AFTER the Israelites had set up the golden calf, God could no longer own the people in their corporate character. The assembly had become entirely defiled, having set up an idol of their own making, in the place of God—a call instead of Jehovah. “And Moses took the tabernacle and pitched it without the camp, afar off from the camp, and called it the tabernacle of the congregation.” Thus the camp was disowned as the place of the divine presence. God was not, could not, be there... A new gathering point was therefore set up. “And it came to pass that everyone which sought the Lord went out unto the tabernacle of the congregation, which was without the camp.” “There is here a fine principle of truth, which the spiritual mind will readily apprehend. The place which Christ now occupies is “without the camp,” and we are called upon to “go forth unto Him.” It demands much subjection to the word to be able, with accuracy, to know what “the camp” really is, and much spiritual power to be able to go forth from it: and still more to be able, while “far off from it,” to act toward those in it, in the combined power of holiness and grace. Holiness which separates from the defilement of the camp: grace, which enables us to act toward those who are involved therein.... It is much easier to assume a position of separation from the camp, than to act aright toward those within.
C. H. M.