Comments on Sabbath School Study Lesson 7: Atonement in Symbols, Part 2.
The author of Hebrews called the wilderness sanctuary and its services, rituals, and sacrifices a copy and a shadow. His main point is that however good the sanctuary may have been in trying to communicate the message of God’s desire to be with humankind, it is all eclipsed by the Incarnation and the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
A copy and a shadow is far from reality. In some cases, and from certain perspectives, it may bear little resemblance to reality. We might be able to approximate what reality is like from a copy and a shadow, but we can never derive reality from them.
Using the Hebrew sanctuary and its services to try to figure out the reality of salvation and atonement is similar to using copies and shadows to arrive at reality. Yet that’s what I think has been done from time to time.
I think it is best to come alongside the author of Hebrews in this matter. We ought to take the sanctuary as an imperfect metaphor that suggests some of the great themes of atonement that God has been working throughout history. We shouldn’t try to use the details of the sanctuary service, rituals, and symbols to arrive at some obscure points of soteriology. Just because God commanded the details, and Moses happened to preserve them doesn’t necessarily mean they have significance past the immediate historical and cultural period in which they were given. I believe, it is best to stick with the obvious and universal themes.
The main theme of the sanctuary was God’s desire to be with people, and for the people to be with Him. Ultimately, in whatever fashion Atonement played out, that was the purpose – for God and people to be restored into a relationship based upon choice and love, rather than fear and appeasement.
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