From Splendor to Shadow

How the Sanctuary Services Revealed the Saviour

The sacrificial offerings constituted a perpetual reminder of the coming of a Saviour. Throughout Israel's history each day the people were taught by types and shadows the great truths of Christ as Redeemer, Priest, and King. And once each year their minds were carried forward to the closing events of the great controversy between Christ and Satan. The earthly sanctuary was “a figure for the time then present.” Its two holy places were “patterns of things in the heavens,” for Christ is today “a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man.” Hebrews 9:9, 23; 8:2. SS 354.5

When Adam and his sons began to offer ceremonial sacrifices ordained as a type of the coming Redeemer, Satan discerned in these a symbol of communion between earth and heaven. During the long centuries it has been his constant effort to intercept this communion, to misrepresent God and misinterpret the rites pointing to the Saviour. The archenemy of mankind has endeavored to represent God as one who delights in men's destruction. The sacrifices designed to reveal divine love have been perverted as means whereby sinners have vainly hoped to propitiate the wrath of an offended God. At the same time, Satan has sought to strengthen evil passions in order that through repeated transgression multitudes might be led far from God and hopelessly bound with the fetters of sin. SS 355.1

In the parchment rolls of the Old Testament Scriptures Satan traced the words that outlined Christ's work among men as a suffering sacrifice and as a conquering king. He read that the One who was to appear was to be “brought as a lamb to the slaughter,” “His visage ... so marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men.” The promised Saviour was to be “despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: ... smitten of God, and afflicted.” Isaiah 53:7; 52:14; 53:3, 4. These prophecies caused Satan to tremble, yet he determined to blind the people to their real significance in order to prepare the way for the rejection of Christ at His coming. SS 355.2

Preceding the Flood, success had attended Satan's efforts to bring about a worldwide rebellion against God. After the Flood, with artful insinuations he again led men into bold rebellion. He seemed about to triumph, but through the posterity of faithful Abraham, divinely appointed messengers were to be raised up to call attention to the meaning of the sacrificial ceremonies, and especially to the promise of the One toward whom all the ordinances pointed. SS 355.3

Not without determined opposition was the divine purpose carried out. In every way possible the enemy worked to cause the descendants of Abraham to forget their holy calling. For centuries preceding Christ's first advent, darkness covered the earth, and gross darkness the people. Multitudes were sitting in the shadow of death. SS 356.1