Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 359
“And Moses took the Tabernacle and pitched it outside the camp, afar off from the camp, and called it the Tabernacle of the congregation. And it came to pass, that everyone which sought the LORRD went out unto the Tabernacle of the congregation, which was outside the camp.” Exodus 33:7.
I HAVE been somewhat perplexed in studying this text, for according to the book of Exodus, the Tabernacle—the Tabernacle strictly so called—did not exist at the time to which it refers. In the succeeding Chapters of this very Book, we have an account of the gifts which were made by the people for the construction of that Tabernacle, wherein God dwelt while the children of Israel abode in the wilderness. It seems to me, after looking at the various authorities upon the point, and considering the opinions of those who have well studied it, that when the children of Israel came out of Egypt there may have been some large tent constantly pitched in the center of the camp which had no Ark of the Covenant in it and probably no altar. The vessels and implements for the service of the sanctuary had not then been made. Not even had the pattern been seen by Moses in the holy mountain. The people may be considered to have been at that time under the Patriarchal dispensation which reaches on, if I understand Scripture aright, until the time of the giving of the Law and 40 days beyond that, really—for it was 40 days after the giving of the Law, before the ceremonials of Levitical worship were thoroughly established. Moses was 40 days in the mountain receiving instruction as to how the future worship of God should be ordered; that worship had not then begun in all its glorious splendor—Aaron had not even been ordained a priest. The service of the Levitical dispensation awaited as yet those statutes and ordinances by which its observances were solemnly imposed. Previous to this, as I take it, there was a large tent in the center of the camp set apart for that worship which was common to Patriarchal times—for prayer, praise and burnt sacrifices. Now, here God dwelt in the midst of this Tabernacle. He was in the center of His people; His cloud overshadowed them by day, and kept off from their heads the burning heat; that cloud was like a luminous atmosphere above them by night, so that probably they could see by night as well as by day. God was in the midst of them—this was their glory and their boast. They had no strange God. The LORD Himself had made their camp the place for His feet, and glorious, indeed, it was! But while Moses had ascended to the mountaintop, the people, who were an unspiritual race, needed something that they could see. They needed some visible personification of that spiritual God whom they were unable to worship unless they sawHim in type and figure. So they said unto Aaron, “Up, make us gods that shall go before us!” They broke off their earrings and they fashioned there a golden calf, and they said, “These be your gods, O Israel, that brought you up out of the land of Egypt.” I do not think that they meant to worship the calf, but they intended to worship Jehovah under the representation of a calf, for it is expressly said in the Word, “Then they proclaimed a feast unto Jehovah,” which shows that even their dancing around the calf was but a human invention whereby they hoped to honor and to glorify Jehovah. But they vexed the Holy One unto anger, and they grieved His Holy Spirit so that He went forth from the midst of them. He would not acknowledge the camp any more as being the place where He could dwell.
A voice might have been heard in Heaven, “Let Us go from here.” The holy God could not abide any longer in the central spot of a camp so defiled by sin! The pillar of cloud moved and Moses bade the proper officers lift up the sacred tent—they carried it up the side of the hill—Justice was about to take away from the people the Presence of God, but Mercy stopped its march! Mercy seemed to say, “Though God cannot abide in the midst of the people, yet He will not go very far from them.” So He stayed upon the hillside, and there was the Tabernacle pitched, afar off from the people, but not so far that they could know that God was there; not so far but that they who “sought the Lord” might reach the
Tabernacle at an easy distance. This, I say was intended to teach the people that God did not recognize their camp as being any longer His dwelling place, because human invention had stained His worship and laid His honor in the dust.
What use are we to make of this very significant incident? Give heed, Brothers and Sisters, I beseech you. This is just the position, I take it, of God’s Tabernacle at the present hour. They who seek the Lord must go out from the camp, and from the congregation, and if they would commune with the Most High, they cannot do it in the camps of even the religious and professing world. They must, like the Master, go forth outside the camp bearing His reproach. The day will come in which we shall be able to have fellowship with God in the camp; when the Tabernacle of the Lord shall be among men, and He shall dwell among them; but that time is not yet. Now His Tabernacle is out of the camp, and away from men. Those who would follow Him must be separate, must come out from the masses, must be distinct and set apart in order to be recognized as the sons and the daughters of the Lord God Almighty.