Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, far off from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting. And everyone who sought the LORD would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp. Whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people would rise up, and each would stand at his tent door, and watch Moses until he had gone into the tent. When Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent, and the LORD would speak with Moses. And when all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people would rise up and worship, each at his tent door. Thus the LORD used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. When Moses turned again into the camp, his assistant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent.
Exodus 33:7-11
The tabernacle in 7 cannot of course be the tabernacle whose description has occupied the last few chapters, for as yet it had not been constructed. This is the tent of meeting, called here the tabernacle of the congregation, in which worship was held up to that time. We can hardly doubt that his pitching it without the camp was a gesture in relation to Israel's sin with the calf, similar to that in 32:26. Here it has a very profound significance in view of the fact that the cloudy pillar, fraught with the divine presence, came down upon it. For this showed Israel very plainly that the presence they were like to forfeit by their sin was nevertheless with Moses, the man of God whom they had spurned. This is a pattern that has often been repeated in the life and experience of the Church. When through sin and unfaithfulness the word 'Ichabod' seems to have been written over a Church or denomination, it is not uncommon for the presence of the Lord to be manifested in a separated (not separatist!) group which has lived in faithfulness to Him and His Word. Nor can that presence be hid when it is there, or denied; only there seems often to be a marked unwillingness to recognise or admit its significance, and one can only assume that, having lost the blessing of God's presence, they have become little interested in learning from those who have it how it might be wooed back. The secret is told in 11 - fellowship with God. To know Him like this (cf Philippians 3:10) is to invite and bespeak His presence in all we do and wherever we go.