The Lord Walks Among the Camp

Many of us grew up hearing our parents say, “Cleanliness is next to godliness,” especially when they wanted us to clean up, put things in order, and take care of our surroundings.

Those words became familiar to us as children, for they were words of correction, yet they were also words of instruction, teaching us that what surrounds us matters and that we should not be careless with what has been entrusted to us.

Now, while those exact words are not found in Scripture, when we look at Deuteronomy 23:12 to 14, we discover there is a biblical principle behind what they were teaching us.

God gave Moses instructions concerning the camp of Israel, and the first thing to see is where they are.

When the host goeth forth against thine enemies. This is an army in the field. Now read what He tells them.

A place without the camp. A paddle upon thy weapon. Dig, and cover. Three plain instructions to men going out to war.

The lexicons give the word behind paddle as yated, the same word that turns up for the pins of the tabernacle. I am not going to build anything on that. What I make of it is that the plainest thing in the soldier’s hand had holiness fastened to it.

At first, someone may look at this passage and think God was only teaching Israel about cleanliness and sanitation. But God gives the reason behind the instruction:

Now read the whole reason, because God gives it in one breath. He walks in the midst. He delivers. THEREFORE shall thy camp be holy. The therefore is His, not mine. A covered hole keeps a camp fit to live in, and He does not deny that. What He puts under it is Himself walking there.

This is a military camp, and verse 9 says so. Men in the field, away from home, with an enemy in front of them. And the Lord Himself walked in the middle of it. The God of heaven and earth was saying, “I walk among you.”

Think about that.

Because God walked among them, this one small and private matter came under the holiness of the camp. And here is what I take from that. If He brought THIS under it, I cannot read holiness as a thing belonging only to public worship.

He was not only after their victory. He was after the condition of the place He was walking in.

The question is no longer about the physical camp of Israel, it is about the spiritual camp of God’s people today. Paul reminds us:

Ye are the temple of God. And note that Paul’s YE is the church he is writing to, more than one of them, not a man on his own. What I take from it is that the walking in the midst did not stop when the camp came down. And when I turn it on myself in a moment, that turning is mine and not Paul’s sentence. Peter continues:

And conversation in the King James is the old word for a manner of life, not only the words of the mouth. Read it that way and Peter is asking for the whole of it. Peter gives the reason himself, and it is one reason. He which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy. That I set His presence with us beside it is my joining, out of Deuteronomy.

It reaches into our homes, our conversations, our relationships, our thoughts, our attitudes and our actions.

God was concerned about a war camp, in the field, over a thing no one else would ever see.

And He was not only the God of the tent of meeting. He was walking through the latrine end of a war camp.

That is why the words our parents spoke to us as children carry such a powerful lesson today. When they said, “Cleanliness is next to godliness,” they were pointing us toward a truth that Scripture reveals, that when God is present, our lives should reflect honor and respect for Him.

So the question for us today is this: if the Lord walked through the camp of my life, what would He find? Would He find a life that honors His presence?

Would He find areas that have been cared for, surrendered, and placed in order?

Or would He find things we have ignored, hidden, or allowed to remain that do not reflect the holiness of the One who walks among us?

Reflection Questions

The greatest lesson from this passage is this: God was not only concerned about Israel’s victories, He was concerned about the condition of the camp, because the God who gave them victory was the same God who walked among them.

And today, the same God still walks among His people. And note the order in Deuteronomy. He was already walking there. The holiness was commanded because He was, and not to bring Him. So may our lives be a camp that answers a God who is already in it.