The Water

And thou shalt put water therein, to wash withal; ver. 18.) “Christ loved the Church, and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word.” (Ephesians 5:26.) “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth,” is his prayer to the Father. (John 17:17.) “It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak “unto you, they are spirit, and they are life,” he says. (John 6:63.) Not the word apart from the Spirit, nor the Spirit apart from the word. It is the truth that sanctifies; and the Spirit is truth. But it is the truth of Christ; “as the truth is in Jesus.”
The water which filled the laver in the wilderness came first from the smitten rock (Exodus 17); the type of Christ crucified, from whose pierced side flowed forth the water and the blood. For “that rock was Christ.” (1 Corinthians 10:4.)
Secondly, it came from the rock which was to have been spoken to, at the end of the wilderness wanderings, in connection with the blooming, blossoming, and fruit-bearing rod. (Numbers 20) Typical, of Christ glorified, and sending down the spirit in: answer to prayer. (Acts 2 and John 7) How significant! and how precious to the soul of the believer are these divine foreshadowings.