2). This was a quite deliberate confinement in order that
God might show His power, and that Israel might see that they had
none. Migdol, the Egyptian border fortress, was the witness that
freedom had not yet been achieved. Israel therefore needed to go
forward but in front of them lay the impassable barrier of the Red
Sea. Progress unsurprisingly stalled, and worse, when “the children
of Israel lifted up their eyes … behold, the Egyptians marched after
them” (Exod. 14: 10). The euphoria of the Passover was now replaced
by alarm, and the people “were much afraid, and cried out to
Jehovah” (v10). Pi-hahiroth is only Israel’s fourth encampment (see
Num. 33: 3-7)—possibly
even reachable within the timeframe of the feast of unleavened bread—but
the people were now in great distress, saying it would have been
“better for us to serve the Egyptians” (Exod. 14: 12). However, it
was for the very purpose of breaking that service that God that had
ensured they were “entangled in the land” (v3)—hemmed
in by the mountainous wilderness, with a sea in front of them to
drown in, and an army at their rear to either kill or re-enslave
them (see Exod. 14: 5). With disaster looming, they accuse Moses of
taking them out of Egypt “to die in the wilderness” (v11). Little
did the people realise that soon the Egyptians would be dead
to them, and that God had provided a way of escape from
Egypt that was unthinkable: through the waters of death in front of
them. As far as God was concerned, it was the only way
out of Egypt.
Such was the type.
What then can be said of the spiritual realities that are pictured
for the Christian? At Pi-hahiroth, Egypt
sought to retain the people of God, and if the prince of this world
cannot retain believers on account of their sins, he will seek it on
account of their sinful nature. It is not
long before the new convert discovers that sin still has a powerful
hold over him. He finds that
forgiveness of sins is not deliverance from sin,
and that he needs deliverance from its bondage just as much as
Israel needed freedom from Egypt’s servitude. He knows the problem,
but he does not know the solution: “I am fleshly, sold under
sin. For that which I do, I do not own: for not what I will, this I
do; but what I hate, this I practise … I delight in the law of God
according to the inward man: but I see another law in my members,
warring in opposition to the law of my mind, and bringing me into
captivity to the law of sin which exists in my members. O wretched
man that I [am]! who shall deliver me out of this body of death?”
(Rom. 7: 14-15, 22-24).
What then is the
divinely ordered way of escape? Is it by the believer comforting
himself with the thought of that Christ’s precious blood has been
shed on his behalf? No, for while the blood of Christ blots out
sins, it does not meet the question of sin working in the believer
after he is brought to God. Only one thing does and that is the
death of Christ. Thus “God, having sent his own Son, in
likeness of flesh of sin, and for sin, has condemned sin in the
flesh” (Rom. 8: 3). How has sin been condemned? In the death of
God’s Son, for “in that he has died, he has died to sin once for
all” (Rom. 6: 10)—note,
to sin, not for sins.
Thus, just as the Red Sea was Israel’s deliverance from Egypt, so
Christ’s death is the believer’s deliverance from the bondage of
sin. Not only has Christ dealt with our sins by His blood, but by
His death He has dealt with our sin.
We “have died to sin” because “we have died with Christ” (Rom. 6: 2,
8). In God’s eyes, when
He died, we died also, for “our old man has been crucified with
[him]” (v6)—crucifixion being a judicial death (that
is, the sentence of death is upon our old sinful self). Many do not
see this and strive by rule-keeping to improve what has been
condemned by God. They expect something from that which God expects
nothing. They may be Christians, but this is not Christianity, for,
we “have been made dead to the law by the body of the Christ” (Rom.
7: 4) and “by the Spirit, ye put to death the deeds of the body”
(Rom. 8: 13).
Standing Still and Going Forward
Now if
“we have died with Christ” (Rom. 6: 8), then “he that has died is
justified from sin” (v7)—that
is, it has no more claim on me. Sin was my master, but
if death has intervened, then it can no longer be my master! Many,
however, think that when the Bible talks about being “dead to sin”
(Rom. 6: 11) it is something they must bring about themselves,
and consequently they struggle earnestly to be dead to
sin. At the extreme end this has led to monasteries and hermits, but
such striving is also widespread among ordinary Christians. This is
far from what the Bible teaches, for deliverance from the bondage of
sin is not a question of effort but of simply believing what God has
done for me in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. The believer is
not to try and make himself dead to sin, but to “reckon”
himself “dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 6: 11,
my emphasis). Faith is to lay hold on what God has done in
associating me with Christ in death. When Israel crossed the Jordan
into the land, they encountered enemies that find their present
answer in “spiritual wickedness in high places” (Eph. 6: 12;
AV) and they were to engage them in battle. By contrast, Moses
never commanded Israel to fight the Egyptians. Indeed, his
instruction was to expend no effort at all: “Fear not:
stand still, and see the salvation of Jehovah, which he will work
for you to-day; for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to-day, ye shall
see them again no more for ever. Jehovah will fight for you, and ye
shall be still” (Exod. 14: 13, 14). If Israel had fought the
Egyptians, then they would never have escaped bondage, however hard
they had tried. So what were Israel to do? Stand still!
