Wash up First

"Wash your hands before you eat that."  How many times have you heard, or said those very words?  Not pouring water over cupped hands before eating was one of the things that made the Pharisees angry with Jesus and his disciples.  Mark 7 mentions that there were all kinds of 'washing-up' rules that the Pharisees clung to. There was one practice that was not mentioned in the gospels, however.

The Hebrews would wash-up before going to the temple.

I learned this while watching "The Temple Controversy" episode on the series Day of Discovery.  There were, in fact, pools along the southern entrance of the temple area that were for that very purpose.  The walls being plastered in such a way kept the water flowing in and out of the pool.  The people would enter from one end (considering themselves unclean), immerse themselves at the deeper end (which was only waist deep), and then walk out the other side (considering themselves clean).

This was new to me.

What an awesome concept though.  Whether going to temple to offer sacrifices that confessed their sins, or to bring an offering, or just to worship, the people made the effort to clean the dirt off that had accumulated from the road and others.  It's a superficial cleaning, but one performed to make themselves presentable before God in his house. Once clean offerings could be presented, they could be free to go about the temple, worshiping with the singers, listening to the teachings of the scribes, learning more about their wonderful God.

Albeit we don't have to offer blood sacrifices anymore because Jesus did that for us on the cross.  But, do we make the effort to clean up? Putting aside things that might make the outer man appear dirty compared to our clean God?  Confessing our missteps before we sit down to read or study the Bible?  Do we do our part to come clean first so we can better worship and learn about our God?

When I remember to confess sins and shortcomings beforehand, I feel as though I have a clean slate.  It sure does make my worship time sweeter.