“Out of the Water”: What Does it Really Mean?
Introduction
The biblical language describing someone who came “up out of the water” is familiar because of its association with baptism scenes in the New Testament. For example, when Jesus is baptized in Mark 1:10, it says, “And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove.”* Or when Philip baptizes the Ethiopian Eunuch, it says, “And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing” (Acts 8:39).
What does this phrase mean? The true meaning of these phrases is often tempered and restrained because of hidebound debates about the mode of baptism. But this phrase appears all across Scripture with an enlarged understanding, carrying with it a rich and unfolding typological meaning that is older than the New Testament practice of baptism.
What follows is a six-part taxonomy of the different uses of the phrase or concept “out of the water,” their diverse contexts, and their converging meaning across the biblical story. This is not presented exactly in chronological order. Certain passages appear in multiple categories, and some usages have a meaning that cuts across thousands of years of biblical history.
First, Land Out of the Water
The “out of the water” concept appears, first, at creation. On the third day God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear” (Gen. 1:9). The description is not that the dry land is created. Rather, as the waters are “gathered together” (Gen. 1:9, 10), the land is raised, drawn up out of the deep, and rescued. Habitable ground comes out of the water. The solid substance of land is no longer drowned.
Then, in Genesis 8:1-19, the climax of the flood story, it happens again. In Genesis 1:9-10, the waters were “gathered together.” Now “the waters receded from the earth” (Gen. 8:3). The waters “abated” (Gen. 8:3) and “continued to abate” (Gen. 8:5) until “the tops of the mountains” appeared (Gen. 8:5). The same wind that blew at the creation (Gen. 1:2) blows again at the re-creation (Gen. 8:1), and the dry land is (re)created out of the water.
Peter reflects back on this and says it this way, “The earth was formed out of water and through water” (2 Pet. 3:5). When the water is high, it is the non-land, the un-place, the terrifying deep where no garden can be built. But when the land comes out of the sea, it can be built upon, places can stand, and gardens can grow fruit.
But Peter also says that the just as the Lord of Creation can make the earth, so can he judge it (2 Pet. 3:7). “The earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God” (2 Pet. 3:5). And “by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished” (2 Pet. 3:6). Yet even in judgment God looks upon Noah with favor (Gen. 6:8) and instructs Noah to build an ark, a temporary land that will sit on top of the water (Gen. 6:14-22). Noah “did all that God commanded” (Gen. 6:22; 7:5). He entered the ark with his family and the animals (Gen. 7:6-15). God shut the doors of the ark (Gen. 7:16). Then “the waters increased and bore up the ark, and it rose high above the earth” (Gen. 7:17). While everything else drowns, the ark, like the land, is raised above the water, and the ark is “brought safely through water” (1 Pet. 3:20). “Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 3:21).
The water lifts the ark and saves those inside. Those outside the ark are swallowed by the waves of judgment. Noah is rescued through water by means of judgment. One event with two effects: salvation and judgment. The land appears out of the water, and God gives Noah the same commission Adam received (Gen. 9:1-7). But Noah, the new Adam, fails as the original Adam failed. Adam is still an Adam. What is needed? Not a new start but a New Man (1 Cor. 15:35-49).
So, in Scripture, coming out of the water contains the meaning of creation and re-creation. What does a new creation require? A New Adam, a man “from heaven,” “a life-giving spirit” (1 Cor. 15:46f).
Second, Man out of the Water
As Noah reveals, it’s not just that God brings the land out of the sea. It’s that God saves the people out of the sea. The waters need to be gathered together (Gen. 1:9f). Scripture repeatedly says that God bound the sea (Job 38:11; Ps. 104:5-9; Jer. 5:22; Prov. 8:29). Why did the sea need limits? Because the sea prevents habitation. God’s solution is not to annihilate the deep, but to put it on a leash. The sea still exists. It is still out there and, in God’s Providence, sometimes the sea prevails (Gen. 7:17-24). It threatens Noah. It threatens the disciple’s boat (Mt. 14:28-32). It hides the beast (Rev. 13:1).
