The Veil and the Entrance Hanging

(Exodus 36: 35-38)

Following the order in which the tabernacle was constructed, we come now to the veil and the hanging at the door of the tabernacle, and the pillars from which these were suspended.

The inner veil separated the tabernacle into two rooms, the holy and the most holy place (Ex. 26: 33). The inner sanctuary was peculiarly sacred, as it contained the ark and mercy-seat whereon God's glory manifested itself and where He met with Moses (Ex. 25: 22). The veil which hung before this holiest of all earthly places was therefore of special importance. It was made of the same materials as the ten beautiful curtains — blue, purple, scarlet and fine twined linen, with cherubim; but for some reason the blue is mentioned first, instead of the fine linen, which may suggest that as the cherubim for the curtains were embroidered upon a groundwork of white linen, those for the veil were put upon a ground of blue, and the remaining colors were used in forming the figures.

There were four pillars of shitting wood overlaid with gold, each resting upon one socket of silver; their hooks were of gold, and from these the veil was suspended.¹ It seems that the veil was hung up directly under the golden clasps which united the two sets of curtains (Ex. 26: 33). This shows a close connection at least between the veil and the clasps, of which we have spoken in pages 84 and 93 in lecture 4.

Having previously spoken at length of the materials, we shall only take a brief review of them here.

Blue is the heavenly color, and speaks of that character of our Lord: "The first man is of the earth, earthy; the Second Man is the Lord from heaven" (1 Cor. 15: 47). Even in his unfallen state man's place of abode was the earth, he knew nothing else; and after the fall, "Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return" (Gen. 3: 19) was the sentence upon him as morally away from God. Our Lord belonged to heaven: He was ever and only perfectly in accord with the mind of heaven, and from the fact that He came down from heaven, He absolutely belonged there. Though His perfect humanity was born upon earth, the stamp of a heavenly nature and a heavenly destiny was upon it. This is the blue, set forth in John.

Purple is the royal color that speaks of Him as King of Israel. He was the true Son of David, who should sit upon his throne. He was the Messiah, the King anointed with the "holy oil," the Holy Spirit, thus set apart to the throne for God's glory and the blessing of His people. His title they put upon the cross — where they crucified Him. "We have no king but Caesar," they shouted, and they have felt the crushing heel of Caesar ever since. The purple is the theme of Matthew, the Gospel of the kingdom.

Scarlet speaks of a wider glory than the purple, reaching out to the world, when all the nations of the earth shall be subject to Him who is King of kings and Lord of lords. But its red color reminds us that the glory of the world was won at the cost of His precious blood. Every delegated glory and every blessing that will come to the world will be seen to be the fruit of His atonement for reconciliation to God. The Gospel of Mark dwells upon this.

The White of the fine twined linen tells us of the sinless purity of "the Man Christ Jesus," in all His life and inward thoughts and desires. The eye of God, who is light, could rest upon that Holy One, and find every ray of His holy, perfect Being reflected in this lowly Son of Man. The Gospel of Luke brings this into beautiful prominence.

These four colors were blended together "with cunning work," and they tell us of the four-fold character of our holy Lord blended together in the Gospel narratives by the "cunning workmanship" of the divine Workman, the Holy Spirit. A passage of Scripture (Heb. 10: 19, 20) would dispel all doubt as to the significance of the veil, as well as of the colors: "Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which He hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh." This has all the conciseness of a definition — the veil is His flesh — Christ as incarnate, as He was here, manifest in the flesh.

This veil hung from the golden hooks upon the four pillars of acacia wood overlaid with gold and resting upon the silver sockets. We have already learned the meaning of these various materials: the gold is a symbol of divine glory and nature, and thus of our Lord's deity; while the acacia wood tells of His unique humanity, and the silver sockets of redemption. The fact that these four pillars rest upon silver shows us that, like the boards, they speak of Christ's people as seen in Him.²

But how can the people of God in any sense be represented in His house as holding up Christ? It can only be perfect grace that will put them into such a place of unspeakable and transcendent privilege. But looking at the house of God in its final state, His eternal abode, does not our Lord promise that, "Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go no more out" (Rev. 3: 12)? And what will be the heavenly and eternal occupation of the redeemed but to hold up in praise and adoration the perfections of their Saviour and Lord?

