Thus was presented to the prophet’s vision the great and solemn day when the characters and the lives of all should pass in review before the Judge of all the earth, and to everyone should be rendered “according to his works.” The Ancient of Days is God the Father. . . . It is He, the source of all being, and the fountain of all law, that is to preside in the judgment. And holy angels as ministers and witnesses, in number “ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands,” attend this great tribunal. . . .
He [Christ] comes to the Ancient of Days in heaven to receive dominion and glory and a kingdom, which will be given Him at the close of His work as a mediator. It is this coming, and not His second advent to the earth, that was foretold in prophecy to take place at the termination of the 2300 days in 1844. Attended by heavenly angels, our great High Priest enters the holy of holies and there appears in the presence of God to engage in the last acts of His ministration in behalf of man—to perform the work of investigative judgment and to make an atonement for all who are shown to be entitled to its benefits. . .
Thus those who followed in the light of the prophetic word saw that, instead of coming to the earth at the termination of the 2300 days in 1844, Christ then entered the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary to perform the closing work of atonement preparatory to His coming.
It was seen, also, that while the sin offering pointed to Christ as a sacrifice, and the high priest represented Christ as a mediator, the scapegoat typified Satan, the author of sin, upon whom the sins of the truly penitent will finally be placed. When the high priest, by virtue of the blood of the sin offering, removed the sins from the sanctuary, he placed them upon the scapegoat. When Christ, by virtue of His own blood, removes the sins of His people from the heavenly sanctuary at the close of His ministration, He will place them upon Satan, who, in the execution of the judgment, must bear the final penalty. The scapegoat was sent away into a land not inhabited, never to come again into the congregation of Israel. So will Satan be forever banished from the presence of God and His people, and he will be blotted from existence in the final destruction of sin and sinners.—The Great Controversy, 479, 480, 422. HB 317
Today 'tis Elim with its palms and wells, And happy shade for desert weariness; 'Twas Marah yesterday, all rock and sand, Unshaded solitude and dreariness. Yet the same desert holds them both, the same Hot breezes wander o'er the lonely ground; The same low stretch of valley shelters both, And the same mountains compass them around. So it is here with us on earth, and so I do remember it has ever been; The bitter and the sweet, the grief and joy, Lie near together, but a day between. Sometimes God turns our bitter into sweet, Sometimes He gives us pleasant watersprings; Sometimes He shades us with His pillar cloud, And sometimes to a blessed palm shade brings. What matters it? The time will not be long; Marah and Elim will alike be passed; Our desert wells and palms will soon be done. We reach the “City of our God” at last. O happy land! beyond these lonely hills, Where gush in joy the everlasting springs; O holy Paradise! above these heavens, Where we shall end our desert wanderings. —Horatius Bonar. MH 259
Behold, One like the Son of Man, coming with the clouds of heaven! He came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought Him near before Him. Daniel 7:13, NKJV