Without the Camp and Afar Off
Table of Contents
Without Camp and Afar off
"LET us go forth therefore unto Him with-out the camp, bearing His reproach." Heb. 13:13.
We might well ask several questions regarding the above verse of Scripture:
To whom was this appeal addressed?
Why was it addressed to them?
Can this be applied to us?
If applied to us, what is its true force and meaning?
We shall seek to answer these questions in the fear of the Lord, and for the profit of our souls.
This verse, as the rest of the Epistle to the Hebrews, was addressed to the converted Jews. There are very good reasons to believe that it was written by the Apostle Paul. Although he was the Apostle to the Gentiles, in this case the Spirit of God used him to write a special and direct word to the Jews who had repented of the deed of their nation in rejecting their Messiah. These had accepted the Lord Jesus as their Savior.
Converted Jews were naturally much attached to the Temple and to the Jewish ritual and customs. They had been brought up in that system, much of which was God-given; but now since the rejection of the Lord Jesus, and the rejection of the testimony of the Holy Spirit from a glorified Christ, God was setting the whole system aside. Christianity was not to be a mere adjunct to Judaism, but something entirely new. God was calling out from among the Jews an•d from the Gentiles a people for heaven, with heavenly hopes-not earthly. Christians were to be a people on earth waiting for the Lord to come. They were not to have a religion of forms and ceremonies as did the Jews, but to worship God in the Spirit. Forms and ritual were to be set aside for spiritual sacrifices. All was a direct contrast to what had gone before.
Not only was the Jewish order of things to be set aside, but God was about to judge that guilty nation whose people had boldly said: "His blood be on us and on our children." The sentence of Matt. 22:7,
"He sent forth His armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city," was soon to be carried out. God was about to execute judgment on that guilty people.
The Spirit of God addresses this beautiful and instructive Epistle, Hebrews, to those who believed among the Jews in order to separate them in heart from that which was so soon to fall under the righteous judgment of God. The whole Epistle is one of contrasts. The aim and purpose is to show the Jewish Christians that they had something better. The word "better" occurs many times in the Epistle. They were going to lose nothing by giving up outward forms and ordinances for that which was spiritual and heavenly, because all was better. There is much profit in reading Hebrews, and seeing how all of the God-given Jewish services were but types and shadows of the better things that had now come. All that had been in connection with the earthly sanctuary had served its purpose in pointing on to blessed realities which had now been brought in. Therefore it was no loss to turn to the better things connected with Christ in glory, which had all been brought in through His death and resurrection.
With that foundation laid in the Epistle the Spirit of God gives this earnest appeal to
"Go forth unto Him without the camp." Israel had been referred to as the "camp" many times. As soon as Israel was redeemed and brought out of Egypt we read:
"And the angel of God, which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them." This expression then was easily understood by these converted Jews as applying to Israel and Jerusalem.
They were called to go out from the camp, but not merely from the camp. The call is very definitely to go "unto Him." Therefore, the Lord Jesus must be outside of the camp. When He came into this world He came to Israel. We read that He came unto His own in John 1:11, but His own would not have Him. Finally after being presented to that people in every respect according to the promises and prophecies, He left them and said:
"Your house is left unto you desolate." Matt. 23:38. After that He was taken outside of their religious center, Jerusalem, and crucified "without the gate." Thus we see that the Lord Jesus was no longer in connection with the camp of Israel and their religion of shadows.
There is probably an allusion in Heb. 13:13 to the scene in Ex. 33, where Moses, divinely taught, took a tent and pitched it "without the camp" because the camp had become a defiled place. God could no longer sanction the camp by His presence because it had become defiled by the presence and worship of the golden calf. Moses entered into God's thoughts and not only placed the tabernacle without, but "afar off from the camp." So it was in the day when this Epistle was written to the Christians from among the Hebrews. The camp was defiled and rejected, and Christ was outside of that whole system. Now they were appealed to that they should go outside of it unto Christ.
Those who heeded the call in that day left the Temple, and finally Jerusalem, before it was destroyed by the Roman armies, called in Matt. 22 "His armies." Thus the separation between Christianity and Judaism was completed.
It is only too sad that Christianity should afterward fall under the snare of Judaism, and go back to the outward forms, ceremonies, and ritual which marked the imperfect thing.
The call to go outside of the camp unto Christ, was primarily given to the early Christians in Jerusalem. They had found the better thing in Christianity, and were to leave the mere types and symbols, which in their day had pointed on to Christ, and go out to Him who was now outside of the whole Jewish system.
Now let us refer to our questions:
Can this call to go out be applied to us?
If applied to us, what is its true force and meaning?
In order to best answer these questions we might ask another-
Is there now on earth anything that answers to the camp? Yes, sad to say, there is that which in many respects corresponds to the camp in Israel's day. It is the vast profession of Christianity. Christianity did not long retain its heavenly character, but be came influenced by Judaism, and an earthly religion.