The tabernacle, however was distinctively God's abode in the wilderness, and it is as connected with this place of pilgrim-separation, testimony and responsibility, that the believer is seen in connection with the person of the Lord, just as we learned in connection with the boards: "That thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground (or support) of the truth. And without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness: God was manfest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory" (1 Tim. 3: 15, 16). In this wonderful scripture we have two great facts presented to us, which we may call the casket and the jewel which the casket contains. The apostle is showing Timothy, in this epistle of assembly order, how he should conduct himself in the house of God. As we have already seen, the boards form the house of God; believers resting upon the redemption of Christ and complete in Him, are "builded together as an habitation of God through the Spirit" (Eph. 2: 22). That is what "the Church of the living God" is. We have a similar thought, as showing the house of God, in 1 Peter: "To whom coming, as unto a living Stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious, ye also as living stones are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 2: 4, 5). While the primary reference here may be to the temple, the thought is similar: there is a living Stone at the foundation; living stones are built upon Him to be a living house for the living God. Nothing but life can suit the living God. Therefore those who are truly His are born again; they have a life which is from God, eternal life, never to perish. This then is the characteristic of the Church of the living God.

But the next expression is a remarkable one: "The pillar and ground (or support) of the truth." The Church is left in the world to uphold the truth of God, to exhibit it. After His resurrection our Lord gives his disciples assured peace first, showing them His hands and His side — the reminder of His death, the proof of His atoning work. This is the silver sockets. Then He says: "As My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you. And when He had said this He breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained" (John 20: 19-23). He had spoken of them previously as His "brethren," and had said, "I ascend unto My Father and your Father; and to My God and your God," which reminds us of the golden-covered boards, and of our standing before God in all the value of what Christ is.

We see how our Lord put the disciples in a representative position. His breathing upon them seems to be an anticipative and symbolic act, suggesting the gift of the Holy Spirit, sent at Pentecost, in whose power they were to hold up Christ before men and to administer the order of the house of God, both in the gospel and in the discipline of the assembly.

We arrive thus at a simple, scriptural interpretation of these pillars, which are the support of the truth: they are the Lord's redeemed people left here by Him to uphold that truth. But Christ says, "I am the Truth" (John 14: 6). The Church is, as we have said, but the casket to contain the jewel, which, without the jewel, would be valueless.

We need not be surprised therefore to find enshrined in this very passage the precious jewel of the person of the Lord, "the Mystery of godliness," or piety. Here is the true piety and the secret of its display. It is not a condition in us; it is not self-culture or self-occupation in any form. The Spirit of God never turns the eye in upon ourselves and the progress we are making. The Mystery of godliness is that which alone will produce godliness in God's people — it is Christ. As the soul is occupied and controlled by Him His likeness is produced, and "Christ liveth in" us (Gal. 2: 20). Holiness is never secured by law-keeping, or asceticism, or by pharisaic externalism.

Let us examine this great Mystery of godliness:

"God was manifest in the flesh."³ Here are the golden hooks, the deity of Christ, from which the veil was suspended. All depends upon that. Deny His deity, and the veil, the wondrous Mystery, falls to earth. But the invisible God is now declared in this holy, heavenly, royal Man. "No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him" (John 1: 18). In the manger, in Simeon's arms, carried to Egypt, at Nazareth and at Jordan's banks — all through His life, it was God manifest in the flesh. This is the great truth which is held up by the Church. In one sense, though the two can never be separated, it is more "the doctrine of a standing or falling Church" than the truth of justification by faith. It is a wondrous privilege to hold up Him by whom alone we are upheld — et teneo et teneor, "I both hold and am held."

"Justified in the Spirit." This was publicly done at our Lord's baptism. At John's preaching of repentance all who feared God came and owned in his baptism the truth about themselves: they were but sinners deserving of death and judgment. Our Lord, in perfect grace, takes His place among these; His baptism suggesting the great truth of His substitutionary death for them. Instinctively John shrinks from associating the Holy One with self-confessed sinners, but he is reassured by the word, "Thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness." God's righteousness could only be maintained, in connection with a guilty people, by the death of their Surety. And as our Lord emerges from His symbolic grave. the heavens are opened, and the Spirit descends in bodily form as a dove and "abode upon Him." Thus is He justified in the Spirit.

