The Hebrew Sanctuary

[Richard Myers]

The Hebrew Sanctuary

"And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them." Exodus 25:8.

Such an important verse. It reveals the great desire of our God. Shall we learn more of the reasons why God wanted the Hebrews to build a sanctuary in the midst of their nation? The Book of Daniel has been opened for our edification. If we are to benefit from the ministry of our Lord and Saviour, then we need to understand what He is doing for us today as our high priest. Where is Jesus and what is He doing? This we may know as we study the services of the Hebrew Sanctuary that were a type of the ministry of Jesus Christ.

[Avalee Lohman]

Richard I am looking forward to this study into the Hebrew Santuary.

In The Blessed Hope

Avalee

[Clive Nevell]

Thankyou Richard for bringing this topic up, I know that you are aware of many of the problems that seemed to originate from Australia or at least made popular by their teaching at the colleges from here.
1844, Sanctuary need to be diligently studied by every church member, I do not know very much about them but am doing my best to do further study in this area.
The Sanctuary in the wildernee was set up as a pattern for the Plan of Salvation. Without first recognising this point it is too easy to do away with the doctrine and feel no guilt at all in it's demise.
Gen. 3:14-19 please read it as this is the recovery plan. It involves the death of the Son of God, forgiveness of sin, ministry of thwe Holy Spirit and a final Judgement. Jude tells us in verse 14 & 15 that Enoch believed in the judgement.
Later god revealed more in the symbolism in the sanctuary service. The sacrificial, mediatorial and judicial atonements brought to light in the sanctuary service vividly impressed the minds of the Israelite.
Atonement is completed in three stages.
(1) The sacrifice of the animal Lev.17:11
(2) Lev. 4 tells us what was to be done in the case of the sin offering for ignorance, in the case of priests, and by the whole of the congregation. There are three players here, the sinner, the sacrifice, and the officiating priest.
The sinners work is to confess his sin and he did this by laying his hand on the head of the of the offering. The sacrifice yields its life as substitute for the guilty one. The priest performs a work of meditation on behalf of the penitent one.
(Sorry I have to go, off to a begginers computer class, will add some more later)
Regards
Clive

[Clive Nevell]

Back from my basic course, and still on point (2). Obviously, the death of the victim is not the end of the process. Actually the priestly work does not begin until the animal is slain by the sinner. We must understand this very important work, the priest bigins his work after the animal is slain. I know I have repeated it but do not forget it. (Lev. 4:4,15,24,29 read these verse and see for yourself) The priestly or mediiatorial atonment is accomplished in the holy place or first apartment (verses 4,7,16,17).
The process of atonment is not complete with the sacrifice but the sacrifice is essential to the process.
(3) This takes place on the annual day of atonement (see Lev.16:29-34; 23:27-32 It centres in the second apartment or most holy place and for us commenced in 1844. This is the third phase of the process of reconciliation, after which issues are settled and Christ comes to reward every man according to his works (Heb.9:28; Rev.22:12)
G.C. p.489 "The intercession of Christ in man's behalf in the sanctuary above is as essential to the plan of salvation as was His death upon the cross. By His death he bagan a work, which after His resurrection he ascended to complete in heaven."
There must be many members who have much knowledge on this subject, I would be interested to see what is written on this matter.
There is a very good video out on this subject "If I had one more serman to preach" by Dick Duerksen He goes into great detail to show that every piece of sanctuary furniture pointed to Christ, the door, the shew bread the lot all was symbolic of Jesus.
This showed the Jews the "Plan of Salvation"
Regards
Clive

[Richard Myers]

Brother Clive, your comments are good. The Hebrew Sanctuary was a revelation of the plan of salvation which of course is centered in Christ and His sufferings, death, and life. We serve a living high priest. What is He doing today? The Sanctuary tells us precisely.    But we must begin at the beginning.

[charlene]

What we find in the courtyard is important...what we don't find in the courtyard is also important.
The Door is Christ and as we enter..it indicates we have accepted His sacrifice."The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world."
Recieving this sacrifice as done for us..we recieve the gift of confession and repentence and forgivness....this is only step one, for the living...we can not stop here, unless we die here before we can go further. [thief on cross].

The beginning of course, is responding to the wooing of the Holy Spirit, then seeking, opening the Door to Jesus. He will begin to sup with us.  I love this picture.  The Courtyard experience, sacrifice and cleansing precedes our walk on into the sanctuary apartments.  This is Justification.

Can we stay out here and be saved???

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charlene

[Richard Myers]

I like that thought, Sister Charlene. For some who are not familiar with the Sanctuary layout, the door being spoken of here is the entrance into the courtyard that surrounded the Tabernacle proper. The Tabernacle or Sanctuary building consisted of two apartments, the Holy Place (1st apartment), and the Most Holy Place (2nd apartment).

