Deuteronomy

God in the Camp

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Pentateuch

Lesson: 74-110

Genre: Talk

Track: 074

Dictation Name: RR187AN74

Location/Venue:

Year: 1993

Let us worship God. Our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth. I beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation where with you are called, with all lowliness and meekness, for bearing one another in love and endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. Let us pray.

Almighty God our Heavenly Father we come into Thy presence, once again rejoicing in Thy mercies of the week past. We thank Thee that we can walk in the certainty of Thy government, knowing that Thou art before and behind us, with us and around us. To undertake for us in all the problems and perplexities of life. We thank Thee that although we are often perplexed all things are light unto Thee and all things are of Thine ordination. Give us grace therefore to walk by faith that we may be more than conquerors in Christ. In His name we pray, Amen.

Our scripture is Deuteronomy 23:7-14 as we continue our studies in Deuteronomy, our subject: God in the Camp. Deuteronomy 23:7-14.

“ Thou shalt not abhor an Edomite; for he is thy brother: thou shalt not abhor an Egyptian; because thou wast a stranger in his land.

8 The children that are begotten of them shall enter into the congregation of the Lord in their third generation.

9 When the host goeth forth against thine enemies, then keep thee from every wicked thing.

10 If there be among you any man, that is not clean by reason of uncleanness that chanceth him by night, then shall he go abroad out of the camp, he shall not come within the camp:

11 But it shall be, when evening cometh on, he shall wash himself with water: and when the sun is down, he shall come into the camp again.

12 Thou shalt have a place also without the camp, whither thou shalt go forth abroad:

13 And thou shalt have a paddle upon thy weapon; and it shall be, when thou wilt ease thyself abroad, thou shalt dig therewith, and shalt turn back and cover that which cometh from thee:

14 For the Lord thy God walketh in the midst of thy camp, to deliver thee, and to give up thine enemies before thee; therefore shall thy camp be holy: that he see no unclean thing in thee, and turn away from thee.”

These are very practical laws of holiness. In verses seven through eight we see very clearly the biblical perspective on various alien peoples and here two are specifically named, the Edomites and Egyptians. Now first the Edomites were a people related to the Hebrews and therefore not to be hated. The Hebrew word translated as ‘abhor’ in our text means to loath or detest. Such nationalistic or racial hatred against the Edomites and Egyptians is condemned. The Edomite is a related person, but the Egyptian is to be treated honestly and kindly because thou wast a stranger in his land. Of course they were very badly treated in Egypt, they were enslaved, now if the covenant people treat an Egyptian as the Egyptians treated them they are then no better than the Egyptians. As God’s covenant people they must represent a higher standard. Now second, this does not mean that the sins and shortcomings of such aliens are to be overlooked. Their religion and morality makes them culturally a lower people in terms of God’s standard and as the Bible looks at the various peoples of that time it makes a difference between one nation and another but no more than we are allowed to be hateful and bigoted towards aliens, are we allowed to disregard their serious offenses against God and His law. In other words, we cannot be bigoted against any group, neither can we say of any group, ‘well all people are the same therefore we cannot make any distinctions’. There are differences, moral, religious differences.

So while we must give all people Godly respect we must also recognize that time is required before they are on the same level as the covenant people. As Paul tells the people to whom he’s writing ‘what are you that you have not received? And if you have received it, why be boastful thereof?’ We are what we are because of God’s grace to us and our forefathers and therefore we are to see the differences in terms of faith, in terms of God’s grace. These alien peoples who are culturally lower their children of the third generation of faithfulness, the covenant; they then may enter the congregation. This applied to certain peoples who are rather depraved. They could after three generations function as covenant members. This did not say they could not be believers and worship with the rest but they could not be voting members to put it in modern language in church and state. God through Isaiah tells Israel that their great enemy, the Egyptian, will in time be brought into the kingdom and will be faithful members of God’s covenant. Now in most of history the attitude towards aliens has been unrealistic. It has gone from hating them for their feelings to accepting them uncritically as though morality requires that we overlook their sins and their shortcomings. But there are differences, cultural, moral, religious differences between people. You cannot put someone whose background is Ammonism and cannibalism on the same level as yourself. You can see him as equally God’s creation, made in His image, you have a moral responsibility to him, but that does not mean overlooking his shortcomings. To hate other nationalities and races is to forget that only God’s saving grace makes us any different. To refuse to recognize that differences exist because of that heritage of faith and morals is both to blind ourselves and to lower ourselves.

If we refuse to recognize the moral delinquencies of others it is because we are unwilling to face up to our own apostasies and failures. If we say the difference is because we are white American and they are not we are failing to recognize that the difference is the grace of God to our forefathers and to us. To fail to see sin is itself a sin and a fatal one. Again, the see no evil policy is morally wrong. Verses nine through fourteen are essentially one law whose theme is holiness in the camp. Wartime is usually the occasion of a lessening of morality both on the warfront and at home. All too often it takes at least a generation and sometimes longer for a country to recuperate from the lower wartime moral behavior. Go through history and I can think of but one exception, Cromwell’s army. Wars have lowered the caliber of morality at home and on the military front. Now as against that kind of thing this law insists on an intensified moral standard during the war. In fact, it says at the front with the troops there must be the highest kind of morality. It begins with the troops. How can they have God’s blessing if they do not meet the highest moral standards? If it applies to the troops it must surely then apply to all who are at home. As a boy, I recall a neighborhood boy whose uncle insisted that the best time of his life was in Europe in World War One. He was very graphic in saying why it was so, it was because there was no church or family to keep him in line and he went morally hog wild. He gloried in the fact that he had as he said more freedom and more fun, meaning that he was free from moral standards. And this man also insisted that many veterans agreed with him but felt it was unwise to say so, it was better to say war is hell.