In the beginning the sea was good, and everything in it (Gen. 1:9f; 20-23). The sea is not evil, but neither is it home. Since it is not habitable, no covenant can be kept on it. Why not? Because no altar can be built on the waves. Kingdoms are not built in a water world. In Scripture, God’s people are being rescued from the waters of death.
Exodus 2:10 “When the child grew older, she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, ‘Because,’ she said, ‘I drew him out of the water.’”
Psalm 18:16 “He sent from on high, he took me; he drew me out of many waters.”
2 Samuel 22:17 “He sent from on high, he took me; he drew me out of many waters.”
Psalm 40:2 “He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure.”
Jonah 2:6 “At the roots of the mountains I went down, to the land whose bars closed upon me forever. Yet you brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God.”
Matthew 14:31 “Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”
Moses is drawn out of the water (Ex. 2:10) as is David (2 Sam. 22:17). Jonah prays in faith, believing that God has already brought him up from the pit while he sits in the fish’s belly. Just as God “took me…out of many waters” in Psalm 18:16, Jesus laid hold of Peter and saved him (Mt. 14:28-32).
So, in Scripture, coming out of the water contains the meaning of salvation. How do you get out of the deep? No one comes up on his own. Moses is drawn. David is drawn. Jonah is brought up. Peter is grabbed. As Jesus says in John 6:44, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.” To “come up out of the water” is a pre-resurrection act.
Third, Inheritance out of the Water
In Scripture, water is something that needs to be crossed. Something is waiting on the other side. For Moses, the other side of the Red Sea was freedom (Ex. 14-15). For Joshua, the other side of the Jordan was the Promised Land (Josh. 3-4). For Elijah, the other side of the water was heaven (2 Kings 2:8-14). To reach the other side, the water must divide (1 Cor. 10:1-2).
Consider the story of Joshua 3-4, where the people cross the Jordan and enter the promised land. The priests enter the water first (Josh. 3:6, 14f). The banks are overflowing, and the water is roaring (Josh. 3:15). But when the soles of their feet touch the edge, the water “rose up in a heap very far away” (Josh. 3:16). The priests stand in the middle of the riverbed while all the people, men, women, and children, quickly walk past them onto dry ground (Josh. 3:17; 4:10). The river is held open by the priest-mediators. The people can cross because someone else is standing in the deep, holding back the flood of death. After all the people passed over, the priests cross carrying the ark of the Lord (Josh. 4:11). Then we read this in Joshua 4:15-19:
“The Lord said to Joshua, 16 ‘Command the priests bearing the ark of the testimony to come up out of the Jordan.’ 17 So Joshua commanded the priests, ‘Come up out of the Jordan.’ 18 And when the priests bearing the ark of the covenant of the Lord came up from the midst of the Jordan, and the soles of the priests’ feet were lifted up on dry ground, the waters of the Jordan returned to their place and overflowed all its banks, as before. 19 The people came up out of the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month.”
This is the language used at the baptism of Jesus and the Ethiopian Eunuch. The meaning of this language is included in the Joshua 4 story. When everyone has entered the Promised Land, the water crashes down, judgment returns, and the Jordan overflowed again (Josh. 4:18). The people crossed the Jordan in faith and came up out of the water to receive their gift. They were circumcised (Josh. 5:2-9), then celebrated the Passover (Josh. 5:10). The manna stops (Josh. 5:11f), and they began eating the produce of the land. Joshua encountered the commander of the army of the Lord and worshiped him (Josh. 5:13-15). The people then conquer Jericho, not in a battle, but in a liturgical procession led by the priests. The city is devoted to destruction and becomes the firstfruit of Yahweh’s land gift (Josh 6). Then, having received the Lord’s inheritance, the fighting begins. Joshua 7-12 describes the hard war of conque
st.
So, what is the meaning of the language “come up out of the water”? It means they have crossed from the wilderness into their new inheritance (See also 2 Kings 2:9-15, where “crossing” is emphasized in this way). To inherit, you must receive by faith and drive out the enemy by faith. The first is once and unrepeatable. The latter is gradual and progressive; indeed, “there remains yet very much land to be possessed” (Josh. 13:1). It’s a pattern that the Apostle Paul picks up on in Romans 6:4-13, where imperative and indicative are properly related. You can possess the land because the Lord has brought you out of the water.