And so all through His life of love and obedience: "God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power; who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil" (Acts 10: 38). The witness and power of the Spirit was in every word and act, sealing and justifying all that He did. Hence the awful "blasphemy against the Holy Ghost which ascribed to Satan these manifest works of the Spirit. By the power of the Spirit also He was raised from the dead.

"Seen of angels." With what delight we may conceive the angels engaged in such ministry connected with the incarnation! — announcing to Zechariah the birth of Messiah's forerunner; to Mary, the wondrous honor that she was to be the mother of One to be called "Son of the Highest;" and later to the shepherds, that "Christ the Lord" had come! And how the hosts flocked out of heaven to celebrate this wondrous Mystery; "God manifest in the flesh." Later, they are privileged to minister to Him after His temptation, and to one was the high honor given of strengthening the holy Man in the garden. An angel rolls away the stone from the sepulchre; two of them have the honor to sit in the empty tomb to declare His resurrection; two of them witness to His disciples of His return; and with what acclaim must the hosts in heaven have received the "King of glory" as He entered "the everlasting doors" (Ps. 24). And when He shall be brought to the millennial earth, "Rightful heir and Lord of all," the word is, "Let all the angels of God worship Him" (Heb. 1: 6).

"Preached unto the Gentiles." No narrow limits of Judaism could hold the mighty gospel of divine love and grace "concerning His Son Jesus Christ." It begins at Jerusalem, and under the guidance of the Spirit, the good news is soon carried to Samaria, to Caesarea, to Antioch, and "the uttermost part of the earth" (Acts 1: 8). Persecution but scattered the flame: "They went everywhere, preaching the Word," and even the unbelief and opposition of Israel but forced out the glad tidings to the Gentiles.

"Believed on in the world." Here are the blessed world-wide results: multitudes are brought to repentance, and receive with humble joy the remission of sins through Him that was crucified. Assailed by Satan using fire and sword against Christ's flock, or as an angel of light creeping in to destroy them, Christ with His saints has always stood. Infidelity and superstition have torn at the very vitals of the Church, yet the gospel is today what it ever was, "The power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth" (Rom. 1: 16). Rejected by the mass, apostasy growing, the end very near, Christ is and will be the object of His people's joy and faith. He is believed on in the world.

"Received up into glory." This last clause seems almost out of place, as out of chronological order; for our Lord was received in glory prior to the proclamation of the gospel to the Gentiles and there fore to the faith in Him which followed. But it is in beautiful moral order; His glory closes all, for all ends there. His own ascension and reception into the glory was the pledge of all the triumphs of grace in His people, in bringing "many sons" there too; for in this finale of the Mystery the redeemed are also associated with Him whose alone the glory is; as in the "Man child" caught up in Revelation 12: 15, we see Him as His people's representative. But who can declare that glory upon which Christ has entered? No eye of man has seen, nor heart conceived what God has given to His only Son. Words, strongest and best that man's lips can frame, and the noblest and wisest thoughts of earth, would fail to express that glory which He had with the Father before the world was, into which as Man He has entered, and of which, so far as is possible for the creature, every blood-bought child of God shall partake. But His own personal glory is, and ever shall be, unique and eternal.

"All the Father's counsels claiming
Equal honors to the Son;
All the Son's effulgence beaming,
Makes the Father's glory known."

Beloved saints of God, it is this great Mystery of godliness which His redeemed people are to hold up in the house of God in the wilderness. What care and jealousy should mark us in keeping inviolate the glories of this blessed One who has thus entrusted them to His people here. While hiding in Him, may we so hold Him up that all may see His beauty, heavenly character, holiness, royal dignity and glory, that all may honor the Son even as they honor the Father.

