SHEMOT 36

3 And they received of Moses all the offering, which the children of Israel had brought for the work of the service of the sanctuary, to make it withal. And they brought yet unto him free offerings every morning.

They show the terrible majesty and holiness of God, and the impossibility of man saving himself except by strict and reverential and loving conformity to His appointments. These things are revealed in the Gospel; but they become more striking when contemplated over again in the pictures and symbols of the Mosaic example and shadow of heavenly things.

Law of Moses Ch 11

5 And they spake unto Moses, saying, The people bring much more than enough for the service of the work, which Yahweh commanded to make.

The rearing of the sanctuary will not be accomplished till the age to come, but the materials are meanwhile being brought in: "gold, silver, and precious stones: wood, hay, and stubble". They will all be inspected at the judgment seat, and assorted. When matters have reached this pass--when Christ is actually in the earth, and it is patent to all men that the work of God by him is a reality and not a delusion, there will be sure to be a rush of participants.

"Lord, Lord, open unto us." But by that time, the number has been made up that is needful for the organization of the Kingdom of God: and we may then see the antitype of what happened in Israel's camp after the issue of the invitation to bring in materials.

Law of Moses Ch 11

37 And he made an hanging for the tabernacle door of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen, of needlework;

We know who has proclaimed himself "the door" of the reconciled state--even him of whom it is testified that "God was in Christ" reconciling the world unto Himself. Therefore we easily recognize Christ in the hangings of "blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine-twined linen". In being baptized into Christ, we pass through these hangings and stand in the holy place, constituted members of "the royal priesthood, the holy nation", which Peter alleges the saints to be (1 Pet. 2:9). Those who are not baptized into Christ stand outside the holy place.

But how is it that the same materials--which, as the veil separating the holiest, represented Christ in his mortal nature as the Lamb of God to take away sin by the rending of the flesh-veil in himself (the passing through which should lead into the immortal state)--should now stand for the means of entrance into a state which, though holy, is still mortal and imperfect?

The answer is that it is the same Christ in another relation. Though it is true that it was the personal Jesus that was represented by the veil, in opening the way into the holiest of all in the sacrifice of himself, it is no less true that it is the personal Jesus that is brought to bear on outside sinners when his achievements are offered by apostolic report to their faith as the means of their introduction to a relation of favour and hope.

Therefore materials representing him are in place, both at the door and in the veil. Christ is as much the door of entrance to the holy state as he is the opener of the way into the holiest. He is the door as well as the veil, and the doctrines symbolized by the blue and purple and scarlet and fine-twilled linen are as much in operative view at the initial stage of a sinner's justification as they are when he stands in the immortal throng of glorified saints at the last to ascribe salvation, and glory and honour,

"to him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood"

Law of Moses Ch 15

38 And the 5 pillars of it with their hooks: and he overlaid their chapiters and their fillets with gold: but their 5 sockets were of brass.

If pillars represent men, what men in this connection? If the four pillars of the veil stand for "the four evangelists", as the witnesses to the world in all generations of the sufferings and resurrection of Jesus, what five men are distinguished in connection with the work of preaching this risen Jesus as the door of entrance into saintship, reconciliation, and hope?

This phase of the testimony of Christ is represented peculiarly by the epistles which are the outgrowth of the apostolic work after Christ's departure from the earth. Now, it is a fact that these epistles have five authors, and only five--Paul, James, Peter, Jude, and John.

...Supposing this is the right view, it would yield a suggestion as to the five pillars standing in brass sockets while the four veil pillar stood in silver sockets. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, as representing companionship with the Lord in the days of his flesh, would represent a work done upon a divine foundation in so far as it was accomplished within the precincts of the Mosaic Constitution.

Jesus was a Jew, and subject to the law, and so were his twelve apostles. They were therefore operating upon a divinely established basis which would be appropriately shown by silver sockets to the four pillars. The epistolary phase of the works which came after was upon a different footing, illustrated by the exhortation:

"Let us go forth unto him without (outside) the camp, bearing his reproach" (Heb. 13:13).

While this attitude was a divine attitude, still it differed in having no organic foundation such as the first phase of the work had. The Jew had a city and a polity, visible upon earth, of which he could boast a divine origin. Whereas Paul had to say,

"We have here no continuing city, but seek one to come".

It was an inferior position, and mostly Greek in its elements, and therefore not inappropriately represented by sockets of brass to the five pillars.

Law of Moses Ch 15