Joshua led the people into the water and the people came up out of the water (Josh. 4:19). By this, the Lord exalted Joshua, vindicating him as the leader of Israel (Josh. 4:14). Some centuries later, another Joshua would walk into the river, as it is written, “Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water” (Mt. 3:16). Jesus sends no priests ahead aside from John the Baptist. And the Lord gives Jesus his Spirit and anoints him as the Son of God. This time the inheritance won’t slip through their fingers. Jesus has crossed. The Old Order is dying. The New Order is waking to life. And all those in Christ must follow him “out of the water” and inherit the promises of God, receive the seal of the Holy Spirit (2 Cor. 1:20-22), and dispossess the land of its enemies (Col. 2:13-15). Once this is complete, the sea will be no more (Rev. 21:1).
So, in Scripture, coming out of the water contains the meaning of a people receiving an inheritance, crossing from the old life to the new life.
Fourth, Spirit out of the Water
Many of the “out of the water” moments are accompanied by the Spirit, torn heaven, and a name declared. This is seen at the baptism of Jesus (Mk. 1:9-11; Mt. 3:16f; Lk. 3:21f) and the Ethiopian Eunuch (Acts 8:38f), and it is prophesied about in Isaiah 63:11-64:1.
Isaiah asks, “Where is he who brought them up out of the sea with the shepherds of his flock” (Is. 63:11)? Isaiah is asking for the God who brings people out of the water. By Isaiah’s day, “coming out of the water” had a particular meaning. First, it means God has put the Holy Spirit in the midst of them (Is. 63:11). Second, it means God divides the waters and brings his people through the depths (Is. 63:12f). And it should be noted that when God divides the water so that his people can cross, that this is described in Scripture as a “baptism” (1 Cor. 10:1-2) by pouring (Ps. 77:17). Third, it means that God is giving his people an inheritance (Is. 63:14-19). Fourth, it means that God rends the heavens and comes down (Is. 64:1), which brings the meaning full circle, back to the gift of the Holy Spirit.
When Jesus is baptized and comes out of the water, God gives him his Spirit and a name, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased” (Mk. 1:11). Aaron and his priestly sons were baptized (Ex. 29:4-7; Lev. 8:6-12), then they were anointed and declared. So too Jesus is installed into his priestly ministry, and the Father speaks the words of anointing upon him. So, for Jesus to come “out of the water” is for him to receive the Spirit and an anointed name. God the Father designates Jesus as “beloved Son” (Mk. 1:10), a promissory note of the resurrection. In other words, Jesus coming “out of the water” anticipates Jesus coming out of the grave. As Paul says in Romans 1:4, He “was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord.”
So, in Scripture, coming out of the water contains the meaning of receiving the Spirit in anticipation of the power of the Spirit giving resurrection life.
Fifth, Bride out of the Water
There is a recurring theme in Scripture where brides also come out of the water. It starts in Genesis 24 when Isaac looks for a wife and finds Rebekah. “She went down to the spring and filled her jar and came up” (Gen. 24:16). The Septuagint translation of this verse includes the same verbs for “down” and “came up” as are found in Acts 8:38-39 when the Ethiopian Eunuch is baptized. When Rebekah came up from the water, what happened next? Isaac’s servant meets her, adorns her with gold, and claims her for the bridegroom, Isaac, in accordance with God’s will (Gen. 24:17-28).
Then there is Song of Songs 4:2, which describes the bride’s beauty, including the beauty of her eyes, her hair, and her smile, saying, “Your teeth are like a flock of shorn ewes that have come up from the washing.” This language is repeated in Song of Songs 6:6. What is this saying? Just like the sheep go into a wash and come out white and none are missing, so too the bride’s smile comes out of the water beautiful, nothing missing, ready for her bridegroom.
