We next approach the Laver, of which neither size nor shape are given (30:18-21). This is the last vessel named, the first mentioned is the Ark. The Laver was made wholly of brass. There was no brass in the Tabernacle.
Gold inside, brass outside. Divine righteousness in the sanctuary; Divine righteousness according to human responsibility outside the sanctuary. The Laver does not seem to have been covered in preparation for the journeys of the wilderness; all the other vessels were. Its omission in this connection is significant (Num. 4:1-14). Christ in His life down here in ABSOLUTE HOLINESS is a fact. Covered? Never. He ever lived in the sight of God, of angels, of men. His life in all its wondrous detail lay open to all. It was never a covered life, whether at rest or journeying. His Person inscrutable, His life open and transparent to all.
In the Temple there were ten Lavers of brass, each resting on its own base. Each Laver was six feet in length and breadth and four-and-a-half feet in height. Five of the Lavers were placed north and five south. Then there was constructed a “molten sea” of huge size (1 Kings 7:23-39).
The use and place of the Laver in the Court are highly significant. It was made of the polished brazen-mirrors of the women of Israel; they, as well as the men, had right and privilege to assemble in the Court and enjoy and profit by the privileges which it afforded (Exod. 38:8). The Laver was filled with water, in which the priests washed hands and feet before ministering at the Altar or in the Tabernacle. It was a fitting act, therefore, in those women to part with those natural looking-glasses where beauty and self were rated at each one’s own value, for God’s one and only true looking-glass for one and all―the Word of God (James 1:23-25). The Laver was for the practical purification of God’s priests. It was the means of purification for communion with God and of service for Him. Hands and feet―acts and ways―must be kept clean for sanctuary service. “Be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord,” and so imperative was the command for ceremonial purity on the part of God’s priests and ministers of old, that the penalty of death was annexed to any neglect of it (chap. 30:17-21).
The Laver was filled with water, not with blood. Blood on the Altar — water in the Laver. The daily cleansing of our walk and ways is by the practical application of the Word to the soiled conscience. There was blood on and at the Altar. It was water which filled the Laver. The Altar was for the sinner. The Laver for the priests, and this latter, all believers are in this dispensation (Heb. 10:22; 1 Pet. 2:5, 9). Now the Altar was first approached, and Divine teaching (typical) learned there as to the meaning, value, and application of the blood. There the sinner was forgiven, and there he was accepted on the ground of the atoning sacrifice. But as a priest and for sanctuary-service, the Laver was indispensable. The priests were washed all over once, an act never repeated, but the practical cleansing by the water in the Laver was daily, constantly needful.
Christ as revealed in the Word, is the measure of our practical cleansing. Christ in Whom too, the Word is embodied is the standard of daily walk for a believer. But who can estimate at its value that infinite purity―inward and outward―in nature and life―of Him Who was the Brazen Laver, with its foot on a sin stained earth, yet remained alone in absolute holiness?
“His life was pure, without a spot, And all His nature clean.”
Hence the Laver has no measurements, we are simply informed of the place it occupied―between the Altar and the Tabernacle; the material of which it was made―brass; and the use to which it was appointed― the purification of the priests. The Lord no doubt alluded to the Laver in His significant action recorded in John 13. as He does, without doubt, to the Temple in chapter 14.
The Brazen Altar and Brazen Laver both speak of the searching character of Divine judgment, whether it be of the sins of the sinner (the Altar), or the failure of the believer (the Laver). The Altar is sin judged by the Cross. The Laver is sin judged by the Word of God. Practical holiness, the maintenance of a good conscience by saint and minister, is absolutely essential for the enjoyment of communion with God, for worship in the heavenlies, and for service in the Church and in the world. The Laver is Christ viewed as a Divine person here below. It was made wholly of Brass―no shittim-wood. The water is the Word directing us to Him. The Laver was not measured, so Christ is the absolute measureless standard of holiness for His priests, His people. The Altar (the Cross) having done its work in perfecting the conscience forever (Heb. 10:14) there can be no return to it save as a worshipper. To the Laver there is. The practical purification of our walk and conduct, was never more needful than now, when a correct creed or no creed is insisted upon, and loose walk and ways regarded as of little account.