The Wilderness Sanctuary Service by J. O. CORLISS

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 10, 1916

The Wilderness Sanctuary Service

By J. O. CORLISS

The Atonement — No. 7

The Wilderness Sanctuary Service

J. O. CORLISS

HAVING studied the furnishings of the wilderness sanctuary, as reviewed in a preceding article, it is in place at this juncture to make inquiry regarding the routine and results of the ceremonies therein performed. The writer of the book of Hebrews, after making reference to the sanctuary in general, says that after the daily work of the regular priests in the first apartment, in behalf of sinners, was done, then once each year the high priest entered alone the most holy place, with blood, which he offered for himself and for the errors, or sins, of his people. Heb. 9: 6, 7.

This work of the high priest, following that of the regular priesthood, and being done only at yearly intervals, would seem to indicate that the complete cleansing from sin, under that earthly, typical system, was not accomplished until a year's end, when the high priest went into the most holy place, where was the mercy-seat. This act of the high priest seemed to be necessary from the fact that the work of the under-priests did not permit them to engage in service before the mercy-seat in the second apartment. It also reveals that the figurative atonement there accomplished, required two sets of ceremonies, performed by two different degrees of priestly service. The reason for this will be seen as those distinct services are studied.

The writer of the book of Hebrews, in the seventh chapter, speaks of both steps taken in that work; and after speaking strongly of that high priesthood centering in the Lord Jesus, he opens the eighth chapter by saying that the sum of all the things dwelt upon is that 'we have such a High Priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens,' and that he serves in the heavenly tabernacle, of which the earthly one was a faithful example and shadow. But if the service in the earthly sanctuary was an accurate shadow of the heavenly one, where Christ is high priest, the process of operation in the heavenly sanctuary can best be studied by a careful investigation of the services carried on in the earthly, shadowy sanctuary.

The first thing essential is to learn the nature of the 'errors' for which the earthly high priest made atonement. The law under the mercy-seat, the typical throne of Jehovah, represented the strong, supporting pillars of his government. To violate one of these ten fundamental precepts was to fling defiance in the face of Heaven, and so make void God's law before the universe. The transgression of that law was always sin (1 John 3: 4), and the wages of sin was death (Rom. 6: 23). So to transgress any one of these commandments was to incur the penalty of death.

There was, however, a remedy provided for a stay of judgment in favor of the sinner. When one of the common people became conscious of some ignorant violation of the law within the holy ark, he could meet a priest at the door of the sanctuary to arbitrate his case. But he must come there bringing a goat, and publicly, in the presence of the priest, lay his hand on the head of his offering, and then kill it near the altar of burnt offering. Lev. 4: 27-35. Laying the hand on a victim after this fashion carried a double significance. First, it was an open acknowledgment of guilt; and second, it was an act by which culpability was laid on a substitute, and that substitute condemned to death. In other words, by a figure the sinner had opportunity to express his desire to be reconciled to God, and to correct his ways to harmonize with God's will expressed in his law.

The substitute having met the sinner's penalty, its blood was poured out, and a portion of its flesh eaten within the sanctuary by the officiating priest; or, in other service, the priest bore the blood into the sanctuary and sprinkled it before the veil. This was in token that the sin was conveyed into the tabernacle, and there left. But even then the sin was not blotted out. True, it had been carried by the mediating priest into the sanctuary, and there left by him as the end of his work; but not yet had the offering of the high priest been made for its extinction. As stated by the apostle, had this been the end of the sin, the perpetrator of it would have had no further consciousness of it. It was found necessary, therefore, for a 'remembrance' again to be made every year. Heb. 10: 1-3. So it was that the sin remained in the sanctuary, where it had been figuratively received, there to await its final disposition.