There is also the story of Moses getting a bride. Moses was saved because Pharaoh’s daughter “drew him out of the water” (Ex. 2:10). Moses, the drawn-out one (Jn. 6:44), then becomes the drawer, helping Midian’s seven daughters draw water, saving them from the herdsmen (Ex. 2:16f). The story ends with Moses getting a bride. Moses is the bridegroom at the well who stood up for the women, saved them, watered their flock (Ex. 2:17), and becomes a husband.
Or consider Jesus and the woman at the well in John 4. Why is the woman at the well? To draw water (Jn. 4:7, 15). Jesus then gives her water, saying, “Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (Jn. 4:11). The woman seeking the deep water (Jn. 4:11) finds herself in the midst of “a spring of water welling up.”
The water is leaping up around her, which is a different image than coming out of the water. Elsewhere, the bride comes out of the water. In John 4, the water comes up around the bride. This woman with all sorts of husbands and all sorts of troubles receives a new betrothal. The One True Bridegroom has arrived with a gift that no other husband could give (2 Cor. 11:2), the gift of eternal life dancing around her.
The Apostle Paul put it this way, “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish” (Eph. 5:25-27).
So, in Scripture, coming out of the water contains the meaning of a bride, newly washed, claimed, and saved, clothed in white, made ready for the Bridegroom.
Sixth, Beast out of the Water
It’s not just land, man, inheritance, Spirit, and a bride that comes out of the water. Sometimes other things, including beasts, are said to come out of the water.
In Genesis 41:1-4; 17-21, Pharaoh dreams of cows coming up out of the water. Joseph interprets this as Pharaoh needing to prepare for a coming famine. Yet Pharaoh, in his lust of plunder, is regarded as “the great dragon that lies in the midst of his streams” (Ez. 29:3). Then, in Daniel 7:2-8, Daniel sees a vision of the four winds stirring. “Four great beasts came up out of the sea” (Dan. 7:3). Each beast is described, and the fourth is the worst. The book of Revelation picks up on this theme. John sees “the beast that rises from the bottomless pit” (Rev. 11:7). The beast makes war and carries blasphemy on its seven heads (Rev. 13:1). Another beast also rises out of the earth (Rev. 13:11) to make destruction (Rev. 17:8) and claim authority (Rev. 17:13). The beast rises out of the pit to “make war on the Lamb” (Rev. 17:14), the same Lamb who began his ministry by coming out of the water (Mk. 1:10).
Jesus the Messiah comes out of the water, and so does the beast. They each receive a throne and dominion and worship. Coming out of the water, therefore, is a claim to rulership. But not every claim is equal. Only one claim is authentic (Mt. 3:13-17). The other claims are chicanery (Rev. 13, 17), nothing more than pathetic copycats aping the same water but wearing a different name. Coming out of the water can turn to spoil and humiliation or to illumination and resurrection. It all depends on who came up out of the water with it and who spoke over it. If you come out of the water only to reject the authority of Christ, then you have rejected the blessing of Christ, which means you are under the authority of the beast and receive cursing (Heb. 6:1-8; 10:26-30).
Conclusion
Christ coming out of the water is a preview of his coming out of the grave. By faith in Christ, the same is true for God’s people. The sea gives up all that it holds, including the dead who are in it (Rev. 20:13). God’s people come out of the water and experience the resurrection of Christ for themselves. Their faith moves mountains and raises clouds from the sea to break the drought (1 Kings 18:41-45). They were “buried with him by baptism,” meaning they were baptized “into his death” (Rom. 6:3f). So, there they were, underwater.
But in Christ, they are not under water now. They step out of the waters and hear the divine voice say: Beloved, you are a child and not a monster. You are a saint and not condemned. Just as Christ was raised from the dead, so too you walk in newness of life (Rom. 6:4). Go on, here is your net, cast it and see what you bring out of the water (Jn. 21:6-11).
Jason Cherry is an elder at Trinity Reformed Church in Huntsville, Alabama, as well as a teacher and lecturer of literature, history, and economics at Providence Classical School in Huntsville. He graduated from Reformed Theological Seminary with an MA in Religion and is the author of The Culture of Conversionism and the History of the Altar Call and The Making of Evangelical Spirituality.