As the sinner brought his lamb to be slain, he had to enter through the door into the courtyard where the lamb would be killed. It is important to note that the lamb has not been killed when the door is passed through, and the sinner has not come to the altar of sacrifice yet. What can we learn from this, and what leads us to understand the door is a representation of Jesus?

[Clive Nevell]

John 10:1,9 "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door unto the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out and find pasture."
Remember the court yard was fenced and there was no way of going in except through the door (JESUS CHRIST). Same today, heaven is only obtained through JESUS CHRIST. Climbing over the fence will not gain entry into the earthly courtyard or into heaven when Christ comes again.
When inside the lamb was slain by the sinner, that is all we have done, slain the lamb and then the blood was applied. It was not all over when the lamb was slain. So today the cross was not the end but the start.
Regards
Clive

[Allan F]

I believe that the Bible is on your side Clive. The cross was not the end but a very important start.
Every step into the sanctuary is important for our salvation. It is not only the cross. Let me try to explain why:

The altar:
Here we get forgiveness for our sins. Every christian believe that our sins must be forgiven in order to enter Heaven. We really need the cross. But do we have to go further?

The laver:
Cleansing of the heart, new birth. "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." John 3. We see that we also need this experience in order to enter Heaven.

The Holy place:
That is sanctification. Do we also need this experience? "Follow after peace with all men,
and the sanctification without which no man shall see the Lord" Heb 12:14. We see that we
also need sanctification in order to get to Heaven.

The most Holy place:
Everyone who enter Heaven will have been into the investigative judgement. But only those
who claim (or once have claimed) to be a child of God, will come into this judgement. The others will not come into it. So, only those who have been into this investigative judgement and have been acquited, will come to Heaven.

But, let us begin with the beginning.

What made the sinner go into the courtyard? I believe it must have been quite humiliating for the sinner to go all the way through the camp and into the courtyard together with his lamb.

"The light shining from the cross (altar) reveals the love of God. His love is drawing us to himself (John 12:32). If we do not resist this drawing, we shall be led to the foot of the cross in repentance for the sins that have crucified the Saviour" (DA 175).

"God lays heavy burdens upon the conscience of the wrongdoer, and pierces the soul with
arrows of conviction. The ministering angels present to him the fearful judgments of God to deepen the sense of need, and prompt the cry, "What must I do to be saved?" (DA 104).

If the sinner is coming to the altar/cross for any other reason, he is coming in vain.
Psalms 34:18 : "The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit." Only these kind of people is God able to save. God will lead us to the cross. That is a wonderful promise. If we have not yet been there, let us spend much time with Jesus. He will soften the heart.
"The very first and the most important thing is to melt and subdue the soul by presenting our Lord Jesus Christ as the sinbearer, the sinpardoning Saviour, making the gospel as clear as possible" (Ev 264)

When the Israelite entered through the door into the courtyard, he was immediately covered by the white robe of the righteousness of christ, which was symbolized by the white fence of linen, that surrounded the sanctuary. This is a promise to us. When we have been convicted of sin, and want to go to the one we have wronged, if we then (for example) died before we had opportunity to confess and ask of forgiveness to the one we had wronged, God will judge us after what we would have done, if we had had more time. But God must have cleansed the heart in order to be saved (please correct me if I am wrong on this Richard, or anyone else).

When the sinner killed his lamb, he knew that one day a saviour would die in his place. And when the priest sprinkled the blood, I believe that another picture could come up in his mind: Just before exodus the Israelites was saved from the angel who killed all the firstborns in the families that had not sprinkled blood on their doorframe.
The only reason why people survived, was because they had made use of the blood.
This should also remind us, that only those who make use of the blood of the lamb, have any hope of salvation. For the firstborn, there was no other way out of Egypt than through the blood of the lamb.
So it is today. If we want to escape from the spiritually Egypt (Rev. 11: which is sin an ungodliness, we too must make use of the blood of Christ. If Jesus had not died for us, we would have no possibility to escape sin.
The cross was not all in the plan of salvation. But without it, we would never be made righteous, and have no hope of Heaven.
God knew this. But he took the chance and sent his only son. And he did it!
Let us praise him.  

Allan F

[Gerry C. Wagoner]

Amen!

[Gerry Buck]

Amen.
Without the spilling of blood there is no forgiveness.

When a person falls into deep water and can't swim,a life preserver is thrown to them.....safety is there,but,if they refuse to 'grab hold' of it,they will drown.
The cross is that life preserver,it is there,but,if we reject it.......how can we be saved?

We need to 'grab hold' of it,or,drown.

