LESSONS FOR BIBLE CLASSES.
By G. H. Bell
LESSON XXII.—APARTMENTS OF THE HEAVENLY SANCTUARY.
1. For what did the priest first make an atonement on the tenth day of the seventh month? Lev. 16:11–14. 2. What was the next step in the important services of that day? Verses 15, 16. 3. What work of cleansing was performed in the first apartment? Verses 18, 19. 4. After he had made an end of reconciling, or purifying, both holy places, and also the altar, what did he do? Verses 20–22. 5. What was then done with the scape-goat? Verse 22. 6. What was employed in cleansing the worldly sanctuary? Heb. 9:7. 7. What must be employed in cleansing the heavenly sanctuary? Heb. 9:12. 9. How may we know that the heavenly sanctuary has two apartments? Heb. 9:23, 24. 11. What can you say of the Greek word here rendered holiest? 14. How does the Douay Bible render it in all these passages? 15. How is it rendered in Macknight’s translation? 16. Then what do these passages show, when properly translated? 17. Who had a view of the first apartment of the heavenly sanctuary? Isa. 6; Rev. 4. 19. What did they both hear? 20. In speaking of what he saw, what does John say of the opening of a door? 21. What door must this be? 22. What did John see in his vision that is not noticed in Isa. 6? When the high priest had completed the work of making an atonement for the sanctuary, to cleanse it, he went to the door of the tabernacle, and laying both his hands upon the head of the scape-goat, confessed over it the sins of the people. Then the goat, bearing the sins of the people, was sent away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness, and there released. Thus we see that the worldly sanctuary was cleansed by the blood of sin-offerings; so the heavenly sanctuary must be cleansed by the blood of Christ; for the priests of the worldly sanctuary served unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, and Christ is the great sin-offering, of which those of the worldly sanctuary were but types. The heavenly sanctuary must have two apartments; for the holy places of the earthly sanctuary were patterns of things in the heavens,—figures of the true holy places. From Heb. 9:8; 10:19, some infer that Christ ministers only in the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary; but the Greek word here translated holiest, is hagion, a noun in the plural number, meaning holy places. In Heb. 8:2 the same word is translated sanctuary, and in Heb. 9:24, holy places. In the Douay Bible it is rendered holies in all these passages; and in Macknight’s translation, holy places. So we see that when these passages are properly rendered, they show positively that our Lord does minister in both apartments of the sanctuary above. Both Isaiah and John had a view of the first apartment of the heavenly sanctuary, both saw the golden altar, both saw the throne of God with the holy beings near it, and both heard the same words. In speaking of what he saw, John says that a door was opened in Heaven, not into Heaven; this door must have been the door of the sanctuary. John also saw the seven lamps of the golden candlestick, and in Rev. 11:19 he says, “And the temple of God was opened in Heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament.”