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#74.
The presence and the glory (Exod. 33:).
pp. 173 - 179
We take up the narrative at the point where the Lord promised to send His angel to go
before Israel, but said that He Himself would not go up in the midst of them, lest He
consumed them in the way. These were "evil tidings", which brought about a general
mourning. No man put on his ornaments, for the wearing of these was a sign of rejoicing,
as abstention therefrom was of mourning. The Lord said to Moses: "Say unto the
children of Israel, Ye are a stiff-necked people; if I had come one instant among you, I
had destroyed you (Horsley and De Wett): therefore now put off thy ornaments from
thee, that I may know what to do with thee" (Exod. 33: 5). Here we have, set forth in
symbol, the necessity for repentance.
Following this manifestation of repentance came the removal of the "tent" without
the camp, indicating the necessity for separation from the prevailing ungodliness, a
witness-bearing by active association. This "tabernacle" must not be confounded with
the tabernacle already so fully described, for that was not then made. This one is called
"The tabernacle of the congregation" (or "assembly"). The LXX translates this, "The
tabernacle of witness", and although there is no apparent connection between
"congregation" and "witness", we do not get the full intention of the Hebrew word moed
unless we include the idea of testimony. Ed is the Hebrew word translated "witness" in
Exod. 20: 16; eduth is the word translated, "the tabernacle of witness" in Numb. 17: 7.
Moed, translated "congregation" in Exod. 33: 7, is rendered in Gen. 1: 14 "for
seasons", and in Gen. 17: 21 "at this set time"; also "feasts", set feasts", "solemnly",
etc.
This removal of the tabernacle "without the camp" was itself a witness, and the
congregation that worshipped there was no longer "all Israel", but "every one that sought
the Lord went out unto the tabernacle of the congregation which was without the camp".
It is plainly around this feature that Heb. 13: 13 is written, and about this self-same
separation that the great cloud of "witnesses" are arrayed in Heb. 11: In this separated
congregation we have in germ the idea of a church, "a called-out company" as ekklesia
means. Exod. 33: 8-11 must be read as a description of what happened subsequently,
that is, when the true seeker after God had given his testimony by going without the
camp. Then, each time after that, when Moses entered the tabernacle to communed with
the Lord, these same men (and possibly others following their example) rose and
worshipped, every man in his tent door. There is a precious lesson here. By his act of
separation and devotion, each man turned his own dwelling-place into a sanctuary, much
as the early church worshipped in houses, remembering all the time that their great
Mediator was in the presence of God, and outside the camp.
There is strong emphasis here upon communion with God: "And the Lord spake unto
Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend" (Exod. 33: 11). What a