* See also the parallel passage of Matthew 3:16.
The biblical language describing someone who came “up out of the water” is familiar because of its association with baptism scenes in the New Testament. For example, when Jesus is baptized in Mark 1:10, it says, “And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove.”* Or when Philip baptizes the Ethiopian Eunuch, it says, “And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing” (Acts 8:39).
What does this phrase mean? The true meaning of these phrases is often tempered and restrained because of hidebound debates about the mode of baptism. But this phrase appears all across Scripture with an enlarged understanding, carrying with it a rich and unfolding typological meaning that is older than the New Testament practice of baptism.
What follows is a six-part taxonomy of the different uses of the phrase or concept “out of the water,” their diverse contexts, and their converging meaning across the biblical story. This is not presented exactly in chronological order. Certain passages appear in multiple categories, and some usages have a meaning that cuts across thousands of years of biblical history.
First, Land Out of the Water
The “out of the water” concept appears, first, at creation. On the third day God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear” (Gen. 1:9). The description is not that the dry land is created. Rather, as the waters are “gathered together” (Gen. 1:9, 10), the land is raised, drawn up out of the deep, and rescued. Habitable ground comes out of the water. The solid substance of land is no longer drowned.
Then, in Genesis 8:1-19, the climax of the flood story, it happens again. In Genesis 1:9-10, the waters were “gathered together.” Now “the waters receded from the earth” (Gen. 8:3). The waters “abated” (Gen. 8:3) and “continued to abate” (Gen. 8:5) until “the tops of the mountains” appeared (Gen. 8:5). The same wind that blew at the creation (Gen. 1:2) blows again at the re-creation (Gen. 8:1), and the dry land is (re)created out of the water.
Peter reflects back on this and says it this way, “The earth was formed out of water and through water” (2 Pet. 3:5). When the water is high, it is the non-land, the un-place, the terrifying deep where no garden can be built. But when the land comes out of the sea, it can be built upon, places can stand, and gardens can grow fruit.
But Peter also says that the just as the Lord of Creation can make the earth, so can he judge it (2 Pet. 3:7). “The earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God” (2 Pet. 3:5). And “by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished” (2 Pet. 3:6). Yet even in judgment God looks upon Noah with favor (Gen. 6:8) and instructs Noah to build an ark, a temporary land that will sit on top of the water (Gen. 6:14-22). Noah “did all that God commanded” (Gen. 6:22; 7:5). He entered the ark with his family and the animals (Gen. 7:6-15). God shut the doors of the ark (Gen. 7:16). Then “the waters increased and bore up the ark, and it rose high above the earth” (Gen. 7:17). While everything else drowns, the ark, like the land, is raised above the water, and the ark is “brought safely through water” (1 Pet. 3:20). “Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 3:21).
The water lifts the ark and saves those inside. Those outside the ark are swallowed by the waves of judgment. Noah is rescued through water by means of judgment. One event with two effects: salvation and judgment. The land appears out of the water, and God gives Noah the same commission Adam received (Gen. 9:1-7). But Noah, the new Adam, fails as the original Adam failed. Adam is still an Adam. What is needed? Not a new start but a New Man (1 Cor. 15:35-49).
So, in Scripture, coming out of the water contains the meaning of creation and re-creation. What does a new creation require? A New Adam, a man “from heaven,” “a life-giving spirit” (1 Cor. 15:46f).
Second, Man out of the Water
As Noah reveals, it’s not just that God brings the land out of the sea. It’s that God saves the people out of the sea. The waters need to be gathered together (Gen. 1:9f). Scripture repeatedly says that God bound the sea (Job 38:11; Ps. 104:5-9; Jer. 5:22; Prov. 8:29). Why did the sea need limits? Because the sea prevents habitation. God’s solution is not to annihilate the deep, but to put it on a leash. The sea still exists. It is still out there and, in God’s Providence, sometimes the sea prevails (Gen. 7:17-24). It threatens Noah. It threatens the disciple’s boat (Mt. 14:28-32). It hides the beast (Rev. 13:1).
