Decisions

1 Corinthians 10:1-5

Decisions 

Historically baptism has been associated with:

Creation (Genesis 1:9-10) and Re-Creation (Noah, the Exodus, the Conquest, the Restoration, the New Creation)

as well as with

Death and Life (Life could only begin once the land had emerged from the water, the drowning of the wicked in the Flood and the saving of the righteous, the drowning of the Egyptians in the Red Sea Crossing and the saving of Israel, Jericho after the Jordan crossing, dying and rising with Jesus as new creations)

But baptism is also associated with decisions and vows, whether that is framed as a decision by an individual to follow Jesus in which the sacrament of Baptism is seen as a testament or statement of their individual faith…

OR whether it is framed as a decision made by believers on behalf of their children in which the sacrament of Baptism is seen as a declaration of covenant inclusion in the family of God by virtue of his faithfulness. 

But, I believe, Paul spoke about other decisions made after baptism that, as we shall see, are far more important than those made before baptism.

“For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud (an image of the presence of God with his people or a theophany), and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea (the Spirit and water, John 3:5), and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ (pre-incarnate presence of Jesus). Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.”

Although the Israelites got off on a bit of a rocky start, their decisions at first based very much on what we could call situational ethics…yay, Moses, boo, Moses, yay, boo, yay, boo…their final decision to leave, plundering the Egyptians as they left, was good. 

They left “under the cloud” – an idiom used today to indicate that a person's departure is not a positive or straightforward event, but rather one marked by suspicion, disgrace, or lack of trust – but not so here! They left under the guiding physical manifestation of God – a cloud, something we will look at in a fair amount of detail next week. 

And yet, there was one more boo Moses moment (when the Egyptians caught up to them) before they were baptised through the Red Sea, leaving behind a life of slavery (death) to enter a life of freedom (life and a new creation), one of the instances in which baptism brings about a new creation or a new life. 

But the yay, Moses, boo, Moses continued post Red Sea baptism, revealing a yay, God, boo, God reality until, at the borders of the Promised Land when Israel once more lost sight of the singular vision of God as their Almighty God (there are giants in the land!), the Lord said enough is enough and they were overthrown in the wilderness. For forty years they were nomads in the wilderness until that unfaithful generation died out…40, is a number used throughout the Scriptures to represent a generation – 40 days and 40 nights of flooding, 40 years wilderness wandering, 40 year between the crucifixion and the destruction of Jerusalem etc)

But my point is that their good decision before their baptism should have continued with good decisions post baptism.

Other examples I can mention as the Flood, where Noah and his families’ disastrous decisions post “baptism” indicated that no human deliverer would ever be sufficient…we just looked briefly at the Exodus, but the same can be said about the Conquest. 

Echoing warnings given by Moses in Deuteronomy chapter 6 & 8, Joshua says to the people of Israel:

“I gave you a land on which you had not laboured and cities that you had not built, and you dwell in them. You eat the fruit of vineyards and olive orchards that you did not plant. Now therefore (make good decisions and continue to make good decisions – a past decision made by your ancestors or by you is not enough!) fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt and serve the Lord. And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

Joshua 24:13-15.

They had crossed the Jordan, another baptism of sorts, and had won many victories, but the most important decision still lay before them. From nomadic tribesmen they had been changed into a land-owning nation, a new creation, to be sure, but if they were to continue as that nation, they had to decide to serve the Lord. 

And we know what their disastrous decisions eventually caused: the northern Kingdom of Israel was conquered by Assyria in 722/721 BC and the ten tribes were lost forever, and the southern Kingdom of Judah was conquered by the Babylonians in 586 BC and taken into captivity. 

The final example is that of the Restoration. Although the relevant texts do not explicitly state that the Exiles returning from Babylonian captivity went through the Jordan, the river had to be crossed at some point. But, as with the other examples, wrong decisions followed on the heels of right decisions that lead us on a roller coaster up to the final “boo God” moment – the rejection and murder of the Son of the Owner of the Vineyard – that resulted (after 40 years) in the destruction of the Temple and the Holy City of Jerusalem.

I could reference similar warnings made to the seven churches listed in the Book of Revelation, but I would be stealing my own thunder, so I will refrain.

So, here we stand today as the family of God, once more at the waters of baptism…the waters of decision…and soon we will be naming those decisions in the baptismal liturgy as well as making decisions or vows for the future. Of course the decisions the Beijers have made are important…the decisions we will make to support them are important…but the decisions we all will make as Amee grows to maturity and, indeed, the decisions she will make throughout her life are most important.

Choosing today to fear the Lord and to serve the Lord…choosing to walk through the Red Sea, the River Jordan, the waters of Baptism…these are all important…but those choices must continue to be made if we are not to fall in the wildernesses of our own making.

Shall we pray?

© Johannes W H van der Bijl 2025