holy place (within the veil, verse 2), because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, because of their transgressions in all their sins: and so shall he do for (i.e. atone for or cleanse), the tabernacle of the congregation (the Holy) that remaineth among them in the midst of their uncleanness," verses 15, 16; "And he shall go out (of the Holy of Holies) unto the altar that is before the Lord (in the Holy) and make an atonement for it; and shall take of the blood (for himself), and of the blood of the goat (for the people), and put it upon the horns of the altar round about.
And he shall sprinkle of the blood upon it with his fi nger seven times, and cleanse it, and hallow it from the uncleanness of the children of Israel," verses 18, 19.
The altar was the golden altar of incense in the Holy upon which the blood of individual atonements was sprinkled during the daily ministration.
Thus it received the uncleanness from which it is now cleansed.
Exodus 30:1-10; "Aaron shall make an atonement upon the horns of it once a year, with the blood of the sin-offering of atonement." We see from verse 20, that at this stage of the work "he hath made an end of reconciling the holy place, and the tabernacle of the congregation, and the altar," i.e. the Holy of Holies, the Holy, and the altar in the latter.
We have before seen that atone, reconcile, cleanse, etc., signify the same, hence at this stage he has made an end of cleansing those places.
As the blood of atonements for the forgiveness of sins was not sprinkled in the court, but in the tabernacle only, the entire work of cleansing the Sanctuary was performed within the tabernacle.
These were holy things, yet cleansed yearly.
The holy place within the veil contained the ark of the covenant, covered with the mercy-seat, overshadowed by the cherubims, between which the Lord dwelt in the cloud of divine glory.
Who would think of calling such a place unclean?
Yet the Lord provided at the time, yea, before it was built, that it should be annually cleansed.
It was by blood, and not by fire, that this Sanctuary, which was a type of the new covenant Sanctuary was cleansed.
The high priest on this day "bore the iniquities of the holy things which the children of Israel hallowed in all their holy gifts." Exodus 28:38.
These holy things composed the Sanctuary.