THE SANCTUARY by Uriah Smith

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 13, 1876

FromThe Review and Herald, Review and Herald, Vol. 47, No. 15.

THE SANCTUARY.

By Uriah Smith

Fifteenth Paper.—What Is the Sanctuary?

It will be observed that neither the holy nor most holy place, had any window; hence in the first apartment there was need of the candlestick with its seven lamps; and in regard to the second, where God dwelt, Solomon said, “The Lord said that he would dwell in the thick darkness.” 1 Kings 8:12.

How impressive must have been the scene presented by the interior of this building. There were the walls, having all the appearance of massive and solid gold, and reflecting in a thousand directions the light of the seven lamps of the golden candlestick; there were the table of show-bread and altar of incense, glittering in its light like burnished gold; and there was the curtain that formed the gorgeous ceiling, with its mystic figures of cherubim in blue, and purple, and scarlet, adding its beauty to the brilliant scene. While in, beyond the second veil, was the glorious Shekinah, or visible manifestation of God’s glory, into the awful presence of which, except the high priest’s entrance once every year, no man could venture and live.

Before the door of the tabernacle were placed the brazen laver, and the altar of burnt offering, and around the whole was erected the court with its curtains of fine twined linen.

In the second year after Israel had departed from Egypt, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the tabernacle was reared up. And Moses spread abroad the tent over the tabernacle, and he put the testimony (the tables of the ten commandments) into the ark, and the mercy-seat upon it, and brought it into the tabernacle, and set up the vail; he placed the table of show-bread and golden candlestick in the first apartment, and lighted the lamps before the Lord; he put the golden altar of incense before the vail, and burnt sweet incense thereon; and on the altar, before the door of the tabernacle, he offered the burnt offering and the meat offering as the Lord commanded. Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Ex. 40. He had now taken possession of his dwelling place, in the midst of his people.

We have now before us the sanctuary as Moses erected it in the wilderness of Sinai, 1490 years before Christ. With its ark of the covenant, its mercy-seat, and its glorious Shekinah, it constituted the heart and center of Israel’s religious worship, under that typical system.

The children of Israel being at this time in the period of their wanderings, the sanctuary as first given to them was adapted to their condition. It was so constructed that it could be easily taken down and borne with them in their journeys, and immediately erected wherever the divine presence, which accompanied them in a cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night, should direct them to pitch their camp. Num. 9:15–23.

The Levites were consecrated to the service of the sanctuary, and were commanded to bear it, and all its sacred vessels, when the camp set forward. Thus it was with them during the forty years in which they journeyed in the wilderness. During this time, this building which God claimed as his dwelling place, and where his service was performed, is fifty-six times called the sanctuary, in the following instances: Ex. 25:8; 30:13, 24; 36:1, 3, 4, 6; 38:24–27; Lev. 4:6; 5:15; 10:4; 12:4; 16:33; 19:30; 20:3; 21:12 (twice), 23 (plural); 26:2; 27:3, 25; Num. 3:28, 31, 32, 38, 47, 50; 4:12, 15 (twice), 16; 7:9, 13, 19, 25, 31, 37, 43, 49, 55, 61, 67, 73, 79, 85, 86; 8:19; 10:21; 18:1, 3, 5, 16; 19:20. U. S.