`The brasen censers ... and they were made broad plates for a covering

of the altar: to be a memorial unto the children of Israel ... before the

Lord' (Num. 16:39,40).

`And Moses and Eleazar the priest took the gold of the captains of

thousands and of hundreds, and brought it into the tabernacle of the

congregation, for a memorial for the children of Israel before the Lord'

(Num. 31:54).

`These stones shall be for a memorial unto the children of Israel for

ever' (Josh. 4:7).

`And the crowns shall be ... for a memorial in the temple of the Lord'

(Zech. 6:14).

Here we have memorials of redemption, atonement, intercession,

acceptance, joy, victory, sin, death, resurrection and glory.  The last but

one of these memorials is that of the twelve stones raised up at Gilgal by

Joshua.  The twelfth and last is the pledge of the coming of the great King -

Priest, Who shall bear the glory, as He once bore sin, and shall sit as a

priest upon a throne, in Whom all the hopes of men are centred.

The epistle to the Hebrews, it will be remembered, uses the figure of

the `rent veil'.  The epistle to the Ephesians uses the figure of the `broken

middle wall', the one, the veil, setting aside the law of type and shadow,

under which `the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest' (Heb.

9:8), the other, the middle wall, setting aside certain `ordinances' which

caused and perpetuated `enmity'.  Both figures have access in view, the one

for the Hebrew, the other for the Church of the One Body; the one setting

aside the law of Moses, the other setting aside the decrees of Acts 15.  (See

article entitled Decrees1).

`Having abolished in His flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments

contained in ordinances; for to make in Himself of twain one new man,

so making peace' (Eph. 2:15).

This verse belongs necessarily to a larger context, which may be

visualized, if shorn of all detail, as follows:

A

2:1 -3.

in time past.  Children of wrath.

B

but god.  Entirely new sphere

`made to sit together'.

A

in time past.  Aliens and strangers.

B

2:13 -19.

but now.  Entirely new company `one new man'.