09. The Laver Of Brass And Cleansing
CHAPTER NINE
THE LAVER OF BRASS AND CLEANSING
“And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Thou shalt also make a laver 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. For Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet thereat: When they go into the tabernacle of the congregation, that they die not” (Exo 30:17-20).
EVERY morning our little twins had a fresh pinafore. As mother knew her twins, she told them to be careful and not dirty themselves.
It is remarkable what an attraction dirt has for children. When it had been raining during the night and there were plenty of little water pools, how they loved to jump about in them. It did not take long before one of them fell - the fresh apron, hands and face all dirty.
The little sinner goes repenting to mother and asks her not to be angry. She kisses away the tears; mothers know how to do that. He knows he is forgiven. And then he has to go about with dirty hands and face and dirty pinafore? Oh, no. She not only forgives, she washes face and hands and puts a fresh pinafore on. Is that all?
There is something better than a clean pinafore. If only I could have given my boys a disposition to hate dirt and dislike jumping in pools they would have avoided a good deal of their troubles.
We are big children of our heavenly Father. “Father Himself loves you,” the Lord Jesus said (John 16:27).
At the brazen altar He has taken away my many rags (Isa 64:6). and “hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness” (Isa 61:10).
Father too would like to see His children always clean.
“Let thy garments be always white; and let thy head lack no ointment” (Ecc 9:8).
At the brazen altar we received a new nature. “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever” (1Pe 1:23).
Our old nature loves dirt; our new nature detests it. There is a constant struggle between the two; which of them shall be the master. Too often our old nature has the victory. They are Christians, but carnal Christians, babes in Christ.
Of course, this is not Father’s intention. He likes His children to grow in stature.
“He sent his son that we might have life and have it more abundantly.”
Unfortunately many of God’s children never go farther than the brazen altar.
God commanded Moses to build a laver of brass. It was to stand midway between the altar and the door of the tabernacle. God provided the means for cleansing from the defilement of sin. In it the priest was to wash his hands and feet before he was allowed to serve God in the sanctuary.
Certainly he washed completely his whole body before entering the court, but passing from the altar his feet had come in contact with the earth, and whatever touches the earth becomes soiled.
No priest was allowed to enter the sanctuary with unclean feet or hands. If he did, he was put to death.
The Babylonian captivity had come to an end. The Lord had redeemed His people. He did not want them to remain in Babylon even though it would be possible to amass large fortunes by the world’s trade. This was not God’s thought for His people:
“Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing; go ye out of the midst of her;be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the Lord” (Isa 52:11).
In God’s plan justification should be followed by sanctification. Altar and laver are inseparable companions. At the brazen altar by the blood our guilt is cancelled, at the laver the defilement of sin is washed away.
- “Without shedding of blood there is no remission” (Heb 9:22).
- “Without holiness no man shall see the Lord” (Heb 12:14).
Sin is trespassing, going where you are not allowed to go. It is transgression, stepping over the right path, iniquity, unjust dealing with God, as well as a disease spreading its germs every where, it is uncleanness; it is dirt.
If you come in contact with dirt, you become dirty.
Our Father not only forgives, but He also cleanses. One of the most precious words in the Bible is 1Jn 1:9. It shows us the only way for a child of God, mentioned in God’s Word, to be restored to communion.
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
God promises not only forgiveness, but also cleansing. He provides not the brazen altar only, but also the laver.
“But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1Jn 1:7).
Cleansing through the blood is not the same as forgiveness through the blood. Forgiveness comprehends the whole load of our sins, sins in our past, sins in the present, even sins we are still going to do in the future. They are all covered by the blood. The Lord be praised for the brazen altar.
Cleansing through the blood refers to the individual sin.
God forgives sins; He cleanses from sin, from every sin.
The Holy Spirit is associated with the cleansing. “But ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God” (1Co 6:11).
God the Holy Ghost, who sanctifieth me and all the elect people of God, cleanseth from every sin. If you wish to be cleansed, you must pray the Holy Spirit to show you every single sin in His light. The Holy Spirit will answer your prayer; He will find the right time and the right opportunity to deal with it.
There is certainly a condition. We must walk (be living) in the light, not in the light of your assembly, not in the light of a brother to whom you look up, but in His light. Ask the Lord what He thinks, not only of your actions or words, but about the motive or disposition which is behind it. It is not the manifestation of the sin, not the symptoms of the disease, but the sin itself, the sinful disposition which is important.
John says: If we walk in the light, as He is in the light.”
God is continuously in the light. He is “the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning” (Jas 1:17).
If you long to experience the cleansing power of the blood, you cannot live one week in the light and the next week in darkness. If you do, you may have the forgiving power of the blood, never its cleansing power: “There is a fountain filled with blood, drawn from Immanuel’s veins.”
The Lord be praised that we may go to that fountain and find forgiveness, but we should not stop there. The forgiveness of the sin should be followed by the cleansing, otherwise we might perhaps have to come next week and ask forgiveness again for committing the same sin. When you have seen that sin in His light and what it means for God and for you, you will not be satisfied with forgiveness, but you will pass on to the laver of brass.
Cleansing from every sin.
Is this possible? It is through the cleansing by the blood. Notice John does not say through Jesus’ blood, but through the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son. There is power, wonderful power in the blood of the Lamb. This is what He wants you to feel. The blood which cleanses us from every sin is the blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
As we stand with folded hands at the laver of brass, may I pray with you a prayer that the church has prayed for many centuries: “Almighty God, unto whom all hearts be open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid; cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of thy Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love thee, and worthily magnify thy holy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”
~ end of chapter 9 ~