SECOND QUARTER 2025
SABBATH SCHOOL INSIGHT #8
MAY 24, 2025

 

“Then I looked, and behold, a Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with Him one hundred and forty-four thousand, having His Father’s name written on their foreheads” (Revelation 14:1, NKJV).

“And (Jesus) said unto them, ‘these are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me’ ” (Luke 24:44).

The book of Psalms and Revelation both reveal Christ and contain many parallel passages. 

The Psalmist wrote, “Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary” (Psalm 77:13). 

There’s a saying, “Sometimes you can’t see the forest for the trees.” 

When we look at the Old Testament sanctuary with its rich imagery and symbolism, there is so much to study, so much to understand. 

But taking a few steps back, a simple theme emerges. God has always wanted to be with us. He was in the beginning. He will be in the end. The connection between these two settings is a Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. The path of that Lamb is traced in blood throughout the Scriptures, pointing to the final overthrow of sin. In the end a victorious picture emerges. The Lamb that was slain is now seated on the heavenly throne surrounded by His children.

When God created man in His image, the lovely pair bore the impress of heaven. In their Eden home they enjoyed face to face companionship with their Maker. No cross words, no misunderstandings marred their existence. “God is love” was written in every fiber of their being. How God must have relished those moments spent together with His children! Even as sinful, earthly parents, we can relate.

Yet how quickly did this happiness depart with the entrance of sin! No longer could Adam and Eve enjoy the open communion with their Maker that had once been theirs. The sanctuary service in its infancy was inaugurated just outside the garden’s eastern gate. In this first home we see many parallels to the later sanctuary service that was given to Moses.

A lamb was slain and the first-ever stream of blood flowed from the helpless victim as it died, perhaps in Adam’s arms.  We cannot fathom the grief, yet this was only a faint foreshadowing of the pain that sin would bring to the heart of God and the human race.

Who could have known where sin would lead? Over the course of time, Adam’s descendants departed farther and still farther from God’s will until the whole earth was filled with violence. The worldwide flood served as a temporary reset, but Noah’s descendants soon reverted to the same sins that had beset the antediluvian world.  

Through Abraham, God established a line through which the Savior would one day be born.

Calling Abraham’s descendants out of bondage in Egypt, the Lord gave them more definite instruction concerning His law and the plan of salvation. The sanctuary would provide the link to understanding the sin problem and its solution.

“And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them” (Exodus 25:8). In this simple instruction to Moses, God revealed His heart’s desire, which has only and ever been to dwell with us.

“The nation of Israel was conceived in the temple service. From the embryonic model followed by Abel to the soul-wrenching experience of Abraham on Mount Moriah, the voice of God was clear. The direct instruction Moses received to build a sanctuary ‘after the pattern which was shewed thee in the mount’ (Hebrews 8:5) portrays a divine plan awaiting the complete understanding of God's people. The identity of the nation of Israel with a religion inspired by heaven took form at the foot of Sinai. As long as they had the sanctuary and the temple they were confident of their destiny. Thus, when Jerusalem fell under siege, the last stronghold relinquished was the temple.”—Donald K. Short, Then Shall the Sanctuary Be Cleansed, p. 12.

To reconcile our rebellious race to Himself, Jesus left heaven, humbled himself as a man and dwelt with us, “Emmanuel, . . . God with us” (Matthew 1:23). 

He came not as One separate from us, but was “made like His brethren” (Hebrews 2:17).

He came to defeat Satan on the ground Satan claimed as his. “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil” (Hebrews 2:14).

In His last dying breath Jesus, triumphantly exclaimed, “It is finished!” He had overcome by faith, and He bequeathed His faith to the human race—a faith that overcomes the world. Thus could His prayer be answered, “Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am” (John 17:24).

The tragic rejection of Christ by the Jews “reflected their own disdain for the temple they claimed to revere. Every article of furniture, every ritual act, was a symbol that revealed Messiah whom they denied. He was the Lamb, the Priest, the Shekinah. Their blind rejection of Him was like a prophecy foreshadowing the destruction of the temple. But in three days His resurrection would reconstruct a temple of truth for which the stone temple had been but a type. The temple built with hands would give way before the temple built by the Spirit. The High Priest would verily become ‘a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man' (Hebrews 8:2).

“The frightening testimony God has given to this church is that we too are the victims of this blindness. Adventists are the only corporate body that has existed since the time of Israel who, like them, was born and nurtured in the symbology of the sanctuary. The realization of the heavenly pattern shown to Moses resolved the prophetic crisis of 1844. It was not a ‘vision’ of a man in a cornfield, but the realization that the ultimate problem of the universe was a sin problem which could only be solved by God's method. This understanding gave Adventism birth.—Donald K. Short, Then Shall the Sanctuary Be Cleansed, pp. 13, 14.

It’s possible that we, as Adventists, have gotten “lost in the trees,” But if we retrace our steps, we will discover a most precious message which the Lord sent to prepare a people for translation. The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world is still ministering His blood for us today.  That blood cleanses hearts defiled by sin, setting us free from the bondage of Satan. A gripping message of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8) is yet to lighten the earth with His glory. That day will come, and it’s our privilege to have a part in its proclamation.

Jesus said, “In my Father’s house are many mansions . . . I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am, there ye may be also” (John 14:1-3).

“And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it” (Revelation 21:22).

“And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God” (Revelation 21:3).

What an amazing family reunion that will be. Pray that we all will be there.

 

~ Patti Guthrie