There is no thought in the New Testament of the Church of God on earth taking on the ways of the earthly tabernacle. Israel had a religion, God-given as it was, which was suited to man in the flesh. Man did not need a new birth to enjoy or appreciate the magnificence of the Temple (Luke 21:5), its wonderful furnishings, the sacrifices, the robed priests, the trained singers, etc. All of these things the natural man could and did enjoy. Christianity never had any of these as given by God. We never read of a Christian temple, but on the contrary, the Lord told the woman in the fourth chapter of John, that there was to be no earthly place of worship now. It was to be worship "in spirit and in truth" which should characterize this time. The early Christians came together in private homes, and while in Troas the Apostle Paul preached on the third floor (See Acts 12:12;20:5-11; Rom. 16:5).
We read of the Lord and the Apostles singing a hymn before they went out on the night of His betrayal, but not one slight mention is made in the New Testament of musical instruments connected with Christian worship. We do get exhortations to singing and making melody in our hearts to the Lord, and singing with the understanding in the assembly, but never with the aid of musical instruments. These were proper enough in the past dispensation.
Judaism had priests who stood between the people and God, but the people as a whole could not come near. In true Christianity all saved persons are priests and are fully aualified to approach God directly (1 Peter 2:5). In Hebrews we are exhorted to "draw near." Yet today, Christendom has set up priests and ministers who are above the people, and has divided the Church of God into clergy and laity. This was never the mind of God for those made "nigh by the blood of Christ."
If we look around, we find Christianity housed in fine buildings with their magnificent decorations and ornamentations—all borrowed from the day of types and shadows. We find the best of musical instruments and the finest of talent, supposedly used in the worship of God. The clergy is there and every mark of an earthly religion, but the heavenly character of the Christian has been lost. It is the world and Judaism all mixed up together with Christianity in order to appeal to the natural man.
A man need not be saved to enjoy the fine buildings, services, and oratory found in the professing church. The very truths of God are corrupted and tampered with so that they will be accepted by the majority and suit man as he is. The truth is made palatable, so that memberships can be held.
Furthermore, all kinds of evil have crept into the profession and today every basic truth of God is being denied somewhere in "the camp." The camp today has become as corrupt or worse than it was in Moses' day when he placed the tabernacle "without the camp, afar off from the camp." The Lord Jesus, and the simple truth of a Christian's heavenly calling are outside of the camp of Christendom today.
Dear fellow-Christian, have you heard the Lord's call in such a time to
"Go forth unto Him without the camp"?
To enjoy His approval in this day, one must heed that call. The camp on every hand is defiled, and the call to you is to go outside of it. Your Lord is outside and beckons you to come out to where He is. Some have seen the corruptions within the camp, and have decided to separate from everything and walk alone, but this is not what you and I are called to. The call is "unto Him" as well as "without the camp." There must be a place outside the camp where the Lord is in the midst, and to that you are called.
In Second Timothy when the terrible conditions of the last days are described, the one who would please the Lord is called to separate from the vessels to dishonor. He is called to separation, but it also says to follow "with those that call on the Lord out of a pure heart." You are not called to walk alone, but when evil abounds you are called to separation. You may have to seek the Lord's guidance and direction, to find where He is, but the call is plain.
The camp and all that pertains to it does appeal to the natural man. Each of us has a nature that can be appealed to by beauty, magnificence, music, or oratory; but Christ the Lord who is outside, calls to you and me.
"For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them." Matt. 18:20.
Some may plead that there are Christians in the camp, and this is readily admitted but what has that to do with the call of God? Even in Moses' day when he pitched the tabernacle afar off from the camp, there were some godly Israelites in the camp, and some who prophesied there. There may be godly preachers today in the camp, but if God has called you outside, that is your place. You can leave in the Lord's hand those who are still in the camp, knowing that He knows those who are His: but your place and mine is not only outside, but by the grace of God, afar off from the camp.
May He grant us grace to keep that distance-not in the spirit of boasting or self-confidence. No, let us hang our heads in shame that we have so little valued our Lord and the place where He is. Let us own how little we have enjoyed and walked worthy of our heavenly calling. Our failures and our feeble response, however, are not grounds for lessening the distance from that which has been corrupted.
It may cost you something to walk with the Lord in true separation. Remember, the call in Hebrews adds, "bearing His reproach." Are you prepared for that? Are you willing to bear a little shame for His name? The early disciples rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name. Should not the conscious approval of your Lord and Master be sufficient to sustain you in the midst of reproach? Some real Christians may not understand you, and think you are narrow, but ask yourself solemnly whose favor and approval you seek.
Dear young Christian, if God in His grace has called you to that place where the Lord is, outside the camp, may you seek His help to walk worthy of Him who is there. Furthermore, may you not be enticed back into the camp because of some friends there, or to hear some special man who preaches in the camp. The Lord's word of exhortation to some who received His approval is:
"Hold that fast which thou halt, that no man take thy crown." Rev. 3:11.
Value the truth of God, and hold it fast. This would not be said if there were no danger of letting it slip.