28. Need for Cleansing the Earthly Sanctuary

What made necessary the cleansing of the earthly sanctuary? Ford says that “Numbers 19:13, etc., indicate that the sanctuary was defiled when a person sinned, regardless of whether confession was made and he warns against the assumption that the sanctuary an the Day of Atonement was cleansed from defilement occasioned by the confession of sin and ministration of blood (Ford, pages 287, 290).”QSEW 22.3

The blood of the sin offering on the Day of Atonement cleansed the sanctuary. Leviticus 16:19, 33. This cleansing was needed because of the confessed sins that had been transferred, in figure, from the sinner to the priest and the sanctuary through the flesh or blood of the sin offering. Leviticus 10:17, 18; 16:20, 21. On the Day of Atonement the people also were considered to be cleansed, except for those whose hearts were not right with God. Leviticus 16:30; 23:29.QSEW 22.4

Various kinds of defilement are mentioned in Leviticus 15 and 20, and in Numbers 19. No doubt the sanctuary was considered to be cleansed of all these defilements also on the Day of Atonement. But these texts do not support the idea that all sins were recorded in the sanctuary whether confessed or not. The sins of the Gentiles were not recorded there. They had no part in the Day of Atonement services unless and until they united with God’s people.QSEW 22.5