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Baptism
Mark 1:4,8 “John came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.”, “I indeed baptized you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
Matthew 3:11 ““I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”
Matthew 3:14-15 “John tried to prevent Him, saying, “I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?” But Yeshua answered and said to him, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.””
John 3:5-6 “answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”
The Greek word for baptize is G907 – baptizō, meaning to dip repeatedly, to immerse, to submerge, to wash, to make clean with water, to be overwhelmed. The Hebrew word for baptizing is Mikveh H4723 – miqvê, which actually means a collection of water, but also means to wait and hope. We see the word used in Creation in Genesis 1:10, “And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. And God saw that it was good.”, the gathering and collection of waters is Mikveh. We see in Leviticus 11:36 that whenever someone became unclean (for example touching a dead body), they can ritually clean themselves in a “collection of fresh water”, it says, “Nevertheless a spring or a cistern, in which there is plenty of water, shall be clean”. Leviticus 15 explains for example in the case of leprosy (a diseases linked to spiritual sins), that after someone has been healed, he needs to ritually clean himself, “then he shall count for himself seven days for his cleansing, wash his clothes, and bathe his body in running water; then he shall be clean.”
John’s baptism was not new to the Jews; he was adapting an existing practice of Jewish ritual immersion (Mikveh in Hebrew) for a new purpose: to call people to repentance in preparation for the coming of the Messiah. While the practice of ceremonial washing was common, John’s specifically focussed on a public, river-based immersion for all, not just for ritual purification or conversion.
John says, Yeshua will baptize with Holy Spirit and Fire. And Yeshua said, we need to be born again by the Spirit and by Water. Click here to see a previous post on Baptism from far back in Joshua 4, before the Israelites could cross into the Promised Land. The theme of water and fire also ripples through the old testament, click here to see a post from Numbers 31 to learn more about the meaning of water and fire. And click here for all other posts on Water, and it’s amazing meaning, since Creation, Noah and the flood and it’s meaning of cleansing the world, the Israelites going through the waters/seas twice (not just once), and more.
Cleaning, Repenting, becoming new as a ritual in water (preferably fresh water) is a statement of faith. At that very point of baptizing, you need to make sure to ask the Holy Spirit to renew your Spirit, like Yeshua said, by Water and by Spirit. That is the point of Repentance (click here for more posts on that), which in Hebrew is Teshuvah, which really means to turn your life around. At that point you change the way you think and act, you become a new person, but also you return (Teshuvah, turn around) to YHWH and His Ways. The Holy Spirit will begin to guide you what the Will of YHWH is, and how you should live. This is the point, where Jeremiah’s prophecy is fulfilled, where it says in Jeremiah 31:33, “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God (Elohim), and they will be my people”.
Desert
Mark 1:1-4 “.. As it is written in the Prophets .. ‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness‘.. John came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism”
Just as waters have been a big theme and symbol since Creation, and Fire a theme and symbol for Judgement, so is the Desert/Wilderness always present in between. The Israelites had to spend 40 years in the wilderness, as a means of testing faith and also overcoming the old to the new. Yeshua spent 40 days in the wilderness before He began His ministry. But many times, people would go into the wilderness to seek answers. People like David, many prophets and kings even. We even see the scapegoat which is used for the Day of Atonement, is sent into the wilderness, Leviticus 16:21-22, “The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to an uninhabited land; and he shall release the goat in the wilderness”. Even at the end of Chapter 1, we see Yeshua escaping to the wilderness many times, to pray and time alone, Mark 1:45 “..so that Jesus could no longer openly enter the city, but was outside in deserted places; and they came to Him from every direction.”
For many people, we use the phrase or quotes when we going through really bad times, to compare it with being in the desert. It certainly isn’t a place where most people want to be, an Oasis sounds much more comfortable. However it is in the desert, where healing occurs. Just like how healing comes from fasting. As a matter of fact, studies show dry fasting, even though more extreme and should be done with caution (even if just for a very short period like a couple of hours in the right conditions), can be extremely beneficial for the body. For more on the topic of fasting, click here.
