You probably know that on the summit of Mt.

Sinai, God gave Moses

the Ten Commandments. But did you also know that, at the same time,
the Lord gave Moses blueprints for one of the most mysterious
structures ever built? It’s called the sanctuary, a unique temple that
represented God’s dwelling place among His people. Its overall design
and services showed this nation of freed slaves a three-dimensional
panorama of the plan of salvation. A careful look into the secrets of the
sanctuary will solidify and enhance your understanding of how Jesus
saves the lost and leads the church. The sanctuary is also a key to
understanding several amazing prophecies. An exciting adventure
awaits you as this Study Guide explores the sanctuary and its hidden
meanings!

1. What did God ask Moses to build?

“Let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them”
(Exodus 25:8).
Answer: The Lord told Moses to build a sanctuary—a special building
that would serve as a dwelling place for the God of heaven.A Brief
Description of the SanctuaryThe original sanctuary was an elegant,
tent-type structure (15 feet by 45 feet—based on an 18-inch cubit) in
which the presence of God dwelt and special services were conducted.
The walls were made of upright wooden boards set in silver sockets
and overlaid with gold (Exodus 26:15–19, 29). The roof was made of
four coverings: linen, goat hair, ram skin, and badger skin (Exodus
26:1, 7–14). It had two rooms: the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place.
A thick, heavy veil (curtain) separated the rooms. The courtyard—the
area around the sanctuary—was 75 feet by 150 feet (Exodus 27:18). It
was fenced with fine linen cloth supported by 60 pillars of brass
(Exodus 27:9–16).
2. What did God expect His people to learn from
the sanctuary?
“Your way, O God, is in the sanctuary; who is so great a God as our
God?” (Psalm 77:13).
Answer: God’s way, the plan of salvation, is revealed in the earthly
sanctuary. The Bible teaches that everything in the sanctuary—the
dwelling, furniture, and services—are symbols of something Jesus did
in saving us. This means we can fully comprehend the plan of salvation
as we fully understand the symbolism connected with the sanctuary.
Thus, the importance of this Study Guide can’t be overstated.

3. From what source did Moses obtain the

blueprints for the sanctuary? Of what was the
building a copy?
“Now this is the main point of the things we are saying: We have such
a High Priest, who is seated at 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 erected, and not man. ... There are priests ...
who serve the copy and shadow of the heavenly things, as Moses was
divinely instructed when he was about to make the tabernacle. For He
said, ‘See that you make all things according to the pattern shown you
on the mountain’ ” (Hebrews 8:1, 2, 4, 5).
Answer: God Himself gave Moses the sanctuary’s construction
specifications. The building was a copy of the original sanctuary in
heaven.

4. What furniture was in the courtyard?

Answer:

A. The altar of burnt offerings where animals were sacrificed, was

located just inside its entrance (Exodus 27:1–8). This altar represents
the cross of Christ. The animal represents Jesus, the ultimate sacrifice
(John 1:29).
B. The laver, located between the altar and the entrance to the
sanctuary, was a large washbasin made of brass. Here priests washed
their hands and feet before offering a sacrifice or entering the
sanctuary (Exodus 30:17–21; 38:8). The water represents cleansing
from sin and the new birth (Titus 3:5).

5. What furniture was in the holy place?

Answer:
A. The table of shewbread (Exodus 25:23–30) represents Jesus, the
living bread (John 6:51).
B. The seven-branch candlestick (Exodus 25:31–40) also represents
Jesus, the light of the world (John 9:5; 1:9). The oil represents the Holy
Spirit (Zechariah 4:1–6; Revelation 4:5).

C. The altar of incense (Exodus 30:7, 8) represents the prayers of

God’s people (Revelation 5:8).

6. What furniture was in the most holy place?

Answer: The Ark of the Covenant, the only piece of furniture in the
Most Holy Place (Exodus 25:10–22), was a chest of acacia wood
overlaid with gold. Placed on top the chest were two angels made of
solid gold. Between these two angels was the mercy seat (Exodus
25:17–22), where the presence of God dwelt. This symbolized God’s
throne in heaven, which is likewise located between two angels (Psalm
80:1).