In the beginning the sea was good, and everything in it (Gen. 1:9f; 20-23). The sea is not evil, but neither is it home. Since it is not habitable, no covenant can be kept on it. Why not? Because no altar can be built on the waves. Kingdoms are not built in a water world. In Scripture, God’s people are being rescued from the waters of death.
Exodus 2:10 “When the child grew older, she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, ‘Because,’ she said, ‘I drew him out of the water.’”
Psalm 18:16 “He sent from on high, he took me; he drew me out of many waters.”
2 Samuel 22:17 “He sent from on high, he took me; he drew me out of many waters.”
Psalm 40:2 “He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure.”
Jonah 2:6 “At the roots of the mountains I went down, to the land whose bars closed upon me forever. Yet you brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God.”
Matthew 14:31 “Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”
Moses is drawn out of the water (Ex. 2:10) as is David (2 Sam. 22:17). Jonah prays in faith, believing that God has already brought him up from the pit while he sits in the fish’s belly. Just as God “took me…out of many waters” in Psalm 18:16, Jesus laid hold of Peter and saved him (Mt. 14:28-32).
So, in Scripture, coming out of the water contains the meaning of salvation. How do you get out of the deep? No one comes up on his own. Moses is drawn. David is drawn. Jonah is brought up. Peter is grabbed. As Jesus says in John 6:44, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.” To “come up out of the water” is a pre-resurrection act.
Third, Inheritance out of the Water
In Scripture, water is something that needs to be crossed. Something is waiting on the other side. For Moses, the other side of the Red Sea was freedom (Ex. 14-15). For Joshua, the other side of the Jordan was the Promised Land (Josh. 3-4). For Elijah, the other side of the water was heaven (2 Kings 2:8-14). To reach the other side, the water must divide (1 Cor. 10:1-2).
Consider the story of Joshua 3-4, where the people cross the Jordan and enter the promised land. The priests enter the water first (Josh. 3:6, 14f). The banks are overflowing, and the water is roaring (Josh. 3:15). But when the soles of their feet touch the edge, the water “rose up in a heap very far away” (Josh. 3:16). The priests stand in the middle of the riverbed while all the people, men, women, and children, quickly walk past them onto dry ground (Josh. 3:17; 4:10). The river is held open by the priest-mediators. The people can cross because someone else is standing in the deep, holding back the flood of death. After all the people passed over, the priests cross carrying the ark of the Lord (Josh. 4:11). Then we read this in Joshua 4:15-19:
“The Lord said to Joshua, 16 ‘Command the priests bearing the ark of the testimony to come up out of the Jordan.’ 17 So Joshua commanded the priests, ‘Come up out of the Jordan.’ 18 And when the priests bearing the ark of the covenant of the Lord came up from the midst of the Jordan, and the soles of the priests’ feet were lifted up on dry ground, the waters of the Jordan returned to their place and overflowed all its banks, as before. 19 The people came up out of the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month.”
This is the language used at the baptism of Jesus and the Ethiopian Eunuch. The meaning of this language is included in the Joshua 4 story. When everyone has entered the Promised Land, the water crashes down, judgment returns, and the Jordan overflowed again (Josh. 4:18). The people crossed the Jordan in faith and came up out of the water to receive their gift. They were circumcised (Josh. 5:2-9), then celebrated the Passover (Josh. 5:10). The manna stops (Josh. 5:11f), and they began eating the produce of the land. Joshua encountered the commander of the army of the Lord and worshiped him (Josh. 5:13-15). The people then conquer Jericho, not in a battle, but in a liturgical procession led by the priests. The city is devoted to destruction and becomes the firstfruit of Yahweh’s land gift (Josh 6). Then, having received the Lord’s inheritance, the fighting begins. Joshua 7-12 describes the hard war of conque
st.
So, what is the meaning of the language “come up out of the water”? It means they have crossed from the wilderness into their new inheritance (See also 2 Kings 2:9-15, where “crossing” is emphasized in this way). To inherit, you must receive by faith and drive out the enemy by faith. The first is once and unrepeatable. The latter is gradual and progressive; indeed, “there remains yet very much land to be possessed” (Josh. 13:1). It’s a pattern that the Apostle Paul picks up on in Romans 6:4-13, where imperative and indicative are properly related. You can possess the land because the Lord has brought you out of the water.
