"And Moses took the tabernacle, and pitched it without the camp, afar off from the camp, and called it the Tabernacle of the congregation ... which was without the camp." (Exodus 33:7).
Here is profound teaching. This Tabernacle was a kind of tent that Moses set up in the middle of the congregation, in the middle of the camp of Israel, where he and others would pray, a "tent of meeting" where people might go together to meet with God. The tent of meeting - it is such a significant and such a wonderful term. The Nonconformist fathers generally referred to their places of worship as meeting houses, and it is a good old term. You see, it is a place not so much where people meet with one another, though that is included, but the essential meaning is this - the place where they meet with God.
It is important that we should understand that Moses was clearly led to take this peculiar action. He took this Tabernacle out of the center of the camp and put it outside, far off from the camp. This was an action taken by Moses himself. And I must pause with that, because you will always find as you read the history of these movements of the Spirit in the long story of the Christian church that generally the very first thing that happens, and which eventually leads to a great revival, is that one man, or a group of men, suddenly begin to feel this burden, and they feel the burden so much that they are led to do something about it.
Martin Luther, a very ordinary kind of monk, suddenly became aware of this burden. And it so burdened him that he was led to do something about it. Just one man, and through that one man, God sent that mighty movement to the church.
~Martyn Lloyd-Jones~
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