to it is therefore limited to those having been declared righteous. The furniture of the Holy also pictured these, in varying aspects. The golden candlestick with its seven lamps pictures them holding forth the light of God’s Word. The table of showbread pictures them as holding forth God’s Word as the bread of life. And the golden incense altar pictures them offering up the sweet incense of prayers and heart devotion to God.—Matt. 5:14; 4:4; Rev. 8:3; Luke 1:9, 10.

The Most Holy pictured heaven itself, the very presence of Jehovah being represented both by a cloud covering the cherubs of the mercy seat and the supernatural Shekinah light. It was here that atonement for the sins of the entire nation of Israel was made once each year on the tenth day of the seventh month. This was done by the high priest bringing in and sprinkling before the mercy seat the blood of a sacrificed young bull and a goat that had previously been slain in the courtyard and choice parts of whose body were afterward consumed on the copper altar in the courtyard.

Revealing the meaning of all this—and hence not leaving us in doubt—the apostle Paul wrote: “The priests enter the first tent compartment at all times to perform the acts of sacred service, but into the second compartment the high priest alone enters once a year, not without blood, which he offers for himself and for the sins of ignorance of the people. However, when Christ came as a high priest of the good things that have come to pass . . . he entered, no, not with the blood of goats and of young bulls, but with his own blood, once for all time into the holy place and obtained an everlasting release for us. For Christ entered . . . heaven itself, now to appear before the person of God for us.”—Heb. 9:6, 7, 11, 12, 24.

What purpose did the tabernacle together with its sacrifices serve? As part of the Law arrangement they helped the Israelites away back there to keep separate and distinct from the nations round about them and to survive until the Messiah came. These things were also given to show them their need of a Redeemer.—Heb. 10:1-4.

Today Israel’s tabernacle shadows are of force and value to both the “little flock” and the “great crowd” of “other sheep.” Both classes benefit from the great antitypical day of atonement sacrifice, Christ’s ransom, though in varying degrees. And while only the little flock are shown as serving in the courtyard and in the Holy of the tabernacle, the picture at Revelation 7:9-17 shows a great crowd of “other sheep” serving in the temple. Both classes therefore are under the obligation to shine forth the light of truth and to offer to all the spiritual bread of God’s Word. Thus for both classes Israel’s tabernacle shows the blessed benefits they have received and will yet receive in God’s new world as well as their responsibilities. How true that all these things have been recorded for our instruction and comfort!

No Disturbance

“Some states have a law against ‘disturbing the peace of a person,’” writes Simeon Stylites in The Christian Century. “Wouldn’t it make a rousing headline in the paper, ‘Preacher Arrested!’—being the story of some parishioners’ having the Rev. Luther Calvin Wesley seized by policemen after the sermon and hustled away to the city jail for ‘disturbing the peace’ of the congregation? That happened to Paul as a standard procedure. It happened to Martin Luther. It happened to John Wesley. Why not around the corner? There is just one hitch. In order to disturb the peace, one must disturb.”