The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Kings — Section 143

But here a distinction must be IDJ1de. The priests were commanded, to wash under pain of death (Exod. xxx. 19 sqq.; xxix. 4; :xl. 80-32), but there was n~ such command with respect to the victims. No; the sacrifices would seem to have been washed because the Jewish mind instinctively felt that this was right and fitting. And that it was right and fitting is proved by the fact that the service was accepted, and here enjoys the Divine sanction. We should hardly have had twelve verses of Scripture devoted to the description of the lavers and their bases, had not God Himself approved of the washing of "the work of the burnt offering'' (2 Chron. iv. 6, Heh.) Hence we may learn- I. That Christian priests must be washed. II. That Christian sacrifices should be cleansed. I. CHRISTIAN PRIBSTS MUST BE WASHED. Here two questions arise. (1) Who are Christian PRIESTS? (2) What is this WASHING? 1. By Olvristian priests we may understand here all Christians. For all Chris- tians are priests, precisely as all Jews were priests (cf. 1 Peter ii. 5, 9, with E::rnd. xi.x. 6). Of course, there is a priesthood among Christians, just as there was a priest- hood among the Jews (see page 113). It is often said, and said truly, that the word iEptvi;, sacerdos, is nowhere applied to the ministers of the New Testament; but the answer is that it could not have been so applied, so long as the Levitical priesthood existed, without risk of confusion. It is also true that the functions of the Christian presbyterate are very, very different from those of the Jewish priesthood; but all the same, if Christianity is filling up, and not the reversal or the negation of Judaism (Col. ii. 17; Mi;itt. v. 17), then, assuredly, it must not only have its altar, (Heh. xiii. 10), but its priesthood. But let us understrmd the word here of the body of believers: for clearly, if we can prove that all Christians must be washed, how much more those who minister in holy things, and bear the vessels of the Lord? (Isa. Iii. 11.) 2. By Christian washing we may understand, primarily, THE washing (Ear' il;oX')v) of the Nev., Testament, "the washing of regeneration" (Titus iii. 5 ; cf. (1 Corvi. 11; Eph. v. 26; Heb. x. 22; cf. vi. 2). For to o.11 Christians is the com- mand addressed, "Arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins " (Acts x:rii. lG; cf. eh. ii. 38). Of all may our holy Lord be heard to se,y, "If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me" (John xiii. 8 ;" cf. iii. 5; Mark xvi. 16). But is this all? .A:re we only to find here a lesson as to Christian baptism? Certainly not. For observe, (1) by baptism, the initial rite of our religion, men are made priests (Rev. i. 5, 6). (2) The washing of the priests was a washing of the hands and the feet (Exod. xxx. 19); and (8) it was to be repeated as often as they "went into the tabernacle of the congregation or" came near unto the altar (ver. 20; eh. :xl. 32). Clearly, then, the "one baptism" of Christianity cannot respond to this exclusively. No; that rather corresponds to the washing of the whole person (Levit. xvi. 4, 24), which the Rabbins say was performed in the molten sea, or in its basin; but which may possibly have been performed in private. That there was such complete ablution on the part of the priests needs no proof; it is presupposed in the directions about the hands and feet. It would have been mockery to wash the extremities of the body, wh.ile the body itself remain unclean. But the priest who went to the temple pure might, perhaps, contract some defilement on the way; the exposed parts, the hands and the feet, might be stained and so become unfit for the service of the All-Holy. It was for this the molten sea was provided, and this helps to illustrate our Lord's words, "He that is washed needeth not S[l,VO to w,tsh his feet" (John xiii. 10). Even so we, though, as St. Paul says, we "were washcLl" (a,rE~oviraalle, aor.) "in the !aver of regeneration," have sullied our baptismal robes in our passage through and contJ.ct with the world (James iii. 2), and need, day by day, cleansing and forgiveness (Matt. vi. 12). The text teaches, then, that we are unfit for the service of the Most Pure until we have washed our hands and feet; until, i.e., we a.re purged from the soils and stains of this wicked world. Not only must "our bodies be washed with pure water," our "hearts" must also Le "sprinkled from an evil conscience," befor_e we ce.n draw near with accepbnce to 140 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. [oa. vn. 1--51