"And the Lord called unto Moses, and spake unto him out of the tabernacle of the congregation." Such was the position from which Jehovah made the communications contained in this book. He had been speaking from Mount Sinai, and His position there gave marked character to the communication. From the fiery mount "went a fiery law;" but here, He speaks "out of the tabernacle of the congregation." This was an entirely different position. We have seen this tabernacle set up, at the close of the preceding book.--"And he reared up the court round about the tabernacle and the altar, and set up the hanging of the court gate. So Moses finished the work. Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.... For the cloud of the Lord was upon the tabernacle by day, and fire was on it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys." (Exod. xl. 33-38.) Now, the tabernacle was God's dwelling-place in grace. He could take up His abode there, because He was surrounded on all sides by that which vividly set forth the ground of His relationship with the people. Had He come into their midst in the full display of the character revealed upon Mount Sinai, it could only have been to "consume them in a moment," as "a stiff-necked people;" but He retired within the vail--type of Christ's flesh (Heb. x. 20.), and took His place on the mercy-seat, where the blood of atonement, and not the "stiff-neckedness" of Israel, was that which met His view and satisfied the claims of His nature. The blood which was brought into the sanctuary by the high-priest was the type of that precious blood which cleanses from all sin; and although Israel after the flesh saw nothing of this, it nevertheless justified God in abiding amongst them--it "sanctified to the purifying of the flesh." (Heb. ix. 13.)