Exodus 28:34

A golden bell. The “bells” were of pure gold (Exodus 39:25), and, alternating with the “pomegranates,” could be heard by the people as the high priest ministered within the sanctuary (Exodus 28:35). The tinkling bells made the worshipers conscious that he was officiating on their behalf in God’s presence, and prompted them to follow him in their thoughts and prayers as he went about the different parts of the priestly ritual. The sound of the bells joined priest and people together in worship. For the high priest to attempt to conduct the sanctuary service without the robe and its bells would break this bond of fellowship and separate the people from their intercessor. His ministration would become a vain procedure, one for which there was no excuse. To impress the importance of this link between the people and their representative, the penalty for neglect was death (verse 35). The bells and pomegranates remind us that by faith we may now enter boldly “into the holiest by the blood of Jesus” for the forgiveness of sin (Hebrews 4:16; 10:19). By faith we too may hear the sound from the sanctuary that directs our hearts and minds upward to where Christ sits at the right hand of God to make intercession for us (Romans 8:34; Colossians 3:1-3; Hebrews 8:1, 2; Great Controversy, p. 427).