Washed

This is part 3 a series of blogposts featuring parts of the Old Testament Tabernacle and how I believe we can relate those to our lives today. Click here for post #2.

The laver, or basin, was a large bowl filled with water located halfway between the brazen altar and the Holy Place. Although God did not give specific measurements for the Laver, it was to be made entirely of bronze. The priests were to wash their hands and their feet in it before entering the Holy Place.

The laver was the last object to be encountered before entering the tabernacle. It was located in a convenient place for washing and stood as a reminder that people need cleansing before approaching God. The priests atoned for their sins through a sacrifice at the brazen altar, but they cleansed themselves at the laver before serving in the Holy Place, so that they would be pure and not die before a holy God.

The application for believers today is that we are forgiven through Christ’s work on the cross, and then we are washed through His Word. “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 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.” Ephesians 5:25-27.

The priests would offer the animal for sacrifice, then go wash their hands and feet in this basin before heading into the Holy place and ultimately the Most Holy Place.  

1 Peter 2:9 say, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”

We, as priests, still need to be washed…washed in His Word, then we can serve and minister before Him just as the priests did.