No Going Back

Some time before I was born, a whole bunch of people were traveling toward a desert, being pursued by an army of Egyptians. Traveling is not really the right word, it was more like fleeing. Regrettably they found themselves between a sea of soldiers and the Red Sea. An older fellow called Moses, who was leading them, stood before them and encouraged them that their God had rescued them and that He wouldn't have led them to die. As he stood at the waters edge he struck his staff (which has a great story behind it) against the water and the sea began to separate.

This is the beginning of a great reminder summarised by the Jewish God, YHWH, who calls Himself, the God who 'brought you out of Egypt'. The parting of the sea was a defining moment. God was going to do the impossible in order to save the Israelites from their oppressors. It was defining because they had left their home, plundered their masters, and headed off. The Egyptians pursued them, wanting them back, even though they had suffered consequences from keeping them under duress, and had finally given in to letting them go. I don't think the Egyptians saw clearly very often. The Israelites walked on dry ground...on the bed of the Red Sea. And then the Egyptians followed. It's one thing to pursue your ex-slaves, but to rush into an impossible situation created by your oppositions' God, and thinking you'll win? That's just plain dumb.

So the Israelites came to the other side of the sea. They stood on the shore, watching the Egyptians ride after them...and then the walls of sea either side of them caved in and the Egyptian army, and Pharaoh, and maybe some curious birds, drowned. Gone. Done with. And the Israelites were safe. On top of that great drama, they couldn't go back. Through some miracle they had made a decision to leave shelter for the desert, and once through the sea walls, there was no going back. No way.

As the Israelites travelled through the desert they did do the odd bit of complaining about life not being quite as luxurious as in Egypt ("Oh, the cucumbers!"), but they couldn't go back. They couldn't return to their previous life. And they had taken a hole lot of good things from their previous life, but they couldn't return. The good had come, but their old masters, slave-masters, and the systems that oppressed them to be worthless, had been done away with; destroyed. They hadn't come with them into their new life.

When Christians get baptised they feel a bit weird. What am I doing exactly? they think. Of course I'm still realising, even today, the significance of my baptism. There's the simple truth that I die (with Jesus on the cross, where he died in my place) to myself, my old life, and rise with Jesus (because he is the resurrection). Then there's more complex things going on I only realise now. Like the comparison made with baptism and the Exodus; the story of the Israelites leaving Egypt through the Red Sea. And I realise there's no going back. I can't go back to my old life. I've got some good stuff, because God isn't completely vindictive and until we accept him have a horrible existence, and I've also left behind the old master. The things that oppressed me, made me do things against my better judgment.

And why did it take me this long to figure out? I'd like to blame a lot of things, but my most basic reason is something I'm going to write a book on, I think. That baptism (a couple of years ago) saved me. That will upset some people. Because baptism also doesn't save you. Jesus saved me. And baptism was that in a public, active form. No one told me what baptism would do, because it's a scary thing to say that this immersion in water is more than that. But I'm so glad I did it, rather than listen to the teaching, think of it as an obligation, and decide against it. Baptism in water is so vital for everyone who believes in Jesus, there is no going back once it's happened. It changes everything.

I don't ever want to dry off.