Where is the Plan of Salvation in the Old Testament?

What Can the Ancient Sanctuary
Service Teach Christians?

Type and Antitype -- A Great Deal About the Plan of Salvation
The Old Testament in the Bible discusses the sanctuary and its furnishings in much detail. The services involved are also quite precise. Why did God go to all this trouble for a temporary system of rites and ceremonies that would be done away with when the Messiah came? Christians understand Jesus was the "Lamb of God" who saves us from our sins (John 1:29). He was the great sacrifice that all these other sacrifices typified. Yet, God had other reasons for being so particular with these ancient services.

Jesus used vivid images of truth by illustrating them in parables, He also gave us illustrations through these ancient services. Though we may not practice the ceremonies and rites, as did the Israelites in those early days, God teaches us lessons about the plan of redemption in these types.

We will hope to go into more detail about what God has told us in His word concerning the earthly, heavenly, and our body sanctuaries. The words tabernacle, sanctuary and temple are interchangeable.They are all used in the Bible.

The text found in Psalm 77:13 says: "Your way, O God, is in the sanctuary; who is so great a God as our God?" (all texts from NKJV). Why did the Psalmist and Bible writers consider the Sanctuary so important? Why did their life revolve around it? Why did God give them the sanctuary with its rites and ceremonies? Looking back, as Christians, we know at least part of the reason was to give them some type of picture of the coming Messiah.

The sanctuary was designed as an illustration of our Saviour and His purpose for each of our lives. Even the walls and curtains had lessons to teach. The specific furniture and rites that God visualized for Moses gave a revelation to Israel about the coming Messiah. But when He came, few recognized Him as the fulfillment of the Messianic prophecies or as the antitype for the sanctuary and its services. Yet, the evidence was all there, if only they'd been willing to understand.

Those who did study could see in Jesus this fulfillment. the Lord gave Paul insight into much of this. He not only understood the Old Testament prophecies pointing to Christ, as the other apostles did, he also began to understand and preach about Christ's work in the heavenly sanctuary and the importance of our body temples for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Temple, tabernacle, and sanctuary were usually referring to the same place. In ancient Israel, the first sanctuary was a tentlike structure (a tabernacle) with walls of special skins and cloth. It was made according to the pattern given to Moses on Mt. Sinai by God. No detail was omitted in the planning and execution of this place. When the temple or sanctuary was built in Solomon's time, God's pattern was followed carefully, and God approved it by His presence. The last earthly sanctuary was destroyed in 70 AD by the Romans, after Jesus had risen from the dead and gone to heaven to be our High Priest. The services were totally unnecessary after the curtain to the most holy place was torn from top to bottom by an unseen hand at the time of Jesus death.

John saw a temple in heaven. He saw the Ark of the Covenant, the Mercy Seat and the Altar of Incense where Jesus offers our prayers before the Mercy Seat. In the Ark of the Covenant are the Ten Commandments and on top of this is the Mercy Seat. The marvel of our body temples is the Holy Spirit can be present in our hearts and minds. In the tenth chapter of Hebrews God also promises to write His law in our hearts and minds. The plan of redemption God works in our lives is also seen in His sanctuary.

So we see three sanctuaries here: the earthly, the heavenly, and our bodies. As the Holy Spirit dwells in our minds, we gain control over appetites and passions. Much is to be learned from the first two in understanding God's purpose and His plans for us as individuals. Let us continue to learn from the beautiful illustrations given to man through the Sanctuary of God.

"Behold the Lamb of God who takes aways the sin of the world!" -- John 1:29.

"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." -- 1 John1:9.

"Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life." -- Romans 6:3,4.

"Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, 'I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.'" -- John 8:12.

"Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path." Psalm 119:105.

"Then another angel, having a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, ascended before God from the angel's hand." -- Revelation 8:3, 4.

"And Jesus said unto them, 'I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.'" -- John 6:35.

