Red Sea Crossing
The crossing of Israel through the Red Sea (Ex. 14:21-31) is identified by Nee/Lee and Jones as a type of baptism and deliverance from the world. Paul makes the typological connection explicit: “All were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea” (1Cor. 10:2). In Nee/Lee’s Exodus typology, the Red Sea marks the boundary between Egypt (the world of sin) and the wilderness — the crossing that puts the Passover lamb in the rearview and opens the way toward the Land.
Biblical Anchoring
| Reference | Context |
|---|---|
| Ex. 14:21-31 | The crossing of the Red Sea; the people pass through the water as through dry ground |
| Ex. 14:13-14 | ”The LORD will fight for you” — the crossing as God’s work of deliverance |
| 1Cor. 10:1-2 | ”All were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea” — Paul’s explicit type designation |
| 1Cor. 10:6, 11 | ”Now these things happened to them as types for us” — the Exodus events as redemptive-historical types |
| Heb. 11:29 | ”By faith they crossed the Red Sea as if on dry land” |
Typological Treatment by Author
Nee/Lee
Lee structures the entire Christian experience of faith through the Exodus typology as a triptych. The Red Sea crossing marks the transition from Egypt (the domain of sin and the world) to the wilderness journey — the second stage on the way to the Land:
“I deeply feel that most of the Lord’s children are still remaining in Egypt. They have only experienced the passover; they have just taken the Lord as the lamb. They have been saved by the lamb, but they have not been delivered out of this world.”1
The distinction between the Passover stage and the Land stage is decisive for Lee: only the land — the all-inclusive Christ — is the complete rest. The Red Sea crossing is the turning point in that scheme:
“In Egypt was the lamb, in the wilderness was the manna, and ahead of the people of Israel was the land of Canaan. That is the goal; that land is the goal of God. We have to enter in. It is our portion.”2
Jones
Jones situates the Red Sea crossing within his chronological-typological scheme of the three great feast ages. The entire Exodus — Passover, wilderness, Canaan — is the macro-structure along which salvation history runs:
“The Feast of Tabernacles correlates with Noah’s third dove — the last anointing, for it represents the fullness of the Spirit poured out, wherein we see the redemption of the body (Rom. 8:23). At this outpouring, you receive the true inheritance that was lost in Adam: the glorified body.”3
In Jones’ typological structure, crossing the Red Sea corresponds to the transition from the Passover work (initial deliverance) to the preparation for the Tabernacles inheritance: the crossing is the type of liberation from bondage to sin and the world.
Related Types
- Connected: exodus (Red Sea crossing as the pivotal moment within the Exodus typology)
- Connected: jordan-river (Jordan crossing as the counterpart: the entry into the Land / Tabernacles age)
- Connected: passover (Passover precedes the Red Sea: the lamb is slain before the crossing)
Footnotes
Footnotes
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Nee/Lee, The All-inclusive Christ, ch. 5 — Believers remaining in Egypt; the Red Sea as the world’s boundary. ↩
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Nee/Lee, The All-inclusive Christ, ch. 5 — The Exodus triptych: lamb / manna / land as progressive structure of redemption. ↩
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Jones, Secrets of Time, ch. 3 — Noah’s three doves as type of the three feast ages; redemption of the body (Rom. 8:23). ↩