@TonyChanYT
Water baptism a shadow?
If it is, is it needful to repeat the exercise, to rework the shadow rather than moving on toward or into the Reality? What is the Reality?
And a vision is needful so that people do not perish. As a person grows [if he does grow] in and toward God it really should becoming clearer from day to day:
"Where there is no vision, the people perish:..." Prov 29:18
"For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known." I Cor 13:12
"Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is." I
John 3:2
As to John the Baptist, perhaps he was working to break up, or to show people how to break up, their fallow ground:
"For thus saith the LORD to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns." Jerem 4:3
How does the ground become fallow or good ground?
"And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up:
Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth:
And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away.
And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them:
But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, 0some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold.
Who hath ears to hear, let him hear." Matt 13:4-9
Considering the baptism of the Ethiopian eunuch by Philip. What part does water play in preparing the ground [you and me and the other guy being the little bit of dirt] to receive those seeds and to accomplish hopefully a thirty, sixty or hundredfold increase rather than remaining a scorched dry earth place of death?
"I will not give sleep to mine eyes, or slumber to mine eyelids,
Until I find out a place for the LORD, an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob." Psalm 132:4-5
"For the LORD hath chosen
Zion; he hath desired it for his habitation.
This is my rest for ever: here will I dwell; for I have desired it." Psalm 132:13-14
Zion:
!wyc Tsiyown (tsee-yone'); Proper Name Location, Strong #: 6726
Zion = "parched place"
- another name for Jerusalem especially in the prophetic books
KJV Word Usage and Count
Zion 153
Sion 1
Would the "parched place" (Zion) be the bit of dirt that we are before having our ground broken up and enriched and seeded and watered as good and fallow ground.
But what kind of "water" is that...? The symbolic type or shadow of the H2O immersion of the eunuch? Or...?
"Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again:
But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life."
John 4:13-14
There are types and shadows throughout the OT, but some also as I understand it in the NT as well! Is there not a Reality or Truth available that surpasses all the expectations of men when they partake of the types and shadows? John the Baptist made it clear, I believe, that no matter what he, the Baptist, might be, Jesus was greater bringing something greater.
Baptism in water is certainly not of itself alone an evil thing but perhaps rather another type or shadow of the Reality/Truth, which God is and which God offers to men...
"I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:
Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." Matt 3:11-12
Remember here also the lesson of Nehushtan destroyed by Hezekiah! [see II Kings 18:1-4]
