without the camp, by removing far from the camp; and Moses said unto Jehovah. See, Thou sayest unto me, Cause this people to go up, when Thou hast not made known to me whom Thou wilt send with me. . . . Now, therefore, I pray Thee, if I have found grace in Thine eyes, make known to me, I pray Thee, Thy way, that I may know of Thee, that I have found grace in Thine eyes; and see that this nation is Thy people. He said therefore, My faces shall go until I shall give thee rest" (Exod. xxxiii.). It is here said that Moses caused the people to go up out of the land of Egypt; and afterwards that they laid aside their adornment, and mourned; and that Moses stretched his tent without the camp, and so Jehovah assented; thus clearly, that they themselves were urgent. Again: "Jehovah said unto Moses, How long will this people provoke Me? and how long will they not believe in Me, for all the signs which I have shewed in the midst of them? I will smite them with pestilence, and extinguish them, and will make thee into a greater nation and mightier than they." But Moses supplicated, and Jehovah being entreated said, "I will he propitious according to Thy word; nevertheless I live, and the whole earth shall be filled with the glory of Jehovah. For as to all these men who have seen My glory, and My miracles, which I did in Egypt, and in the wilderness, and yet have tempted Me these ten times, and have not obeyed My voice, if they shall see the land which I sware unto their fathers, all that have provoked Me shall not see it; . . . in this wilderness shall their carcases fall together; . . , but their children I will bring in" (Numb. xiv.). From this also it appears that Jehovah purposed to extinguish them, consequently not to establish a church among them, but that they were urgent, and therefore it was done. (A. C. n. 4290.)
They were urgent that a church should be instituted among them; but this was for no other end than that they might be distinguished above all nations on the whole globe. For beyond others they were in the love of self, and they could not be exalted to eminence over them by other means than that Jehovah, and thus the church also, should be among them; for where Jehovah is, that is the Lord, there is the church. That this was the end is evident from many passages in the Word; as from these words also in this chapter (Exod. xxxiii.): "Moses said, Wherein shall it become known here that I have found favour in Thine eyes, I and Thy people? Is it not in Thy going with us, and our being rendered excellent, I and Thy people, above all the people that are on the faces of the earth? (ver. 16.) (ib. n. 10,535.)
