on their work in the Holy Place were then able to see into the Most Holy and to have impressed upon them the fact that this compartment contained no Ark representing God’s presence with them. This action by God confirmed that the atonement sacrifices offered by the Jewish high priest were now no longer of value and there was no need for the services of the Levitical priesthood anymore.—Matt. 27:51; 23:38; Heb. 9:1-15.

SYMBOLIC USE

The Most Holy compartment in the tent of meeting or the tabernacle contained the ark of the covenant, which symbolized Jehovah’s presence. Therefore the Most Holy was used, figuratively, to represent the dwelling place of Jehovah God, heaven itself. The inspired writer of the letter to the Hebrews gives us this interpretation of matters when he compares the entry of Israel’s high priest into the Most Holy once a year, on the Day of Atonement, with the entry of the great High Priest Jesus Christ into what the Most Holy symbolized, once for all time with his sacrifice for sins. He explains: “Into the second compartment [the Most Holy] 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. . . . This very tent is an illustration for the appointed time that is now here . . . However, when Christ came as a high priest of the good things that have come to pass through the greater and more perfect tent not made with hands, that is, not of this creation, 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 deliverance for us. Therefore it was necessary that the typical representations of the things in the heavens should be cleansed by these means [blood of animal sacrifices sprinkled on them], but the heavenly things themselves with sacrifices that are better than such sacrifices. For Christ entered, not into a holy place made with hands, which is a copy of the reality, but into heaven itself, now to appear before the person of God for us.”—Heb. 9:7-12, 23, 24.

So Jesus Christ as the great High Priest according to the manner of Melchizedek fulfilled what Israel’s high priest of the line of Aaron could do only typically when entering into the earthly Most Holy. (Heb. 9:24) The spiritual brothers of Christ, joint heirs with him, are strengthened by the words of the same letter to the Hebrews, that “we who have fled to the refuge may have strong encouragement to lay hold on the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor for the soul, both sure and firm, and it enters in within the curtain, where a forerunner has entered in our behalf, Jesus, who has become a high priest according to the manner of Melchizedek forever.”—Heb. 6:18-20.

Again these Christians are encouraged to feel fully free and confident to approach God and to hold fast to their hope without wavering by the further words: “Therefore, brothers, since we have boldness for the way of entry into the holy place by the blood of Jesus, which he inaugurated for us as a new and living way through the curtain, that is, his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us approach with true hearts in the full assurance of faith, having had our hearts sprinkled from a wicked conscience and our bodies bathed with clean water. Let us hold fast the public declaration of our hope, without wavering, for he is faithful that promised.”—Heb. 10:19-23.

MOTH

A four-winged insect resembling a butterfly but differing from the latter in that its feelers usually are feathery and not terminated by distinct knobs. When at rest the moth’s wings are not held erect, as is often the case with butterflies. Instead, they are either folded back flat over the insect’s body or held flat at its sides. Also, moths are generally nocturnal. The insect referred to in Scripture is evidently the clothes moth, particularly in its destructive larval stage. (Job 13:28; Ps. 39:11; Isa. 50:9; 51:8; Hos. 5:12; Matt. 6:19, 20; Luke 12:33; Jas. 5:2) The ease with which a moth can be crushed was a figure employed by Eliphaz with reference to the frailty of mortal man.—Job 4:17, 19, 20.

Female clothes moths lay their eggs on woolen or silk fabrics, or furs, distributing them so that emerging caterpillars will have ample room and material on which to feed. The caterpillars will not eat until they have first protected themselves with a “house” or case constructed from the available fibers. In this “house” they remain as they feed.—Job 27:18.

Commenting on the building procedure followed by a clothes moth caterpillar that was placed on a desk covered with a cloth, James Rennie, in his book Insect Architecture, pages 192, 193, writes: “It did not cut a single hair till it selected one for the foundation of its intended structure. This it cut very near the cloth, in order, we suppose, to have it as long as possible; and placed it on a line with its body. It then immediately cut another, and placing it parallel to the first, bound both together with a few threads of its own silk. The same process was repeated with other hairs, till the little creature had made a fabric of some thickness, and this it went on to extend till it was large enough to cover its body; . . . We remarked that it made choice of longer hairs for the outside than for the parts of the interior, which it thought necessary to strengthen by fresh additions; but the chamber was ultimately finished by a fine and closely-woven tapestry of silk.”

MOTHER

[Heb., ʼem; Gr., meʹter].

Like the word ʼav (father), the word ʼem (mother) is a mimetic word, one of the first lip sounds of a baby. It is used to designate the immediate mother of an individual, an ancestress, Adam’s wife Eve being “the mother of everyone living” (Gen. 3:20; 1 Ki. 15:10), stepmother (Gen. 37:10; compare Genesis 30:22-24; 35:16-19), also in a number of figurative ways.

The desire to have a large family was deeply implanted in the heart of Hebrew women especially, because of God’s promise to make Israel a populous nation and the people through whom the seed of promise would come.(Gen. 18:18; 22:18; Ex. 19:5, 6) For one to be childless was considered to be one of the greatest of misfortunes. (Gen. 30:1) Under the Law covenant a woman was religiously “unclean” after the birth of a male child for forty (seven plus thirty-three days), and after the birth of a female child for double this amount of time, or eighty days (fourteen plus sixty-six days). (Lev. 12:2-5) For the seven and the fourteen days respectively she was unclean to all persons, including her husband, but for the thirty-three and sixty-six days respectively she was unclean only as to holy things and things connected with religious services at the sanctuary.

Hebrew mothers breast-fed their children till they were three years old, and sometimes up until the age of five years or longer, in the belief that the longer the child was suckled the stronger it would grow. Where the mother died or could not provide a sufficient supply of milk, a nurse was employed. Hence, “babes and sucklings” of the Bible could include those old enough to be weaned, old enough to have some knowledge to be able to praise Jehovah and to be trained at the sanctuary.—Matt. 21:15, 16; 1 Sam. 1:23, 24; 2:11.

There was a special closeness between the mother and the children because the mother took immediate care of the children until the time after weaning when the father would begin to guide more personally the child’s education. The mother’s position in the household was one of recognized importance. She was to be respected even in her very old age. (Ex. 20:12; 21:15, 17; Prov. 23:22; Deut. 5:16; 21:18-21; 27:16) Of course, her position was always secondary to that of her husband, whom she was to respect and obey. As a child Jesus kept in subjection to his foster-father Joseph and his mother Mary.—Luke 2:51, 52.