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Spiritual Gifts, Volume 3
his name to be blotted out with theirs’. For he could never endure to
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see the fullness of his wrath come upon the people for whom he had
wrought such wonders.
“And the Lord said unto Moses, Depart, and go up hence, thou and
the people which thou hast brought up out of the land of Egypt, unto
the land which I sware unto Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying,
Unto thy seed will I give it. And I will send an Angel before thee,
and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, and the Hittite, and
the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite. Unto a land flowing with
milk and honey; for I will not go up in the midst of thee; for thou art
a stiff-necked people, lest I consume thee in the way. And when the
people heard these evil tidings, they mourned. And no man did put on
him his ornaments. For the Lord had said unto Moses, Say unto the
children of Israel, Ye are a stiff-necked people. I will come up into the
midst of thee in a moment, and consume thee; therefore now put off
thy ornaments from thee, that I may know what to do unto thee. And
the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by the
mount Horeb. And Moses took the tabernacle and pitched it without
the camp, afar off from the camp, and called it the tabernacle of the
congregation. And it came to pass that every one which sought the
Lord, went out unto the tabernacle of the congregation, which was
without the camp.”
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The tabernacle here mentioned was a temporary tent arranged for
the worship of God. The tabernacle, the pattern of which God gave to
Moses, had not yet been built.
All who sincerely repented of their sins made supplication unto
God in the tabernacle, confessing their sins with great humility, and
then returned again to their tents. Then Moses went into the tabernacle.
The people watched with the deepest interest to see if God would
accept his intercessions in their behalf, and if he condescended to
meet with Moses, then they might hope that they should not be utterly
consumed. When the cloudy pillar descended and stood at the door
of the tabernacle, then all the people wept for joy, and rose up and
worshiped, every man in his tent door. They bowed themselves upon
their faces to the earth in humility. As the pillar of cloud, a token of
God’s presence, continued to rest at the door of the tabernacle, they
knew that Moses was pleading in their behalf before God. “And the
Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend.”