Christ the Living Water
Isaiah 11…2 Kings Smite the Waters to Divide the Rivers
An interesting connection binds Isaiah 11 to 2 Kings, in both a river is smitten and crossed. Isaiah states:
And the LORD shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his mighty wind shall he shake his hand over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make men go over dryshod. And there shall be an highway for the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria; like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt. —Isaiah 11:15-16.
Zechariah also speaks of crossing rivers in a second exodus from Egypt as well as Assyria.
I will bring them again also out of the land of Egypt, and gather them out of Assyria; and I will bring them into the land of Gilead and Lebanon; and place shall not be found for them. And he shall pass through the sea with affliction, and shall smite the waves in the sea, and all the deeps of the river shall dry up: and the pride of Assyria shall be brought down, and the sceptre of Egypt shall depart away. And I will strengthen them in the Lord; and they shall walk up and down in his name, saith the Lord. —Zechariah 10:10-12
Compare this to 2 Kings:
And Elijah took his mantle, and wrapped it together, and smote the waters, and they were divided hither and thither, so that they two went over on dry ground. —2 Kings 2:8.
In verse 14, after Elijah is carried away, Elisha crosses back over the Jordan in the same manner.
And he took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and smote the waters, and said, Where is the Lord God of Elijah? And when he also had smitten the waters, they parted hither and thither, and Elisha went over. —2 Kings 2:14.
Elijah’s and Elisha’s crossings mimic the parting of the Red Sea during the Exodus. The crossing of parted waters represents baptism, a symbol of transition from the old to the new. The apostle Paul says so:
Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea: and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; —1 Corinthians 10:1.
Before the crossing of the Red Sea, the Jewish race was not under the law. Shortly after the crossing, the Lord gave the law to which the people made a covenant to follow. In the Isaiah 3…Numbers connection, we find Christ is the cloud which led the Israelites through the Wilderness. Throughout their journeys, the cloud rested upon the Tabernacle or went out before the people. However, at the crossing of the Red Sea, the cloud stood between the Israelites and the Egyptians. Therefore, the Israelites had to pass through the cloud on their way to the path through the sea during the transition from following the cloud to crossing the Red Sea. (Exodus 14:19-20). This is why Paul mentions the baptism in the cloud and in the sea. It is only through Christ that man can find salvation.
At the end of the Apocalypse, God will again part the waters for Israel on their return to the Promise Land. This time, instead of going the long way around through the Red Sea and the wilderness, they will follow the coast in the most direct route. They could be returning from the place of refuge in which God will preserve the people of Israel during the Antichrist’s reign of terror. (Revelation 12:6). This time they must pass through the waters seven times instead of once. Isaiah tells us this future crossing will be at the tongue of the Egyptian Sea, likely the Nile Delta. Perhaps it is because this time they will not be baptized unto Moses, as Paul states, but unto Christ. This time the law will be written on flesh and not on stone. God will make man new and perfect, not just constrained and imperfect.