The Laver was the second vessel in the Court of the Tabernacle. It stood between the altar of burnt-offering and the Holy Place. We are not told the shape or size of this vessel, nor do we find any account of how it was carried along the desert. These are among “the secret things that belong unto the Lord,” and we must not guess, or seek to be wise above that which is written. The silence of the Scriptures in points such as these is as significant as it is Divine there is no overlook, no forgetfulness on the part of the writer. The other vessels are all described minutely in their length and breadth, as also the bars and rings by which they were lifted from off the earth and borne upon the Levites’ shoulders during the march (see Num. 4). But in the instructions concerning the laver there is no command concerning rings or staves. Is this an overlook? Nay, verily.
It had a foot of copper. In this it differed from all the other vessels. The bars and rings by which they were raised up to be borne seem to indicate that, although they stood upon the earth, yet they were not of it, but belonged to Heaven. They were shadows of heavenly things, the enduring substance of which has its place in the heavenly sanctuary. The laver having a foot connecting it with, yet raising it above the earth, may show that the line of spiritual teaching in this vessel is connected with the earthly life and walk of a people whose birth and citizenship is from Heaven. The present world is the sphere where the hands and the feet of God’s redeemed require the use of the laver; it is only down here, amid the defilements and pollutions of earth, that its gracious ministry; is needed, for once up there, the feet of the saints can contract no defilement. The street of gold, like unto transparent glass upon which they stand, shall forever reflect their purity. Corresponding with this, we have in the Book of Revelation-itself a book of signs and symbols-allusion made to all the furniture of the Temple or Tabernacle, but there is no mention made of the laver or brazen sea. In striking contrast, we behold there a sea of glass reflecting the unsullied beauty of the redeemed. The last stain has been washed from off the feet; earth’s sands defile no more; the saints are glorified in the image of their Lord, and the laver and brazen sea are no longer needed. Blessed future! Holy, happy prospect of the child of God!
It was made from the brazen looking-glasses of the women of Israel (Ex. 38:88And he made the laver of brass, and the foot of it of brass, of the lookingglasses of the women assembling, which assembled at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. (Exodus 38:8)). The looking-glass reflects one’s self. It shows the beauties or deformities of the person, but cannot alter either. It reveals defilement, but cannot take it away. The woman’s beauty is her distinctive mark; she would therefore naturally value that which shows it, but the mirrors were gladly given up to make a laver for the priests of God. This was a precious fruit of grace. Have you ever given up anything for God, dear fellow-saints? Has the grace of God got such a hold of your heart that things once too fondly loved have been surrendered to Jesus? There are many who profess to admire the “beauty of the Lord,” and to esteem the “Man of Sorrows” to be the “Altogether Lovely,” who yet adorn themselves in the grandeur of the earth, and seek to be well thought of, in the world that rejected and cast out their Lord. Such have never yet really seen the “present evil age” and the “end of all flesh” from God’s standpoint; they view themselves in their own mirrors, and think and speak well of themselves. But the thoughts of man are not the thoughts of God; therefore we must surrender all our own ideas and fancies, and submit ourselves to the judgment of the Lord. The moment we do so, accepting His verdict and sentence, we learn how God in grace has provided that which cleanses us from spiritual defilement and that fits us for His Holy Temple.
The laver was filled with water, and thereat the priests washed their hands and feet as they went into the Holy Place to worship and as they came out to the altar to serve. The neglect of this was death. There was no worship conducted at this vessel―there was no blood-shedding connected with it―and yet there could have been no worship, true, no service, without its use. It was the daily need of the priests; by its use they were kept in a condition of cleanness, in which they could exercise the functions of their priestly office before the Lord and toward His people. How infinitely precious are the lessons to be learned by us at the side of the laver; how practical and searching are the truths conveyed to us in this expressive type! May the Holy Spirit guide us into the truth, and give us honest hearts and tender consciences, while it searches us as with a lighted candle. We have seen in the altar and its sacrifices the work of Christ accomplished for us, and our acceptance before God according to the value of that work. It is all reckoned or imputed to us the moment we believe, and this once for all. The believer is regarded as standing in Christ, eternally cleansed, eternally accepted, by virtue of the once-offered sacrifice. There is no repetition of this act, no “fresh application of the blood,” as it is sometimes called. He is abidingly brought into a relationship with God, where he is regarded as “clean every whit,” and “sanctified once for all”; and all this is inalienably and eternally his, through a work accomplished for him by Another. The teaching of the laver is entirely different. It speaks of a work accomplished in us by the Word and the Spirit of God. It goes on continuously from day to day. There is no stage or condition of Christian life on earth where it can be said to be completed. There is no possible state or experience attainable here when a saint may do without this cleansing at the laver, and it is truly sad that some should think and speak as though it were otherwise.