We have thus in a partial way seen what is suggested by the pillars upholding the veil. Let us now look at the veil in another aspect of the truth which it presents. As has been said, it was used to separate between the holy place and the most holy where God's presence was manifested. Beyond this veil no one could pass except the high priest once a year, and that "not without blood . . . the Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest" (Heb. 9: 7, 8). The veil then, in this way speaks of the access to God being barred. This would seem to be suggested not only by its hanging there, but by the cherubim which were embroidered upon it.

When God turned our first parents out of Eden for their sin, He placed cherubim at the entrance to the garden, with a flaming sword which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life. There was both mercy and judgment in this. It was mercy that he might know his feebleness and frailty, and learn so to number his days as to apply his heart unto wisdom. This is the burden of the "psalm of life," the Both psalm: his days are as a shadow; "We spend our years as a tale that is told." How can such a feeble creature fail to turn with true repentance to the only One in whom help and mercy can be found? Such at least was the evident purpose of God, and such the effect upon those who bow to the sentence of vanity upon the fallen creature: "O satisfy us early with Thy mercy, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days."

But mercy to the fallen creature does not conceal the fact of judgment also. "Righteousness and judgment" are the foundation of God's throne, and this is suggested by the cherubim, the executors of divine judgment, who upon the veil seem to be barring the way to the presence of God as those did at the entrance to Eden. Man, sinful and fallen, has forfeited all right to that holy Presence. The cherubim in Ezekiel seem to speak of this judicial distance of God, all the more emphasized there as He was about to leave His house and the nation. In connection with God's throne, the cherubim speak of judgment, barring the way to His presence.

But, lest we seem to be introducing contradictory thoughts, let us pause a moment to connect this thought of the veil with that which we have previously learned. The veil was Christ in the flesh, of whom we rightly sing:

"Thou didst attract the wretched and the weak,
Thy joy, the wanderers and the lost to seek."

How then can the veil be the barrier to the presence of God, when it speaks of Him who never turned a needy soul away? Unquestionably we have here two aspects of the veil, which however are not so far apart as we might think. God is infinitely merciful and compassionate beyond our comprehension, yet in His holy, consuming presence none dare enter save as divinely entitled. In a certain sense we have here a paradox, illustrated in the person of our Lord, but which admits of a most blessed explanation.

In a very real sense, God, manifest in His beloved Son, was never more apart from man than when He was here, save in view of the redemption He was about to accomplish. Here was manifested holiness, truth and love placed side by side with its opposite — a world of false, self- seeking mankind. Of necessity the Lord's presence made man feel his distance from God. So when He caused the great draught of fishes, Peter's first and just impulse was to say, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord" (Luke 5: 8). True, our Lord reassured him, and drew him to Himself, but that was grace acting in love; a foreshadowing, we might say, of the rending of the veil for our sins, when the sinful could draw near.

In His interview with Nicodemus, our Lord shows that two things, never separated, are necessary before a man can draw near to God. One is a work in him, and the other is for him. The work in him is new birth; before a man can see, much less enter, the kingdom of God, he must be born again. There stood the Lord in unclouded communion with His Father, witnessed by His every act and word, but Nicodemus had never lifted the veil between himself and a holy God. But our Lord does not stop here — He never stops short of the full revelation of the glory and love of God: the Son of Man must be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. The veil thus is rent and the way into the presence of God manifest.

Could we leave out the thought of salvation through Christ, and read the four Gospels as unfolding what is required of us, we should find the teachings and the example of our Lord Jesus only a hopeless barrier between our souls and God, for they would, by contrast, show our unfitness for His presence. But not "truth" only, but "grace" came by Jesus Christ, divinely wrought together in such a way that every needy soul knew that He was a Friend and Saviour of sinners. Thus if the holy teaching of the Sermon on the Mount shows our sin, the cleansing of the leper at the foot of the mount shows the grace that meets the sinner; and the glories of the mount of transfiguration are followed by the mercy to the demoniac when our Lord came down (Matt. 8: 1-3; Matt. 17: 14-18).

As we look up into the blue sky, there is often an involuntary sigh; it seems so far above us, utterly beyond our reach, and so as we gaze upon the heavenly character of Christ — the blue of the veil — we feel our distance from Him. Our whitest linen beside the newly fallen snow is tarnished by comparison; so when the best among men is set beside the spotless purity of our Lord, we realize indeed that our very righteousnesses are "as filthy rags" (Isa. 64: 6).

