Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Exodus 40:11 turns the consecration of the bronze laver into a vision of the distant future. Anoint the laver, the meturgeman says, on account of Jehoshua thy minister, chief of the sanhedrin of his people; by whose hand the land of Israel is to be partitioned: and of Meshiha bar Ephraim, who shall spring from him, by whose hand the house of Israel is to vanquish Gog and his confederates at the end of the days.
Joshua the surveyor of Israel
The meturgeman first names Joshua — Jehoshua in Aramaic — as the one who will partition the land of Israel. After the conquest of Canaan, it was Joshua who cast lots and divided the inheritance among the tribes (Joshua 14:1). The laver, which cleans hands and feet before service, is consecrated here in honor of the man whose hands would draw the borders of Israel's first homeland.
The meturgeman also calls Joshua chief of the sanhedrin of his people — an anachronism on purpose. He is projecting the later institution of the rabbinic court back onto Moshe's successor. Joshua was not only a warrior. He was the first chief justice of Israel.
Meshiha bar Ephraim against Gog
Then the meturgeman moves far forward in time. Joshua was from the tribe of Ephraim, and the targumist says a descendant from his line will rise — Meshiha bar Ephraim, the Messiah son of Ephraim. This figure is not the Davidic king but a second messianic figure found in Jewish tradition: a warrior anointed from the northern tribes who leads the battle against Gog and his confederates at the end of days (Ezekiel 38-39).
In the meturgeman's vision, two messianic figures work in sequence. Meshiha bar Ephraim fights the eschatological war. King Meshiha of Judah (mentioned earlier in Exodus 40:9) brings the redemption. The bronze laver, where hands are washed before service, honors both — the hands that will partition the land in Joshua's time and the hands that will defeat Gog at the close of history.
Why the laver carries this
The laver is where one becomes fit to serve. The meturgeman connects fitness-for-service to the great leaders of Israel's military and political future. Joshua's hands were fit to divide land. Meshiha bar Ephraim's hands will be fit to defeat Gog. The basin of water in the wilderness was, in effect, consecrated for every hand that would ever fight, rule, or redeem on Israel's behalf.
The takeaway: a small bronze basin held the future. Every hand that would ever wash in it was being prepared, across centuries, for a service that had not yet arrived.