Camille Fronk Olson (Former professor of ancient scripture, BYU)

The laver stood in the courtyard between the altar of sacrifice and the door of the tabernacle. Cleanliness was essential for being in God’s presence. In a practical sense, priests needed to wash often in connection with their role in the slaughtering and sacrificing of animals. Spiritually, the ritual signified being freed from the blood, dirt, and impurities of sin and the world. In this way priests presented sacrifices and themselves before God in a state of purity and holiness.

​

The New Testament identifies ways that Jesus Christ may typify aspects of the tabernacle and later temples. Latter-day Saints resonate with such connections to Christ because we embrace the truth that “all things bear record of [Him]” (Moses 6:63). We have in Jesus Christ “a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building” (Heb. 9:11) whom we “draw near with . . . [with] our bodies washed with pure water” (Heb. 10:22). Like the Old Testament priests, we also come before God only after He washes us clean. Hours before His crucifixion, Jesus washed the feet of His Twelve Apostles in a ritual that could purify them in ways that they could never do themselves (see John 13:1–17). Likewise, when we are washed by being immersed in the waters at baptism, the ritual symbolizes the purifying power of the Lord in cleansing us beyond what water alone can do.