Most of the time nowadays, our society uses something extra to clean rather than just water.  We use soap, disinfectants, antiseptics, soft soap, liquid soap, hand cleaner, grease removers and various solvents – often because we need to clean off processed or manufactured things that are far harder to remove than most natural products are.  Isn’t it funny how changing one thing often requires other changes as well?

Yet this need to remove oily substances arose quite early because of our love of wool.

Sheep have glands which excrete lanolin to coat their wool and stop the fleece from becoming waterlogged.  Sheep also can’t help picking up dirt, seeds, sticks and other bits and pieces in their fleece.  We like to use the wool for clothing and many other things, but to do so, we need to clean the fleece after we have shorn a sheep.  This cleaning is called fulling, tucking or walking/waulking.

In the Bible we read about fulling and places where it was done in a few passages.

When Hezekiah was king of Judah, we read of an invasion by Assyria.  One army group was sent to Jerusalem as a show of force to intimidate Hezekiah, hoping that he would capitulate.  The point of interest for this article is that the Assyrian army stopped on the highway to the fullers’ field (2 Kings 18:17; Isaiah 36:2), which also appears to have been near a good supply of water.  Several years earlier, God had told Isaiah to go to the fuller’s field outside Jerusalem (Isaiah 7:3), which was probably the same field.

Malachi 3:2 describes the coming of Jesus with some similes.  He is said to be like a refiner’s fire and like fuller’s soap.  The fire assists in the removal of impurities as part of purifying metal, while the soap helps a fuller clean a fleece.  Both are examples of an “ingredient” that helps the cleansing process.

In this passage, however, the cleansing being described is symbolic.  It is not describing refining of real metal or cleaning of a physical fleece; instead, it is describing the work of Jesus in cleaning up the world spiritually.  So now let’s look at symbolic washing or spiritual cleaning.

Washing in symbol

One thing that really stands out about cleanliness in the Bible is that it is often used symbolically.  For example, even before the flood (long before the law of Moses), living things were categorised as clean or unclean,[1] and this doesn’t seem to be based on whether a species is neat and tidy, large or small, mammal or insect.

The symbolic meaning of this is shown even more clearly when people (nations and individuals) are spoken of as being clean or unclean,[2] depending on whether their behaviour is good or bad.

Since we are familiar with the idea of cleaning something that has become dirty, it should be easy to understand the symbolic use of cleaning also.  King David, after he had committed adultery, asked God to wash away his sins,[3] or to go even further by creating a clean heart in him.[4]

In the New Testament, the idea of washing away sins is also presented to anyone who wants to listen.  As one example, after he met Jesus on the road to Damascus, Paul was told to get baptised and wash away his sins.[5]

Paul also spoke to believers in Corinth about what was expected of them as part of becoming Christians.  He gives a long list of sins that will exclude people from the kingdom of God and observed that some of them had done such things in the past, but reminded them that they had been washed to clean them from those sins.[6]  He urged them to stay clean.

Ephesians 5:26 speaks of “the washing of water with the word” which seems to refer to baptism and reading the Bible as essential parts of removing sin.  I suppose it makes sense that we can only avoid sin and pursue righteousness if we have a clear understanding of which is which!  And the Bible is the only place we can find that distinction.

Paul also links washing through baptism with renewal in the Holy Spirit,[7] reminding us that we cannot wash ourselves clean; instead it is the work of God through Jesus Christ.

Why do we wash?

Have you ever thought about the reasons we have for washing?  Many of them also apply when the washing is spiritual or symbolic.

We wash to remove things that are dangerous, messy or unsightly.  If our hands are dirty, we wash them so that clean things are not dirtied by our hands.

We wash clothes to remove unsightly spots of dirt or unpleasant smells.

All of these things can also have a meaning in the washing away of sin and evil, which should be the goal of our lives.

In the book of Revelation, we are shown the picture of a great multitude standing before the throne of the Lamb (Jesus) dressed in white robes.[8]  It was explained to John that these people had come out of the great tribulation and washed their clothes to make them white.

What did they wash them with?

The blood of the Lamb![9]

Now blood is something that we would always want to wash off.  Yet this blood, in symbol, is the only way to actually remove sin and make us clean before God.[10]

Washing our hands can make our hands clean for a while, but in a short time we need to wash again.

Washing ourselves in the blood of Jesus can make us clean forever:

Blessed are those who wash their robes,

so that they may have the right to the tree of life

and that they may enter the city by the gates.

Revelation 22:14