However true his opinion was when he generalized about other veterans, it is a fact that only rarely do men in wartime show a high moral standard. I mentioned as a notable example, an exception, Cromwell’s army of whom the historian McNally who was not favorable to the puritans all the same wrote and I quote:

“The troops were now to be disbanded, fifty thousand men accustomed to the profession of army for at once thrown on the world and experience seemed to warrant the belief that this change would produce much misery and crime, that the discharged veterans would be seen begging at every street or that they would be driven by hunger to pillage. But no such result followed and in a few months there remained not a trace indicating that the most formidable army in the world had just been absorbed into the mass of the community. The royalists themselves confessed that in every department of honest industry the discarded warriors prospered above other men, that none was charged with any theft or robbery, that none was heard to ask an alms and that if a baker, a mason or a wagoner attracted notice by his diligence and sobriety he was in all probability one of Oliver’s old soldiers.” Unquote.

Cromwell’s army moved in faithfulness to God’s law and our text. Its chaplains worked to make the men mindful of what verse fourteen tells us, the Lord thy God walketh in the midst of thy camp. The origin of the chaplaincy, itself, is in the requirement that God’s covenant people require holiness in the military camp. Veterans in various countries have been feared in the course of history. In this country after the civil war the frontier absorbed a lot of them and a lot of the wildness of the frontier towns was due to these men. After the two world wars benefits were forthcoming for veterans and especially after World War Two to try and prevent the massive social problems that a post war society has. The law requires first separation from the camp if any man is in any way involved in any evil thing. We see an example of how strictly this was applied in the case of Gideon in the time of the Judges. In the case of Gideon the separation was first from fearful men who were asked to go home. Twenty two thousand did and ten thousand remained. Of these ten thousand only three hundred were retained because they alone were serious and militarily observant. Failure to take their soldiering seriously had eliminated the rest and God blessed those who stayed. Every evil or wicked thing included also failure to take one’s duty seriously. Then second, nocturnal sexual emissions required a separation until evening with bathing. This law seems strange till we recognize that in a strong sense holiness is required of all the men. Their military duties involved the risk of their lives, their closeness to death required strict standards of holiness.

If the cause is worth dying for it certainly requires holy living. Recognizing this fact is basic to knowing the meaning of this law. American chaplains in the war of Independence strongly stressed holiness. There have been things written on that war with respect to the chaplaincy and the men, more needs to be done because it was so remarkable. Then third, strict sanitation is also required. The paddle referred to in verse thirteen was more like a spear or a bayonet head designed to make digging possible. Feces were to be covered so the digging before and the covering after was mandatory. The cleanliness of the camp was a religious duty as well as a sanitary one. Epidemics among soldiers have been common over the centuries. Troops maintaining the discipline of God’s law have been normally free of this problem. In Israel a safe area outside the camp was designated for such purposes. In verse fourteen we have the reasons stated for these laws: clearly the human benefits are real and important and clearly the health of the men is safe guarded. The basic reason however is that God is in the camp. He is there to deliver His people and to protect them, therefore shall thy camp be holy, that He see no unclean thing in thee and turn away from thee. The presence of God with His people is no merely figurative image. It states a very real fact. God is always closer to us than we are to ourselves. We cannot treat this fact casually, we are always totally in His providential care and government, especially when men go to war to defend God’s covenant and people from ungodly nations we are to recognize His vivid presence.

But this is an alien concept to modern man who finds it difficult to take seriously God’s presence in church or anywhere else. But we are told here that any godly military action requires holiness on the part of the troops. God is in the camp and it is dangerous to forget this. We can never separate ourselves from God nor shut Him out of our lives. Psalm 1:39 is a magnificent statement of this. Holiness in every area of life and thought is necessary because God is in every camp and in every place. Let us pray.

Our Father, we thank Thee for Thy word. We thank Thee our Father that Thou art always near, that Thy presence is given to us, promised to us, and inescapable for us. Grant that we live mindful that Thou art the living ever present God. In Christ’s name, Amen.

Are there any questions now about our lesson? Yes?

[Question unintelligible]

[Rushdoony] That’s right.

[Same person] God’s judgment would be incurred.

[Rushdoony] Yes. Washington would be kicked out of the army today because of his disciplinary requirements. Any man who used profanity was to be lashed thirty times, whipped, thirty strikes. And he took it seriously because he felt that it would bring on God’s wrath. Now of course some scholars like to call attention to that fact that on one occasion Washington went into a rage and swore at the troops and officers because they turned tail and ran and he tried to prevent them and told them what he thought of them. That’s the only occasion known that Washington was profane. Any other questions? Yes?

[Question] For when Jesus called Hared a fox wasn’t that like a certain what we would call certain swearing words?

[Rushdoony] No he was just calling attention to the fact that here was a man and the word had the connotation it has today, of being foxy, always looking for an advantage for himself, had only one consideration, what’s in it for me. That was the premise of the Hared family, they were by the way Edomites or as they were called then Edominens. So it was a very mild description of Hared, he could have used stronger language.

Any other questions or comments? Well if not let us conclude with prayer.

Our Father, we thank Thee that in this present darkness Thy light shines forth and Thy glory is undiminished and Thy word untarnished. Make us strong in faith and resolute in Thy service that we might be Thine instruments to the overthrowing of the things that are¸ the things that can be shaken so that only those things that cannot be shaken might remain. And now go in peace, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost, bless you and keep you, guide and protect you, this day and always, Amen.