The longest day ever

Howard Smith

Sanctuary and the Atonement • Sermon • Submitted 4 years ago

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Seventh-day Adventist perspective of the Atonement of Christ

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Introduction

The summer solstice (or estival solstice), also known as midsummer, occurs when one of the Earth's poles has its maximum tilt toward the Sun. It happens twice yearly, once in each hemisphere (Northern and Southern). For that hemisphere, the summer solstice is when the Sun reaches its highest position in the sky and is the day with the longest period of daylight.

Depending on the shift of the calendar, the summer solstice occurs sometime between June 20 and June 22 in the Northern Hemisphere, but i believe there is still a longer day.

New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update Chapter 10

12 Then Joshua spoke to the LORD in the day when the LORD delivered up the Amorites before the sons of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel,

“O asun, stand still at Gibeon,

And O moon in the valley of Aijalon.”

13 aSo the sun stood still, and the moon stopped,

Until the nation avenged themselves of their enemies.

Is it not written in bthe book of Jashar? And cthe sun stopped in the middle of the sky and did not hasten to go down for about a whole day.

For some of who I believe that there are some days that really seem longer than some, and I know that there are some days that you wish would end but it seems to be going on for eternity; but i believe that there is still a longer day. it’s longer than standing in the bank line or even the long line at the embassy. there is still a longer day it’s the longest day ever; as a matter of fact we have been living in the antitypical day of atonement since 1844.

We are in the great day of atonement, when our sins are, by confession and repentance, to go beforehand to judgment. God does not now accept a tame, spiritless testimony from His ministers. Such a testimony would not be present truth. The message for this time must be meat in due season to feed the church of God. But Satan has been seeking gradually to rob this message of its power, that the people may not be prepared to stand in the day of the Lord. {1SM 124.3}

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seeking gradually to rob this message of its power, that the people may not be prepared to stand in the day of the Lord. {1SM 124.3}

In 1844 our great High Priest entered the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary, to begin the work of the investigative judgment. The cases of the righteous dead have been passing in review before God. When that work shall be completed, judgment is to be pronounced upon the living. How precious, how important are these solemn moments! Each of us has a case pending in the court of heaven. We are individually to be judged according to the deeds done in the body. In the typical service, when the work of atonement was performed by the high priest in the most holy place of the earthly sanctuary, the people were required to afflict their souls before God, and confess their sins, that they might be atoned for and blotted out. Will any less be required of us in this antitypical day of atonement, when Christ in the sanctuary above is pleading in behalf of His people, and the final, irrevocable decision is to be pronounced upon every case? {1SM 125.1}

Dealing with personal sin

You see in the beginning, God made a perfect world; it was peaceful, harmonious, and sinless. This perfect world was only changed when man disobeyed his Creator. in order to save man from eating from the tree of life and becoming an immortal sinner, God had to drive man from the Garden of Eden. . The vail. There were two veils in the sanctuary, one leading from the court into the first apartment, the other separating the two apartments. The veil here referred to is the second veil (), the one before the mercy seat (, ). It was before this veil that the priests stood as they offered incense upon the altar of incense, before the mercy seat. Their sight could not pierce the veil, but they knew that on the other side of it was the ark with its mercy seat, where God had promised to meet with His people (). The figures of cherubim embroidered on the veil represented to them the angels that stand before the throne of Deity. The veil shielded them from the consuming glory, and at the same time it permitted them to approach closely.

The cherubim must have brought vividly to their minds the cherubim stationed at the gate of Eden (see on ). After Adam and Eve had sinned they could not pass the cherubim; neither could the priests in the sanctuary pass the symbolic cherubim and enter into the presence of God. This must have deeply impressed upon them the holiness of God. God is so Holy that even the high priest had to make sure that he atoned for his own sins as well as his families. How deeply are we impressed with the holiness of God today; how do we approach God we come to his temple have we confessed our sins?

