Baptism and Amalek

"Then came Amalek and fought with Israel in Rephidim"

My brother in law is a good man. 

He desires peace among men and he is a well liked doctor because of the excellent care he provides to his patients. He also has spiritual interests and describes himself as a Daoist promoting a universalist message of salvation. In other words, in his belief system, God is not exclusive of any who try and live in peace and harmony with man and nature.

In a recent conversation that my wife and I had with him about the bible, he became very animated in opposition to the God of the Old Testament. He refused to have anything to do with "a bunch of ignorant nomads from past centuries". It is understandable that he would react that way because in his worldview, the God represented in the Old Testament is very exclusive and militaristic.

However, the Old Testament is a record of man's sin, not God's sin. It is an example to the world that even with God's special intent for an otherwise obscure nation, man is incapable of governing himself apart from reliance upon God. When we turn from God, we are governed only by our depravity with predictably disastrous results.

Well we might ask, what do a tribe of nomadic refugee slaves from 1500 years before Christ have to do with us in 2012? 

For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. Romans 15:4 

The ancient Israelites may indeed have been a tribe of ignorant nomads, nevertheless they are, and remain, the objects of God's attentive deliverance. The Amalekites were the first hindrance to God's plan for His people.

After God delivered the people that He had chosen, Amalek opposed them. We are are told in 1 Cor 10:2:"And (the Israelites) were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea;" (They were brought out of slavery in Egypt.)

You may not have realized it but at this moment as you read this, you are being figuratively baptized.

This term 'baptism' refers to an immersion, or fully dipping of something into something else. We speak of someone being immersed into their studies or 'immersed in a story'.  Here, it means that they were immersed into God's protection (the cloud) and into God's opportunity (the Red Sea).

I say God's opportunity because even though that they received a promise from God, not everyone that came out of Egypt made it into the promised land. In fact, none of that generation ever made it there. They failed to trust God fully and they died in the wilderness. God promised them a land of their own if they would take advantage of being delivered from Egypt's oppression. 

In the same way, you are presently being immersed into the opportunity to receive God's promise. For everyone that places their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ shall not perish but have everlasting life. This promised land is eternal and reserved in the heavens for every believer.

God could not fulfill His promise to this first generation in the nation of Israel because of unbelief. Instead, their children, a whole new generation, went into the land.

God promised of a better land, a land of freedom, a land of peace from their enemies, a land where their children will be fed and their families could grow. It all started by means of the shed blood of a lamb.

Their opportunity came through God immersing them into His protection. His power overwhelmed the power of Egypt and destroying the greatest army on the earth at that time in the Red Sea.

Do you remember what the Israelites did when they saw the Red Sea crash in on their enemy? The greatest army in the world at that time was utterly destroyed and the bodies of soldiers, horses and shattered chariots washed up harmlessly on the seashore. We read that they sang the song of Moses, a song of deliverance: "The horse and his rider has He cast into the sea"

They sang of their deliverance from the power of sin, but it is not salvation. They were still not in the promised land.

This same baptism is being offered to you today. You are right now immersed in God's opportunity for salvation. Jesus was crucified, buried and raised from the dead in order to break the power of sin in your life. He has done everything that needs to be done. He gives you the opportunity, the offer of salvation today.

Yet merely hearing the Word of God, merely seeing that Jesus has died for your sins, merely singing the songs of deliverance like the Israelites sang the song of Moses after the bodies of the Egyptian army washed up on the seashore is not the promised land, it is not God's salvation.

Do not confuse God's salvation with God's offer of salvation.

It is possible to be delivered from the power of sin for a time without ever being delivered from the penalty of sin. In other words, you can live a good life, pray everyday, go to church, sing the hymns and still go to hell when you die.

That is because being set apart (sanctified) to hear the Word of God is not the same thing as obeying it. Only by obeying the truth are we brought into the fullness of God's salvation. (John 8:32)

God commands all men everywhere to repent (Acts 17:30) and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. (Acts 16:31)

Have you heard that the death of Jesus on the cross was payment for your sin? Have you trusted that by His resurrection from the dead He is confirmed as God's way of salvation? 

Having heard, Have you trusted? Having trusted, Have you obeyed God's Word?