Ki Tisa, When You Elevate, Take up
Shemot (Exodus) 30:11 – 34:35
Melekim Alef (I Kings) 18:1–39
Matthew 9:35 – 11:1; Luke 11:14-20; Acts 7:35 – 8:1; 1 Corinthians 10:1-13; 2 Corinthians 3:1-18
Surveying streams in the Cascade Mountains of Oregon often made me hot and thirsty in the summer. Mapping a stream up to its source usually took me to steep, rocky ground in the mountainous National Forest where I worked.
But how refreshing when I could wash and cup my hands, drink in the cold, sweet spring water, and splash the dirt and sweat off my face! If I was hot, I’d fill my hard hat and pour cool water over my head. At the headwaters of a stream, I knew no animals, nor humans, could pollute the waters bubbling out of the rocks of the side of a high mountain. I appreciated the fact that I could drink from the purest of all waters on the planet.
Living Water for the Soul
When my Savior Yeshua lifted me out of dead dry religion and from the cloud of pot smoke I left behind, I heeded the call to ‘Go west young man!’ In Oregon, I spent my career working for the US Forest Service in the headwaters of the North Santiam River, one of the cleanest sources of drinking water in the world. But even better, Abba has taken me to the source of Living Waters for my soul – the exalted Head, Yeshua the Messiah. My soul longs for the Living God!
For the music director, a contemplative song of the sons of Korah.
As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When will I come and appear before God? Psalm 42:1-2, TLV
These compelling words remind me of another worship song I love by Matt Redman:
‘O Living Water, O God my Savior,
If I ever needed You, I need You now.’
Listen to Matt Redman, "I Need You Now"
The Mysterious Laver
The laver is the most mysterious of the furnishings in the Tabernacle. The instructions on how to make it are the briefest. No dimensions are given in the Torah. What does YHWH emphasize when giving the commandments to make the laver? Read YHWH’s command to Moses and see what’s repeated four times in just four verses found in Exodus 30:
“You shall also make a basin of brass, and its base of brass, in which to wash (rachats). You shall put it between the Tent of Meeting and the altar, and you shall put water in it.
Aaron and his sons shall wash (rachats) their hands and their feet in it.
When they go into the Tent of Meeting, they shall wash (rachats) with water, that they not die; or when they come near to the altar to minister, to burn an offering made by fire to Yahweh.
So they shall wash (rachats) their hands and their feet, that they not die: and it shall be a statute forever to them, even to him and to his descendants throughout their generations. Exodus 30:18-21(WEB)
Waters of Washing from the Head
The ancient picture of ‘washing’ in Hebrew describes my experience in the headwaters to the ‘t’! The ancient Hebrew language has proven to me over and over again that it is the only pure source of all languages.
The Hebrew word ‘rachats’ is spelled ‘resh, chet, tsade’. Simply put, the letters picture ‘the head wall issues out.’
That’s exactly where a spring issues out in many places in the Cascade Mountains – from the headwall of a mountainous watershed.
The common word ‘har,’ spelled ‘hey, resh’ meaning ‘mountain’ in Hebrew, shows the letter ‘resh’ to be often seen as the head of a landscape, lifted up over the terrain.
It was on Har Sinai that Moses met with the Messiah face to face to receive the pure Word to bring back down to the people. It was on Har Tavor (see photo) where the Messiah met with Moses, Elijah, and three of His disciples. On that mount, He was gloriously transfigured before them. It will be on Har Hazeitim, the Mount of Olives, where the Messiah will return in all His glory back to the earth (Zech 14:4). In the Scriptures, we see Him as the glorious and divine Messiah – b’har, on the mount.
Yeshua is the headwater source of Living Water that cleanses my soul from the filth of the world and sin. As the priest did daily at the laver, my Savior washes my soul with pure, life-giving waters of the Spirit!
In the Bible, where do we find Yeshua to be the Headwaters? On the last, great day of Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles, Yeshua declared to the people observing the festival:
On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Yeshua stood up and cried out loudly, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture says, ‘out of his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’”
Now He said this about the Ruach (Spirit), Whom those who trusted in Him were going to receive; for the Ruach was not yet given since Yeshua was not yet glorified. John 7:37-39, TLV
Into whom does Yeshua pour the gift of His Spirit as Living Waters? To those who trust Him with their lives, to those who thirst after Living Waters from His Headwaters.
Waters Seek to Fill the Lowest Places
As high as pure waters start, coming from the headwalls of a landscape, they always seek to fill the lowest places. In its journey from the mountain, waters move into the lowest places of the topography, bringing cleansing and life wherever it goes, until it reaches its final resting place in a lake or sea.
Isn’t that what the Living Waters of Yeshua do? His Word and Spirit fill the humble, the lowly, and the broken, not the proud that run His waters off their hard hearts.
