The Courtyard was a type of the convicted sinner.  He is seeking  God for admittance into the house of God
 

The Courtyard of the Gentiles, or the Outer Court was a fenced in area outside the Tabernacle. It separated the tribes of Israel from the sanctified Holy ground of the Lord. It was accessed by three curtain panels thirty feet across. The entrance faced the east and was called "the gate" .

This enclosure was set in the midst of the twelve tribes of Israel, but it kept human eyes off the sacred work within. It was the first separation of God and man and represented the law. Note that as large as it was, there was only One Way in.

What many people do not realize, is that everything given by God has a purpose and tells us something important about Him and His will for man. The Courtyard was as close as most people could get to God's presence in the Holy of Holies. But God was saying in all this, that there was a way. However, EVERYONE was allowed to take the first step. This courtyard was the first step. To go through the gate, past the law that showed sin, and closed us off, since Adam.
But God was also saying that He would make a way. In the same way that one day a Messiah would come and enter the Temple from the Eastern gate. Here the Messiah is pointed to as well.

This is what Yeshua Ha Meshiach (Jesus the Messiah) was talking about when he stated, "I am the gate," (John 10:7)
He also said that he was not the end of the Torah, the law, but the fulfillment of it. ( It is an interesting side note, that Hebrew language  has only consonants to make up it's language in writing. And When Yeshua came, he said, " I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the ending." And so the vowels fills in and completes the alphabet.) There is a way to the Most High God, Yeshua (Jesus) said, " I am the way, and the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father, but through me."

God's righteousness comes from the east. In Zechariah 9:9 It prophesies the coming of Zion's King, the Messiah,

           Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion;
          shout, O Daughter of Jerusalem: behold,
          thy King cometh unto thee, he is just, and having salvation;
          lowly, and riding upon an ass, and
          upon a colt;  the foal of a ass.

 

Yeshua (Jesus) entered Jerusalem, the holy city, by the eastern gate, on his way to the temple, riding on a colt, the foal of a ass, and the children laid palm fronds at his feet and shouted, " Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David."
 
Anyone who has faith to come through the Son, enters into holy ground. It was a solemn and reverent place. And the first thing you saw, was the Altar of Sacrifice.