What is the context?
A bronze basin on a bronze stand is placed between the courtyard altar and the Tent of Meeting. It holds the water Aaron and his sons use to wash their hands and feet whenever they enter the tent or approach the altar to minister.
This is a repeated requirement during their service, distinct from the washing at their initial ordination in Exodus 29. God attaches a severe warning: they must wash so that they do not die. Their approach to His holy service calls for the care and purity He prescribes.
How is this passage commonly understood?
The basin is generally understood as providing ritual washing and teaching the need for purity before God. Calvin connects hands and feet with actions and the whole course of life. Wesley emphasizes that the priests need continuing cleansing as they serve, and draws an application of renewed repentance and reliance on Christ. These are spiritual applications of the repeated washing, alongside its actual role in sanctuary service.
Where does this fit in God's plan?
The wider biblical theme of cleansing reaches its greater expression in Christ. Ephesians 5:25–27 describes His love for the church, His giving Himself for her and His cleansing work so that she may be holy and blameless. The focus is the people He makes ready for Himself.
1 John 1:5–10 likewise joins fellowship with God to walking in the light, acknowledging sin and receiving His cleansing. These passages carry the theme into an ongoing life with God, rather than treating purity as something His people can simply put behind them after an initial ceremony.
What is our position?
We don't have a position on this passage yet. When our study reaches a conclusion the text supports, it will appear here.