Egypt Babylon Egypt: The Sanctuary. Study 20
15/06/20
The blessed hope for total freedom and the end of the slavery of sin and death is soon to be realised when Michael stands up as it is written in Daniel 12:1. One of the beautiful hymns on this Advent pilgrimage is "Marching to Zion", sometimes I wonder if the "We" in the chorus would have included the likes of Lucille Lewis Byard [1877-1943] who had a severe case of pneumonia but was sent away from our Adventist Washington Sanitarium and Hospital because she was black and died shortly afterwards. How many spiritually sick have been sent away from receiving the gospel from our racially divided "black or white conferences"? Are we not all human race purchased by the blood of Jesus? Those who study the history of the Israelites in Egypt and their exodus should also consider the parallels in the history of the colonization of the African and their enslavement in Americas, Islands and various nations. It is however important to note that both the African and the White are all one human family and enemies of Satan the ultimate Slave master and racist towards this divided human race. We all in our division continue to suffer in the hands of this Enemy and his agents who exalt themselves as supreme (following Lucifer's example in heaven) and fail to integrate with fellow human race who similarly have come from Adam and Eve and yet still have accepted Jesus Christ as their personal saviour. The African and the Fellow Spiritual Slave have been educated to embrace the crimes of the supremacists under the garb of WOKE enlightenment and religion, now everything pertaining to our identity in Eden has been classified as dangerous ambition. The dignity of our humanity has been degraded through endless incarceration of the physical as well as the mental under the numerous and inhumane judicial system. The resources on our lands including our body parts and that of our seed have been stolen through the oppression of supremacist's monopoly capital and social programs of harm which have been adopted into the manuals by Jesuit resolutions. With no knowledge of our history, we are left to imbibe fallacy and are schooled with colonial Jesuit religious doctrines therefore many are thus left in ignorance of True Religion and left to perish in spiritual slavery polished by "earthy" liberal othodoxy. Although some physical freedoms have been obtained at great loss of life, God who cares so much for the oppressed, has given a way of total salvation as illustrated in the Sanctuary Message. The God of the African and Fellow Spiritual Slave has come to "dwell amongst" us. The cries within the hearts of these oppressed people have come up before God who with mighty power will soon conclude the work of complete deliverance from this present physical and spiritual bondage. The work of the Angels of Revelation 14 is to teach us the knowledge of The Supreme God amongst us who is ever seeking to save us to the uttermost from all our bondage situations. The current condition of the African and the Fellow Spiritual Slave is no more helpless than was the condition of the Hebrew slaves in the Old Testament. The children of Israel were addicted to licentiousness, idolatry, gluttony, and gross vices. These prevalent sins and their consequences are everywhere amongst us and is ever the result of this endless Physical and Spiritual Slavery. But the Lord has always looked upon his sorry people, and our deliverance will be completed once we are revived and reformed by beholding His way in the Sanctuary. This place of refuge will teach us that we were never left uncared for, and the plan of our salvation was not an afterthought like the modern hypocritical reactive laws. Though we through slavery lost the vision of God and His Holy Law in the years of bondage, yet God again is revealing himself. In terrible grandeur and awful majesty he proclaims to us His holy precepts, and commands us to obey His Law of endless Love.
And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them. - Exodus 25:8
Christ must dwell in that man’s heart, just as the blood must be in the body and circulate there as a vitalizing power. - ChL 45.1
At the completion of the building of the sanctuary in the wilderness God "abode in the sanctuary, in the midst of His people. Through all their weary wandering in the desert, the symbol of His presence was with them. So Christ set up His tabernacle in the midst of our human encampment. He pitched His tent by the side of the tents of men, that He might dwell among us, and make us familiar with His divine character and life. “The Word became flesh, and tabernacled among us (and we beheld His glory, glory as of the Only Begotten from the Father), full of grace and truth.” John 1:14, R. V., margin. DA 23.3
Since Jesus came to dwell with us, we know that God is acquainted with our trials, and sympathizes with our griefs. Every son and daughter of Adam may understand that our Creator is the friend of sinners. For in every doctrine of grace, every promise of joy, every deed of love, every divine attraction presented in the Saviour’s life on earth, we see “God with us.” - DA 24.1
By His humanity, Christ touched humanity; by His divinity, He lays hold upon the throne of God. As the Son of man, He gave us an example of obedience; as the Son of God, He gives us power to obey. It was Christ who from the bush on Mount Horeb spoke to Moses saying, “I AM THAT I AM.... Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.” Exodus 3:14. This was the pledge of Israel’s deliverance. So when He came “in the likeness of men,” He declared Himself the I AM. The Child of Bethlehem, the meek and lowly Saviour, is God “manifest in the flesh.” 1 Timothy 3:16. And to us He says: “I AM the Good Shepherd.” “I AM the living Bread.” “I AM the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” “All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth.” John 10:11; 6:51; 14:6; Matthew 28:18. I AM the assurance of every promise. I AM; be not afraid. “God with us” is the surety of our deliverance from sin, the assurance of our power to obey the law of heaven. - DA 24.3
In stooping to take upon Himself humanity, Christ revealed a character the opposite of the character of Satan. But He stepped still lower in the path of humiliation. “Being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” Philippians 2:8. As the high priest laid aside his gorgeous pontifical robes, and officiated in the white linen dress of the common priest, so Christ took the form of a servant, and offered sacrifice, Himself the priest, Himself the victim. “He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him.” - DA 25.1
