Crystallization Study of Exodus 7.1

The Red Sea was the baptistery in which the children of Israel were baptized. Hence, after they were baptized in the Red Sea, they were brought into resurrection. According to Exodus 3:18 and 5:1, Moses told Pharaoh to let the children of Israel go so that they might make a journey of three days into the wilderness and there sacrifice to the Lord their God and hold a feast unto Him. This journey of three days signifies resurrection. This means that it is in resurrection that the people of God were separated from Egypt. Hence, the wilderness is a realm of separation...[and a] realm of resurrection.... Baptism brings us into resurrection. As soon as a believer is baptized, he has the sense that he has been brought out of the old realm into a new realm, the realm of resurrection. Romans 6:4 says that, having been baptized into Christ, we should walk in newness of life. No doubt, to walk in newness of life means to live in the realm of resurrection. According to the type in Exodus, this realm is the wilderness of Shur. Thus, the wilderness of Shur is a type of the realm of resurrection....It also signifies a realm of separation. When the children of Israel entered into this realm, they were separated from Egypt both by the Red Sea and by the wall.

[In Exodus 15:22] the children of Israel “went three days in the wilderness.” Since three is the number of resurrection, this signifies that they walked in resurrection, that is, in newness of life. It is significant that the journey from the Red Sea to Marah was exactly three days, not two days, four days, or even three and a half days. According to a note in the text of the Amplified Version, the distance from the Red Sea to Marah was thirty-three miles. Surely the children of Israel could have walked this distance in less than three days. We must believe that the pace of their travel was under God’s sovereign leading and control. The fact that they traveled for three days is a portrait of walking in resurrection. When the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they certainly walked in a way that was different from the way they walked in Goshen. In Goshen they did not have the pillar of cloud, but in the wilderness they walked according to the guidance of this pillar. They were led by the Lord’s presence to walk in a new way. (Lifestudy of Exodus, pp. 347-348)

Crystallization Study of Exodus 6.6

Like the passing of Noah’s ark through the waters of the flood, the crossing of the Red Sea was a type of baptism (1 Cor. 10:1-2 and footnotes 14 through 23; Gen. 7:17-23 and footnote 171). The waters of the Red Sea were used by God to save His people and separate them from Pharaoh and Egypt. The children of Israel were saved through the Red Sea into the wilderness, a realm of resurrection and separation (Exo. 15:22 and footnote 1), where they were free from all bondage and slavery to fulfill God’s purpose by building the tabernacle as God’s dwelling place on earth. Likewise, through baptism the New Testament believers are saved from Satan and the world into a realm of resurrection (Rom. 6:3- 5) and separation (Acts 2:40-41), in which they are free to accomplish God’s purpose by building up the church as the dwelling place of God.

This marked the completion of the first stage of God’s complete salvation of His chosen people, a stage that included the passover, the exodus from Egypt, and the crossing of the Red Sea. The passover, typifying Christ with His redemption, was sufficient to save God’s people from God’s righteous judgment (Exo. 12:12-13). However, in order to be saved absolutely from the tyranny of Pharaoh and the enslavement in Egypt, the children of Israel needed the exodus and the crossing of the Red Sea. Likewise, after enjoying Christ’s redemption to be saved from God’s judgment, the New Testament believers need to leave the world and be baptized (cf. Mark 16:16a and footnote 1). (Exo. 14:30, footnote 1)

Crystallization Study of Exodus 6.5

In the crossing of the Red Sea, God used Pharaoh once again, this time to create a situation to bring about the baptism of His people. By means of the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire, God led them to take a detour. As they marched behind the pillar that guided them, they were led to camp by the sea (Exo. 14:2).

Baptism requires faith [Heb. 11:29; Col. 2:12]....The children of Israel needed faith in order to cross the Red Sea. At first, however, they had no faith at all. Seeing a mass of water in front of them and the Egyptian army behind them, they cried out to the Lord and complained to Moses: “Is it because there were no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you done this to us, bringing us out of Egypt?” (Exo. 14:11). Although the people had no faith, faith came when God came in to speak a word. The Lord was not angry with the people for their lack of faith, even though they had just witnessed His mighty and miraculous acts in Egypt. To Moses, who as a human was no doubt troubled by the situation, the Lord said, “Why do you cry out to Me? Tell the children of Israel to move forward. And you, lift up your staff, and stretch out your hand over the sea, and divide it; and the children of Israel shall go into the midst of the sea on dry ground” (14:15-16). When Moses received this word from the Lord, the children of Israel spontaneously had the faith to cross the Red Sea. (Life-study of Exodus, pp.319-321, 324, 337)

Foretaste for full taste

Foretaste today for the full taste in the New Jerusalem. (DT)

Crystallization Study of Exodus 6.4

Exodus 13 reveals that the Lord’s guidance and leading come only when certain conditions are met. His leading and guidance are not unconditional. The first condition is sanctification. If we are not sanctified, we cannot have the Lord’s leading. We also need to experience the new beginning of an unleavened life. To be sanctified and to have the new beginning of a sinless life are the first two requirements to be able to receive the Lord’s guidance. Another condition is resurrection. To be led of the Lord, we must not be in the natural man. Our bones must be resurrected and moving. Then, when we are no longer in the natural man, we shall have the Lord’s leading and guidance.

In typology, the cloud signifies the Spirit. As He reaches us, the Spirit of God is like a cloud. The fire here signifies the Word of God, which is a light to us. Hence, the instant, living guidance that God gives us comes either through the Spirit or the Word. When the sky is clear, He is the cloud. But when the sky is dark, He is the fire. When the Lord leads as a pillar of fire by night, the light from this pillar causes the night to become day. In this way the children of Israel could journey day and night.

Both the cloud and the fire are symbols of God, for He is both the Spirit and the Word. Furthermore, the Word is also the Spirit (John 6:63; Eph. 6:17). The Lord, the Spirit, and the Word are one to lead us and guide us continually. When we are clear, God guides us through the Spirit. But when we are not clear, He guides us through the Word. As the Word is made clear to us, it becomes the Spirit in our experience.

Crystallization Study of Exodus 6.3

Redemption is for our security, whereas sanctification is for God’s purpose. If we are shortsighted, we may see only redemption, which is for our benefit. But if we have the proper discernment, we shall see that redemption must be followed by sanctification (Rom. 6:22), which is for the fulfillment of God’s purpose.

In the eyes of God all the children of Israel had been dead and buried in graves in Egypt. That was their situation before the passover. The land of Egypt was a huge cemetery in which God’s people had been buried. Hence, from God’s point of view, His people in Egypt were dry bones. The picture of the dry bones in Ezekiel 37 illustrates the condition of the children of Israel in Egypt: they were dry bones that needed to be resurrected and formed into an army (Ezek. 37:1, 10). The exodus from Egypt, therefore, was actually a resurrection. (Life-study of Exodus, pp. 305, 307-310)

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