OUTSIDE THE CAMP

OUTSIDE THE CAMP

There are two things indispensable to ensure the believer’s true happy and holy course while here. The first is the place in which through grace (because of the work of Christ) I am set with God. It is first what Christ is for me; and secondly, what I am for Him. If I have not, through the Spirit, reached by faith the place which God in His love has secured for me in Christ, I cannot have a right sense of God’s purpose respecting me; and were I to attempt to be for Him here, with an untrue apprehension of the place to which He had called me, I should so far misrepresent Him in every service in which I engaged. I do not mean to say that no one can be a true and happy servant unless he has a perfect apprehension of the place in which God has set him, in grace; but I say that if a believer has not a clear idea of the nature of the place in which God has set him, he cannot truly be an exponent in life or ways of the grace of which he is practically ignorant. If a zealous Israelite were to ^[p. 209] attempt to serve God in the wilderness, assuming that it was the place to which God had called him, and not to Canaan, surely he would entirely misrepresent God in all his ways and works. Thus it was with James and John when they wanted to return to the days of Elias, and bring down fire from heaven. The Lord rebuked them and said, “Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of”. It is clear then that the first thing is an assured sense by faith of the place in which God has set us with Himself, and then, as we continue true to this, there will be a ready acceptance of the only place suited to us here, and that place is outside the camp. If I have not tasted of the rest and unspeakable satisfaction to the heart, of being inside the veil, I could not see nor accept the dreary seclusion which outside the camp conveys to the natural mind. It is remarkable that in the assembly generally the meanings of those two places are entirely unknown. The place where Christ is, having been rejected by man on earth, is now the place given to us by the grace of God; we taste of its blessedness in spirit; we eat of the grapes of Eshcol; it is our assured prospect, we are going on to it; and then we are here but pilgrims and strangers, occupying the place where our Lord has suffered for us. We in spirit and by faith enjoy the full results of His sufferings while still on earth, and now while we are enjoying the fruit of all His work (He leading our praises), we, while we journey here, cleave to that spot morally which He has so endeared to us by what He endured there for us; we have joy unspeakable as the result of His suffering for us, outside the gate, and we are with Him in spirit in heaven, and hence we “go forth... unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach. For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come”. Hebrews 13: 13, 14.

It is not easy to arrive at the meaning of outside the camp. To limit it merely to religious systems, I apprehend is insufficient. The word “camp” is first used in Genesis 32: 2: “This is God’s host”. I cite this to ^[p. 210] show that a place acknowledged by God on earth may be incompatible with man in his present state, or he may be unfit for it. Certain it is that when Israel turned to idolatry (Exodus 33: 7) Moses pitched the tabernacle without the camp: far off from the camp. But what the apostle refers to in Hebrews 13 is the sin offering. Leviticus 4: 12, “Even the whole bullock shall he carry forth without the camp unto a clean place, where the ashes are poured out, and burn him on the wood with fire”.

We read in Numbers 5: 2, “Command the children of Israel, that they put out of the camp every leper, and every one that hath an issue, and whosoever is defiled by the dead”. Again, in Deuteronomy 23: 14, “For the Lord thy God walketh in the midst of thy camp, to deliver thee, and to give up thine enemies before thee; therefore shall thy camp be holy: that he see no unclean thing in thee, and turn away from thee”. We get here the character of the camp, and what would be the consequence of its failing in its responsibility.

In Joshua 6: 18, we find a warning “Lest ye.... make the camp of Israel a curse”. We learn from all these passages that the place of power and order on the earth was unsuited to man in a sinful state, because from that place all evil was to be excluded, and therefore the offering for man’s sin was burnt outside the camp. Hence, our blessed Lord, in order that He might sanctify the people by His own blood, suffered without the gate. He took the place which is our only true place, as lepers and unclean, and suffered there what was due to us, that we might enjoy the presence of God with Him, and now that we have boldness by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way, which He hath consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, His flesh, it is but consistent that we should, while here on earth, go forth to Him without the camp bearing His reproach. Ruth says to Naomi, “Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried:” and the same kind of affection in us would lead us to go ^[p. 211] forth unto Jesus - unto the place where He died for us, not now to suffer anything from God; on the contrary, to rejoice before Him, but not to expect from man any other treatment than that which our Saviour received from man. As mere men in nature we are not fit for the camp where nothing defiling was permitted, and are morally outside the camp because of our sins. Jesus took that place for us, and now that He has secured a place for us in heaven, we cleave to the spot on earth where He rescued us, and where He poured out His soul an offering for sin for us. We accept His reproach from men because we have His favour and acceptance with the Father. Faith in God at all times, from Abel downward, has led to reproach from men. To be dependent on God, doing His will, and independent of man in everything, has entailed scorn and derision among men. If an Abel offers a right offering and is accepted of God, he is hated of his own brother. If a Noah prepares an ark for the saving of his house he is regarded as exclusive and peculiar. No one hearkens to his strange preachings. If an Abram would follow the Lord and separate from Babel - in dependence in faith in His word - he must break away from country, kindred, and father’s house. What an amount of reproach he must have endured! If a Moses choose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than the pleasures of sin for a season, he must esteem the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; and Paul could say, “I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ”. Thus, in every instance of faith, and of walking in the path in which faith in God leads, there is a way and manner of life unacceptable to man, and which elicits reproach from man.

I am sure we have very little conception how the walk or ways of our blessed Lord were misunderstood, and disapproved of in the judgment of men. Though He was beautiful in the sight of God, who could ever say, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight”;

man’s estimate of Him was, “There is no beauty that we should desire him”. Even those who followed Him, and whose hearts were bound to Him, were unable to understand or appreciate His acts or ways. The sisters at Bethany, according to their own ideas of love, chide Him for His delay in coming to them in their sorrow, which was the very way of His perfect love. Peter with the best intention attempts to rebuke Him for speaking of His death, and again with the very best natural feeling ventures to reject the Lord’s services in washing his feet. If His own cannot understand Him and venture to dissent from Him, and disapprove of Him, how much more must those who have no knowledge of Him, regard everything about Him as without form and comeliness.

The Lord give us so to abide in spirit in company with Him where He is - His joys our joys - that nothing may really suit us, or interest us here, but identification with Himself, even though there be suffering connected with it. “If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you”, and this is the greatest divine distinction that can be conferred here.