A Question Concerning the Sanctuary.
By Ellet Joseph Waggoner
A BROTHER sends a letter of inquiries, in which we find the following:— "In reference to the priests taking the blood of the victim into the sanctuary, it seems to me that in case it was for the sin of a priest or of the whole congregation, then the blood was taken into the first room [the holy place]; but if it was for a ruler or one of the common people, the work was all done in the court, by the altar of burnt offering. And if this is true, how were the sins of these lodged in the sanctuary? From Lev. 10:17, I gather that the priests, by eating of those sin offerings whose blood was not taken into the sanctuary, bore the iniquity of the people." The brother is partly right and partly wrong in his conclusions. It is true that the blood of some sin offerings was taken into the holy place, and that the blood of others was not. When the blood was taken into the sanctuary, the body of the victim was burnt without the camp. See Lev. 4:1-21; 6:30. But when the blood of the offering was not taken into the sanctuary, its flesh was taken by the priests into the holy place, and was there eaten by them. See Lev. 6:24, 25. Thus the sin was figuratively taken within the sanctuary,—in one case by the blood, and in the other by the flesh. The wrong part of the conclusion was in supposing that in the latter case the priests themselves bore the iniquity of the people. Lev. 10:16-18 reads as follows:— "And Moses diligently sought the goat of the sin offering, and, behold, it was burnt; and he was angry with Eleazar and Ithamar, the sons of Aaron which were left alive, saying, Wherefore have ye not eaten the sin offering in the holy place, seeing it is most holy, and God hath given it you to bear the iniquity of the congregation, to make atonement for them before the Lord? Behold, the blood of it was not brought in within the holy place; ye should indeed have eaten it in the holy place, as I commanded." A careful reading of the above, especially verse 17, plainly shows that the flesh of the sin offering, and not the priests, was to bear the iniquity of the congregation. What did Moses say God had given to the priests? The flesh. For what purpose had he given it? To bear the iniquity of the congregation. The construction of the sentence absolutely forbids the conclusion that the priests bore the iniquity. The victim represented Christ. He "bare our sins in his own body on the tree." 1 Pet. 2:24. "The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." Isa. 53:6. In his own person he took them into the true sanctuary in Heaven. And as the lamb or goat typified Christ, the sins that were confessed over it were laid upon it as a whole, so that they might be conveyed into the sanctuary either by the flesh or by the blood. The animal was innocent, and might therefore be a type of Christ; but the priest was a sinful, mortal man, and could not therefore himself represent Christ in the act of bearing our sins. We design erelong to give this subject a more extended consideration in the SIGNS. E. J. W.