Hello All,
(Just a general disclaimer that I must insert here at the beginning. I am but a lay person, like most of you. And these weekly “thoughts” are but my own. Not the definitive word on this or any topic. Just my own conclusions derived from my own study and faith in God. The greatest hope I have for these weekly “thoughts” is to have them be a springboard for further study on your part. Not to be a weekly treatise to be blindly accepted. So, please read them with this intent, this motive in mind).
This week’s lesson from the “Adult Sabbath School Bible Study Guide”, is titled “Light from the Sanctuary”. A good lesson on our historical Adventist understanding of the Sanctuary. This was one of the pivotal discoveries after “The Great Disappointment”. Our early founders who followed and believed William Miller and his teachings could not deny the truth of what they had seen in Scriptural time prophecies of Daniel and Revelation. Their “disappointment” put those founders in a place where they were open to a better understanding of the event to occur in 1844. Not the “cleansing” of the earth at the second coming of our Lord. No. The “cleansing” of the heavenly Sanctuary of which the earthly Sanctuary was but a representation. A breakthrough! A realization that there are 2 Sanctuaries.
As we look at the earthly Sanctuary, we think of it being patterned after the Heavenly Sanctuary (see Exodus 25:40). But we must beware of just transporting the entire earthly Sanctuary up to Heaven, just bigger and grander (for example… are lambs being sacrificed in Heaven?? Oh, Jesus is the “Lamb”). We can see that the Sanctuary itself, the Sanctuary services and the articles of that service are highly symbolic. We must look at this carefully. All these things Jesus spoke to the multitudes in parables; and without a parable He did not speak to them” (Matthew 13:34). Parables are extended metaphors. Everything the Son of God spoke in the New Testament, and for that matter revealed in the Old Testament, meant more than the words themselves. Deeper and more profound meaning. So, with the Sanctuary, too.
But, are there more than 2 sanctuaries identified in the Bible? YES! “For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself. A special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth” (Deuteronomy 7:6). The Hebrew word Translated in English as “holy” is the same word we also translate as “sanctuary”. The third sanctuary identified in the Bible is you and me!!! Yes! We are His Sanctuary in a rebellious world!
This gives us a better platform to understand the Sanctuary itself, all the articles in the Sanctuary, and even the services of the Sanctuary. They all describe the cooperative work of God & you in the process of Sanctification (another English word from “Sanctuary”).
How long will “the Sanctuary and the host to be trampled underfoot? …. For 2-thousand and 3-hundred days, then the Sanctuary will be cleansed (justified or set right)” (Daniel 8:14). Yes! You, the Sanctuary of God, will be set right or justified. And so it is, when we see ourselves as God’s Sanctuary. We and God have a lover’s relationship together, share ourselves and our innermost thoughts, plans, desires… yes… and all the sin & failings. We bare it all. It is what lovers do.
This is more important than may first appear. The Sanctuary itself, the articles used in the service, and the services themselves represent the steps taken by you with God. For example, inside the Holy Place, the Shewbread represents you and me feeding on the Word; the Altar of Incense represents the prayers of you and me; the Golden Candlestick represents you and me actively following God, which makes us the “the light of the World” (Matthew 5: 14-16).
Or take the division between the Holy Place and Most Holy Place. This corresponds to the division that exists between our conscious and unconscious mind. This understanding of our divided mind started being most fully developed in the 1800’s, along with the “scientific method of reasoning”. This helped us understand the cause and effect of sin. That sin is what kills us, not our loving Father. And that the hidden things in our unconscious minds is what causes our psychosis and sinful self-protection/ sinful self-glorification. All this set the stage for the true “cleansing of the Sanctuary” (or the complete “setting-right of you”) beginning in 1844. Finally, men and angels were in a place to see and understand how sin changes us sinners; how deeply hidden it is in us; how love alone leads us to open our hearts and minds to the healing so desperately needed. And when fully attained, the heavenly “sanctuary” and the earthly “sanctuary” (you) will be finally “restored to its rightful state” (cleansed/ justified).
With brotherly love, Jim