Directions for the Bronze Basin

Cleanliness is a major concern of the law of God, with the book of Leviticus containing many regulations for washings that could restore someone to a state of ceremonial cleanliness, enabling that person to join in public worship. If ritual cleanliness was important for the ordinary Israelite, it was particularly necessary for the priests who led worship and represented the people before God. Exodus 30:17–21 tells us that the priests maintained ceremonial cleanliness by washing in a bronze basin.

The bronze basin, as we see in today’s passage, stood in the courtyard of the tabernacle “between the tent of meeting and the altar” (Ex. 30:18; see Ex. 40:33). Unlike other pieces of furniture used in Israelite worship, such as the table of showbread, ark, and lampstand, the bronze basin is not described in detail (see Ex. 25). Exodus 30:17–21 tells us only that there was to be a basin made of bronze, filled with water. Thus, the Israelites had some discretion in designing this place of washing, discretion that Solomon took full advantage of when he later constructed the vastly larger “sea” for the temple (1 Kings 7:23–26). Also, today’s passage does not feature explicit instructions for how the priests were to wash themselves. For instance, we do not know if they poured water over their hands or dipped them in the water, dried themselves with towels, and so forth. Probably the exact practice of washing varied from time to time and from place to place where the tabernacle was set up. The priests had to wash their hands and feet, signifying a thorough cleansing of their limbs and thus the actions of worship performed by them (Ex. 30:19).

We do not know exactly how the priests washed themselves, but we do know that priests who did not wash themselves risked their own lives (Ex. 30:20–21). Here the connections of dirt with sin and cleanliness with purity are important. The pollution of physical uncleanliness is often used as a metaphor for spiritual impurity, so the removal of dirt from the body was a way to portray the necessity of an inward cleansing from sin and its corruption (see, e.g., Ps. 51). Certainly, the worship of God deserves the best we can offer physically, so it is right to use in worship clothing, bodies, and tools that are physically clean. Yet external cleanliness is nothing without spiritual purity. Our hearts and minds must be washed clean of sin so that we can dedicate ourselves properly to the Lord. Ultimately, only the blood of Jesus can give us such cleanliness (1 John 1:7).