COMING CLEAN

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Then the Lord said to Moses, "Make a bronze basin, with its bronze stand, for washing. Place it between the Tent of Meeting and the altar, and put water in it. Aaron and his sons are to wash their hands and feet with water from it. Whenever they enter the Tent of Meeting, they shall wash with water so that they will not die. Also, when they approach the altar to minister by presenting an offering made to the Lord by fire, they shall wash their hands and feet so that they will not die. This is to be a lasting ordinance for Aaron and his descendants for the generations to come."

Exodus 30:17-21

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Cleanliness and purification.

As we read the scriptures, we find very early on that these two matters were of significant importance to God.

Once such instance is in our scripture passage today as we find God providing instructions to Moses for the construction of one more item that was to be within the tabernacle: a bronze basin on a bronze stand. Look again at His words here as we continue to study from the thirtieth chapter of the Book of Exodus:

Then the Lord said to Moses, "Make a bronze basin, with its bronze stand, for washing. Place it between the Tent of Meeting and the altar, and put water in it. Aaron and his sons are to wash their hands and feet with water from it. Whenever they enter the Tent of Meeting, they shall wash with water so that they will not die. Also, when they approach the altar to minister by presenting an offering made to the Lord by fire, they shall wash their hands and feet so that they will not die. This is to be a lasting ordinance for Aaron and his descendants for the generations to come." Vv. 17-21

The scriptures tell us that this bronze basin and stand was to be positioned “between the Tent of Meeting and the altar" with "water in it". This was to be used by "Aaron and his sons" as well as other priests who would follow, those would be their “descendants for the generations to come”.

We read where the priests were expected "to wash their hands and feet" any time they would “enter the Tent of Meeting" or "approach the altar to minister by presenting an offering made to the Lord by fire." This act of cleansing was done to wash away the sins of the priests before they would come into the Lord’s presence to do His prescribed work. Violating this requirement would have fatal consequences, underscoring how critical the Lord viewed the matter of cleanliness and purification.

This isn’t the only place in the Bible where we find the Lord placing an emphasis on coming to Him. Consider this passage from Isaiah:

"Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me. New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations—I cannot bear your evil assemblies. Your New Moon festivals and your appointed feasts my soul hates. They have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you; even if you offer many prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood; wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight! Stop doing wrong, learn to do right!" Isaiah 1:13-17

As we can see, the people of Israel are going to violate the covenant promise they made with God and this will stoke His anger as we see in this passage. The Israelite sins will include adopting pagan worship practices while observing their godless festivals and other associated rituals which involved inappropriate use of incense.

This would run counter to what we saw in an earlier message from the beginning of this chapter where God commanded Moses to have the people construct an altar specifically for burning incense within the Holy Place within the tabernacle. The incense was to always be burning with the smoke rising up to Him as a pleasing aroma. But here in Isaiah, the incense from the pagan practices was nothing but "detestable" to the Lord for He could not bear their "evil assemblies".

So what was God’s prescribed solution for the Israelites in the Isaiah passage?

He commands then to purify themselves, to “wash and make” themselves “clean”. We should note that it just wasn’t good enough for the people of Israel to be cleansed simply for a moment. Rather, God expected them to stay that way, demanding that they take their “evil deeds” away from His “sight” as they stopped “doing wrong” and committed themselves to “learn to do right".

All this has me thinking about where we are today as we stand before the Lord? Have we allowed ourselves to do things that are detestable to Him?

Before we answer that question too quickly and self exonerate ourselves, we need to remember that God hates all sin. Every single one. And so I don’t think there is anyone on earth who don’t need consistent absolving from their transgressions and we should be hearing the Lord’s loud and clear as He rebukes the people of Israel saying:

“Take your evil deeds out of my sight! Stop doing wrong, learn to do right!"

Here’s a New Testament take on this Old Testament truth from James, the half-brother of Jesus. He writes the following:

"Come near to God and He will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded" 4:8-10

The "double minded" James is talking about here are those want to live their lives two ways simultaneously, for the world and for the Lord.

In one instance, there was a part of the believer’s heart and mind that wanted to do as God wanted. But the other part of their heart and mind was centered on satisfying their own personal desires, embracing the sinful temptations of the world.

Sound familiar?

Many believers are doing just that today and so James’ words resonate just as loud to the “double-minded” today as they did more than 2,000 years ago.

“Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded"

"Come near to God and He will come near to you."

We need to remember that God will never partner with sin. And so the only way for a sinner to be able to have a close, intimate, lasting relationship with Him was to be washed and purified so to be able to come to Him clean. Thankfully, Christian believers have something better and longer lasting than mere water. For they are cleansed by the blood of Jesus.

Consider these words from Titus:

"For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good." 2:11-14

Here, we find God’s word proclaiming our Savior Jesus, the One who brought us redemption, purification, and salvation through His blood shed on Calvary’s cross, blood that was shed to purchase our pardon from sin, blood that washes our sin-stained souls so that they are whiter than snow (Isaiah 1:18, 1 John 1:7).

Indeed, because of Jesus, a Christian is no longer separated from God because of sin. Rather, through Christ, they appear justified and blameless before their Master and Maker, covered by the precious, atoning, cleansing blood of the saving Lamb that took away the sin of the world (John 1:29).

Friends, as believers, we need to rejoice and be glad in this truth, the truth that Jesus has purchased our forgiveness through His death on the cross and through Him, we are children of God and an heir to the Kingdom of Heaven. For through Christ, and through Him alone, we have been given an overflowing abundance of joy and hope, not just for today but forever.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.