A Holy Camp

Deuteronomy 23:12-14

12 Designate a place outside the camp where you can go to relieve yourself. 13 As part of your equipment have something to dig with, and when you relieve yourself, dig a hole and cover up your excrement. 14 For the LORD your God moves about in your camp to protect you and to deliver your enemies to you. Your camp must be holy, so that he will not see among you anything indecent and turn away from you.

Observation:
     Honestly, some passages of scripture are more difficult to think about than others. One who is cynical might wonder why God would be so upset about this issue. After all everyone has to go to the bathroom eventually. It seems clear that many of these laws that Moses is sharing with the Israelites are about one of the two great commandments. Either they relate to Loving God with all one soul, mind, body, and strength, or they relate to loving ones neighbor has him/herself.
     In this case, I believe it is both (perhaps in every case). This command has in important sanitary value to it. If people get lazy and simply have their movement any place they like and do nothing to clean it up, the community would soon become full of disease, not to mention the oder would be unbearable. Nobody wants to step in, well you know, and neither does God. Of course God's concern is not that he would step in it. It seems that God is more concerned that the Israelites think enough of others to make sure they are not affected by another's actions. The concern is that one has not taken care or been thoughtful of their actions that have made the land unlivable. God would have led them to the place they camped and they couldn't even keep it clean enough to live in. This is a lack of stewardship and ultimately a lack of love for God.

Application:
     I am pretty put out when I walk into my back yard and a neighbors dog has decided my yard is its toilet. It is even worse if I haven't looked before I have stepped. But what about human poo. That would just be disgusting. However, that is not the mess we have to deal with in the world where I live. No, human poo looks very different today. In the community of believers we often find that attitudes, selfish desires, gossip, etc., make the camp unbearable. Sometimes it is the inconsiderate behavior of another that we step into and then disease begins to breakout in the church.
     Deuteronomy is as much about community as it is about God. I do not have enough control over others to make them obey the Lord; however, I can bear patiently, suffer-long with them, encourage, etc. Also, I can monitor my own actions, responses, and attitudes. In any church, there must be an agreement of the people that we will work together to keep the community holy, clean, set apart from the filth of life. This does not mean we push the world away from us. It mean when the Body of Christ gathers we must keep the dwelling place of God clean. Not a building; rather, it is my heart. For God moves in our lives to protect us and watch over us. If I am filled with, well, junk, then others will step in my stuff. Certainly, I don't want my stuff defiling anyone.

Prayer:
     Lord, thank you for watching over my heart. Thank you for dwelling within me to protect and reveal any unclean thing. Forgive me for not burying any impure thing; through repentance. Help me to surrender any unclean way in my life. Help me to forgive others who have also, missed the mark. As I look at others may my flaws be revealed to me so that I may correct them. Jesus make me holy so that you might walk the streets of my heart and defend me from the enemy. - Amen