This demanded the performance of a special service on a certain day of the year, and that by the high priest alone in the inner apartment of the sanctuary, directly before the mercy-seat covering the law which had been transgressed. By reference to Lev. 16: 29, 30, we not only learn when this ceremony took place, but its design as well. This was the stipulated regulation for all the house of Israel: 'In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, ye shall afflict your souls, and do no work at all: . . . for on that day shall the priest make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, that ye may be clean from all your sins before the Lord.'

Two points should be carefully observed just here. While the regular priests were available every day, before whom offenders might bring their sacrifice for personal transgressions, only one day of the year was set apart when the complete atonement for these violations of divine law could be effected. These daily offerings were made for individual, single sins, while the day of atonement was a final review of all delinquencies in general, in order that all of them might be done away at once. The work for individual sins was accomplished before the door of the sanctuary, near the altar of burnt offering, and in the holy place, while the closing atonement service was performed in the most holy place of the sanctuary. This closing work, too, was reserved to the end of the Jewish religious year, so that all the sins of the preceding months of that year, which had been confessed and lodged in the sanctuary, could be 'remembered,' and final disposition be made of them.

This, then, was the great reckoning day of the whole year, practically a day of judgment, when the review of the sins of Israel would determine whether these should be blotted from the sanctuary record of remembrance, or be thrown back upon the guilty ones, according to

their standing when the day of atonement came. Evidently this was the basis of their solemn regard for that day, and the reason for a close scrutiny of their lives before the arrival of the serious test. Lev. 16:29; 23:24-27.

The first duty of the high priest on that day was to offer a sacrifice in his own behalf, so that in appearing as intercessor in the interest of others, he might be clean before the law and the mercy-seat, which he was about to face.

He next had two goats brought before the door of the sanctuary, upon which lots were cast. According to some authorities, the following was the method used: In a small box held above the head of some suitable person were two golden cards, one marked 'For Jehovah,' and the other, 'For Azazel,' or the scapegoat. One goat was then indicated, and a card drawn for him, which might prove to be for Jehovah. If so, this goat was taken to die for the sins to be interceded for, and his blood, which was the whole people's sin offering, was taken by the high priest into the most holy place and there sprinkled upon the mercy-seat, which held a position above the law, and upon which, above both the law and the mercy-seat, shone forth the Shekinah, the symbol of God's presence.

Thus in the most holy place an atonement was accomplished for the people, after which the high priest passed out through the first apartment, and to the altar in front, sprinkling blood on it, and thereby cleansing it also from sin uncleanness brought to the place through the individual offerings of the year just ending. Lev. 16:7-19.

Having done all this, the high priest, with the sins of the people thus transferred to and upon himself, came to where the living goat had been held, and laid his hands upon the head of this goat, and thus by public acknowledgment of the people's sins, transferred them to the head of the chosen victim. This creature was then taken by some person appointed for the purpose, and conveyed to an uninhabited part of the country, there to roam, and bear all the iniquities of the house of Israel. Verses 20-22.

A bare allusion is sufficient to remind one that the services of that atonement day did not have to do with future, but only with past sins, since each year had its own day of atonement for that purpose. Moreover, in these yearly atonements none but the sins personally confessed and conveyed through the blood of the sacrifice into the sanctuary during the year for which that atonement was held, came within the scope of the atonement service. So, if any one chose not to follow the prescribed rule for the conveyance of his sins into the sanctuary, he retained them on himself, and thus prevented them from being brought forth from the sanctuary by the high priest and placed on the head of the scapegoat to be borne away to an uninhabited region. In such case the refractory one must himself bear the consequence of sin, which was death.

All this was of course done in figure to prompt faith in the work of a coming Saviour. But it could go no farther, since it was not possible for the blood of bulls and goats actually to take away sin. Heb. 10:4. Christ was the perspective of all this, which was but a 'shadow of good things to come.' Heb. 10:1. But the real work, of which this earthly sanctuary service was the shadow, must be performed somewhere by the real High Priest, the antitype of the Jewish priesthood and its work. Where, when, and how his work is done must be reserved for another study.