The Story of Patriarchs and Prophets
by Ellen G. White
Chapter 30: The Tabernacle and Its Services
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Important truths concerning the atonement were taught the
people by this yearly service. In the sin offerings presented during
the year, a substituted had been accepted in the sinner's stead;
but the blood of the victim had not made full atonement for
the sin. It had only provided a means by which the sin was [p. 356] transferred to the sanctuary. By the offering of blood, the sinner
acknowledged the authority of the law, confessed the guilt of
his transgression, and expressed his faith in Him who was to
take away the sin of the world; but he was not entirely released
from the condemnation of the law. On the Day of Atonement
the high priest, having taken an offering for the congregation,
went into the most holy place with the blood and sprinkled it
upon the mercy seat, above the tables of the law. Thus the claims
of the law, which demanded the life of the sinner, were satisfied.
Then in his character of mediator the priest took the sins upon
himself, and, leaving the sanctuary, he bore with him the burden
of Israel's guilt. At the door of the tabernacle he laid his hands
upon the head of the scapegoat and confessed over him "all the
iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions
in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat." And
as the goat bearing these sins was sent away, they were, with him,
regarded as forever separated from the people. Such was the
service performed "unto the example and shadow of heavenly
things." Hebrews 8:5.
As has been stated, the earthly sanctuary was built by Moses
according to the pattern shown him in the mount. It was "a
figure for the time then present, in which were offered both
gifts and sacrifices;" its two holy places were "patterns of things
in the heavens;" Christ, our great High Priest, is "a minister of
the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched,
and not man." Hebrews 9:9, 23; 8:2. As in vision the apostle
John was granted a view of the temple of God in heaven, he
beheld there "seven lamps of fire burning before the throne."
He saw an angel "having a golden censer; and there was given
unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers
of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne."
Revelation 4:5; 8:3. Here the prophet was permitted to behold
the first apartment of the sanctuary in heaven; and he saw there
the "seven lamps of fire" and the "golden altar" represented by
the golden candlestick and the altar of incense in the sanctuary
on earth. Again, "the temple of God was opened" (Revelation
11:19), and he looked within the inner veil, upon the holy of
holies. Here he beheld "the ark of His testament" (Revelation
11:19), represented by the sacred chest constructed by Moses to
contain the law of God. [p. 357]
Moses made the earthly sanctuary, "according to the fashion
that he had seen." Paul declares that "the tabernacle, and all
the vessels of the ministry," when completed, were "the patterns
of things in the heavens." Acts 7:44; Hebrews 9:21, 23. And
John says that he saw the sanctuary in heaven. That sanctuary,
in which Jesus ministers in our behalf, is the great original, of
which the sanctuary built by Moses was a copy.
The heavenly temple, the abiding place of the King of kings,
where "thousand thousands ministered unto Him, and ten thousand
times ten thousand stood before Him" (Daniel 7:10), that
temple filled with the glory of the eternal throne, where seraphim,
its shining guardians, veil their faces in adoration—no earthly
structure could represent its vastness and its glory. Yet important
truths concerning the heavenly sanctuary and the great work
there carried forward for man's redemption were to be taught
by the earthly sanctuary and its services.
After His ascension, our Saviour was to begin His work as
our High Priest. Says Paul, "Christ is not entered into the holy
places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but
into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us."
Hebrews 9:24. As Christ's ministration was to consist of two
great divisions, each occupying a period of time and having a
distinctive place in the heavenly sanctuary, so the typical
ministration consisted of two divisions, the daily and the yearly service,
and to each a department of the tabernacle was devoted.
As Christ at His ascension appeared in the presence of God
to plead His blood in behalf of penitent believers, so the priest
in the daily ministration sprinkled the blood of the sacrifice in
the holy place in the sinner's behalf.
The blood of Christ, while it was to release the repentant
sinner from the condemnation of the law, was not to cancel the
sin; it would stand on record in the sanctuary until the final
atonement; so in the type the blood of the sin offering removed
the sin from the penitent, but it rested in the sanctuary until the
Day of Atonement.
In the great day of final award, the dead are to be "judged
out of those things which were written in the books, according
to their works." Revelation 20:12. Then by virtue of the atoning
blood of Christ, the sins of all the truly penitent will be blotted
from the books of heaven. Thus the sanctuary will be freed, or [p. 358] cleansed, from the record of sin. In the type, this great work of
atonement, or blotting out of sins, was represented by the services
of the Day of Atonement—the cleansing of the earthly sanctuary,
which was accomplished by the removal, by virtue of the blood
of the sin offering, of the sins by which it had been polluted.
As in the final atonement the sins of the truly penitent are to
be blotted from the records of heaven, no more to be remembered
or come into mind, so in the type they were borne away
into the wilderness, forever separated from the congregation.
Since Satan is the originator of sin, the direct instigator of all
the sins that caused the death of the Son of God, justice demands
that Satan shall suffer the final punishment. Christ's work for
the redemption of men and the purification of the universe from
sin will be closed by the removal of sin from the heavenly
sanctuary and the placing of these sins upon Satan, who will bear
the final penalty. So in the typical service, the yearly round of
ministration closed with the purification of the sanctuary, and
the confessing of the sins on the head of the scapegoat.
Thus in the ministration of the tabernacle, and of the temple
that afterward took its place, the people were taught each day
the great truths relative to Christ's death and ministration, and
once each year their minds were carried forward to the closing
events of the great controversy between Christ and Satan, the
final purification of the universe from sin and sinners.
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