We have the great privilege today of witnessing a baptism. I say “witnessing” because anytime you see a pastor baptize someone, Jesus himself is truly the baptizer. When a pastor baptizes someone one, young or old, Jesus is the one who actually performs the act.
Sometimes it is said that there are no examples of infants being baptized in the Bible.
On the contrary, there are many examples of infants being baptized in the Scripture — you just have to know where to look for them.
One example of a baptism that includes infants is the exodus, the Red Sea crossing, when God brought his people out of Egypt.
In 1 Corinthians 10, Paul describes the nation of Israel coming through the sea. The nation by this point has several hundred thousand people, and doubtlessly many newborns are among them. Paul tells us “all” were under the cloud, “all” passed through sea, “all” were baptized into Moses and the cloud.”All” means “all” — and “all” includes their children.
Moses did not tell them, “This is a baptism, so leave your little ones out of it.” He did not say, “The children are not old enough to decide if they want to cross the sea for themselves so leave them on the shore.” He did not require their young children to meet with the pastor to articulate their faith in an intellectually mature way before deciding if they got to leave Egypt behind and join the ranks of the baptized. They did not have to memorize a catechism or have a conversion experience. No! Their children, even the youngest of them, were included in that baptism. They were included in the covenant community. They shared in the blessings of the exodus with their parents. They were included in the Israel God was forming in that event. They were treated as believers and covenant members. Indeed, Paul goes on to say “all” ate the same Spiritual food and “all” drank the same Spiritual drink that came from the Spiritual Rock — again, obviously including their young ones in the sacramental life of the covenant community.
Just to complete the picture of the baptism described in 1 Corinthians 10, in Psalm 77, the psalmist recounts the same event. When the psalmist narrates the story of the Red Sea crossing, he tells us the Israelites, children and all, passed through on dry ground, and as they did so, the glory cloud poured out water on them. They were baptized with water from above.
So: Just as newborns were baptized in the Red Sea by a pouring of water, so A and M bring AE to be baptized today into the new Israel by a pouring of water from above….
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