When we pray to offer something to the Lord, we first need to wash our hands and even our feet in the laver. To come to the meeting to function is actually to come into the tabernacle to serve the Lord. Before we serve the Lord in the tabernacle, we need to wash. However, in the Christian life of many believers and in their service to God there does not seem to be a laver. When they come to the altar to make an offering to God, they have unclean hands. They may come into the church meetings and serve without washing their hands in the laver. This kind of service brings in death. This is the reason 30:21 says, “Then they shall wash their hands and their feet, that they may not die.”
We should be careful not to touch God’s service unless we have first washed our hands in the laver. If we try to serve God in the tabernacle with unclean hands, we shall die, spiritually speaking. How much death there is among Christians today! The more they serve, the more death they have because they serve with unclean hands. Praying and serving with unclean hands brings in death.
If we do not pray in the meetings or function, in a sense we may be somewhat living. But if we pray or function without washing in the laver, we shall bring death to ourselves and also spread death to others. Death is the result of our trying to pray or serve without washing in the laver.
The propitiation silver is for God’s move, and the laver is for the operation of God’s dwelling place. Without the propitiation silver, God’s dwelling place cannot be built up and it cannot move. There will be a shortage of silver to make the sockets, caps, hooks, and fillets. There will not be the adequate number of persons drafted to form the army to fight for God’s move. In the same principle, without the laver there is no way to have the operation of the tabernacle. Even if we have God’s dwelling place and all its furniture, we shall not have a way to put these things into operation. Without the washing in the laver, no one is qualified to serve in the tabernacle. It is unfortunate for emphasis to be given to the altar, the table, the lampstand, the ark, and the incense altar, but not so much to the laver. We must experience the laver for the operation of God’s dwelling place.
In location the laver is after the altar, but in function the laver is before the altar. When the priests came to minister at the altar, they first had to wash at the laver. They also had to wash at the laver before going into the tabernacle to minister. By this we see that the function of the laver comes before that of the altar.
The location of the laver indicates that it comes out of the altar. The altar was overlaid with bronze, and the laver was made of bronze. In typology bronze signifies God’s judgment. The altar typifies the cross of Christ. At the altar, at the cross, God’s judgment was exercised to the fullest extent. Out of the judgment of God exercised at the altar, the laver was produced. The bronze on the altar signifies judgment, but the bronze on the laver signifies the result, the issue, of God’s judgment. This result is the washing power. This means that the washing power of the laver comes out of God’s judgment.
According to the New Testament, the washing power of the laver is the life-giving Spirit. Titus 3:5 speaks of the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit. This verse reveals that the life-giving Spirit, the Spirit of life, is the washing power. Hence, the laver signifies the washing through the life-giving Spirit.
The laver typifies the washing power of the life-giving Spirit brought forth by the death of Christ. The altar signifies Christ’s redemption, and the laver signifies the life-giving Spirit’s washing. At the altar we see Christ’s redeeming, and at the laver we see the life-giving Spirit’s washing. However, this life-giving Spirit is not someone other than Christ. The life-giving Spirit is actually Christ Himself. After passing through God’s full judgment and entering into resurrection, the crucified Christ became the life-giving Spirit who washes us.