MAN was created in the image of God, and, like all of His works, was pronounced by the Creator "very good." Gen. 1:31. The wise man testified that, "God hath made man upright." Eccl. 7:29. Man was in harmony with his Creator, and delighted to do His will. It is inconceivable that God would create a being not in harmony with Himself. Therefore, we must conclude that, if man is now alienated from God, this separation must have been caused by his departure from God's way. In other words, man became disobedient, and rebelled against God's authority. The history of this first step in disobedience and rebellion is given in Genesis 3. The penalty for disobedience is death. Gen. 2:16, 17; 3:17-19; Rom. 5:12.
God's love prompted Him to create man and other intelligences, that they might share with Him the joy and felicity of life untainted by sin, and free from the sorrows and sufferings that follow in its train. The same divine wisdom and love that led God to create a sinless and happy pair to share the joys and pleasures of life, would lead Him to devise a plan by which they might be restored to the happy estate from which they fell, and be saved from eternal ruin. "God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16.
One of the saddest results of sin has been to deceive man, and blind his eyes to spiritual things. This makes it difficult to teach him spiritual truths, and enable him to understand the way of life. To overcome this difficulty, and aid in making plain the plan of redemption, the Lord has made use of
The Earthly Sanctuary and Its Services,
as an object-lesson. A profound and devout Bible scholar once said of this subject, "The sanctuary is like a golden thread that winds its way all through the Scriptures." It is a key which unlocks many doors in the great temple of Bible truth. It solves many difficult theological problems. It throws a flood of light on the plan of salvation. Therefore, we may profitably study this great object-lesson which God has given us.
The tabernacle, or temporary structure, built by Moses, and the temple erected by Solomon, were built according to divine instruction, a pattern or model being furnished by the Lord to guide in their construction. Heb. 8:5; 1 Chron. 28:11, 12, 18, 19. In Exodus, chapters 25 to 40 inclusive, we have the instruction which the Lord gave in regard to the construction of the sanctuary, the selection and consecration of the priests, and the record of the erection of the tabernacle and its anointing, for the priestly service to be carried forward in it. In the book of Leviticus the priestly service is described with great care. Why is this subject so clearly and explicitly set forth in the Scriptures? And why should the Lord be so particular to require them to follow a pattern in making the sanctuary, and describe so minutely and specifically the service of the priests? The Lord answers these questions in His own Word. He tells us that the sanctuary built by Moses was a pattern of a sanctuary or temple in
The Pattern.
The pattern shown to Moses in the mount was a pattern of the sanctuary in heaven, so that when Moses followed the pattern in making the tabernacle, it became to the people a pattern "of things in the heavens,"—the heavenly sanctuary,—and its holy places made with hands were "figures of the
heaven, which the Lord pitched, and not man, and that the service of the priests in the worldly sanctuary was a shadow or type of Christ's service as our High Priest in the heavenly sanctuary. See Heb. 8:1-5; 9:9, 23, 24.
true" holy places, as shown by the scriptures last cited. Thus, the Lord designed that the earthly sanctuary and its services should be an object-lesson to teach the people in regard to the priesthood of Christ in the heavenly temple.
In order to learn the lessons we should from the earthly sanctuary and its services, we must study them. We are to remember, however, that the Levitical law which regulated those services was only a "shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things." Heb. 10:1. Therefore, it is not necessary, in this study, to do more than call attention to the great leading features of the subject, that stand out clearly and plainly as essential parts of this great object-lesson.
1. The sanctuary had two apartments and a service in each.
2. The first apartment, called the holy place, had three articles of furniture, the table of showbread, the golden candlestick, and the altar of incense.
3. The second apartment, called the most holy place, had in it the ark of the testament in which was the law of God, or Ten Commandments, written by the finger of God on tables of stone. Over the ark, as a cover, was the mercy-seat, and above it were the two cherubim, between whom God's presence, the holy Shekinah, was manifested. The Lord instructed the people to build Him a sanctuary that He might dwell among them. Ex. 25:8. Yet David understood that the sanctuary which Moses built for God to dwell in was only a figure or pattern of the true sanctuary in heaven, where God really dwells between the cherubim. See Ps. 102:19; 99:1.
