Deuteronomy 23:9-14

hey hey good morning good morning welcome to coffee and devotions this morning we're at Deuteronomy chapter 23: 9-14 talk about what it means to be clean in the camp let's have some coffee we'll pray and get into God's word let's pray father we thank you so much for this day we thank you for your word and Lord we pray for that your Holy Spirit would please help us as we read your word that we would understand it Lord but not just that we would understand it but you would teach us how it applies to us today and how it should give us hope in Jesus's name we pray amen all right Deuteronomy chapter 203: 9-4 when the army goes out against your enemies then keep yourself from every Wicked thing if there is any man among you who becomes unclean by some occurrence in the night then he shall go outside the camp he shall not Camp inside the camp but it shall be when evening comes that he shall wash with water and when the sun sets he may come into the camp also when you have a place outside the camp where you may go out and you shall have an Implement among your equipment and when you sit down outside you shall dig with it and turn and cover your refuge for the Lord your God walks in the midst of your Camp to deliver you and judge and give your enemies over to you Therefore your Camp shall be holy that he may see no unclean thing among you and turn away from you wow it's an interesting passage we need to ask ourselves our three questions a what's this about B what's the best verse to summarize this and C what are we called to do so a what is this about well there's really two situations here number one you're going to go out to war you have a camp with a whole bunch of dudes right maybe hygiene type stuff seems to go out the window maybe even Purity laws may be tempted to go out the window not for the Israelites so even when you're camping out for war and you're outside and the encampment of the Israelites and a guy has a nocturnal emissions a wet dream he's got to be unclean right and this this takes this is often a personal thing means he's got to go outside the camp himself he's got to be a man of integrity this way and just say okay I'm going to go out I'm going to wash I'm going to be outside the camp for for a night and then I'll be able to come back in and then uh second one is when they're out War even within the encampment and and they're going to have to go do the duty right they got to they got to go number two they got to use the bathroom don't do it in the middle of the camp right go outside the camp and outside the camp there you go you go to the bathroom and you don't just leave it sitting on the top of the ground right but you actually dig a hole you bury it and you keep yourself clean right so this is what the Lord's doing question is why why right well that's what verse 14 gets for the Lord your God walks in the midst of your Camp to deliver you and give your enemies over to you Therefore your Camp shall be holy that he may see no unclean thing among you and turn away from you that's what I have underlined as the best verse for this this is the why right why if there's somebody who has nocturnal admissions or if they need to go to the bathroom you need to bury your poop right it's because the Lord is a God who is Holy who is clean who is pure he walks in their midst he's he's with them and so they need to keep the camp clean because he's holy he's pure he's clean and they are to be like him so here's the hard part see calling what are we called to do where does this show us Christ right does that mean right we need to go outside and and go to the bathroom or you know if we have some type of of bodily Omission we got to we got to leave the house and go camp out in the wilderness I don't think that's the case today I think these Purity laws are are fulfilled in Christ I think again there's three different types of laws we generally see in the Old Testament one is moral law right that's the you shall not commit adultery you shall not steal you shall not kill shall not make for yourself uh graven images right those types of laws are the moral laws they're unchanging then we have the sunry laws the Civil laws these are the ones that Nathan and I will go over tomorrow where there's all sorts of different things and situations and stuff like that I think those are have general principles behind them but they they're not bound to us today because we're not Israel today and then we have Purity or ceremonial laws and those are the ones like here and so we find even dietary laws are part of the Purity laws and those are fulfilled in Christ is what the book of Hebrews tells us and so we don't need to follow those anymore or we go to the book of Acts and we see that the different dietary restrictions God has declared all things clean and so do not say what is unclean what I have declared clean and so I don't think these laws still bind us in the same way although I do think I just this is one of those commentators go on this sometimes a little bit too long but it's interesting to note that these hi these ceremonial laws are often very good for Hygiene right uh one of the reasons why there was massive diseases in the Middle Ages is because they forgot the art of sewage people would just throw their waste out their window into the middle of the street yuck and disease and gross right not so with Israel even when they're camping go out and bury it but the the reason why wasn't for the hygiene the reason why was because God walked in their midst and they needed to not be unclean a stench before him L he turn away from them and I think in our lives we should take that principle and maybe ask what is there unclean in our lives are there things in our lives that are morally reprehensible to the Lord do we treat our bodies forgetting that we are a temple unto the unto God himself do you not know that you're a temple of God and the spirit of God Lives within you therefore glorify God with your bodies I do we take these things seriously that God has called us to be holy as he is Holy you look down on your life and say you know you walk like one of my clean ones because you're one of my children not of a trying to earn your salvation type way but does he can you see there is a qualitative difference in your life of the pagans around you let's pray father we thank you so much for the joy we have in Jesus Lord we thank you that you have made us clean you have Sanctified us you have washed Us in the blood of the Lamb Lord we pray that we would be quick to confess our sins for Lord we cannot say we are without sin but Lord we would be lying and we would make you a liar so father we confess to you the unclean places in our lives I pray that you would forgive us Lord we pray that your spirit would us turn away from that uncleanness and walk in Holiness thank you for washing Us in the blood of the lamb and forgiving us of all of our unrighteousness in Jesus's name we pray amen well may you know that when you gather together in the name of Jesus Christ he is still walking in our m he is with us and in us and he is caring for you today have Hope Christian I'll see you next time bye