After this, in Exodus 33 the Lord indicated that His presence would not go with the children of Israel. He told them to depart and go into the promised land, adding, “And I will send an Angel before you...For I will not go up in your midst, lest I consume you in the way, for you are a stiffnecked people” (vv. 2-3). On the one hand, the Lord forgave the people of Israel, but on the other hand, He kept His presence from them. All but two of those Israelites fell in the wilderness and never went into the promised land. This was the judgment of the Lord. God is a God of mercy and love, but He is also a God of government. This portion of the Word warns us that the presence of the Lord would not be with a people who do not keep His testimony.
Before they made and worshipped the golden calf, the people of Israel as a whole were the unique realm and circle related to the Lord’s presence (19:5-6). But after they made and worshipped the golden calf, a separation came into being. Exodus 33:7 says, “Now Moses would take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, some distance from the camp; and he called it the tent of meeting. And everyone who sought Jehovah went out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp.” The tent in this verse refers to the tent of Moses. Before this time the tent of Moses was always within the camp because the presence of the Lord was in the midst of the people of Israel. But because Moses realized that the Lord’s presence would no longer be in the midst of the people, he removed his tent, which then became the tent of God, and pitched it some distance from the camp. This means there was a separation between the tent where God was and the camp.
After Moses took and pitched the tent outside the camp, the pillar of cloud descended upon it (v. 9), that is, the presence of the Lord was with Moses at the tent. Any of the people who were seeking the Lord had to go out of the camp to the tent where Moses was. If the people would not go out of the camp but would remain in it, they would not have the presence of the Lord. The presence of the Lord would no longer be in the camp, but would be in the tent.
There was a separation and a distinction between the tent and the camp. At the tent there was not only the presence of the Lord but also the fellowship of the Lord. Exodus 33:11 is the first verse in the Scripture which says that the Lord spoke to Moses face to face as a man speaks to a companion. In order to have the presence of the Lord and the fellowship with the Lord, one had to leave the camp and be in the tent. Only at the tent was there the presence of the Lord and the fellowship with the Lord.
The camp signifies a group of people, in particular, a religious people, who are not faithful to the Lord. They name the name of the Lord (2 Tim. 2:19), but in fact they worship idols. This is the meaning of the camp. The presence of the Lord would not be with such ones, and they could not have fellowship with the Lord.
When the Lord Jesus was on the earth, there was a separation between the Jewish people, the camp, and the Lord Himself, the real tabernacle (John 1:14; 2:19, 21). The Lord fully forsook His relationship with the Jews in the flesh (Matt. 12:46-50 and verse 48, note 1; 13:1 and note 1—Recovery Version). From the time of Matthew 12 the Lord gave up the Jewish religious camp and pitched the tent without the camp. There became a separation between the Jewish religion (the camp) and the Lord. From that day the presence of God was not again with the Jewish religion, and from that day all those who remained in it lost the fellowship with the Lord.
Any of the Jewish people who would have the presence of the Lord and who would have the fellowship with the Lord had to leave Judaism, that is, go out of the camp unto Jesus, who was the real tabernacle with the presence of God and the fellowship with God. By the time the Lord was on the earth, Judaism had become a camp. As a religious group, in name they were the people of God, and with their mouth they honored the Lord, but, in fact, they worshipped something other than God Himself. Their hearts were set on something other than the Lord. In Matthew 15:8 the Lord said regarding the Jewish religionists, “This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart stays far away from Me.” The Lord called them a stiffnecked people (Exo. 33:3; Acts 7:51). Therefore, the Lord took the tent and pitched it outside of Judaism, and there became a separation between Him and those within Judaism.
From this separation the church came into being, for after His forsaking of the house of Israel, He turned to another people. The church is the tabernacle, or temple, of God (Eph. 2:21-22). However, after a certain period of time, the church changed in nature from being the tent to being a camp. This means that the church degraded to become Christianity. In principle, Christianity as a religious system comprises a group of religious people, belonging to the Lord in name and honoring the Lord with their mouth, but having their hearts set on something other than the Lord. At this present time, Christianity is not a tent but a camp. According to the history of the church, those who really sought the Lord had to leave organized Christianity, that is, leave the camp and go forth unto the Lord outside the camp.