This is where the earthly sanctuary comes into the picture, being a copy of the heavenly “original” (see ). Usually when we think of the sanctuary we associate it with all the ritual sacrifices, but when God instructed Moses concerning the structure of the sanctuary He did not say, “Build me a sanctuary where you can offer sacrifices” or “where you can worship me.” Instead he said, “Let them construct a sanctuary for Me, that I may dwell among them” (, emphasis added). That was the primary reason for the existence of the sanctuary. God wanted to be among His children, restore His covenant with them and “walk” with them (see ; ; and ). We saw that in the beginning God planted the Garden of Eden and meant for it to be the place where He would freely communicate and fellowship with man (cf. ). With the entrance of sin, however, that direct communication was broken, and man needed to learn to approach God in a new way, through a mediator.

The high priest back then interceded on behalf of the people and not only the people but the place. You see the sins of the people defiled the sanctuary so on the day of atonement the sanctuary was cleansed or vindicated and sin was removed from the camp of Israel.

Procedure:

1. The high priest takes a bath and changes to white garments after officiating the daily services in full regalia.

2. Presents the bullock before the Lord and lays his hands on its head.

3. Presents the goats and casts lots over them; one for the Lord and one for Azazel.

4. Kills the bullock and preserve the blood.

5. Takes the censer and incense into the most holy place and arranges incense and coals.

6. Return to court for the blood of the bullock and takes it into the most holy place and sprinkles it on the mercy seat and before the mercy seat seven times.

7. Returns to court, kills the Lord’s goat and takes its blood to the most holy place and sprinkles it on the mercy seat and before the mercy seat seven times.

8. Returns to the holy place and sprinkles making atonement for the furniture there.

9. Returns to the court and makes atonement for the altar, sprinkling it with the blood of the bullock and the goat seven times and placing blood on the horns of the altar.

10. Confess all the sins of Israel over the head of the live goat and sends it into wilderness by a fit man.

11. Changes robes into full regalia and offers the fat of sin offerings, the burnt offering for himself and the people, the burnt offering of the day, and a kid for the sin offering for the day.

Type Meets Antitype

The Great Controversy and the End of Evil: Biblical and Theological Studies in Honor of Ángel Manuel Rodríguez in Celebration of His Seventieth Birthday The Sanctuary

Later, Jesus came to this earth to live as a person among human beings and show them what God was like, what redemption was all about, and how everything relating to salvation in the Old Testament pointed to Him. He was God, whose nature it was to carry the sins of humanity (Exod 34:5–7; Isa 53:4), and He had come to set man free from the bondage of sin.

This was difficult for the early Christian believers to accept. The sanctuary with its sacrifices and rituals, which had been the center of Jewish religious life for about fifteen centuries, was about to be declared meaningless. The book of Hebrews informs its readers that the sanctuary with its sacrifices never really cleansed or purified anyone (Heb 10:4, 11).

Rather, it had been set up as a “parable” to teach a lesson (Heb 9:9)19—a visual aid of the process and cost of salvation.

Issues in the Book of Hebrews Editorial Synopsis

Thus, our pioneers came to understand that in 1844—the close of Daniel’s 2300 year prophecy—Christ entered the Most Holy Place to begin the second phase of His priestly ministry as foreshadowed by the Day of Atonement ritual. At the completion of this additional ministry, He will return the second time for His people. From this beginning our pioneers went on to discover a whole series of interlocking truths and the prophetic reasons for the rise and mission of a remnant people in the end of time.

Issues in the Book of Hebrews Editorial Synopsis

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.

For every high priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices: wherefore it is of necessity that this man have somewhat also to offer.

For if he were on earth, he should not be a priest, seeing that there are priests that offer gifts according to the law:

Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount.

But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.

For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second.

For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah:

Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.

For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:

And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.

For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.

Gudmundur Olafsson, “Immanuel—God with Us,” in The Great Controversy and the End of Evil: Biblical and Theological Studies in Honor of Ángel Manuel Rodríguez in Celebration of His Seventieth Birthday, ed. Gerhard Pfandl (Silver Spring, MD: Biblical Research Institute; Review and Herald Publishing Association, 2015), 123–124.

Francis D. Nichol, ed., The Seventh-Day Adventist Bible Commentary, vol. 1 (Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1978), 771–772.

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