4. A veil constituted a door by which to enter the holy place, and another veil, known as the second veil, separated the holy place from the most holy place. Heb. 9:1-5.
The Priestly Service.
This service is declared to be an example and shadow of heavenly things. Heb. 8:5. In studying the type, we find:
1. That there was a priestly ministration in each apartment of the sanctuary.
2. That the ministration was completed with one round of service which covered the period of one year, and closed with a special service on the tenth day of the seventh month. The special service was called the cleansing of the sanctuary, and that day was called the Day of Atonement. Lev. 16:2-34; 23:26-30; Heb. 9:1-7; 10:1-3. In order that each high priest might complete the entire round of service, and thus shadow forth the priestly service of Christ, it covered only a period of one year. Christ's priesthood is an unchangeable priesthood, as regards continuance. That is, He is a priest after the order of Melchizedek—an independent line, having no predecessor and no successor. In the Levitical priesthood, the priests were all chosen from the tribe of Levi, but Christ came from the tribe of Judah. Hence, while the form of service under the Levitical priesthood was a type of Christ's service as high priest, its unchangeable character, in not passing from one to another, is represented by the Melchizedek priesthood; and in order that each high priest under the Levitical law might prefigure as fully as possible the complete ministration of Christ without interruption by the death of the priest, the short period of one year was chosen in which a complete round of service was performed. See Heb. 6:20; 7:1-28, especially verses 21-25.
In Leviticus, full instructions are given concerning the sin-offerings. Through these offerings the sins of the people were removed, and borne by the priest to the sanctuary, either through the blood or the flesh of the offering. This service continued throughout the year, and resulted in the transfer of the sins of the people, first to the offering, then to the sanctuary through the ministration of the priest. Thus the sins of Israel were lodged in the sanctuary, and some service was necessary for their removal. This service occurred on the tenth day of the seventh month, as described in Leviticus 16 and 23, reference to which has already been made.
The Cleansing of the Sanctuary.
This was the culmination of the year's service, and was a memorable day for God's people. Two goats were chosen, and lots were cast upon them, one for the Lord, and one for the scapegoat. The one upon which the Lord's lot fell was killed, and its blood was sprinkled by the high priest before and upon the mercy-seat in the most holy place, or inner apartment of the sanctuary. By divine appointment, this5service released the sins lodged in the sanctuary by the ministration during the year, and they were borne from the sanctuary by the high priest, and transferred to the scapegoat by a simple ceremony. This consisted in the high priest placing both his hands upon the head of the scapegoat, and confessing over him the sins of the people. Then the scapegoat, laden with these sins, was sent away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness, and there left to perish. Lev. 16:20-22.
This service did not actually remove or take away sin, but it was typical of a real work that does remove and blot out sin. See Heb. 9:1-14; 10:1-14. Let us now compare type and antitype in the sanctuary service.
1. The high priest represented Christ our High Priest. Heb. 8:1, 2; 9:11, 12.
2. The sin-offerings slain day by day throughout the yearly service typified Christ, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world (Rev. 13:8). He died for our sins according to the Scriptures. 1 Cor. 15:3. He bore our sins in His own body on the tree. 1 Peter 2:24. The nature of the death which is the penalty for sin is clearly shown by the death of Christ and the death of the offerings which represented Him. It is a literal, physical death.
3. The goat upon which the Lord's lot fell was killed as a sin-offering for the people (Lev. 16:8, 9, 15), and therefore must have symbolized Christ, who died as an offering for our sins.
4. The scapegoat (margin, Azazel) represents Satan, the great originator of sin, who, at the close of Christ's priestly work, will have the sins of God's people placed upon him, and he will bear them to the bottomless pit—the earth depopulated and desolate, a veritable chaotic wilderness, as its condition will be during the one thousand years of Rev. 20:1, 2, 7. See Isa. 24:1-3; Jer. 4:19-27.
Once for All.