------------------
He is LORD!
May He come soon.
Gerry

[Allan F]

Thank you for that illustration, Gerry. The cross is indeed a life preserver. "the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world" (1Jn 4:14).

Allan F

[Allan F]

"For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end" (Jer 29:11).

Even when we sin, God loves us very much. But he hates sin, because it destroys us in one or another way. So when these two are together (sin and man), God wants to separate the sin from the man because he loves us:
"O Jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved. How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee?" (Jer 4:14)

A wise woman in Israel once said: "..neither doth God respect any person: yet doth he devise means, that his banished be not expelled from him" (2Sam 14:14). I believe that the experience at the altar and our next step into the sanctuary will support these words.

Between the altar and the tabernacle there was a LAVER filled with water. Here, the priests washed them selves before entering into the tabernacle. What does this symbolize?
Usually we wash our selves in order to be clean. So the laver has to symbolize some form for cleansing. Does the Bible say something about a cleansing of man, symbolized by water? Yes, it does:
"Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your
filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them" (Eze 36:25-27).
So as the water cleanses the outside, God, by the Holy Spirit cleanses the inside.

Let us also go to the NT. In Tit 3:3-7 Paul is telling Titus about his own past: "For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another." But all this changed. How? "But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. This is a faithful saying".

By the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Gost, God cleanses the heart from
sin. Can you see the parallell to the sanctuary?

Jesus too, described this cleansing of the heart and its necessity: "Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God... Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God" (Jn 3:3.5).
And what did he say to Peter?: "If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me" (Jn 13:.
So in the laver God cleanses us from sin. Davids prayer: "Create in me a clean heart" was answered in the "laver experience".

But, maybe you will doubt that your thoughts, feelings and attitude can change. If it is so, let Paul encourage you by reading 1Cor 6:9-11. Even if we have many bad habits God is able to create a new heart:

"Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived:
neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God."

In these verses Paul says that it is hope even for drunkards, prostitutes and homosexuals. They have been washed. They have been made righteous. Not only declared righteous, but also made righteous by the creative power of the Holy Spirit.
If God is able to cleans us from such sins, should we not then be of good courage and
have faith in Gods word. But faith is needed in order for the cleansing to take place. In Acts 15:9 Peter says that God is "..purifying their hearts BY FAITH."

Let us go back to the sanctuary. The laver, which was placed in the courtyard was later
called the Sea. And maybe when the Israelites saw the laver, they were reminded of the
experience at (in) the Red sea. What happened there, was one of the greatest miracles God
did for the Israelites. God wanted to lead the Isarelites out of Egypt and into Canaan. In the Bible, Egypt symbolizes sin and ungodliness. Therefore we may say that God wants to deliver us from the spiritual Egypt. And how does He do that? As the Israelites were saved from the egyptians by walking through the Red Sea, God saves us from sin and the power of Satan when we are born of water and of the spirit, in the laver.

"Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life" (Rom 6:3.4).

Why was the laver placed out in the courtyard and not in the Holy place? Isn't it because
people are to be clean when entering the Holy place? In 2.Chr 23:19 we read that "he
(Jehoiada) set the porters at the gates of the house of the LORD, that none which was
unclean in any thing should enter in."
So, in order for us to enter the Holy place, we must have been at the altar (forgiveness) and at the laver (cleansing of the heart).

Heb 10,19-22: "Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water."

To summarize the courtyard-experience, I want to use this bible verse:

"IF WE CONFESS OUR SINS, HE IS FAITHFUL AND JUST TO FORGIVE US OUR SINS, AND TO CLEANS US FROM ALL UNRIGHTEOUSNESS" (1.Jn 1:9).

Allan F

[Mr Jones]

Well, THIS is my kinda topic. Or thread?!?! Or whatever you call it. I'm glad to be a member here. [newly acquired] So I am now going to post a lil' something that I read recently on the sanctuary which, well, I loved it!!!! It was the plainest picture I have ever had painted of the purpose of the sanctuary in a few sentences so here goes........

"Ellen White and other pioneers of the church believed that the heavenly sanctuary was exactly what the Bible said it was - a very real place with three distinct structures : a courtyard, a holy place, and a most holy place............
The courtyard depicts repentence and confession of sin. The holy place adds to this Christ's ministry of sanctification, where God's people accept His imparted righteousness, with all the behavioral changes this implies. His Holy Place ministry is therefore a vital part of preparing His people for the judgement. In turn, the Most Holy Place reveals the judgement itself, in which the lives of those claiming salvation are compared with a process through which every believer, in every era, has to go. Leave one element out, and the whole thing falls apart."

amen and AMEN

to think the choice is all ours to confess [outer court], be refined and prepared[holy place], and judged [most holy place]. We have  the choice. I often shudder at the choices I make when I realise I have thrown it back at God when He has given me SO many chances. Let's pray we make the right choice.

