Prophecy - 28

Day of Atonements


An atonement for the holy sanctuary.
An atonement for the tabernacle of the congregation.
An atonement for the altar.
An atonement for the priests and all the people of the congregation.


Dual aspect- a day of judgment and a day of atoning.


Let's look at Hebrews, a New Testament book that talks about our High Priest in the heavenly sanctuary. We've already discussed the need of a heavenly sanctuary- a purposeful need- not a façade. God does not use facades. God does not erect meaningless edifices. God does not and has never had mankind build meaningless things. Every single altar God directed to be built was for a purpose. The Sanctuary God directed to be built was for a purpose. Everything in the Sanctuary had a purpose. Never did God direct that something be built without purpose. The ark was built for a purpose and that purpose was to preserve mankind. The Sanctuary was built for a purpose and that was built after what was SEEN in heaven. Just as the earthly Sanctuary was built for a purpose, the Heavenly Sanctuary existed for a purpose. The Heavenly Sanctuary wasn't created to 'house God's presence' exclusively any more than the earthly Sanctuary was created for that sole purpose. Read this…


Solomon praying-


1Ki 8:26 And now, O God of Israel, let thy word, I pray thee, be verified, which thou spakest unto thy servant David my father.
1Ki 8:27 But will God indeed dwell on the earth? behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded?
1Ki 8:28 Yet have thou respect unto the prayer of thy servant, and to his supplication, O LORD my God, to hearken unto the cry and to the prayer, which thy servant prayeth before thee to day:
1Ki 8:29 That thine eyes may be open toward this house night and day, even toward the place of which thou hast said, My name shall be there: that thou mayest hearken unto the prayer which thy servant shall make toward this place.


But will God indeed dwell on the earth?
Behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee.


Such amazing words!


Why then create a heavenly sanctuary? It was all part of the entire plan of salvation that we can barely grasp in our finite, sin-filled states.


So many people let their thinking stop at the Cross, many others extend that a little bit to the Resurrection beyond the Cross, and still others allow themselves to think about the Ascension after the Resurrection beyond the Cross, but MOST people stop there at the Ascension. They've planted the risen Savior there on a throne and have kept Him there immobile in fact to never move again until He returns. They've made the Savior a figurehead placing Him on a pedestal and in doing so they've stopped thinking about what might be entailed in a continued work. Yet truthfully in the example given to us of the earthly sanctuary it took a priest to make the sacrifice after the person confessed their sins onto that sacrifice, then after the sacrifice was killed an atonement was made. Then, as we are studying, once a year there was one day for special atonements. Why do we find it easy to imagine Jesus as our Sacrifice, yet harder to understand Jesus as our High Priest, acting as our High Priest?


Let's go to the book of Hebrews now and read a bit…


Heb 8:1 Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens;
Heb 8:2 A minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man.


We have a High Priest in Heaven.
A MINISTER of the SANCTUARY and the TRUE TABERNACLE, which the LORD PITCHED and NOT MAN.


Minister-- Greek Definition
leitourgos
li-toorg-os'
From a derivative of G2992 and G2041; a public servant, that is, a functionary in the Temple or Gospel, or (generally) a worshipper (of God) or benefactor (of man): - minister (-ed).


A functionary in the Temple.
A public servant.


Our Great High Priest, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ risen from the dead was resurrected to life and after a brief period of time upon earth left to minister in the heavenly sanctuary!


Daniel tells us that after 2300 days (years) the sanctuary shall be cleansed, in 1844 the cleansing began. This is a heavenly sanctuary cleansing beyond a doubt because in 1844 the earthly sanctuary was non-existent and without an earthly sanctuary to cleanse it truly could mean only one thing- our Heavenly High Priest began a new phase of His ministering in the Heavenly Sanctuary bringing mankind one step still closer to the end of all sin, to the destruction of this earth as we know it and the ushering in of the amazing new world, the new life in Christ. Remember the dream of Nebuchadnezzar in the beginning of the book of Daniel- the over all picture? Remember the ultimate defeat of all earthly kingdoms and the ushering in of the kingdom of God? It WILL happen. It has been predicted and everything that is predicted will come to pass and SO MUCH of it already has come to pass. We cannot doubt that we are living in the end of the end so to speak. We cannot for one moment believe that things predicted will NOT come to pass. These weren't conditional prophecies. These are concrete prophecies and they will happen- every single one of them.


Over the last 27 prophecy studies we've been able to piece things together brilliantly with history and prophecy. We studied our way through to a prophecy that spans 2300 years! We can understand that Christ our High Priest is ministering in the Heavenly Sanctuary and we know when that ministry is completed He will come for us.


As we studied the earthly day of atonement we know there are different phases throughout that day which needed to be accomplished. As it was on earth- it is in heaven. We'll talk more about that tomorrow by the grace of our God.


We need His everlasting love and guidance, His forgiveness, His righteousness all that stems from His love towards us. This is a desperate need, a very desperate need. May we be blessed with the gifts of the Holy Spirit, able to see and understand His will, able to watch and pray as He would have us do as we look for His return.


In His amazing love!


Amen.