Thou shalt also make a laver of brass, and his foot also of brass, to wash withal… – Exodus 30:18, KJV

In Galatians 3:24 Paul calls the Law of the Old Testament a schoolmaster. Indeed, the Law taught the Jews many lessons about how to interact with God, and The Lord reiterated many of those same lessons in His instructions to the New Testament church. 

Take, for instance, the laver of brass found in the book of Exodus. The laver was a washbasin. According to John Gill’s Exposition of the Bible:

the laver had mouths or spouts…from whence the water flowed when the priests washed their hands and feet at it…they did not wash out of the laver, but from water flowing out of it…

After the priests washed their hands and their feet, they could minister at God’s altar. If they failed to wash, or if they failed to wash thoroughly, the penalty was death. The reason for such a severe penalty was to illustrate that God will not tolerate uncleanness in his presence, for righteousness has no fellowship with unrighteousness.

The priests had to wash EVERY time they wanted to minister in God’s presence. This showed that:

…the actions of good men, the priests of The Lord, and their walk and conversation, are not without sin, and that these need washing in the laver of Christ’s blood, to which there must be daily application. (See John Gill’s Exposition)

No matter how good they were, and no matter how hard they tried not to, the priests sinned on a daily basis.  Therefore, the need to wash each time they entered the tabernacle was to teach all of Israel that sin must be washed away each time we desire to fellowship with God.

Jesus illustrated this same truth in John 13:8. In John 13:1-15, Jesus washed the disciples’ feet as an example of how we are to humbly serve our fellow Christians. When he reached Peter, Peter protested, which prompted Jesus to say the following in verse 8:

…Unless I wash you, you have no part with (in) Me [you have no share in companionship with Me].

This doesn’t mean we have to be saved everyday, as Jesus indicated in verse 10. Christ only needs to save us once. But since righteousness cannot fellowship with unrighteousness, we must, as the priests did, wash ourselves of the dirt of sin that we accumulate each day. We must confess and repent of our sins each time we wish to fellowship with God, for if we don’t, we can expect our fellowship with Him to suffer. God does not allow sin into His presence, and if we fail to confess and repent, He will hold us at arm’s length until we do.

How is your fellowship with God? Do you find yourself distant from Him? Does He seem hard to communicate with? If so, it is very likely that your fellowship is suffering because you have unconfessed sin in your life. The funny thing is that, for most of us, we know exactly what that unconfessed sin is. We just love it so much that we don’t want to let it go. Just know, however, that as long as you love your sin more than God, He’s not going to leap off of the pages of the Bible to show you His majesty, and He’s not going to give an ear to your prayers (See Psalm 66:18). If you want His fellowship, you’ll have to turn your back on your sin. When you do that, God will turn His face towards you once more.

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