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The Tabernacle The Laver-A Type of the Word of God and the Spirit of God Water, in the Scriptures, is used as a type of the Word of God and of the Holy Spirit of God. Two clear passages, from among others which might be cited, make this truth very plain: "Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word" (Eph. 5:25, 26). "If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, from within him (R. V.) shall flow rivers of living water. (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)" (John 7:37-39). Again, in His intercessory prayer for His own, our Lord asked the Father to keep His disciples from evil, adding, "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth" (John 17:17). Those of us who love the Lord know all too well that, when we neglect the reading and study of His Holy Word, our lives are barren of joy in the Lord, barren of fruit- fulness in proclaiming the Gospel. Our hands, which speak to us of service, become defiled with the pleasures of sin. Our feet, symbolic of our daily pilgrimage, go in the paths that lead away from a close and constant walk with God. We are still His children; He loves us still; but, like Peter before the cross, we follow the Lord "afar off." Those of us who love the Lord know also, all too well, that when we "grieve the Holy Spirit of God," we are
165 The Tabernacle powerless to do His will. Our efforts in so-called Chris- tian work are futile. Our work is as "wood, hay, and stubble" in His sight. But how often those of us who love the Lord have gone to Him, confessing our sins, letting Him speak to us through His sanctifying, cleansing Word, and have found in Him forgiveness and power through the ministry of His Holy Spirit! The longer we travel on this pilgrimage, from Egypt to Canaan, as it were, the more we realize our helplessness, apart from the Word of God applied to our sinning hearts through the Holy Spirit of God. The older we grow in our Christian experience, the more we become conscious of our need for daily, constant cleansing from the defilement of sin through "the washing of water by the word," made "quick and powerful" through the eter- nal Spirit of God. When we examine our hands and our feet--our service and our walk-in the light of the Holy Scriptures; when we confess our sins, and by the power of the Spirit put them away; then our Lord "is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all un- righteousness" (I John 1:9). David knew the wretchedness of defilemen.t, even after he was saved. He had broken three of God's holy com- mandments, having been impure in his life, having lived a falsehood, and having committed murder. God sent His prophet, Nathan, to tell him of his awful sin; whereupon David asked God's forgiveness, saying, in part: "Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. . . . Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.... Create in me a clean heart, 0 God; and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy Holy Spirit from
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