Joshua led the people into the water and the people came up out of the water (Josh. 4:19). By this, the Lord exalted Joshua, vindicating him as the leader of Israel (Josh. 4:14). Some centuries later, another Joshua would walk into the river, as it is written, “Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water” (Mt. 3:16). Jesus sends no priests ahead aside from John the Baptist. And the Lord gives Jesus his Spirit and anoints him as the Son of God. This time the inheritance won’t slip through their fingers. Jesus has crossed. The Old Order is dying. The New Order is waking to life. And all those in Christ must follow him “out of the water” and inherit the promises of God, receive the seal of the Holy Spirit (2 Cor. 1:20-22), and dispossess the land of its enemies (Col. 2:13-15). Once this is complete, the sea will be no more (Rev. 21:1).
So, in Scripture, coming out of the water contains the meaning of a people receiving an inheritance, crossing from the old life to the new life.
Fourth, Spirit out of the Water
Many of the “out of the water” moments are accompanied by the Spirit, torn heaven, and a name declared. This is seen at the baptism of Jesus (Mk. 1:9-11; Mt. 3:16f; Lk. 3:21f) and the Ethiopian Eunuch (Acts 8:38f), and it is prophesied about in Isaiah 63:11-64:1.
Isaiah asks, “Where is he who brought them up out of the sea with the shepherds of his flock” (Is. 63:11)? Isaiah is asking for the God who brings people out of the water. By Isaiah’s day, “coming out of the water” had a particular meaning. First, it means God has put the Holy Spirit in the midst of them (Is. 63:11). Second, it means God divides the waters and brings his people through the depths (Is. 63:12f). And it should be noted that when God divides the water so that his people can cross, that this is described in Scripture as a “baptism” (1 Cor. 10:1-2) by pouring (Ps. 77:17). Third, it means that God is giving his people an inheritance (Is. 63:14-19). Fourth, it means that God rends the heavens and comes down (Is. 64:1), which brings the meaning full circle, back to the gift of the Holy Spirit.
When Jesus is baptized and comes out of the water, God gives him his Spirit and a name, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased” (Mk. 1:11). Aaron and his priestly sons were baptized (Ex. 29:4-7; Lev. 8:6-12), then they were anointed and declared. So too Jesus is installed into his priestly ministry, and the Father speaks the words of anointing upon him. So, for Jesus to come “out of the water” is for him to receive the Spirit and an anointed name. God the Father designates Jesus as “beloved Son” (Mk. 1:10), a promissory note of the resurrection. In other words, Jesus coming “out of the water” anticipates Jesus coming out of the grave. As Paul says in Romans 1:4, He “was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord.”
So, in Scripture, coming out of the water contains the meaning of receiving the Spirit in anticipation of the power of the Spirit giving resurrection life.
Fifth, Bride out of the Water
There is a recurring theme in Scripture where brides also come out of the water. It starts in Genesis 24 when Isaac looks for a wife and finds Rebekah. “She went down to the spring and filled her jar and came up” (Gen. 24:16). The Septuagint translation of this verse includes the same verbs for “down” and “came up” as are found in Acts 8:38-39 when the Ethiopian Eunuch is baptized. When Rebekah came up from the water, what happened next? Isaac’s servant meets her, adorns her with gold, and claims her for the bridegroom, Isaac, in accordance with God’s will (Gen. 24:17-28).
Then there is Song of Songs 4:2, which describes the bride’s beauty, including the beauty of her eyes, her hair, and her smile, saying, “Your teeth are like a flock of shorn ewes that have come up from the washing.” This language is repeated in Song of Songs 6:6. What is this saying? Just like the sheep go into a wash and come out white and none are missing, so too the bride’s smile comes out of the water beautiful, nothing missing, ready for her bridegroom.
