Thursday, April 24 These men are offering sacred service in a typical representation and a shadow of the heavenly things.​—Heb. 8:5.

[Áine]

Thursday, April 24

These men are offering sacred service in a typical representation and a shadow of the heavenly things.—Heb. 8:5.

 

The tabernacle was a tentlike structure that the Israelites initially carried with them as they moved from place to place. They used it for nearly 500 years until a permanent temple was built in Jerusalem. (Ex. 25:8, 9; Num. 9:22) The tabernacle was the central place for the Israelites to offer their sacrifices and their worship. (Ex. 29:43-46) However, the tabernacle also represented something much greater. It was “a shadow of the heavenly things,” and it pictured Jehovah’s great spiritual temple. The apostle Paul said that “this tent [or, tabernacle] is an illustration for the present time.” (Heb. 9:9) So by the time he wrote to the Hebrews, the spiritual temple had already become a reality for Christians. It came into existence in 29 C.E. That year, Jesus got baptized and began serving as Jehovah’s “great high priest” in the spiritual temple.—Heb. 4:14; Acts 10:37, 38. w23.10 25-26 ¶6-7