There were two distinct washings of the priesthood. In order to understand the teaching conveyed by the laver it is necessary to remember this. The priests on the day of their consecration were brought up to the door of the Tabernacle and washed all over with water by Moses (see Exodus 29:44And Aaron and his sons thou shalt bring unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and shalt wash them with water. (Exodus 29:4); Lev. 8:66And Moses brought Aaron and his sons, and washed them with water. (Leviticus 8:6)). This was the first act in their consecration. No holy garment, no anointing oil was put upon them until they were “washed,” and not till then were they allowed to pass within the Holy Place to worship God. This washing was performed for them by another; they had no hand in it at all. Throughout the entire period of their priesthood this act was never repeated. This accords with the “laver of regeneration” (Titus 3:5,5Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; (Titus 3:5) Revised Version). The word in Ex. 29:4,4And Aaron and his sons thou shalt bring unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and shalt wash them with water. (Exodus 29:4) translated “wash,” signifies “to wash all over,” and is different from the word used in connection with the laver (Ex. 30:1818Thou shalt also make a laver of brass, and his foot also of brass, to wash withal: and thou shalt put it between the tabernacle of the congregation and the altar, and thou shalt put water therein. (Exodus 30:18)). It is a washing that must take place before the place of worship and service can be entered, and having been once accomplished, the priest stands under its abiding efficacy. It is so with the second birth, the washing of regeneration. No man can worship God until he has been born again; he cannot enter the presence of God to commune with Him until he has received a nature that enables him to do so. Let this be clearly understood. Man in his natural state can neither appreciate anything that is of God nor do anything well-pleasing to Him. He may be clever and intellectual, or even moral and religious, but until he has been born from above, his place is outside the circle of the family of God, and outside the circle of the worship and service of the heavenly priesthood. He dare not cross the threshold of the Holy Place, until by the sovereign act of God’s grace, he is pronounced “clean every whit,” his heart sprinkled from an evil conscience, his body washed with pure water.
Here, in passing, let me ask you to pause and consider whether this washing has ever taken place in your case? Has there been a moment in your life’s history when you were brought face to face with the living God and stripped of all your fancied goodness. Have you, like Joshua the high priest (Zech. 3), been stripped of the filthy rags of your self-righteousness, and clothed in the “garments of glory and beauty” of God’s providing? Have you ever been truly brought to God―converted―born again? Whatever may be your position in the professing Church on earth, let me solemnly assure you that, apart from this, you will find no place in the Kingdom of God. Nicodemus was brought up to the door of that Kingdom, and told by the Son of God that unless he was “born again” he could neither “see” nor “enter” it, and the words remain unaltered forever.
The priests once cleansed, and their consecration completed, might enter the Holy Place; indeed it was now to be their home. Its boards enclosed them, its curtains o’ershadowed them, they walked in the light of its candlestick, and fed on its bread. When they went forth to do service for God, toward the leper or the unclean, it was as those whose abiding place was in the covert of His Tabernacle. The place of the unclean was foreign to their nature, their home was with God. O that it were always so with us, beloved. When we go forth to preach the Gospel to the sinner, do we go as priests in communion with God? When we go forth to seek to win an erring brother, do we always go forth as from the Holy Place, in the power of communion with God? When we walk in the world do we tread it as a strange country? How true and real our work for God would be if it were always so with us. What an antidote to the busy, fruitless labor of the flesh is this abiding in the presence of God. May we prove it so from day to day.
The laver was placed between the altar and the door, and the priests were commanded to wash their hands and feet thereat. It was an easy matter for the once-cleansed hands and feet to contract defilement. The hands constantly working in the service of God at the altar, the feet ever walking on the desert sand, would be in continuous need of washing, and for this the water in the laver was given. No unclean priest was allowed to minister to the Lord on penalty of death―for “Holiness becometh Thine House, O Lord, forever.”
This is a solemn truth. It speaks to us of the condition of soul necessary for those who worship and serve the living God. One might be a priest and yet, because of uncleanness upon him, become unfit to exercise the functions of his priestly office. So may one who is truly a child of God, but living in habitual neglect of God’s Word, or in unjudged, unconfessed sin, have no present communion with God, or ability to serve or worship Him. The priest’s title to enter was the blood of the sacrifice, but the condition necessary for the using of that title was that his hands and feet had been cleansed with water. This bespeaks the title and condition necessary to communion with God. Spiritual life is not all; there must be a walk in the light, self-judgment, and a continual testing and cleansing of all our works and ways by the Word of God, if we would walk with Him. The Word of God is the means by which the Lord keeps His people clean and in condition for communion and service. “By what means shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto, according to Thy word” (Psa. 119:99BETH. Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word. (Psalm 119:9)). “Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy Word is truth” (John 17:1717Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. (John 17:17)).
To neglect the judgment of our works and ways by the Word is to thwart the Lord’s purpose in our sanctification and the purification of us as a peculiar people to Himself. In John 13 we see the Lord as the girded servant washing His disciples’ feet-cleansing that from them which would have hindered them from having part with Him. Here we have the same lesson. He lives in Heaven above, our great High Priest; His Word is with us here, to cleanse and keep us in communion with Him. When we come to that Word with honest hearts, prepared to do whatever it commands, and to renounce whatever it condemns, He applies it to us, and thus we are separated from every evil work and way, and cleansed from all unrighteousness. If we refuse to allow Him to separate evil from us, by the cleansing of the Word, He will tell us, as He did of old, “If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with Me,” and thus it is that communion is broken; the conscience becomes clogged, and an open fall ensues.
May it be our conscious experience, as it is our privilege, to walk daily in His light, saying, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my thoughts” (Psa. 139:2323Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: (Psalm 139:23)), and when He shows us some evil way, some defiling spot, may we at once submit our feet to Him and have it cleansed away.