The Savior Is The Pure Waters Of Life Who Cleanses Us (Sacred Sites Part 6)

Above is a model of the Laver of Water that was in Solomon's Temple. The laver of water in the old Tabernacle made by Moses was much smaller. It is a type of our being cleansed by baptism through the atoning sacrifice of Christ. Again, we can see the rule given by Nephi in 2 Nephi 11:4, that all things given by God to man typify Christ.

Here is what the the Old Testament Institute Manual page 155 says about the Laver:

Directly in line next in the courtyard was the laver, or basin of water, which was used for washing and cleansing (see Exodus 30:19–20). As was mentioned, when Solomon built a permanent temple, he placed the laver on the backs of twelve oxen (see 1 Kings 7:25), a symbolism carried on in modern temples and clearly related to baptism. Since the baptismal font itself is a “similitude of the grave” (D&C 128:13), where the “old man” of sin is buried (Romans 6:1–6), the symbolism of the laver seems clear. Once the “natural man” (Mosiah 3:19) is sacrificed (put to death through a broken heart, or sincere and deep repentance), he is cleansed by both the waters of baptism and the fires of the Holy Ghost (see 2 Nephi 31:17). Once this cleansing is done, he is prepared to leave the world, or a telestial way of living, and “be born” (John 3:5) into a higher state of spiritual life.