7. What was inside the ark?

Answer: The Ten Commandments, which God wrote on tables of

stone, and which His people will always obey (Revelation 14:12), were
inside the ark (Deuteronomy 10:4, 5). But the mercy seat was above
them, which signifies that as long as God’s people confessed and
forsook sin (Proverbs 28:13), mercy would be extended to them
through the blood that was sprinkled on the mercy seat by the priest
(Leviticus 16:15, 16). The blood of the animal represented Jesus’ blood
that would be shed to bring us forgiveness of sin (Matthew 26:28;
Hebrews 9:22).
8. Why did animals need to be sacrificed in the
sanctuary services?
“According to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and
without shedding of blood there is no remission” (Hebrews 9:22). “This
is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the
remission of sins” (Matthew 26:28).
Answer: The sacrificing of animals was necessary to help people
understand that without the shedding of Jesus’ blood, their sins could
never be forgiven. The ugly, shocking truth is that the wage for sin is
eternal death (Romans 6:23). Since all of us have sinned, all of us have
earned death. When Adam and Eve sinned, they would have died at
once except for Jesus, who stepped forward and offered to give His
perfect life as a sacrifice to pay the death penalty for all people (John
3:16; Revelation 13:8). After sin, God required the sinner to bring an
animal sacrifice (Genesis 4:3–7). The sinner was to kill the animal with
his own hand (Leviticus 1:4, 5). It was bloody and shocking, and it
indelibly impressed the sinner with the solemn reality of sin’s awful
consequences (eternal death) and the desperate need of a Savior and
Substitute. Without a Savior, no one has any hope for salvation. The
sacrificial system taught, through the symbol of the slain animal, that
God would give His own Son to die for their sins (1 Corinthians 15:3).
Jesus would become not only their Savior, but also their Substitute
(Hebrews 9:28). When John the Baptist met Jesus, he said, “Behold!
The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). In
the Old Testament, people looked forward to the cross for salvation.
We look back to Calvary for salvation. There is no other source of
salvation (Acts 4:12).

9. How were animals sacrificed in the sanctuary

services, and with what meaning?
“He shall put his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it will be
accepted on his behalf to make atonement for him. ... He shall kill it on
the north side of the altar” (Leviticus 1:4, 11).
Answer: When a sinner brought a sacrificial animal to the door of the
courtyard, a priest handed him a knife and a basin. The sinner laid his
hands on the animal’s head and confessed his sins. This symbolized
the transfer of sin from the sinner to the animal. At that point, the
sinner was considered innocent and the animal guilty. Since the animal
was now symbolically guilty, it had to pay sin’s wage—death. By
slaying the animal with his own hand, the sinner was thus graphically
taught that sin caused the innocent animal’s death and that his sin
would cause the death of the innocent Messiah.
10. When a sacrificial animal was offered for the
entire congregation, what did the priest do with
the blood? What does this symbolize?
“The anointed priest shall bring some of the bull’s blood to the
tabernacle of meeting. Then the priest shall dip his finger in the blood
and sprinkle it seven times before the Lord, in front of the veil”
(Leviticus 4:16, 17).
Answer: When a sacrifice was offered for the sins of the entire
congregation, the blood was taken by the priest, who represented
Jesus (Hebrews 3:1), into the sanctuary and sprinkled before the veil
that separated the two rooms. The presence of God dwelt on the other
side of the veil. Thus, the sins of the people were removed and
symbolically transferred to the sanctuary. This ministry of the blood by
the priest foreshadowed Jesus’ present ministry for us in heaven. After
Jesus died on the cross as a sacrifice for sin, He arose and went to
heaven as our priest to minister His blood in the heavenly sanctuary
(Hebrews 9:11, 12). The blood ministered by the earthly priest
represents Jesus applying His blood to our record of sins in the
sanctuary above, showing that they are forgiven when we confess
them in His name (1 John 1:9).
 As our Sacrifice, Jesus brings us a completely transformed life with all
sins forgiven.

