Clean Hands, Pure Heart

Series on Exodus

VIII. The Covering of God’s People

C. Pattern of the Tabernacle

6. The Basin, Text: 30:17-21, and 38:8

Title: Clean Hands, Pure Heart

Introduction

We now move out into the courtyard of the tabernacle and in front of the holy place where the priests served we find the laver. There is a striking difference between the laver or basin for washing in the tabernacle and in Solomon’s temple as described in I Kings, Chapter 7. There we read that Solomon had a great sea fashioned of bronze seven and a half feet high and fifteen feet across. It held about 8000 gallons of water. He also provided 10 portable lavers which were carts, of bronze, highly decorated. each laver contained 240 gallons. they were about 6 feet square and about 4 and one half feet high. The sea was for the washing of the priests, but the 10 portable lavers were used by the priests to wash sections of animals that had been slaughtered for burnt offerings. The sea was placed on the south east side and the lavers were placed five on each side of the temple. The proportions are fitting when you read of the sacrifices that were offered in I Kings 8:62 and 63, Then the king and all Israel with him offered sacrifices before the LORD. Solomon offered a sacrifice of fellowship offerings to the LORD: twenty-two thousand cattle and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep and goats. So the king and all the Israelites dedicated the temple of the LORD. Regarding the laver in the tabernacle, no dimensions are given, but it must have been small because of the limitations of portability and also of the supply of water. It is obvious that the laver has to do with cleansing and so important was this cleansing that if it was not observed forever by the priests, they would die. The laver was used both before they approached the brazen altar of sacrifice and before they ministered in the tabernacle. In this study, let us consider the meaning of this ordinance of cleansing as spiritual, symbolic and scriptural.

I Spiritual

The priests washed their hands and feet because those were the parts of their body employed in service. Their feet tread the holy ground of the tabernacle, and their hands were engaged in presenting the sacred offerings. We should not conclude from this, however, that the meaning was superficial. Besides the solemn warnings that the penalty for not washing was death, we have other references in the Old Testament that remind us that what was in view in this rite was much deeper. For example in Psalm 26:6-8 we find David referring to this ordinance, I wash my hands in innocence, and go about your altar, O LORD, proclaiming aloud your praise and telling of all your wonderful deeds. I love the house where you live, O LORD, the place where your glory dwells. Obviously he envisions himself, although he was not a priest, as being in the Lord’s house, or tabernacle, and serving at God’s altar. He says in order to do this he must wash his hands in innocency. He was surely not speaking of a mere washing of the hands but of the state of his heart and conduct. In the Psalm he protests his separation from evil men, verses 9-11, Do not take away my soul along with sinners, my life with bloodthirsty men, in whose hands are wicked schemes, whose right hands are full of bribes. But I lead a blameless life; redeem me and be merciful to me. In the same way he reflects this truth in Psalm 24 with the question Who may ascend the hill of the Lord, who may stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart. The clean hands are a reference to the washing necessary to serve in the hill of the Lord or in his tabernacle, but the reference to a pure heart shows us that what was in view here was that a true priest is washed inwardly. This washing represented the spiritual truth that only those who have been cleansed can serve the Lord. This leads us to the symbolic import of the ordinance.

II Symbolic

The idea of washing has been retained and raised to a higher significance in the New Testament. Those who follow Christ are to be baptized. It is the commandment of the Lord in Matthew 28:19, Go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Also, in Acts 2 on the Day of Pentecost following Peter’s sermon, the crowd says, “Brothers what shall we do?” and the answer is “Repent and be baptized.” This signifies that the one who becomes a follower of Jesus Christ must be cleansed from the guilt and pollution of sin. We know that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sin. We know that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin, but the outward way in which this cleansing is witnessed is by the washing of water. So, in Hebrews 10 where the author is speaking of coming into the holiest place, he reminds us of the laver when he says in verses 19-22, Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. The washing of the body is a witness to the cleansing we experience through faith in Jesus Christ. Also in Titus 3:4,5 we find the same truth conveyed but there we are taught that the washing with water is but a symbol, or witness to the washing done by the Holy Spirit when we are born again, But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit. This should still leave a question in our minds however. How does this once for all washing relate to the daily washing away of defilement which is pictured in the use of the laver by the priests. The New Testament explains this in Jesus’ words in John 13. Here the lord is washing his disciples feet. The conversation with Peter is interesting in this connection. When Peter refuses Jesus’ attempt to wash his feet Jesus says that unless he washes Peter’s feet Peter has no part with Him. Peter answers, then wash all of me, but in Jesus answer in verses 10 and 11 shows that there is a distinction made between a once for all cleansing which all the disciples excepting Judas had experienced, and the daily washing away of the pollution of sin through repentance and confession, Jesus answered, “A person who has had a bath needs only to wash his feet; his whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.” For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not every one was clean. There is a parallel to this in the service of the tabernacle. If you look in Chapter 29 of Exodus which describes the consecration of the priests you will discover that they were washed with water before they were dressed in their garments. After this they were anointed with oil symbolizing their being qualified by the Holy Spirit for this office. So once the priests were washed at the time of consecration, they, like Peter, needed only to wash their feet and hands in service. The New Testament reminds us that we are a kingdom of priests, everyone of us. We must wash daily as they did, and it is just as important or even more important for us than it was for them.

III Scriptural

I want us to contemplate briefly the outward means by which this cleansing comes to us. It is of course based on the sacrifice of Christ and applied by the Holy Spirit. However in Ephesians 5:25 and 26 husbands are told to love their wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word. The outward agent of the cleansing is seen to be the Word of God. Now what is very curious in this connection is that we are told in Exodus 38:8 that the laver was made from the mirrors of the women who served at the entrance to the tent of meeting. Even in those early times there were women like Anna the prophetess who never left the temple but worshiped there night and day fasting and praying, Luke 2:36-38, There was also a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was very old; she had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, and then was a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying. Coming up to them at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem. Anna greeted the Lord Jesus when he was presented in the temple. These pious women are the same women who surrendered up their vanity, their mirrors, for the construction of the laver. The mirrors were metal of course. It is most likely, then, that the laver had a mirrored interior surface. This again is suggestive because James compares the Word of God to a mirrored looking glass in James 1:23 and 24, Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. When we look into the Word and see our defilement it brings us to repentance and we seek the cleansing of the Lord.