Whom shall we compare with Him? Select the best of those who have worn the purple — a David, a Solomon, a Hezekiah or a Josiah: how puny and unkingly they are beside this King who never wore a crown save that of thorns; whose palace was the Mount of Olives or seine retired place — not a home "where to lay His head," whose riches were the little ministry of a few devoted women; whose retinue was a little band of Galileans. Poor! but all for our sakes!

And as for the scarlet — though it was not the glory of the world for Him then, surely, yet it was His by right, and will one day be His indeed. But then it spoke of His death rather; of His pathway of the cross. Thus the veil as representing our Lord, in each of its colors declares that He alone of all the sons of men could draw near to God.

But what it involved for Him to bring men to God is strikingly illustrated in our Lord's reply to the Greeks' request, "We would see Jesus" (John 12: 21). The Old Testament had foretold that the Gentiles would come and bow down before Him. Here was an occasion for displaying the scarlet, His glory. Instead, while speaking of His glory, our Lord shows that it must come through the cross: "The hour is come that the Son of Man should be glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit" (John 12: 23, 24). In peerless perfection, Christ in life abode alone; if He were to bring sinners to God, it must be through His death, bearing the penalty for their sin. So He goes on to say, "I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me" (John 12: 32). The veil must be rent — His flesh given up in death that the way into God's presence might be manifest and the repenting sinner be able to draw near. Apart from the cross, Christ's perfection would have kept man away from God. So we read that when He gave up His spirit, "the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom." Now all the love of God flows forth freely, in abundant grace to man.

This then is the veil held up by the four pillars: redeemed men holding up the precious truth, the mystery of the person of the Son of God delivered up to death, His "flesh" rent, opening the way to the presence of God — to pardon and holiness and heaven.

And we may well ask, What is the Church of Christ here for except to hold forth the truth as to the person and work of our Lord? Therefore no disloyalty to that person or work can be permitted. Suppose that what professes to be the Church teaches that a spot is upon the white of the veil; that the blue does not mark Him especially — that our Lord was as others of the earth, earthy; that He is not the King of kings, the Lord of lords; that the veil has not been rent; that He has not by His death opened the way-into the presence of God; in such case, it ceases to be the pillar and ground of the truth;" it could not be owned as "the house of God, the Church of the living God," no matter by what name it be called, or what historical claims it may make. A living, risen Christ makes a living Church, and only He: all else but forms that great house of Christendom, with its vessels to dishonor, from which the man of God is to purge himself (2 Tim. 2: 16-21).

In keeping with the thought that the four pillars for the veil suggest the redeemed holding up the testimony of Christ, no capitals are mentioned. Capitals might suggest the "crowning" of the saints which is reserved for heaven. There the four and twenty elders are crowned (Rev. 4: 4), but so long as their feet are upon the desert sands they are in the place of weakness.

"The crown and kingdom are reserved
Where Christ is gone!"

We pass next to the hanging at the entrance of the tabernacle, with its five pillars; they need not detain us long as we have already learned the significance of most of the materials, which are the same as those of the veil. The function of each however was distinct, and in some sense contrasted. The veil barred the way into the presence of God, while the hanging was for the constant entrance of the priests into the holy place.

The five pillars were of shittim wood, overlaid with gold, with hooks of gold, and "chapiters," or capitals, and fillets of gold. They rested, however, upon sockets of brass, not silver. Brass, as we shall see in more detail when we come to the court, is figurative of the immutable word of God and of unyielding judgment. From the fact that the pillars do not stand upon silver, they do not seem to suggest believers. Their number is that of responsibility, and they speak of Him who, as the shittim wood and gold also remind us, was God and Man alone able to meet it, standing firmly upon the immutable word of God.