11. Based on the sanctuary services, in what two

major capacities does Jesus serve His people? What
fantastic benefits do we receive from His loving
ministry?
“Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us” (1 Corinthians 5:7).
“Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through
the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For
we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our
weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.
Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may
obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:14–
16).
 As our High Priest, Jesus gives us the power to live right in the present
and in the future.
Answer: Jesus serves as the Sacrifice for our sins and as our heavenly
High Priest. Jesus’ death as our sacrificial Lamb and Substitute, and His
continual powerful ministry as our heavenly Priest, accomplish two
incredible miracles for us:

A. A complete life change called the new birth, with all the sins of the
past forgiven (John 3:3–6; Romans 3:25).

B. Power to live right in the present and future (Titus 2:14; Philippians
2:13).

These two miracles make a person righteous—which means a right

relationship exists between the person and God. There is no possible
way for a person to become righteous by works (his own efforts)
because righteousness requires miracles that only Jesus can
accomplish (Acts 4:12). A person becomes righteous by trusting the
Savior to do for him what he cannot do for himself. This is what is
meant by the biblical term "righteousness by faith." We ask Jesus to
become the ruler of our lives and trust Him to work the needed
miracles as we cooperate fully with Him. This righteousness, which is
miraculously accomplished for us and in us by Christ, is the only true
righteousness that exists. Every other kind is a counterfeit.

12. What six promises does the Bible give about

the righteousness offered to us through Jesus?

Answer: A. He will cover our past sins and count us as guiltless (Isaiah
44:22; 1 John 1:9).B. We were created in God’s image in the beginning
(Genesis 1:26, 27). Jesus promises to restore us to God’s image
(Romans 8:29).C. Jesus gives us the desire to live righteously and then
grants us His power to actually accomplish it (Philippians 2:13).D.
Jesus, by His miracle power, will cause us to happily do only the things
that please God (Hebrews 13:20, 21; John 15:11).E. He removes the
death sentence from us by crediting us with His sinless life and atoning
death (2 Corinthians 5:21).F. Jesus assumes responsibility for keeping
us faithful until He returns to take us to heaven (Philippians 1:6; Jude
1:24).Jesus is ready to fulfill all these glorious promises in your life! Are
you ready?

13. Does a person have any role at all to play in

becoming righteous by faith?
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of
heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven” (Matthew
7:21).
Answer: Yes. Jesus said we must do His Father’s will. In Old Testament
days, a person who truly had been converted kept bringing lambs to
sacrifice, indicating his sorrow for sin and his whole-hearted desire to
let the Lord lead in his life. Today, though we cannot work the miracles
needed to become righteous, we must daily recommit to Jesus (1
Corinthians 15:31), inviting Him to direct our lives so those miracles
can take place. We must be willing to be obedient and to follow where
Jesus leads (John 12:26; Isaiah 1:18–20). Our sinful nature causes us to
want to have our own way (Isaiah 53:6) and thus to rebel against the
Lord, just as Satan did in the beginning (Isaiah 14:12–14). Permitting
Jesus to rule our lives is sometimes as difficult as having an eye
plucked out or an arm torn off (Matthew 5:29, 30), because sin is
addictive and can be overcome only by God’s miraculous power (Mark
10:27). Many believe that Jesus will take to heaven all who merely
profess salvation, regardless of their conduct. But this is not so. It is a
deception. A Christian must follow Jesus’ example (1 Peter 2:21). The
powerful blood of Jesus can accomplish this for us (Hebrews 13:12), but
only if we give Jesus full control of our lives and follow where He leads
—even when the path might sometimes be rough (Matthew 7:13, 14,
21).

14. What was the Day of Atonement?

Answer: A. Once each year, on the day of atonement, a solemn day of

judgment took place in Israel (Leviticus 23:27). All were to confess
every sin. Those who refused were that very day cut off forever from
the camp of Israel (Leviticus 23:29).

B. Two goats were selected: One, the Lord's goat the other, the
scapegoat, representing Satan (Leviticus 16:8). The Lord's goat was
slain and offered for the sins of the people (Leviticus 16:9). But on this
day the blood was taken into the most holy place and sprinkled upon
and before the mercy seat (Leviticus 16:14). Only on this special
judgment day did the high priest enter the most holy place to meet
God at the mercy seat.
The sprinkled blood (representing Jesus' sacrifice) was accepted by
God, and the confessed sins of the people were transferred from the
sanctuary to the high priest. He then transferred these confessed sins
to the scapegoat, which was led into the wilderness (Leviticus 16:16,
20-22). In this manner, the sanctuary was cleansed of the sins of the
people, which had been transferred there by the blood sprinkled before
the veil and had been accumulating for a year.

