The ocean was seen as ominous, mysterious, and uncontrollable by the people of the ancient world. They relied heavily upon it, but it was the source of great unknown and even fear, as it led many people to their deaths. This viewpoint is evident by the many creation myths in which water is an object of chaos, such as in The Epic of Gilgamesh or Enuma Elish.
And of course, in our Bibles, recall when God flooded the Earth, bringing death to everyone except Noah and his family, and think forward to Revelation when Christ promises to throw His enemies into a lake of fire. Language like the "roar of many waters" (Ez. 43:2) is used often to show the power of God's Word. In Isaiah 17, the prophet compares foreign nations to raging seas:
"Ah, the thunder of many peoples; they thunder like the thundering of the sea! Ah, the roar of nations; they roar like the roaring of mighty waters!" -Isaiah 17:12
I think you all get the point- the ocean was not seen in a positive light, as it revealed human helplessness and lack of control, but it also revealed God's sovereignty over all of it.
Think of Genesis 1:
Before God spoke, everything was "tohu wa-bohu"; formless and void. God's epic story kicks off with none other than a wild and chaotic ocean, untamed and without form, and "the Spirit of God was hovering" over it (Genesis 1:2).
And then for the very first time, God speaks and tames the waters. How does He tame them, you may ask? He separates them.
"And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so." -Genesis 1:7
This isn't the last time God tells the waters to part before Him and His people.
In Exodus 14, God separates the waters again to let His people through the Red Sea and then uses that same sea to kill their enemies. He grants Moses the authority to raise a staff, stretch out a hand, and divide the waters so he could walk through them. And so Christ, the Word made flesh, grants us that same authority over the tempest. As He is the only one with absolute authority over the depths and mystery of the oceans, so He is the only one able to give us that authority. As Isaiah penned down these words from the Lord, I wonder if the Red Sea entered his thoughts:
"When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you." -Isaiah 43:2
I interpret this promise from God to His people as I've done it before, I'll do it again. He has parted the sea before, He can do it again. Or maybe He won't, but He does promise I will be with you. No matter what, where the Spirit of God is, there is freedom; there is rest found in the presence of the one with absolute authority over the wind and sea.
A few hundred years later, God spoke some words again: I will be with you. Those words went out from His mouth and took on the flesh of a carpenter named Jesus. One night the disciples and Jesus were all in a boat when all of this goes down:
"And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, 'Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?' And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, 'Peace! Be still!' And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. He said to them, 'Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?' And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, 'Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?'" -Mark 4:37–41
Keep in mind- they had been with Jesus for a little while. They had witnessed Him healing, casting out demons, and "teaching with a new authority" (Mark 1:27). But having power over the wind and the sea? Only God Himself could do that; only He could speak a couple of words and change the weather forecast. So, "who then is this"?
Though in English it is rendered as be still, Jesus literally told the waves to be muzzled. The Moody Commentary notes, "it was as though He was placing His hand over the sea". Translators have to guess as punctuation based on context, and I have a hunch Jesus didn't speak with exclamation points here. After all, He didn't need to raise His voice for the storm to hear Him, because those very waves part and make way for the King.
"Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, 'I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?' But Jesus answered him, 'Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.' Then he consented. And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, 'This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.'" -Matthew 3:13–17
Did you catch that? Remember, Matthew was written for an originally Jewish audience, so read this through the eyes of the Old Testament.
Jesus went through the water, and He went up from it. It wasn't just the water that separated, however, it was the sky, too. After this point, water takes on an entirely new meaning, because Christ has the authority of all heaven and all earth, all land and all sea; we are co-heirs of that. Through baptism we are buried and raised into life with Him, He parts the seas around us and says, I am with you. He draws us out of the deep and grants us authority in His name.
We are no longer afraid like the Israelites running from Pharaoh, we are no longer afraid of the roar of the nations, we are no longer afraid of the oceans themselves or the waves of death. He took us by the hand, and we went up from the water with Him.
"For the waves of death encompassed me, the torrents of destruction assailed me...He sent from on high, he took me; he drew me out of many waters." - 2 Samuel 22:5;17
There is power in words, but infinitely more power in the Word. There is power in our words, but not a single one spoken by Him returns formless and void but fulfills the purpose for which He has sent.
There is a reason, after all, that when Jesus returns He will have a double-edged sword in His mouth. His mere word has the power to conquer all the powers of hell and toss them into the water. The Word holds all power of life and death.
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