The five pillars and their hanging are thus closely connected, both pointing to the person of our Lord. If we may speak of the inner veil as the testimony of the Church to Christ, we may speak of the outer hanging as our Lord's own testimony to what He is. The four colors are here, but not embroidered in the form of cherubim; for, looking outward, He is inviting men to enter, and He "came not to judge the world, but to save the world" (John 12: 47). "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself" (2 Cor. 5: 19). But if the cherubim of judgment were not present, all rested upon the fact of God's judgment of all things by His word, and from this our Lord never for a moment swerved. There was no toning down of divine truth to meet man. In infinite love He meets man, but at no sacrifice of the truth — rather at the sacrifice of Himself.

Thus He says, "Think not that I am come to destroy the Law or the Prophets: I am not come to destroy but to fulfil" — give full force to their teaching. "For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled" (Matt. 5: 17, 18). He then goes on to enforce the law in its inmost spirituality, searching down into the hearts of scribes and Pharisees, and showing their guiltiness. He magnifies the law, but in doing so, proves all to be under sin. Then, in infinite love, He goes to the cross and bears the penalty of a broken law for all who believe on Him.

No thoughtful reader can fail to be impressed with our Lord's absolute dependence upon the whole word of God throughout His entire life. Even in the circumstances attending His birth, all was done "that the Scriptures might be fulfilled," and at His death it was the same. We would search in vain for the slightest uncertainty on His part as to the truth and authority of the Scriptures. With Him it was ever and only the word of God. "The Scripture cannot be broken" (John 10: 35). It was Moses who wrote of Him, and David who, by the Holy Ghost, foretold His glory. How does the awful unbelief of men who profess to be His followers compare with this? It is as if our Lord declared He stood or fell with the word of God; that if that were not true, neither was He. And so indeed it must be. He who is holy and true has given His sanction to all Scripture as true. By it He met Satan and vanquished him; to it He appealed in His teaching; from it He quoted constantly in all His conflicts with the unbelieving Pharisees and others. Its history, its psalms and its prophecy are declared by Him to be the word of God. The truth of the history of Jonah stands or falls with the truth of His own death and resurrection: to deny one is to deny the other also (Matt. 12: 39, 40). All Scripture pointed to Himself, and He expounded it so (Luke 24: 27, 44). Thus our Lord fully and perfectly identified Himself with the word of God.

Christ then, "according to the Scriptures," is the door, the only way of approach to God: "No man cometh unto the Father but by Me" (John 14: 6). He has fully magnified God's word and carried out its every provision and requirement. That holy Word, which would have condemned us forever, is now to us the vehicle of divine and eternal love in Christ. Like the hanging at the entrance of the tabernacle, He is the door of entrance to God, and welcomes every soul to draw near in assurance of a divine and permanent welcome. "By Me if any man enter in he shall be saved."

We must not omit a reference to the capitals upon these five pillars at the entrance to the tabernacle. They were of gold, which seems to refer to the blessed fact that our Lord, having finished His blessed work, is now crowned with divine glory." We see Jesus . . . crowned with glory and honor" (Heb. 2: 9). And is it not fitting that the brass foundations should thus be connected with the golden crowns? "Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?" (Luke 24: 26). As between the brass at the foot and the gold at the head hung the door, so now between the sufferings of Christ and the glory which is soon to follow is suspended the precious gospel of grace and love through Him: "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price" (Isa. 55: 1).

1 The word for veil is paroketh, from a root meaning "to separate."

Several characteristic uses of the veil, as separating, are seen in the following passages: "The veil shall divide unto you between the holy place and the most holy "(Ex. 26: 33); "‘Within the veil" (Ex. 26: 33); "Without the veil" (Ex. 26: 35); "Before the veil" (Ex. 40: 26).

From these passages and others we gather that the veil formed the sanctuary, or holiest, a secret chamber for the ark. The veil was therefore said to be a covering for the ark.

The pillars and sockets also belonged to the veil; hence the expression, "the sockets of the veil."

2 The word for "pillar" is ammudh, from the root meaning to "stand," at which we looked when learning the significance of the boards. It is thus a repetition of the thought there given, emphasized in the very name. The value of the person and work of our Lord Jesus is such that his people have a perfect "standing" before God, not only as to acceptance, but as to testimony in the house of God.

3 As is well-known, this is rendered by some, according to good manuscript authority, "He who was manifest in flesh." But this does not alter the truth we are considering, for He who was manifest, as Scripture clearly shows, was and is God.