15. Did the Day of Atonement symbolize or

foreshadow a part of God’s great plan of salvation,
as did the other facets of the earthly sanctuary
and its services?
“It was necessary that the copies of the things in the heavens should
be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better
sacrifices than these” (Hebrews 9:23).
Answer: Yes. That day’s services pointed to the blotting out of sin by
the real High Priest in the heavenly sanctuary. Through His shed blood
applied to those written in the book of life, Christ would confirm the
decisions of His people to serve Him eternally. This special judgment
day, like that of Israel’s Yom Kippur, foreshadowed the final atonement
to be made for planet Earth. From the yearly symbol of the ancient Day
of Atonement, all of humanity is assured that our faithful High Priest,
Jesus, still mediates in heaven for His people and stands ready to blot
out the sins of all who exercise faith in His shed blood. The final
atonement leads to the final judgment, which settles the sin question
in the life of every individual, resulting in either life or death.
Momentous EventsYou will discover in the next two Study Guides that
the symbolism of the earthly sanctuary and especially the Day of
Atonement foreshadowed momentous events of the end time, which
God will bring to pass from the heavenly sanctuary.Date for the
JudgmentIn the next Study Guide, we will examine a crucial Bible
prophecy in which God sets a date for the heavenly judgment to begin.
Thrilling indeed!

16. Are you willing to accept truth that might be

new to you, as God reveals it?
Answer:

Quiz Questions

1. Which pieces of furniture were in the courtyard

of the sanctuary? (2)
_____ The mercy seat.
_____ The laver.
_____ Chairs.
_____ Altar of burnt offerings.

2. God's presence dwelt at the mercy seat. (1)

_____ Yes.
_____ No.

3. The seven-branch candlestick represented (1)

_____ Jesus, the light of the world.
_____ The second coming of Christ.
_____ The glittering walls of the new Jerusalem.

4. The purpose of the sanctuary and its services

was to (1)
_____ Help the people understand angels.
_____ Provide flesh food for the people.
_____ Symbolize the plan of salvation.

5. Who drew the plans for the sanctuary? (1)

_____ Noah.
_____ An angel.
_____ Aaron.
_____ God.

6. The Ten Commandments were inside the ark of

the covenant. (1)
_____ Yes.
_____ No.
7. The slain sacrificial animals represented (1)
_____ The Holy Spirit.
_____ Warfare.
_____ Jesus.

8. Based on the sanctuary, in what two capacities

does Jesus serve us? (2)
_____ King.
_____ Sacrifice.
_____ High Priest.
_____ Ruler of the universe.

9. Which of the following were true of the earthly

sanctuary? (2)
_____ It had three rooms.
_____ It was a tent-type structure.
_____ Its size was 500 feet by 1,000 feet.
_____ Its courtyard was made of brass pillars and linen cloth.
_____ Roof was made of Egyptian tile.
_____ Laver was in most holy place.

10. Righteousness by faith is the only true

righteousness. (1)
_____ Yes.
_____ No.

11. Righteousness by faith comes from (1)

_____ Man's works.
_____ Being baptized.
_____ Faith in Jesus Christ alone.

12. Who killed the sacrificial animal that a sinner

brought? (1)
_____ God.
_____ The priest.
_____ The sinner.
13. Which statements are true about the
righteousness Jesus offers? (3)
_____ It will restore us to God's image.
_____ It is not miraculous.
_____ Our good works are a big part of it.
_____ It covers our past sins.
_____ It gives us the desire to live right.
_____ It covers sins we don’t want to give up.

14. Which of the following are true regarding the

day of atonement? (4)
_____ It occurred monthly.
_____ It was a day of judgment.
_____ It was a day of games and good fun.
_____ It symbolized the final judgment.
_____ The scapegoat symbolized Satan.
_____ The blood was taken into the most holy place.

15. Righteousness means a right relationship with

God. (1)
_____ Yes.
_____ No.

16. Slaying an animal helped the people realize

that sin brought the death penalty upon all people.
(1)
_____ Yes.
_____ No.

17. Are you willing to accept Christ’s

righteousness, which includes forgiveness,
cleansing from sin, and the power to live right in
the present and future?
_____ Yes.
_____ No.