14. Look to thy hinder parts, minister, lest, while thy mouth doth preach the gospel, thy nakedness and shame be seen of those which hear thee. For they that do not observe to learn this lesson themselves, will not teach others to believe the Word, nor to live a holy life; they will learn of them to show their shame, instead of learning to be holy.
XXXVIII. Of the lavers of the Temple.
Besides this molten sea, there were ten lavers in the temple; five of which were put on the right side, and five also on the left (2 Chron 4:6).
1. Of their fashion and their furniture, you may see (1 Kings 7:38). These lavers, as the molten sea, were vessels which contained water; but they were not of the same use with it. True, they were both to wash in; the sea to wash the worshippers, but the lavers to wash the sacrifice. 'He made the ten lavers to wash in them such things as they offered for the burnt-offering, but the sea was for the priests to wash in' (2 Chron 4:6). 2. The burnt-offering was a type of the body of Christ, which he once offered for our sins; and the fire on which the sacrifice was burned, a type of the curse of the law which seized on Christ when he gave himself a ransom for us. For, therefore, that under the law was called the burnt-offering, because of the burning upon the altar (Lev 6:9).
But what, then, must we understand by these lavers, and by this sacrifice being washed in them, in order to its being burned upon the altar?
I answer, Verily, I think that the ten lavers were a figure of the ten commandments; in the purity and perfection of Christ's obedience to which he became capable of being made a burnt-offering, acceptable to God for the sins of the people. Christ was made under the law, and all his acts of obedience to God for us were legal, and his living thus a perfect legal life was his washing his offering in these ten lavers, in order to his presenting it upon the altar for our sins. The lavers went upon wheels, to signify walking feet; and Christ walked in the law, and so became a clean offering to God for us. The wheels were of the very same as were the lavers, to show that Christ's obedience to the law was of the same, as to length and breadth, with its commands and demands to their utmost tittle and extent. The inwards and legs of the burnt-offering were to be washed in these lavers (Lev 1:9,13; 2 Chron 4:6); to show that Christ should be pure and clean in heart and life.
We know that obedience, whether Christ's or ours, is called 'a walking in the way,' typified by the lavers walking upon their wheels. But I mean not by Christ, his washing of his offering, that he had any filthiness cleaving to his nature or obedience; yet this I say, that so far as our guilt laid upon him could impede, so far he wiped it off by washing in these lavers. For his offering was to be without blemish, and without spot to God. Hence it is said, he sanctified himself in order to his suffering. 'And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him' (John 17:19; Heb 5:6-10).
For albeit he came holy into the world, yet that holiness was but preparatory to that by which he sanctified himself, in order to his suffering for sin. That, then, which was his immediate preparation for his suffering was his obedience to the law, his washing in these lavers. He, then, first yielded complete obedience to the law on our behalf, and then, as so qualified, offered his washed sacrifice for our sins without spot to God. Thus, therefore, he was our burnt-offering washed in the ten lavers, that he might, according to law, be accepted of the Lord.
And he set five of the lavers on the right side of the house, and five of them on the left. Thus were the ten divided, as the tables of the law, one showing our duty towards God, the other our duty towards our neighbour; in both which the burnt-offering was washed, that it might be clean in both respects. They might also be thus placed, the better to put the people in mind of the necessity of the sanction of Christ according to the law, in order to his offering of himself an offering to God for us.
XXXIX. Of the tables in the Temple.