Who alone was to act? God.
Thus Moses, at the
word of God, took up his staff
and stretched his hand over the sea,
and at once the waters of
death were divided. God’s people were about to go into what appeared
to be a watery grave, and yet those waters of death were in fact the
path of life. Now in the same way that God provided a way out of
Egypt through death, so God has provided a way of escape for the
believer from the bondage of sin. If Christ’s blood has secured our
deliverance from the wrath to come, His death has secured our
freedom “from the law of sin and of death” (Rom. 8: 2) for “our old
man has been crucified with [him], that the body of sin might be
annulled” (Rom. 6: 6). Is this something we only arrive at after
years in the good of “Christ our Passover” (1 Cor. 5: 7; AV)? No!
Baptism teaches us, in figure, these very things at the start
of our spiritual pathway, for “as many as have been baptised unto
Christ Jesus, have been baptised unto his death” (Rom.
6: 3, my emphasis) and “are become identified with [him] in the
likeness of his death” (v5).
With the sea in
front of them, Israel was instructed to “go forward”
(Exod. 14: 15, my emphasis)—a
quite mad proposal to the rational mind.
Such a movement could only
be “By faith” (Heb. 11: 29)—the
same faith that is operational in practical deliverance from the
bondage of sin. God tells us in His word that Christ “has died to
sin once for all” (Rom. 6: 10), and that we, as identified with him,
“have died with Christ” (v8). We were not present at Christ’s death,
and so we must believe these things on the basis of divine
testimony. Therefore, as was said earlier, the believer is to
reckon himself “dead to sin and alive to God in Christ
Jesus” (v11). Christ’s death means that, for the believer, “sin
shall not have dominion over you” (v14). Faith lays hold of
that wonderful fact, rejoicing that death has broken the link to the
old master, just as the Red Sea broke Israel’s link to Egypt and
caused them to exult before Jehovah (see Exod. 15: 1-21). Of course,
sin is still present with the believer (else why the need to
reckon?), but it is not to reign. In Christ’s
death, God has given the believer “freedom from sin” (Rom. 6: 22)
and if sin is still operational in our lives, it is because we
let it. As under the bondage of sin we serve sin; as cleared
from the bondage of sin, the exhortation is “Let not sin therefore
reign in your mortal body to obey its lusts” (v12). Thus, our
reckoning ourselves “dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus”
(v11) needs to be a constant thing. From God’s side, all is secure,
for even though the Egyptians pursued Israel into the sea (see Exod.
14: 23), Israel were beyond Egypt’s reach.
Thus God “embarrassed the
camp of the Egyptians … the Egyptians said, Let us flee before
Israel, for Jehovah is fighting for them against the Egyptians! …
and the sea returned … and covered the chariots and the horsemen of
all the host of Pharaoh that had come into the sea after them; there
remained not even one of them” (v24-28).
As in the type, so in the antitype, for
Christ’s death has secured
a complete triumph over sin, and it is our privilege as believers to
simply believe it. If Israel saw “the Egyptians dead on the
sea-shore” and “the great power [with] which Jehovah had wrought”
(vs. 30, 31), so the believer is to lay hold of what God has done in
the death of Christ. He must reckon himself “dead to sin and alive
to God in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 6: 11) and yield himself to God “as
alive from among [the] dead” and yield his members as “instruments
of righteousness to God” (v13).
Conclusion
Of
course, the Red Sea was only the start of Israel’s journey with
God—just as freedom from the bondage of sin, while vital, falls far
short of the fulness of what God has in store for us. The Red Sea
only put Israel into the wilderness, not the land—the
wilderness being a picture of this earthly scene through which we
make our pilgrimage, utterly dependent on God for our resources,
“alive to God in Christ Jesus” (v11) and walking “in newness of
life” (v4). Entering into the land (which typifies our heavenly
blessings) took place after the much later crossing of the Jordan.
We can enter that blessing now, but we need to know what it is to be
raised up into the heavenlies in Christ Jesus (see Eph. 2: 6).
Romans 6, (which the Red Sea pictures) does not take us quite that
far, for although it speaks of resurrection, it is presented as
something yet future: “so also we shall be of [his]
resurrection” (v5, my emphasis). Nonetheless, let us ensure that we
have really taken the lesson of the Red Sea on board because there
can be no further progression with God unless we have taken that
initial step. Let us also be kept from approaching these wonderful
truths in a dry and cold manner. We should ever remember that
it is Christ
personally who has borne the penalty against sin, for He was “made
sin for us”
(2 Cor. 5: 21),
and that He went “into the heart of the seas” on our behalf, and
that the waters encompassed Him “to the soul” (Jonah 2: 3, 5).
Without Him there would be no walking “on
dry [ground] through the midst of the sea” (Exod. 14: 29) for us.
