Sabbath: From Contamination to Purification
Image © Pacific Press
Read for This Week’s Study: Daniel 8:1-27, Dan. 2:38, Gen. 11:4, Leviticus 16:1-34, Dan. 2:38, Heb. 9:23-28.
Memory Text: “And he said to me, ‘For two thousand three hundred days; then the sanctuary shall be cleansed’” (Daniel 8:14, NKJV).
The vision reported in Daniel chapter 8 was given to the prophet in 548/547 B.C., and it provides some significant clarifications about the judgment referred to in Daniel 7. Unlike the visions of Daniel chapters 2 and 7, the vision of Daniel chapter 8 leaves out Babylon and starts with Media-Persia, because at this time Babylon was in decline and the Persians were about to replace Babylon as the next world power. The vision of Daniel chapter 8 parallels that of Daniel chapter 7. The language and the symbols change in Daniel chapter 8 because it brings into sharp focus the purification of the heavenly sanctuary in connection with the heavenly Day of Atonement. Thus the distinctive contribution of Daniel chapter 8 lies in its focus on aspects of the heavenly sanctuary. Whereas Daniel chapter 7 shows the heavenly tribunal and the Son of man receiving the kingdom, Daniel chapter 8 shows the purification of the heavenly sanctuary. So as the parallels between these two chapters indicate, the purification of the heavenly sanctuary depicted in Daniel 8 corresponds to the judgment scene of Daniel chapter 7.
Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, February 29.
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One of the problems with using a single book as the basis of a lesson study is that the lesson designers see a book with 12 chapters fitting neatly into a quarter so they give us a chapter a week to study. Such a scheme ignores the difference in the difficulty or importance of particular topics. Daniel 8 is a chapter that perhaps should be given several weeks, given the role it has played in Seventh-day Adventist history.
Here are a couple of suggestions:
1. Read the whole of Daniel 8.
2. Read the instructions surrounding the Day of Atonement.
3. What is the correlation?
Our Seventh-day Adventist emphasis has often been about the timing, but perhaps we should think more about what is happening. Do we still have anything to learn?
Thank you for your excellent suggestions for this week's studying. In regard to your question "do we still have anything to learn?", I find the following 2 quotes from Adventist history (which are not taken out of context) of direct relevance:
Daniel chapter 8 needs deep spirited readership now that it talks about the sanctuary ministry.May be to open up the discussion leading to the analysis of this chapter,we can review the following concerns:
a)which sanctuary should be cleansed within this long prophetic strand?
b)if it's the heavenly sanctuary that needs cleansing,what filth/sin needs cleansing there? How did sin escaped into such a Holy environment? How and by who is the sin-transfer apportioned?
b) the day of atonement and cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary.Is there a type-antitype principle here?
Simeon, Paul tells us that just like the earthly sanctuary had to be purified so the heavenly sanctuary had to be purified by Christ's blood. Heb 9:21-28
See posts by others on the difference between individual and corporate atonement, also the rituals of the tabernacle being shadows of the actual events.
Great Controversy, chapter 23
As anciently the sins of the people were by faith placed upon the sin-offering, and through its blood transferred, in figure, to the earthly sanctuary, so in the new covenant the sins of the repentant are by faith placed upon Christ, and transferred, in fact, to the heavenly sanctuary. And as the typical cleansing of the earthly was accomplished by the removal of the sins by which it had been polluted, so the actual cleansing of the heavenly is to be accomplished by the removal, or blotting out, of the sins which are there recorded.
The way I look at it Simeon, the Heavenly Sanctuary has been defiled with the sins of the saints. The cleansing is the sins are forgiven to those who ask. And then Christ presents us before the Father in a white robe and white turban spotless. The Father says, come my Child see what My Son has prepared for you.
Who are the saints? The Bible says they that have over come, keep the commandments, and have the faith of Jesus. Self-renunciation is the word. We look at that as hard to do until we put our hand in the hand of the Man who calmed the sea. Then we begain to understand it is hard to be lost.
...do not therefore conclude that the upward path is the hard and the downward road the easy way. All along the road that leads to death there are pains and penalties, there are sorrows and disappointments, there are warnings not to go on. God's love has made it hard for the heedless and headstrong to destroy themselves...MB 139.1
Daniel 9,8,7
Give the three phases of Christ's sanctuary work.
Chapter 9 focuses on Christ's outer court work. He left the realms of heaven and came to the earth, Here He was seen by humans. (Just as people by the earthly sanctuary could see the work being done in the court yard of their sanctuary).
It's in Daniel 9 where we read of Christ's baptism, and later of His dying carrying the sins of the world.
Daniel 9 is the central upon which everything else in our redemption rests.
Daniel 8 depicts Christ's "Holy Place" ministry. The sacrificial animals remind us of the sacrifice system. But after the Grecian goat, there are no more "sacrificial" animals, for the Lamb of God has caused the sacrifices and oblations to stop. (Note as well that Daniel never attached the word "sacrifice" with the daily, translators did that)
What we next see is a mighty horn that reaches up and casts the PLACE of the sanctuary to the ground.
He couldn't cast the heavenly sanctuary itself, down, he just changed people's thinking as to where they could go to have their sins forgiven. People were taught to look to an earthly system for forgiveness and cleansing.
It describes the assault by the horn upon the "daily", and places special emphasis on the Christian era. It points us to the ministry of Christ in heaven while Rome, the little horn, grows into a religious/political power and commands that people look to them (earthly men) claiming to be able to forgive and cleanse sin. This "horn", to a large degree, obliterated from people's minds and hopes, the True Heavenly Prince --THE PRINCE OF PRINCES (8:25) THE PRINCE OF THE HEAVENLY HOST (8:10,11) Christ, and His work in the heavenly sanctuary.
Daniel 8 culminates when Christ enters into His work in the Most Holy at the end of the 2300 days/years. He will cleanse the heavenly sanctuary and the people.
Chapter seven, as we studied last week, takes us right into the Most Holy, and the great court scene. Jesus receives the dominion, having won back the heritage lost by Adam. He presents the names of the forgiven and cleansed saints before the Father and the angels (see Rev. 3:5) and the chapter ends with the saints inheriting the earth with Christ, our Savior and King.
Could it be said that “He will cleanse the heavenly sanctuary” which is (represents) His people?