"And you shall hang the veil from the clasps. Then you shall bring the ark of the Testimony in there, behind the veil. The veil shall be a divider for you between the holy place and the Most Holy. You shall put the mercy seat upon the ark of the Testimony in the Most Holy." -- Exodus 26:33, 34.

"This shall be a statute forever for you: in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict your souls, and do no work at all, whether a native of your own country or a stranger who dwells among you. For on that day the priest shall make atonement for you, to cleanse you, that you may be clean from all your sins before the Lord." Leviticus 16:29, 30.

"And let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them. According to all that I show you, that is, the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all its furnishings, just so you shall make it." -- Exodus 25:8, 9.

"Now this is the main point of the things we are saying: We have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a Minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man." -- Hebrews 8:1, 2.

"Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's." -- 1 Corinthians 6:19, 20.

"This is covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws into their hearts and in their minds I will write them." -- Hebrews 10:16.


WHY?
Why did God go to so much trouble to give Moses detailed instructions for the building the first sanctuary in the wilderness? Why were the craftsman who did the actual work in the sanctuary carefully chosen for their special skills? Why did God see fit to give the exact measurements of every piece of furniture, every curtain, every wall, every post? Why did He tell them the exact materials to use?

Why were the priests and high priest given so many instructions as to their work, clothing, hygienic practices, and conduct? Why was God so particular about the types of sacrifices, the feasts and other ceremonies centering around the sanctuary?

Why is this still important to us today? The sanctuary and all its services were symbolic of the great plan of redemption. God had laid this plan out before He laid out the foundation of the world. The sanctuary typifies Christ, the living Word. It reveals, in detail, symbols for everything involved in God's work to save mankind. His plan makes it possible for us to find our way back to the purpose we were initially created for-- to reveal God's loving character and to expand and learn and grow all through eternity.

The sanctuary reveals our Saviour as the "Lamb of God, slain from the foundation of the world." It shows us the need of cleansing, dying to self, and of being buried and raised again to walk in newness of life. It reveals the *Bread of Life,* the Light which lightens our path. The incense, from the Altar of Incense, rises as the righteous merits of Christ, to blend with our prayers to heaven. It reveals the Mercy Seat which covers the moral law of God, placed in the *Ark of the Covenant.* This law which governs the whole universe is being written in our hearts and minds, for our bodies are also God's sanctuaries (or temples), the places where His Spirit must dwell.

The sanctuary tells of a daily service of confession of sin and a yearly service of a deeper repentance and removal and blotting out of sin. It helps to make clear the works of grace on each of our hearts, the need of preparing for the fullness of the Spirit in our lives. Not so we will be filled with ecstasy or intense emotions, but we will be so filled with the love of God there will be no room for self-serving traits of character that hinder us now from giving the last message of mercy to a dying world-- a message that is revealed by our lives. Then Christ will come and those who are ready and waiting will go home with Him.

What is the *Lamb of God* doing now? He is offering up His blood as our heavenly High Priest in the sanctuary the earthly one was patterned after. The earthly service ended on the day He died, with the tearing of the curtain by angels from heaven.

Only the high priest was allowed in the Most Holy Place of the sanctuary where God's law and the mercyseat resided, and *that* only once a year, in the typical service. But, on that glorious day, when our Saviour died for us, the dividing curtain, which hid it from view, was torn in two, so all could see within. It was no longer sacred. Christ, the Messiah, our heavenly High Priest, offers His blood for all those who repent and turn from sin.

Some day soon, He will set aside priestly robes and return as *King of Kings and Lord of Lords* to take home all who have waited for Him.

You and I may examine every part of the ancient sanctuary and its service and find the gospel embedded, ready to be spread out like a map and examined closely and prayerfully. The Bible used as our guide, will make plain the significance of each part to the plan of redemption for the human race. If we will do this, we will come out richly blessed and more fully convinced we serve a wise and loving Creator and Redeemer.

Copyright 1997, Kathryn Terrell Search