LESSON VII.—THE SANCTUARY AND ITS CLEANSING—IN ANTITYPE.
(Study for Sabbath, February 13.)
QUESTIONS.
1. Outline as fully as you can the ceremony of the cleansing of the typical sanctuary, as studied in last weeks' lesson.
2. Of what was each year's round of service in that earthly sanctuary a complete type? Heb. 8:4, 5. Note 1.
3. Repeat Heb. 9:25, 26. How often will those services which in the type were performed once every year be performed in the antitype?
4. What was the last solemn act performed in each year's round of service in the type?
5. What consequence followed indifference on the part of any person on that solemn day of atonement? Lev. 23:28, 29.
6. Then what decision must have been reached before that cutting off could take place?
7. What solemn event, then, was typified each year by the ceremony which was performed on the day of atonement?
8. Repeat Acts 17:31. Has the time for such an event been appointed? What assurance has been given that the judgment will take place?
9. Repeat Heb. 9:24. Of what were the two holy places in the typical sanctuary figures? Then how many apartments or holy places are there in the heavenly sanctuary?
10. What portion of the year did the priests minister in the first or holy place? How long in the second or most holy?
11. How many chief men ministered in connection with the high priest in the typical service? 1 Chron. 24:4.
12. Study Rev. 4:1-4. Where did John see a door opened? What description is given of One who sat upon a throne? Who alone can answer to this description? What was seen round about the throne? Who were sitting upon these four and twenty seats? With what were they clothed? What is this "white raiment"? Rev. 19:8. To what company, then, must these four and twenty elders belong? Note 2. Who, then, will take part in the work of the judgment, as representatives of humanity? Note 3.
13. What in the antitype answers to the cutting off of those who, in the typical service, did not afflict their souls on the day of atonement? See Rev. 3:15.
14. Repeat Acts 3:19. What in the antitype answers to the removal of sins once every year from the typical sanctuary? Repeat Acts 3:19.
15. What will be the last solemn act of our Great High Priest, as He closes His priestly work?—He will bear the sins of believers out of the sanctuary.
16. When Christ bears the sins of the overcomers from the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary, upon whom will He place them? Note 4.
NOTES.
1. Each year's round of services in the earthly sanctuary was a complete type of the entire priesthood of our Saviour.
2. It is evident that these "four and twenty elders" seated upon thrones, and those associated with them, are persons who have been redeemed from this earth. It is that company who "came out of their graves after His resurrection." Matt. 27:50-53. It is that multitude of captives (Eph. 4:8, margin) that Jesus led up to heaven with Him when He ascended.
3. It is a glorious thought that, when "God shall judge the world, by that Man whom he hath ordained," the One to whom all judgment has been committed will be "the Man Christ Jesus." One who has suffered, as a man, all the weaknesses and temptations of humanity, and therefore is fitted to be a merciful and faithful High Priest. Not only so, but associated with that "Man Christ Jesus" is a multitude of those who have been redeemed by His blood. O, how much better that your sins and mine be "opened beforehand," to the scrutiny of that human-heavenly tribunal, while the precious blood of the Man of Calvary is efficacious in blotting them from the books of God's remembrance, than to have them "follow after" and meet us at a time when they will be opened to the gaze of the whole universe.
4. When our High Priest, in His own person, bears our sins from the sanctuary, those sins will then be rolled back upon the head of the antitypical scapegoat, the originator of sin.
