Without the Camp

"And Moses took the tabernacle and pitched it without the camp, afar off from the camp, and called it the Tabernacle of the congregation."

We have heard so many representations of what it means to go without the camp; however, one seems to be most consistent. There is a camp that pervades all that is human and originates with the first Adam. That camp is naturalism, the realm of natural-as opposed to spiritual-things. Men in the quest for meaning have grown to be very dependent upon natural things. Natural worship and religious systems profligate and many are carried away.

While Moses was upon the mount in a spiritual exchange with God, the children of Israel below engaged in an abandoned worship of a golden calf. They could see the calf, they could touch it; it was something natural.

Today, there is much the same situation with many natural forms of religion, but only one place of spiritual growth. Moses pitched the Tabernacle of the congregation without the camp. This speaks of the Corporate Body of Jesus, Christ. The Body of Christ is a spiritual place afar off from all that is natural. We are besought to go forth unto Him without the camp, to forsake that which is natural for the life in the Corporate Body of Christ. This does not mean leave your church; it simply means leave your attachment to those things which are natural.