298. Outside the Camp

“Therefore let us go forth to Him, outside the camp, bearing His reproach.” Heb. 13:13.

There are many opinions about what “the camp” is. Some believe it is the world. But if we look more closely, we see that it was the children of Israel who lived in the camp. They were the people of God who were saved from the darkness of Egypt, but whose relationship to God was such that He was not well pleased with most of them. Several separations were necessary before they could attain God’s good pleasure. The Father said about Jesus: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!” He is the One who has the winnowing fan in His hand, and He will thoroughly purge His threshing floor.

Stephen said about him: “This is he who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the Angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers, the one who received the living oracles to give to us, whom our fathers would not obey, but rejected. And in their hearts they turned back to Egypt, saying to Aaron:

“‘Make us gods to go before us . . . .’ And they made a calf in those days . . . and rejoiced in the works of their own hands. Then God turned and gave them up to worship the host of heaven . . . and you took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan . . . . Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One, of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers, who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it.”

“When they heard these things they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth . . . . Then they cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and ran at him with one accord . . . and stoned him.” Acts 7.

These people and those like them are the ones that are inside the camp. These are the ones we are to go out from.

“Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute?” This also fits well for the Gentiles down through the ages. Which of God’s true witnesses did they not persecute? And those who occupied the highest positions in religious circles were the worst. They have always persuaded a Herod or a Pilate to execute their judgments, because they either did not dare, or have the authority, to do it themselves.

Go out to Him and bear His reproach! In other words, Jesus Christ is reproached. Actually He is reproached by all flesh and by all carnal people, even if they are ever so religious. The way out to Him goes through the flesh, the same flesh where those who are carnal find their honor. But those who live according to the Spirit despise this flesh. They hate it with all their heart. Nothing good dwells in it. Those who live according to the flesh have their city here and do not seek the one to come. We, on the other hand, have no continuing city here, but we seek the one to come. Those who will be part of the city that is to come must also partake in the reproach.

Moses esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward. Heb. 11:26.

You will find the reward that hope gives in the reproach of Christ. There is no reproach when a person is inside the camp, but “all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.” Who is it that persecutes them? Those who are closest to them and those who hope to win them over to their sect or party. Christ does not belong to any party and neither do those who go to Him outside the camp, because a party spirit is from the devil. The devil feels uncomfortable outside the camp with Christ. He cannot stand the reproach of Christ. It is misery for him to be together with people who preach the cross and death over the flesh, because the flesh is his entrance into the soul, which he intends to corrupt.

Being outside the camp and bearing reproach belong together. But there “we have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat.” The tabernacle is the camp. “For the bodies of those animals, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned outside the camp.” Heb. 13:10-11.

The blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest. The soul is in the blood. Jesus poured out His soul outside the camp. Isa. 53:12. There we also get an opportunity to strive against sin to the point of shedding blood, which our heavenly High Priest can then carry into the sanctuary. Bringing the blood into the sanctuary is the same as bringing the soul into the sanctuary, because the soul is in the blood. It is written: “For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul, because the soul is in it.” Lev. 17:11 [Norw.].

In the old covenant, the bodies of the animals were burned up outside the camp. This is an illustration of the new covenant where the body is dead because of sin when Christ lives in us. In other words, it is not our body that is leading us, because sin dwells in the body. The Holy Spirit leads us, since the Spirit is life because of righteousness. The leading of the Spirit brings fire for the flesh.

Here we see clearly that no one who is inside the camp can resist sin unto bloodshed. They are not even allowed to eat from that altar which Paul, the other apostles, and all the saints ate from. Their bodies are not a sacrifice (Rom. 12:1) for the power of the Holy Spirit, that Spirit which strives against the flesh and its lusts.

For the same reason, those inside the camp cannot partake of any of the work of Christ except for reconciliation by the forgiveness of sins. There is no possibility of being conformed to the image of His Son, because this process of conformation takes place under the reproach of Christ outside the camp. That is where we are formed into the likeness of His death and His resurrection. That is where we get to know the death of Christ for us and in us, and we get to know His life for us and in us. For here we are on the receiving end of the high priestly ministry of Jesus Christ as mediator, He who transforms us by His Spirit according to His own image.

Come to Him therefore outside the camp. There you will find Him, not as an exalted bronze serpent, but as a personal life.