There is also the story of Moses getting a bride. Moses was saved because Pharaoh’s daughter “drew him out of the water” (Ex. 2:10). Moses, the drawn-out one (Jn. 6:44), then becomes the drawer, helping Midian’s seven daughters draw water, saving them from the herdsmen (Ex. 2:16f). The story ends with Moses getting a bride. Moses is the bridegroom at the well who stood up for the women, saved them, watered their flock (Ex. 2:17), and becomes a husband.
Or consider Jesus and the woman at the well in John 4. Why is the woman at the well? To draw water (Jn. 4:7, 15). Jesus then gives her water, saying, “Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (Jn. 4:11). The woman seeking the deep water (Jn. 4:11) finds herself in the midst of “a spring of water welling up.”
The water is leaping up around her, which is a different image than coming out of the water. Elsewhere, the bride comes out of the water. In John 4, the water comes up around the bride. This woman with all sorts of husbands and all sorts of troubles receives a new betrothal. The One True Bridegroom has arrived with a gift that no other husband could give (2 Cor. 11:2), the gift of eternal life dancing around her.
The Apostle Paul put it this way, “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish” (Eph. 5:25-27).
So, in Scripture, coming out of the water contains the meaning of a bride, newly washed, claimed, and saved, clothed in white, made ready for the Bridegroom.
Sixth, Beast out of the Water
It’s not just land, man, inheritance, Spirit, and a bride that comes out of the water. Sometimes other things, including beasts, are said to come out of the water.
In Genesis 41:1-4; 17-21, Pharaoh dreams of cows coming up out of the water. Joseph interprets this as Pharaoh needing to prepare for a coming famine. Yet Pharaoh, in his lust of plunder, is regarded as “the great dragon that lies in the midst of his streams” (Ez. 29:3). Then, in Daniel 7:2-8, Daniel sees a vision of the four winds stirring. “Four great beasts came up out of the sea” (Dan. 7:3). Each beast is described, and the fourth is the worst. The book of Revelation picks up on this theme. John sees “the beast that rises from the bottomless pit” (Rev. 11:7). The beast makes war and carries blasphemy on its seven heads (Rev. 13:1). Another beast also rises out of the earth (Rev. 13:11) to make destruction (Rev. 17:8) and claim authority (Rev. 17:13). The beast rises out of the pit to “make war on the Lamb” (Rev. 17:14), the same Lamb who began his ministry by coming out of the water (Mk. 1:10).
Jesus the Messiah comes out of the water, and so does the beast. They each receive a throne and dominion and worship. Coming out of the water, therefore, is a claim to rulership. But not every claim is equal. Only one claim is authentic (Mt. 3:13-17). The other claims are chicanery (Rev. 13, 17), nothing more than pathetic copycats aping the same water but wearing a different name. Coming out of the water can turn to spoil and humiliation or to illumination and resurrection. It all depends on who came up out of the water with it and who spoke over it. If you come out of the water only to reject the authority of Christ, then you have rejected the blessing of Christ, which means you are under the authority of the beast and receive cursing (Heb. 6:1-8; 10:26-30).
Conclusion
Christ coming out of the water is a preview of his coming out of the grave. By faith in Christ, the same is true for God’s people. The sea gives up all that it holds, including the dead who are in it (Rev. 20:13). God’s people come out of the water and experience the resurrection of Christ for themselves. Their faith moves mountains and raises clouds from the sea to break the drought (1 Kings 18:41-45). They were “buried with him by baptism,” meaning they were baptized “into his death” (Rom. 6:3f). So, there they were, underwater.
But in Christ, they are not under water now. They step out of the waters and hear the divine voice say: Beloved, you are a child and not a monster. You are a saint and not condemned. Just as Christ was raised from the dead, so too you walk in newness of life (Rom. 6:4). Go on, here is your net, cast it and see what you bring out of the water (Jn. 21:6-11).
Jason Cherry is an elder at Trinity Reformed Church in Huntsville, Alabama, as well as a teacher and lecturer of literature, history, and economics at Providence Classical School in Huntsville. He graduated from Reformed Theological Seminary with an MA in Religion and is the author of The Culture of Conversionism and the History of the Altar Call and The Making of Evangelical Spirituality.
* See also the parallel passage of Matthew 3:16.
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