In Christ's work as our sacrifice, or sin-offering, and as high priest in the heavenly temple, it is done once for all. That is, the one offering on Calvary was ample and complete. Heb. 9:24-28; 10:11-14. And He ministers but once in each apartment of the sanctuary. That is, He continues His service in the first apartment till the time comes for the final work of His ministry, namely, the cleansing of the sanctuary. In harmony with the type our High Priest would begin His work as priest after He ascended, in the first apartment, and He would close His work as priest in the second apartment by His act of placing the sins of God's people upon the head of the anti-typical scapegoat, Satan. As each part of Christ's work is once for all, and the cleansing of the sanctuary in the type was very brief, when compared with the service in the holy place, we know that Christ's ministry in the most holy place will also be brief, and, when it is reached, it will also be a solemn and momentous work, because it will close His work as priest and advocate for guilty man. He will then come to render to every man according as his work shall be.
The Time.
The Scriptures do not reveal when the Lord will come to execute judgment, but they do reveal the time when Christ begins His ministry in the second apartment of the sanctuary, or when the work of cleansing the sanctuary commences. In Dan. 8:14 we read, "Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed." The year-day principle in prophecy has been thoroughly established as true, and it is generally accepted by Bible expositors; that is, that a day in symbolic prophecy represents a year, and this rule is plainly stated in the Scriptures. See Num. 14:34; Eze. 4:4-6. Hence, at the end of 2,300 years the sanctuary would be cleansed.
In order to know when this period will end, we must know the date of its commencement. This is fully explained in Dan. 9:20-27. There a period of seventy weeks is cut off from the 2,300 days for a certain work to be accomplished. This is indicated in the diagram appended to this article. Verse 25 states that the period began with the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem. By reference to the date in the margin of Ezra 7, where the decree is recorded, we learn that it was B.C. 457. And, as all the intermediate dates coincide exactly with the dates recorded in history, we know that we have the correct date for the commencement of the period, namely, B.C. 457. The termination of the period would therefore be in A.D. 1844. Hence, since that date our great High Priest has been engaged in the last solemn work in the heavenly temple—the work of cleansing the sanctuary. This work can not relate to the earthly sanctuary, because that was destroyed, and its service wholly discontinued in A.D. 70, when Jerusalem was destroyed, as predicted in Dan. 9:26.
This cleansing of the sanctuary, as we learn from the type, is not from physical impurities, but from the sins of the people, borne into it by the ministration of the priest. The necessity of this is plainly stated in Heb. 9:21-24.
John, on the Isle of Patmos, had a view of the heavenly temple and some of its furniture. See Rev. 8:3-5; 11:1, 19; 15:5, 8. He declares that the ark of the testament was seen when a certain time was reached. When Christ entered into the most holy place, He opened to the view of those who studied His priestly work, a system of wonderful truths in connection with the plan of redemption as revealed and taught in the great object-lesson we have been studying.
We will close by giving a brief summary of some of the great truths which are revealed by the study of the sanctuary:
1. That there is a sanctuary in heaven of which the earthly sanctuary was a pattern or figure.
2. That the ministration in the earthly sanctuary was an example or shadow of the ministration of Christ in the heavenly temple.
3. That the cleansing of the sanctuary at the end of the 2,300 days, or years, in 1844, was not the coming of Christ and the destruction of the earth by fire, but it was a cleansing from sin by the blood of Christ, as prefigured in the type.
4. That Christ's ministration in the most holy place, beginning in 1844, opens to view the ark of the testament, as described in Rev. 11:19, and leads to a study of the law of God contained in that ark. This study reveals the great truth that God's law is as unchangeable as its Author, and reads the same as it did when it was spoken by the voice of God from Mount Sinai, and written by the finger of God on the tables of stone. Therefore it still reads, "The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." This light from the sanctuary led candid, conscientious searchers after truth to decide to obey God in the observance of the Sabbath, and this reform developed the people now known as Seventh-day Adventists. Truly, "the path of the just is as a shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day." Prov. 4:18.
5. That the second coming of Christ is near, even at the doors, but the day and the hour of His coming has not been revealed.
May this great theme which God has given as an object-lesson to teach us more effectually and more forcibly the story of redemption, be greatly blessed to the good of every reader, is the fervent prayer of the writer.
