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WATER BAPTISM (I)
WEDNESDAY, MAY 20
Numbers 19:1-22
Leviticus 4:6
 
“The priest shall dip his finger …
and sprinkle of the blood.”
 
WATER BAPTISM (I)
 
According to Reformed theology, the word for baptism when used literally does not always imply submerging or immersing. As a matter of fact, the meaning most common in the New Testament is the action of dipping and pouring or dipping and sprinkling. There is no objection to the thought that baptism may properly be performed by immersion, but we do not find in the New Testament even one instance in which it is clear that immersion was the mode used, nor do we find in the Old Testament ceremonial washings one instance in which immersion is implied.
 
In the Old Testament, the word “baptize” is used in the sense of dipping for the purpose of sprinkling. “And the priest shall dip (baptize) his finger in the blood, and sprinkle of the blood seven times before the LORD, before the vail of the sanctuary” (Lev 4:6; 9:9; 14:16). The dipping (not immersing) is tied to the act of sprinkling. Another example of dipping and sprinkling is found in Numbers 19, especially verses 4, 13, 18 and 20 which give elaborate directions for the “water of sprinkling.”
 
When we read in Daniel 4:33 and 5:21, that Nebuchadnezzar “was wet with the dew of heaven,” the verb is bapto. Certainly the word does not mean that he was immersed.
 
From the above study of the Old Testament, we see that baptism does not necessarily mean immersion. What a word means is determined by how it is used in its context. In the Old Testament context of ceremonial or ritual cleansing, baptism is connected with the act of dipping and sprinkling.
 
THOUGHT: “Baptism testifies to us our purgation and ablution; the Lord’s Supper testifies our redemption. Water is a figure of ablution, and blood of satisfaction.” (Calvin)
PRAYER: Father in heaven, I thank Thee for cleansing me of all my sins through the precious blood of Thy beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

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