Echoes From the Campfire

[Don Adkisson]

       “He always seemed two baths short of Saturday.”
                    --Cliff Hudgins  (The Weathervane Ranch)

       "How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!"

                    --Hebrews 9:14 (NIV)
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Let's take a little time to ponder that wonderful word--"righteousness."  To start, we need some background information.  We'll start with the Tabernacle.  Inside the walls was the brazen altar.  It was a messy, gruesome, bloody place where the priests continually made sacrifices for the people.  It shows us that to enter God's presence we must come first to the place of sacrifice.
       Between the altar and the Tent of Meeting was the laver.  Think of this, the priests were making sacrifices but before they could enter the Tent of Meeting they had to stop at the altar and wash their hands and feet.  They had already gone through purification rights before making the sacrifice, but now they had to stop and wash their hands and feet again.  They had become stained with blood, dust, dirt, and therefore the priest had to cleanse himself.
       Now to the New Testament and on to the upper room.  We see Jesus, stooped over, a rag in hand and He is washing the disciples' feet.  He comes to Peter, where Peter asks, "Lord, are You washing my feet?" (John 13:6, NKJV)  Jesus tries to explain, but impetuous Peter continues, "'You shall never wash my feet!'  Jesus answered him, 'If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.'" (13:8, NKJV)  
       Peter still did not understand, but he wanted the Lord.  He cried out and said, "Give me a bath." (my paraphrase of 13:9)  "Jesus said to him, 'He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you.'" (13:10, NKJV)  Back to the tabernacle--the priest was clean, but on his way to the Tent of Meeting, his hands and feet became dirty.  They needed washing.  We, after accepting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, are clean, but through the toils of the day we get dirty and need our "hands and feet" cleaned.  Not a new salvation, but some cleansing.  That's why John writes, "If we confess our sins, (this is going to the laver, or having our feet washed) He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9, NKJV)
       Journeying through this world we come in contact with evil.  Our lives have become tainted, we're stained.  But we don't ask for salvation again, we asked for the cleansing power of Jesus to sweep over us.  The "dirt" of the day needs to be washed away.  We don't need a bath, but only our hands and feet need to be clean.  The altar took care of the sin; we start to go meet with the Lord in righteousness, but before we get to Him, we are stained by the world and are in need of cleansing.  
       This is only a short synopsis of the symbols, therefore it needs more contemplation by you.  Another aspect to look at is the importance of being "clean" before we meet with the Lord.  When we partake of the Lord's Supper we need to make sure our hearts are clean.  This is all symbolized by the washing.  It is why, when we lay our heads on our pillows at night, we pray that the Lord forgive us our sins of the day; it is part of that cleansing.

     D.C. Adkisson