The subject of the sanctuary was the key which unlocked the mystery of the disappointment of 1844. It opened to view a complete system of truth, connected and harmonious, showing that God’s hand had directed the great Advent movement, and revealing present duty as it brought to light the position and work of his people. As the disciples of Jesus, after the terrible night of their anguish and disappointment, were “glad when they saw the Lord,” so did those now rejoice who had looked in faith for his second coming. They had expected him to appear in glory to give reward to his servants. As their hopes were disappointed, they had lost sight of Jesus, and with Mary at the sepulcher they cried, “They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him.” Now in the holy of holies they again beheld him, their compassionate high priest, soon to appear as their king and deliverer. Light from the sanctuary illumed the past, the present, and the future. They knew that God had led them by his unerring providence. Though like the first disciples they themselves had failed to understand the message which they bore, yet it had been in every respect correct. In proclaiming it they had fulfilled the purpose of God, and their labor had not been in vain in the Lord. “Begotten again unto a lively hope,” they rejoiced “with joy unspeakable and full of glory.” - GC88 423.1
The scripture which above all others had been both the foundation and central pillar of the Advent faith was the declaration, “Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.” [Daniel 8:14.] These had been familiar words to all believers in the Lord’s soon coming. By the lips of thousands was this prophecy repeated as the watchword of their faith. All felt that upon the events therein foretold depended their brightest expectations and most cherished hopes. - GC88 409.1
The Israelites were journeying through the wilderness, and the tabernacle was so constructed that it could be removed from place to place; yet it was a structure of great magnificence. Its walls consisted of upright boards heavily plated with gold, and set in sockets of silver, while the roof was formed of a series of curtains, or coverings, the outer of skins, the innermost of fine linen beautifully wrought with figures of cherubim. Besides the outer court, which contained the altar of burnt-offering, the tabernacle itself consisted of two apartments called the holy and the most holy place, separated by a rich and beautiful curtain, or veil; a similar veil closed the entrance to the first apartment. - GC88 411.2
In the holy place was the candlestick, on the south, with its seven lamps giving light to the sanctuary both by day and by night; on the north stood the table of show-bread; and before the veil separating the holy from the most holy was the golden altar of incense, from which the cloud of fragrance, with the prayers of Israel, was daily ascending before God. - GC88 412.1
In the most holy place stood the ark, a chest of precious wood overlaid with gold, the depository of the two tables of stone upon which God had inscribed the law of ten commandments. Above the ark, and forming the cover to the sacred chest, was the mercy-seat, a magnificent piece of workmanship, surmounted by two cherubim, one at each end, and all wrought of solid gold. In this apartment the divine presence was manifested in the cloud of glory between the cherubim. - GC88 412.2
The sanctuary in Heaven, in which Jesus ministers in our behalf, is the great original, of which the sanctuary built by Moses was a copy. God placed his Spirit upon the builders of the earthly sanctuary. The artistic skill displayed in its construction was a manifestation of divine wisdom. The walls had the appearance of massive gold, reflecting in every direction the light of the seven lamps of the golden candlestick. The table of show-bread and the altar of incense glittered like burnished gold. The gorgeous curtain which formed the ceiling, inwrought with figures of angels in blue and purple and scarlet, added to the beauty of the scene. And beyond the second veil was the holy shekinah, the visible manifestation of God’s glory, before which none but the high priest could enter and live. The matchless splendor of the earthly tabernacle reflected to human vision the glories of that heavenly temple where Christ our forerunner ministers for us before the throne of God. The abiding-place of the King of kings, where thousand thousands minister unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stand 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, could find, in the most magnificent structure ever reared by human hands, but a faint reflection of its vastness and glory. Yet important truths concerning the heavenly sanctuary and the great work there carried forward for man’s redemption, were taught by the earthly sanctuary and its services. - GC88 413.3
The question, What is the sanctuary? is clearly answered in the Scriptures. The term sanctuary, as used in the Bible, refers, first, to the tabernacle built by Moses, as a pattern of heavenly things; and, secondly, to the “true tabernacle” in Heaven, to which the earthly sanctuary pointed. At the death of Christ the typical service ended. The “true tabernacle” in Heaven is the sanctuary of the new covenant. And as the prophecy of Daniel 8:14 is fulfilled in this dispensation, the sanctuary to which it refers must be the sanctuary of the new covenant. At the termination of the 2300 days, in 1844, there had been no sanctuary on earth for many centuries. Thus the prophecy, “Unto two thousand three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed,” unquestionably points to the sanctuary in Heaven. - GC88 417.1
The ministration of the earthly sanctuary consisted of two divisions; the priests ministered daily in the holy place, while once a year the high priest performed a special work of atonement in the most holy, for the cleansing of the sanctuary. Day by day the repentant sinner brought his offering to the door of the tabernacle, and placing his hand upon the victim’s head, confessed his sins, thus in figure transferring them from himself to the innocent sacrifice. The animal was then slain. “Without shedding of blood,” says the apostle, there is no remission of sin. “The life of the flesh is in the blood.” [Leviticus 17:11.] The broken law of God demanded the life of the transgressor. The blood, representing the forfeited life of the sinner, whose guilt the victim bore, was carried by the priest into the holy place and sprinkled before the veil, behind which was the ark containing the law that the sinner had transgressed. By this ceremony the sin was, through the blood, transferred in figure to the sanctuary. In some cases the blood was not taken into the holy place; but the flesh was then to be eaten by the priest, as Moses directed the sons of Aaron, saying, “God hath given it you to bear the iniquity of the congregation.” [Leviticus 10:17.] Both ceremonies alike symbolized the transfer of the sin from the penitent to the sanctuary. - GC88 418.1
To be continued...
Study by Tarisai P Ziyambi
The Silent Messanger Blog
Comments
Post a Comment