The Washing of Water

 

You shall bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance of the tent of meeting and wash them with water. Then you shall take the garments, and put on Aaron the coat and the robe of the ephod, and the ephod, and the breastpiece, and gird him with the skillfully woven band of the ephod. And you shall set the turban on his head and put the holy crown on the turban. You shall take the anointing oil and pour it on his head and anoint him. Then you shall bring his sons and put coats on them, and you shall gird Aaron and his sons with sashes and bind caps on them. And the priesthood shall be theirs by a statute forever. Thus you shall ordain Aaron and his sons. (Exodus 29:4-9 ESV).

 

After Israel had spent over 400 years in Egypt, God’s biggest task was not so much to get the people out of Egypt but to get Egypt out of the people. They needed to worship God and learn a different view of the world so that they could share God’s blessings with the world. And God used water to get them started.

 

God’s instructions for setting up the tabernacle as a place of worship are in Exodus 25-31. The three main parts of the tabernacle reminded the people of the three basic levels of the cosmos (as understood in that day). The outer courtyard represented the earth—its dry land and sea. There people would wash in the basin (laver), or “sea” (cf. 1 Kings 7:23-28), and be reminded that God had rescued them through the Red Sea. The Holy Place, a room inside the tent, represented the heavens. Another room, further inside, was the Most Holy Place, representing God’s throne room in the highest heaven. In essence, heaven and earth came together in the tabernacle. And this served as a model of the renewed world where God will come to live with his people again (cf. Revelation 21-22).

 

God wants humans to work with him in renewing the world, so he gave priests to Israel as a sort of renewed humanity, symbolically cleansed of sin and anointed for God’s work. The role of the priest, purified by water and wearing royal robes, reminded God’s people that they were created in his image. Are we not the priests who have been washed for that service today?