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From Here to Forever
them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them” (
Exodus
25:8
), was the direction given to Moses. The tabernacle was a struc-
ture of great magnificence. Besides the outer court, the tabernacle
itself consisted of two apartments called the holy and the most holy
place, separated by a beautiful curtain, or veil. A similar veil closed
the entrance to the first apartment.
Holy and Most Holy Places
In the holy place was the candlestick on the south with its seven
lamps giving light both day and night; on the north stood the table of
shewbread. 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.
In the most holy place stood the ark, a chest overlaid with gold,
the depository of the Ten Commandments. Above the ark was the
mercy seat surmounted by two cherubim wrought of solid gold. In
this apartment the divine presence was manifested in the cloud of
glory between the cherubim.
After the settlement of the Hebrews in Canaan, the tabernacle
was replaced by the temple of Solomon, which, though a permanent
structure and upon a larger scale, observed the same proportions and
was similarly furnished. In this form the sanctuary existed—except
while it lay in ruins in Daniel’s time—until its destruction by the
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Romans in A.D. 70. This is the only sanctuary on earth of which
the Bible gives any information, the sanctuary of the first covenant.
But has the new covenant no sanctuary?
Turning again to the book of Hebrews, the seekers for truth found
that a second or new covenant sanctuary was implied in the words
already quoted: “Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances
of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary.” Turning back to the
beginning of the previous chapter, they read: “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; a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle,
which the Lord pitched, and not man.”
Hebrews 8:1, 2
.
Here is revealed the sanctuary of the new covenant. The sanc-
tuary of the first covenant was pitched by Moses; this is pitched by