Some think, that whereas yet the Tabernacle consisted of curtains and coverings, and so had veils instead of doors: that the House of God and the Tabernacle were not the same, as the Ark was in one place and the Tabernacle in another in the time of David and Solomon, before the temple was built; and hereunto this giveth some probability, because it is called here not the Tabernacle but the Temple of the Lord (1Sa_3:3), and the House of the Lord (1Sa_3:15). But this is not like: for the Tabernacle was set up in Shiloh in Joshua’s time (Jos_18:1-28; Jos_1:1-18), and so it had continued in the time of the Judges (Jdg_21:19), and there it was now in Eli’s time (1Sa_1:9).
2. Therefore it is more like, that though the Tabernacle, while it was in the desert, for the better transporting and carrying from place to place, had veils only hanging in the entrance instead of doors; yet now, being settled in a certain place, it might also be made sure with doors.
3. These were the doors only of the outward court, whither the people might come in to worship, and the charge whereof belonged to the Levites (1Ch_26:1-32). (A. Willett.)
Humble service
I heard the Rev. F.B. Meyer say that he would consider it as great ah act of consecration for a young woman to stay at home and play her brother’s accompaniment in learning a song if thereby she could keep him at home that evening, although the doing so prevented her attending some religious meeting. I like what is told us of the young Samuel on the most eventful night in his life’s history when God spoke to him and revealed Himself to the lad; what do we read at the close? “And Samuel lay until the morning and opened the doors of the house of the Lord.” There he is, after such a night, opening the doors, sweeping the floor as usual. The Beatific Vision must not keep us from our common duties; we must pass from the seeing to the serving. (Christian Endeavour Times.)
