"Who ministered in the first apartment?
The priest.
How often?
Every day.
Who went into the most holy place?
Only the High Priest.
How often?
Only once a year.
He took blood–the atoning blood.
You see, the path into the sanctuary is a blood-stained path, and inside there is more blood–on the horns of the brazen altar, on the golden altar, and there is blood on the Mercy Seat.
The blood always represents the sacrifice of Christ. This is beautifully brought out in The Great Controversy, page 416,
“His (Christ’s) intercession is that of a pierced side, the marred feet plead for fallen man, whose redemption was purchased at such infinite cost. The earthly sanctuary had to be purified, or cleansed by the blood of animals. But what about the heavenly sanctuary? The book of Hebrews states that the heavenly things must be purified with a “better sacrifice”. This refers, of course, to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and the shedding of His blood. Again in The Great Controversy, pages 417, 418
We read in Hebrews 9:23, 24, “It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.
For Christ is not entered into the holy place made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God for us."
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