Parting the Waters: The Meaning of a Miracle
What is the meaning behind the repeated biblical miracles of “parting the waters”? Are these understood literally as actual events, as allegories of a spiritual truth, or both?
To answer this question, first let’s review where this miracle pops up in Scripture. It is connected to three major episodes: The flight of Israel through the sea when escaping from Pharaoh’s armies (Exodus 14:15-22); the entrance of Joshua and the Israelites into the Promised Land (Joshua 3:7-17); and the river-crossings of Elijah and Elisha on the occasion of Elijah’s assumption into heaven (2 Kings 2:6-15).
In each of these accounts, they are presented as real, historical events. Modern skeptics have questioned them, since none of them are easily explicable by natural means, but that misses the entire point of what a miracle is. The Bible is uniform in presenting God as intervening at various points in the history of our world to work supernatural wonders, and there is nothing irrational in believing this to be the case. If God exists, then God can work miracles. Further, it is entirely reasonable to suppose that such a God would work miracles at particular points of great importance, to get people’s attention and direct them to important truths.
What purpose, then, do these miracles of parting the waters serve?
1.) God’s
Servant: They demonstrate, in the sight of witnesses, God’s authoritative
calling of a particular individual. This is implicit in the exodus story (God
has Moses perform the miracle, though God could easily do it himself), and
explicit in the Joshua and Elisha stories (see Josh. 3:7; 2 Kings 2:15).
2.) The
Inheritance of a Promise: They signify a way being made to inherit the
promise of God. In the exodus, this was the promise of deliverance from
slavery; in Joshua’s case, the promise was the inheritance of the land of
Canaan; and in Elisha’s case, the promise was the continued presence of God’s
miracle-working prophetic power in Israel even after Elijah is taken away.
3.) God’s
Triumph in Salvation: They show God’s power over the obstacles set against
his plan— they demonstrate his sovereignty to bring about his work of
salvation, even in the face of the broken chaos and disorder of this fallen
world.
a. This
is implicit in the symbolism of the waters themselves. In the Israelite mind,
as shown in Scripture, waters symbolized disordered chaos that could only be
brought into order by God. This is why the inchoate world on the first day of
creation is described as waters, a great deep, formless and empty (Gen. 1:2);
and also why Revelation portrays the New Heavens and the New Earth as no longer
having any sea (Rev. 21:1)—a consistent symbolic image, from the beginning of
the Bible to the end. (See also Psalm 65:7; 89:9; Mark 4:35-41)
b. Waters
also carry a note of judgment in the Bible. It is by water that God judges the
world in the days of Noah, cleansing it from the sinful works of early human
societies. Jonah being thrown into the sea also signifies God’s judgment on him
for his disobedience.
c. To part the waters then, at these dramatic moments in Israel’s history, illustrates God’s plan of salvation, his triumph over darkness and chaos, and his mighty act of making a way for us to pass through judgment to mercy. Each time, it happened at a critical juncture: the deliverance from slavery in Egypt, the entry to the promised land, and the persistence of God’s work amongst his people even at the height of their rebellion.
What do the miracles show, then? You can sum it up simply by saying they are there to reveal God’s appointed servant, and to signify the promise of salvation. When we look at it this way, we are compelled to recognize that these miracles are pointing to Jesus Christ. Jesus is God’s appointed Servant, and he is the one through whom the promise of salvation is made manifest.
All of the incidents come as part of the main Old Testament
sequences which are richest in prophetic foreshadowings of Christ:
-
The exodus from Egypt, which prefigures Jesus
delivering us from the slavery of sin—the exodus’s stories are full of
Christological significance, from the sacrifice of the Passover lamb to the
serpent that Moses raised up on a cross in the desert.
-
The entrance into the Promised Land, which
prefigures Jesus bringing us into the inheritance of God’s promises, and which
is led by a man who actually shares the same name as Jesus (Joshua = Yehoshua
(Hebrew) = Yeshua (Aramaic) = Jesus).
- The stories of Elijah and Elisha, which prefigure Jesus as the one who will baptize with the fire of God’s Spirit, and who works many miracles of healing and mercy.
Further, each of the men involved in these miracles
prefigure the offices of Christ:
-
Moses, from the priestly tribe of Levi,
is the one who gives the Law to Israel, and it is that Law which establishes
the priestly ministry of the Temple.
-
Joshua, the military leader who directs
all of Israel’s affairs during the period of the conquest of Canaan.
-
Elijah and Elisha, the climax of the
entire role of prophet as it is revealed in the Old Testament, both in terms of
its proclamation of truth and its miracle-working power.
- Essentially then, we have here a priestly figure, a kingly figure, and a prophetic figure, as the only ones through whom this specific miracle is enacted: Prophet, Priest, and King.
The miracles of parting the waters, then, point us to Jesus and to the promise of salvation.
In Christian practice, this significance is retained in the
rite of baptism. By “passing through the waters,” each one of us
undergoes the symbolic movement through the waters of judgment, to the
salvation provided by coming out on the other side, as we rise to new life in
Christ. Baptism symbolically fulfills the significance of these ancient
miracles, and it applies to our own lives the truths to which they pointed.