Baptism
Part 4
God's desire from the very beginning has been to fill His house with His people, His family. This truth is portrayed in the language through the very first letter of scripture. This first letter is a bet, which is the Hebrew letter for the 'house'. This letter is enlarged and written demonstratively bigger than the other letters. This expresses that God's word not only begins with His house, but His house is a big house. All those who will dwell in this house are His family, made up of His people. Those who belong in His house are those who have been cleansed, are expressing His light and producing His fruit, because they have inherited His seed. From the beginning, there is only one house and one seed. The process that one goes through to enter His house is first expressed in the creation in the beginning. The creation is first cleansed by the Spirit of God (B'reshiyt 1:2), then it receives the light (B'reshiyt 1:3), followed by the immersion and rising from the waters (B'reshiyt 1:10). All this is followed by the creation's ability to be a witness (B'reshiyt 1:14-18)
I believe that God begins this process through His Spirit in man as well. The creation could not receive that light until the Spirit of God redeemed it through His power first in the very bowels of the creation, and so it is for man as well. Man is first immersed by His Spirit from within. This, I hope to show, is the one baptism that Rav Sha’ul refers to in Ephesians 4. The etymological background of baptism is to gather. Not only to gather, but to gather into one. It is the Word of God that ultimately does the gathering. It is the Word of God that regenerates us. The Spirit of God is an idiomatic term used to express the Word of God in demonstration and action. In the same way that the words Y'shua, Messiah, Son of God and Emmanuel are used to express the Word in redemption, deliverance and salvation. In the Etymological Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew by Samson Raphael Hirsch (my favorite verbal root Hebrew dictionary) the word davar means to 'gather into one'. It is the Hebrew word used to express the gathering of the thoughts, desires, motivations and will of God into one to produce all of creation. EVerything, if you will, boils down to the Word, and it is the Word that gathers all that is holy into His house. The Word of God must first quicken and cleanse.
Yochanan 6:63
"It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life."
Mizmor 119:9
"Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word."
Mizmor 119:50
"This is my comfort in my affliction: for thy word hath quickened me."
Ephesians 5:26
"That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,"
Ephesians 1:13
"In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise,"
Yochanan 15:3
"Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you."
The Word of God will cleanse us,produce light in us, gather us together and cause fruit to produce from us so that we may be a witness unto all the creation. His Word is His seed. (Luke 8:11, Galatians 3:16) The nature of His Word is to gather into one all that are His. When we repent and choose to follow the God of Abraham, Yitzchak and Ya‘aqov, we are first immersed into Him by His Spirit. As sons of God we are gathered unto Him, but this same pattern will be accomplished in His body as well. It will be His assembly, His people, His Israel. But His people are scattered throughout the earth. They are now immersed in the sea of humanity, scattered to the west. But God will send for fishers to fish for them.
Yirmeyahu 16:16
"Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith YHVH, and they shall fish them; and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks."
But then God will gather them. The Hebrew word used here is qavatz.
Mizmor 102:22
"When the people are gathered together, and the kingdoms, to serve YHVH".
Yesha'yahu 40:11
"He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young."
Yesha'yahu 43:5
"Fear not: for I am with thee: I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west;"
Mattityahu 13:1-2
"The same day went Y'shua out of the house, and sat by the sea side. And great multitudes were gathered together unto him, so that he went into a ship, and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore."
Can you see the familiar components of the gathering of the people of God QaVatz, with the gathering together of the waters QaVah in B'reshiyt 1:10? YHVH uses the waters to express the gathering together of His creation, His people, and His body. The creation was made perfect and complete, it fell into emptiness and worthlessness, then God restored it. Adam is made perfect and complete, he falls, and then God restores Him. His people Israel are made complete, they fall (divided) and God is restoring them as we speak. All who are part of this one house, one body and one seed, are redeemed by first being washed in the water of His Word. This is the means by which we enter into the everlasting covenant. The fruit of this immersion is that we bring forth light, then we immerse ourselves into the waters of baptism. In other words, I am saying that God Himself has to carry out the baptism into His body, house and seed. The result of this baptism will be our immersion into water. Water baptism is the fruit of our immersion into the Word of God. God first has to cleanse the Most Holy Place (heart)in our tabernacle, Then He moves to the Holy place (mind) wherein stands the Menorah, the great light. Then He moves to the court (body) where we wash overselves.
Shalom Alecheim!