Living Waters fill the righteous, for Yeshua said:
“Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness! For they shall be filled.” Matthew 5:6
When I was young, I tried to fill the thirst of my soul with pot smoke, alcohol, porn, rock & roll, and otherworldly things that only polluted, sickened, and dissatisfied my soul. When I finally humbled myself, realized what a wretched sinner I was, and acknowledged the wrongs I had done, I thirsted after righteousness and what could truly fill and satisfy my soul. Hearing the Gospel message was like living water to my dry and thirsty heart.
Today I’m still amazed at not only how the Spirit, the water, and the blood cleanse my soul when my conscience convicts me of sin, but also how He washes out the stains of guilt and shame from my conscience. For that reason, I can keep the joy of my salvation! The washing and renewing of the Spirit, the water, and the blood are a reality in my life:
Messiah Yeshua is the One Who came by water and blood – not by water only, but by water and blood. The Spirit is the One who testifies because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three that testify – the Spirit, the water, and the blood – and these three are one. 1 John 5:6-8, TLV
Water and Blood Prove the Messiah’s Divinity
Yeshua coming ‘by water and blood’ is evidence of His virgin birth. Because He was the only child conceived and born out of a closed womb, when Mary’s water broke, He came out breaking the hidden veil, causing blood and water to come forth at His birth. He fulfilled the closed letter mem in l’marbeh of Isaiah 9:7, of the increase.’ Born-again souls by faith in Him become His ‘increase’ by the same ‘three that testify’.
Upon the cross, after Yeshua commended His Spirit to the Father, blood and water poured out His pierced side, because of the broken chambers around His broken heart.
Yeshua ‘came by water and blood’ both in His birth and in His death. Yet ‘the Spirit, the water and the blood’ still wash, cleanse, fill, and impart life to all humble souls who thirst after righteousness, to all who come lowly before the Master to be filled.
Yeshua Fulfills the Service of the Laver
How did Yeshua keep and fulfill the instructions given by Moses for washing at the laver? When did He fulfill the Torah’s instructions given twice for washing hands and feet?
Exodus 30:19 Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet in it.
… 21 So they shall wash their hands and their feet,
During another festival, Passover, the Messiah as a priest sought to fill the lowest places of society, as a servant, to wash the lowest and dirtiest part of his disciples with water.
So He gets up from the meal and lays aside His outer garment, and taking a towel, He wrapped it around His waist. Then He pours water into a basin. He began to wash the disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel wrapped around Him. John 13:4-5
But what about the hands? To fulfill the Torah, He had to wash his hands!
That’s where Peter jumps in when Yeshua tells him:
“If I don’t wash you, you have no part with Me.” Simon Peter said to Him, “Master, then not only my feet, but also my hands and my head!” John 13:8a-9
What was the lesson that the Master was teaching His disciples and His followers today? What should we understand about the instructions Moses gave regarding the laver?
So after He had washed their feet and put His robe back on and reclined again, He said to them, “Do you understand what I have done for you?”
Good question, Yeshua! One for a midrash in my opinion! How do we keep the service of the laver in our community of believers according to Yeshua’s teaching?
“You call Me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Master – and rightly you say, for I am. So if I, your Master and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash each other’s feet. I have given you an example – you should do for each other what I have done for you. Amen, amen I tell you, a servant isn’t greater than his master, and the one who is sent isn’t greater than the one who sent him.“ John 13:14-16
Practical Applications of the Service of the Laver
How can we humble ourselves as servants and wash each other’s feet, the dirtiest part of a person? What practical ways can you think of?
Is cleaning up after an elderly person demeaning or unimportant to me?
Do I cut a person off who is bitter about what someone has done to defile him or her? Listening to a person who is down and kneeling to pray for a defiled or bitter soul is a service by the Spirit that we can offer to cleanse them. That’s like washing feet.
This means we can physically wash our feet. I believe we should literally follow Yeshua’s example on Passover and do the same service at that time as well. Looking forward to the opportunity every year, washing my feet refreshes my spirit, soul, and body.
Baptism is another way that the Spirit, the water, and the blood bear witness of Yeshua, (1 John 5:6-8) washing us and imparting life to our souls. Like immersions in the flowing waters of a river that comes down from the headwaters of the Cascades, why wouldn’t we literally wash each other’s feet? Through prayer, we wash others by the Spirit as well.
It is more blessed to give than to receive. Acts 20:35.
Whenever I do the service of the laver for others, washing others to cleanse and refresh them, my soul is also blessed and refreshed. Jump in! The waters are fine!
Following in the footsteps of Yeshua is so satisfying! His is the Way of Life. Let the Living Waters flow!
BaShem Yeshua, the Head of Living Waters,
David