Exodus 33:8
And it came to pass, when Moses went out unto the tabernacle, that all the people rose up, and stood every man at his tent door, and looked after Moses, until he was gone into the tabernacle. And it came to pass, when Moses went out unto the tabernacle, that all the people rose up, and stood every man at his tent door, and looked after Moses, until he was gone into the tabernacle.
The tent to which Moses went was the tent of meeting pitched outside the camp, the place where all who sought the Lord went to meet Him. Whenever he went out to that tabernacle, the whole people rose up and every man stood at his own tent door and kept looking after him until he had disappeared inside. This standing and watching came after they had stripped off their ornaments in repentance. It came after Moses had first gone back to his own tent and then gone forth again to intercede.
They followed him with anxious eyes because they longed for some sign that his intercession for them was accepted and that their lives would be spared. That intent watching grew out of fear that their sin had caused God to separate Moses from them and that He might destroy them. As Moses entered, the cloudy pillar, the visible symbol of God's glory and presence, took its stand at the door of the tabernacle, where the Lord talked with him. When the people saw that cloud resting at the tent, they worshiped, each from his own tent door.
By the resting of the cloud there they understood that Moses was pleading in their behalf, and they wept for joy and worshiped with humble bowing. The whole scene belongs to a crisis in which God's people must acknowledge the Lord, refuse to harden their hearts against Him, and humble themselves before Him.