Jump Start # 3396

Deuteronomy 23:14 “Since the Lord your God walks in the midst of your camp to deliver you and to defeat your enemies before you, therefore your camp must be holy; and He must not see anything indecent among you lest He turn away from you.”

Our verse today comes from a series of laws given to Israel. The bulk of the chapter identifies who can or cannot come into the assembly of the Lord. But after that, comes some hygiene laws that details what Israel was to do when they went to the bathroom. They were to go outside the camp, with a shovel and cover up after they were done.

It may seem strange that God would care about that or that He felt the necessity to detail what should be done. Those that camp are likely to understand this much better than those of us that live in the city and always the city.

But tucked in these explanations about going to the bathroom, we find, “Since the Lord your God walks in the midst of your camp…” Did you catch that? Have you seen that before? God walking in the camp of Israel. He didn’t want to see anything indecent, such as poop.

Here are some thoughts:

First, God has never been very far from His people. Lots of questions come to my mind when I think about God walking in the midst of Israel’s camp. What form was God in? Could Israel see God? What about those passages that say if you see God you will die?

But assuring for us is the promise that God is not far from any of us. I will never desert you or forsake you is how the Hebrew writer quoted the Lord. Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there I am, Jesus said.

With God among us, what is there to fear? With God among us, we’ll get through this. Sorrow. Worry. Fear. Troubles. Heartache. God is right here. God will help us. What great hope and comfort that ought to bring us. For Israel, God is walking in our midst.

Second, God doesn’t want to see anything indecent. For Israel that meant going outside the camp with a shovel when they had to go to the bathroom. God didn’t want to see that. But for us, we must wonder the way some dress these days. So little clothing. So much skin exposed. We causally give that a pass because it’s a wedding we say. It’s vacation we say. It’s hot we say. God doesn’t want to see anything indecent.

• NAS/ESV/NIV: indecent
• KJV: unclean

Third, the holiness of God is manifested through these principles. God is holy. Making God like one of us, just one of the boys, not only discredits God, it is blasphemous. Worship can praise God or it can be a mockery and insulting to God. God didn’t accept Cain’s sacrifice. Nor will the holy God accept our worship if it is not holy. Rather than trying to make God like one of us, we must make ourselves like God. We need to raise the bar on excellence and expectations. Indecent needs to go outside the camp.

God walking within the camp. What a thought. Did it do Israel any good? Does it do us any good?

Roger