There can be no true communion with God, save as personal holiness is diligently maintained. "If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth." (1 John i. 6.) This personal holiness can only flow from the action of the Word of God on our works and ways.--"By the words of Thy lips I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer." Our constant failure in priestly ministry may be accounted for by our neglecting the due use of the laver. If our ways are not submitted to the purgative action of the Word--if we continue in the pursuit or practice of that which, according to the testimony of our own consciences, the Word distinctly condemns, the energy of our priestly character will assuredly be lacking. Deliberate continuance in evil and true priestly worship are wholly incompatible. "Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy Word is truth." If we have any uncleanness upon us, we cannot enjoy the presence of God. The effect of His presence would then be to convict us by its holy light. But when we are enabled, through grace, to cleanse our way, by taking heed thereto according to God's Word, we are then morally capacitated for the enjoyment of His presence.
My reader will at once perceive what a vast field of practical truth is here laid open to him, and also how largely the doctrine of the brazen laver is brought out in the New Testament. Oh that all those who are privileged to tread the courts of the sanctuary, in priestly robes, and to approach the altar of God, in priestly worship, may keep their hands and feet clean by the use of the true laver.
It may be interesting to note that the laver, with its foot, was made "of the looking-glasses of the women assembling, which assembled at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation." (See chap. xxxviii. 8.) This fact is full of meaning. We are ever prone to be "like a man beholding his natural face in a glass; for he beholdeth himself and goeth away, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was." Nature's looking-glass can never furnish a clear and permanent view of our true condition. "But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed." (James i. 23-25.) The man who has constant recourse to the Word of God, and who allows that Word to tell upon his heart and conscience, will be maintained in the holy activities of the divine life.
Intimately connected with the searching and cleansing action of the Word is the efficacy of the priestly ministry of Christ. "For the Word of God is quick and powerful [_i.e._, _living_ and _energetic_], and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart; neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight; but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do." Then the inspired apostle immediately adds, "Seeing then that we have a great High-Priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not a high-priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.[15] Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." (Heb. iv. 12-16.)
[15] Literally, "sin excepted" (χωρις αμαρτιας); _i.e._, He was tempted--tested and tried--in every way from without, sin excepted, for sin was not in Him.
The more keenly we feel the edge of the Word, the more we shall prize the merciful and gracious ministry of our High-Priest. The two things go together. They are the inseparable companions of the Christian's path. Hence, it is only as I am making use of the laver that I can approach the altar. Worship must ever be presented in the power of holiness. We must lose sight of nature, as reflected in a looking-glass, and be wholly occupied with Christ, as presented in the Word. In this way only shall the "hands and feet"--the works and ways--be cleansed, according to the purification of the sanctuary.