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Scripture Reading: Exo. 33:1-11; Heb. 13:13
In Exodus the Ten Commandments are called the tablets of the Testimony (32:15). The Ten Commandments were not merely a law given by God to test the people of Israel but were the testimony of God Himself. The commandments testify of God in two ways. First, they testify that God is the unique God (20:2-3). Besides Him there is no God. Only He Himself is the God who created the heavens and the earth. Second, they testify of the nature of God. God is a God of holiness and a God of justice and righteousness. He is a holy God and a righteous God. Therefore, His people have to conduct themselves in a way that corresponds to the nature of God. These are the two primary matters that are testified by the Ten Commandments. Exodus 32 records that before the Ten Commandments had been brought down from Mount Sinai by Moses, the entire company of the children of Israel made a golden calf under the leadership of Aaron (vv. 1-6). They worshipped the golden calf, and in doing so they broke the first aspect of the testimony of the law, that is, that God is the unique God.
The children of Israel had been called out by God to bear His testimony to all creation, especially to the angels, to the rulers and authorities in the heavenlies, to testify that God is the very unique God and that God is a God of holiness and righteousness. However, these people broke God’s testament and put it aside. Exodus 32:6 says, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” They even danced before the calf (v. 19). In this way they also broke the second aspect of the law, that is, that God is a God of holiness and righteousness. What they did was contrary to and could never correspond with God’s holiness and righteousness. On the one hand, they made the idol, and on the other hand, they defiled themselves. They sinned by making and worshipping a graven image (20:4) and by conducting themselves contrary to God’s nature. Thus, in the eyes of the Lord and in the eyes of Moses as well, they broke the whole testimony. Moses considered that there was no need to keep the two tablets of the Testimony. It was not merely Moses who broke the tablets at the foot of the mountain (32:19); it was the people of Israel who had broken the testimony already. The Lord’s testimony had been thrown away and broken. What Moses did was to let the people of Israel know that they had absolutely broken the Lord’s testimony. They had broken the entire law.
All these things concerning the children of Israel were written as examples to us (1 Cor. 10:6) and are therefore types that we must apply. The Lord has called the believers out of the world to be a testimony to Him (1 Pet. 2:9). We are a testimony that the Lord has given us Christ as our good land to be everything to us (Col. 2:6-7). In the New Testament times the church must be the testimony of the Lord, bearing His testimony to the entire universe, especially to the principalities and powers in the heavens. On the one hand, we testify that the Lord is the unique God, and on the other hand, we testify of the nature of the Lord. Therefore, we must be heavenly, spiritual, holy, and righteous because the nature of the Lord is heavenly, spiritual, holy, and righteous. We must keep ourselves in a condition that corresponds with the Lord’s nature.
However, not very long after the apostles’ time, the church, like the children of Israel, broke the entire testimony of the Lord. The Christians erected a “golden calf” in bringing many idolatrous things into the church. They likewise became loose by doing things against the nature of the Lord. Today’s celebration of Christmas is an example of the name of Christ being used for the purpose of idolatry and human pleasure. Taking the name of Christ, many people attend dancing parties on Christmas Eve. The entire testimony of the Lord has been broken today.
After the golden calf was destroyed, Moses called those who would be faithful to the Lord to stand with the Lord and take up the sword to slay those who worshipped the idols and became loose (Exo. 32:25-29). The Levites were the overcomers who stood with Moses for the Lord’s testimony to express that they did not go along with the idol worshippers. They were separated from the people to testify that the Lord was the supreme One, the one God, and that He was holy and righteous. They could not tolerate the idol worship and the looseness, so they purified themselves, and by doing so they gained the priesthood. On the one hand, God was for Israel. He was faithful to them and would not altogether forsake them. On the other hand, He could not give up His testimony. God’s intention was to have the whole nation of Israel as His priests (19:6), but by breaking God’s testimony they lost the priesthood. The Levites, however, received the priesthood by being faithful to the Lord’s testimony.
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, “I will send an Angel before you...For I will not go up in your midst,...for you are a stiff-necked 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 outside the camp. This means that 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 outside the camp to the tent where Moses was. If the people would not go outside 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 Scriptures that says the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, just as a man speaks to his 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 footnote 481; 13:1 and footnote 11). From the time of Matthew 12 the Lord gave up the Jewish religious camp and pitched the tent outside 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 outside 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 stiff-necked 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.
Hebrews 13:13 says, “Let us therefore go forth unto Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach.” We must go out of the camp unto Jesus because Jesus has left the camp. Jesus was driven out of the camp and was put to death outside the camp. The camp would not accept Jesus the Lord. There was a religious group who had the Lord in name but worshipped something other than the Lord. They did not accept the Lord, and they even gave up the Lord. Therefore, the Lord gave them up. If we are going to have the presence and the fellowship of the Lord, we have to go out of the camp.
In the history of God’s people the camp may be seen in at least three periods. The camp was first the children of Israel after they worshipped the idol in Exodus 32. They had the name of belonging to the Lord, but in reality they worshipped something else and hence became a religious camp among whom it was impossible to have the Lord’s presence. Second, the Jews in Judaism, the Jewish religion, became the camp at the time of the Lord’s living on the earth. They also were a religious group, claiming the name of the Lord but worshipping something other than the Lord. Later, Christianity also became the camp, taking the name of the Lord but not worshipping the Lord in spirit and reality (John 4:24). The Lord’s presence would not be in the camp. The Lord’s presence left all the camps, and all those who really seek the Lord have to leave the camp, go out of the camp unto the Lord. Those who do will have the presence and the fellowship of the Lord. This is a very solemn matter.
We have to ask ourselves whether we are in the camp or in the tent, even whether we are the camp or the tent. At the very beginning of our practice of the church we stressed this matter very much. We have to go out of the camp unto the Lord. We cannot and we should not remain in Christianity as a religious camp. We left the denominations because we realized that all the denominations are simply a religious camp. In the eyes of the Lord, Christianity is a camp. Outside of the camp there is the tent of the Lord. Now we are not in the camp, and we are not the camp people. We are in the tent, and we even are the tent. We are people who have followed the Lord out of Christianity, outside the camp. However, we have to be very careful. It may be that after a certain period of time we also will become the camp.
What is the camp, and what is the tent? The camp is a religious people who belong to the Lord in name but who in actuality worship something and seek something other than the Lord; the tent is a separation from that religious group.
There is always the separation of the tent and the camp. We have to realize, however, that separation and division are different. Division between the Lord’s people is something evil. Moses and Joshua were not divided from the Lord’s people, but they were separated from them (Exo. 33:7-11). Likewise, we would never say that we have made a division among the Lord’s people, but we would say and even insist that we must make a separation from the camp of Christianity. We cannot give up the separation, but we have no intention to make a division. We must differentiate between separation and division. If we are going to set up another sect, we will make a division, but we have no intention to do that. We would not be divided from the Lord’s children, but Christianity has become a camp. Because the Lord has come out of it, we must also separate ourselves from the camp and set up the tent.
The tent and the camp are a clear picture of our real situation. Originally, the camp was the place where the Lord’s presence and fellowship were, but at a certain point it lost its nature and became idolatrous. Therefore, the people who know the Lord’s heart must leave the camp and set up a tent. Immediately after Moses pitched the tent, the pillar of cloud descended to the entrance of the tent, and Jehovah spoke to Moses as a companion, face to face (33:9-11). All those who are seeking the Lord have to go outside the camp and go forth unto Him at the tent.
