Everything important in the New Testament and the New Covenant has a type and a shadow in the Old. God is the same yesterday, today, and always. He wasn’t some different God then than now. And we can see some symbols of the two separate baptisms in the Old Testament.
First of all, we have the two crossings by the nation of Israel. First they crossed the Red Sea on dry land, then they crossed the Jordan with Joshua. They are both important in the journey, but symbolize something very different.
The crossing of the Red Sea was miraculous, but it symbolized the repentance of a people pressing on away from Egypt and into a new life with God, and it occured under the direction of Moses, who while symbolic of Christ, is symbolic of Christ in the Law, which is why it has to do with repentance.
The second baptism was with Joshua (Jesus’ actual name, Yeshua). One of the reasons Moses would never have led the nation of Israel into the promised land was because Moses was symbolic of the Old Covenant. As Paul discusses in Hebrews, the Old Covenant could never truly fulfill the promise, and so it took Joshua (Jesus) to take them into the Promised Land. The second baptism was also over the Jordan, and we can assume with some confidence this was the exact place where Jesus was baptized by John (more on that tomorrow). The baptism over the Jordan was also done by the presence of God housed in the Ark of the Covenant, symbolic of a greater baptism.
And the baptism of the Jordan was necessary not for repentance but to fulfill the promise, to go and fight for the land and drive out the current inhabitants.
Secondly, the priests themselves had to go through a type of second baptism. Priests were born priests (only Levites and even certain families within them were allowed to minister to the Lord), so they were already ordained by physical right. But in order to carry out the ministry they were born to do, they had to be anointed by oil. You’ll see more the connection tomorrow.
The tabernacle was built in the wilderness, and the sacrifice was prepared. Remember, we are the temple of the Holy Spirit, and repentance is our sacrifice through the of Christ. But the first sacrifice was not burnt by the priests but by God Himself, consumed with fire from heaven.
And last, but not least, we have Elijah before the priests of Baal. He pours water over the sacrifice three times (Father, Son, Holy Spirit), but it is God who must validate the sacrifice with fire from heaven. Two baptisms.
So as we finish up the time of the prophets, John the Baptist makes his declaration about Christ, “I baptize with water, but He will baptize with Spirit and with fire.” That could also be translated “Spirit-fire.”
We’ll see how Christ was the fulfillment of that tomorrow.
Peace.