God Bless

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"WATCH THE LAMB"

[This message has been edited by Mr Jones (edited 05-21-2000).]

[Gerry C. Wagoner]

Welcome Brother Jones!

Say, that's pretty good.  Thanks for posting it.

gcw

[Mr Jones]

If you are interested where I got the quote from Gerry, it is from "Omega II" by Lewis Walton.

Absolutely brilliant reading. A must for any who have doubts about our wonderful message.

FORWARD ON OUR KNEES

[This message has been edited by Mr Jones (edited 05-22-2000).]

[M.A. Crawford]

"And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them" (Exod. 25:.

We have had so many good posts on the sanctuary and its various sections and apartments. I would like to approach my discussion on it from a slightly different viewpoint. In addition to what already has been said, I believe God gave us the earthly sanctuary to demonstrate His love for mankind. Everything about it pointed to Christ and His work of Atonement He was to perform in the Heavenly Sanctuary on our behalf as our High Priest. The earthly sanctuary was designed to ever keep before us the fact that "God so loved the world that He gave His only Begotten Son" to die in our stead that we might have another chance at eternal life. What love! And what does this say to us today? What is the personal point in all of this?

All of us (and I am including myself) need to demonstrate more of the love of God in our own lives as we interact with others on a daily basis. I am firmly convinced this is the key to our receiving the Christlikeness that is so powerful where influencing others are concerned. I believe that many Seventh-day Adventists in our churches are "Sad"ventists because they do not have the love of Jesus in their hearts as they should. I say that because God has blessed many of us in these forums with spiritual wisdom and understanding, but some of us have not shared this with others. I believe God has given us what we spiritually possess in order that we may "let our light shine," before men and women, boys and girls, as we uplift Jesus before them.

We don't have to go across town or across the country. There are many in our local churches who need evangelizing, and I believe with all my heart that God has given to us what He has given us in order that we might help our brothers and sisters who are not as strong in the faith as they should be to "grow in grace," and become more like Jesus in their everyday living.

We effectively teach---not so much by sermons, doctrinal discussions, and debates---but, by example. This is how Jesus taught us. He came to this world and gave us an example as to how we should live. And because of that, "He that saith he abideth in him ought himself so to walk, even as he walked" (1 John 2:6).

M.A.  

[Liane H]

This is a wonderful subject from God. It is never ending and can be looked at in so many ways, that it spins me.

It is one of the most treasured teaching in our church and I feel sorry for those that do not understand it or make light of it.  To think in our churches that there are some that have become members and never have heard of it.  

I just wanted to pass on my favorite verse in the bible.  I think it says alot about our God and it brings us to the sanctuary.

Psalm 27:4.

One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in His temple.

Every aspect of the temple and the sanctuary in it shows us the beauty of God's character and His love for us.

Liane

[Richard Myers]

Amen!  Welcome, Sister Liane! We look forward to you sharing what God has been teaching you of His character and the plan of salvation as revealed in the Hebrew Sanctuary. The message is so rich and broad and reveals to us a living Saviour!

[Allan F]

Thank you Liane for this Bible verse. Let us pray that God will reveal his character to us , as He did to the writer of Psalm 27, when we study this great subject.

Many (me included!) who start reading through the Bible, stop when they come to Exo.25 and the history of the Sanctuary because this subject is all so boring. Or, maybe it isn't? Why have God let this subject have as much place in the Bible as the four gospels?

One thing with the Sanctuary which I appreciate very much, is the symbols. Unlike what we often find in our days christianity, we find no meaningless phrases in the sanctuary. Every item or symbol there, have a specific meaning. Everything reveal Gods plan , his purposes and his character.
There are many, so many things to learn from the sanctuary and its service, and the main message of it is of course the gospel. And I feel it is important to say that we should learn the basics before going into all the details, because I have seen people who have great knowledge in the sanctuary service, are coming up with a false gospel. It is really possible to study this subject for years and still miss the main thing. With "basics" I mean what the altar, laver, the main items in the Holy and the most holy place mean to us.

When Jesus was on this planet he again taught the people mainly in symbols. And the main theme in the parables was also this time the gospel. One reason why he used parables, I believe was because he not allways wanted to give his message "with teaspoons". He wanted people to think and reflect over his teaching and to draw conclusions. We too (of good purposes of course) may sometimes also want to "feed" the people with teaspoons in order for them not to miss any detail. I think, at least I have an important lesson to learn here. But of course he would explain if the people didn't understand.

May God bless our efforts in understanding and sharing the wonderful sanctuary message.

Allan F