If there be with thee a man that is not clean from what hath happened in the night, then shall he go outside the camp; he shall not come inside the camp;
Israel's army is on the march, and God gives a law about a man's body in the night. The rule is small. Yet it raises the real question: why should something no one chose and no one saw put a soldier outside the camp?
This law sits in the section on going out to fight, where urgent work might crowd out small concerns. One writer answers that excuse:
Next we have Israel going out to war, and here men might plead the work in hand as a reason for not caring about minor things. God does not think so. He insists on the most careful purity. Is not God with them their strength? What is all their human might worth if, because of their ways, He cannot show Himself for them?
The men in the tents do not set the standard. The One who moves among them sets it, and that changes what counts as fitting:
There is also a ban on anything improper and unfitting for the camp. What camp? The camp of Israel? Of course, but much more. It was natural that there should be weakness in a camp of men. That is not the question. The question is this: is it not the camp of the LORD? Whatever allowance there may be when we remember that we are men, God would have His people trained up in the feeling that they have Him in their midst. Everything must be decided by what suits His presence.
The chapter gives the reason a few verses later:
But one great fact was always to stand before every member of the congregation of Israel — God's presence among them. This fact was to govern their most private habits and give character to all their ways. "Because the LORD your God walks in the midst of your camp, to deliver you and to give up your enemies before you, therefore your camp must be holy, so that he may not see anything indecent among you and turn away from you." (Deut. 23:14.)
Nothing here counts as a crime. The man did not sin in his sleep. Yet one writer, on the matching laws about bodily discharges, explains why what cannot be avoided still makes a person unclean:
Other cases connected with the weakness of nature are also mentioned. They point out that, since sin has come in, everything that belongs to nature, to the flesh, defiles. That is true whatever excuse there may be about weakness, and about the fact that the thing cannot be avoided. If it cannot be avoided, it still shows, or at least proves the existence of, what is shameful, because the nature is fallen and sinful.
The exclusion is real but short, and a simple remedy comes with it:
Israel's camp was to be kept clean. If something in the night made a person unclean, he was to go outside the camp. He stayed there until the washing of water in the evening cleansed him (vv. 10-11)... So we are reminded that whatever spiritual good there may be in our lives, there are excesses we must get rid of... For God was in the camp, and in His presence there is no place for uncleanness.
Water, not blood, is what this man needs. One writer ties that to a cleansing believers need again and again:
There is a cleansing that may be repeated... washing with water. "Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word." As to its substance, this cannot be repeated. The one whose body has been bathed all over, as the priests were washed when they were set apart, needs only to wash his feet; he is completely clean... When we have been sanctified and renewed by the word, we still pick up dirt as we walk. Then the Spirit applies the word to the conscience, Christ being our Advocate. We are humbled, we confess, we are cleansed as to the state of our souls, purified in thought and heart, and communion is restored.
The camp is gone. The reason behind the law has come closer:
Cleanness and purity had to be kept in Israel's camp. They were always to remember that the LORD their God walked in the middle of their camp. For this reason all uncleanness of the body counted as an evil thing. The Lord gave even instructions like these, because He wanted His people to be clean and set apart for Himself. And how right it is for us to pay attention to all these things. The LORD is not only with us, in the midst of His people; God the Holy Spirit has made our bodies His temples.
- Presence. The rule rests on one fact: God walks in the camp. Everything is decided by what suits Him being there.
- Pressure. War is the classic excuse for letting small things slide. God asks for the most careful purity right then.
- Pollution. No one committed a crime. Yet what comes out of fallen nature defiles, even when no one could avoid it.
- Provision. Out of the camp, washed with water, back by evening — exclusion is never the last word; cleansing is provided.
- Personal. The body is now the temple of the Holy Spirit, so the camp's holiness has become a daily, personal matter.
and it shall be, towards evening, he shall bathe in water and at the going down of the sun he may come inside the camp.
Something happens to a man in the night, and he has to leave Israel's war camp. This verse is his way back — and it raises two questions: why does God care about something so private and so accidental, and why does He open a road back in?
Commentators tie these camp rules to one fact: God Himself was walking among His people.
What a precious privilege to have Jehovah walking in their midst! What a reason to keep their conduct pure, and to be careful and decent in their persons and their home life! If He was in their midst to secure victory over their enemies, He was also there to demand holiness of life. They were never, for one moment, to forget the majestic Person who walked up and down in their midst.
William Kelly presses the same point by asking whose camp it really was.
It was natural that there should be weakness in a camp of men. But that is not the question. The question is whether it is also the camp of Jehovah. God makes allowance, because He remembers that we are men. Even so, He would have His people trained to feel that He is among them, and that everything must be decided by what suits His presence.
A rule this specific can look beneath God's dignity. Mackintosh reads it the opposite way — as proof of how far God's care for His people reaches.
No mother could be more careful of the habits and manners of her little child than the Almighty Creator and moral Ruler of the universe was of the smallest details in the daily life of His people. By day and by night, waking and sleeping, at home and abroad, He looked after them. He saw to their clothing, their food, and their manners and ways toward one another. He told them how to build their houses, how to plough and sow their ground, and how to behave in the deepest privacy of their personal life. He provided for all of it, in a way that fills us with wonder, love and praise.
The steps are plain, and they belong to a cluster of instructions about keeping the camp clean.
Israel had to keep its camp clean. If something happened in the night that made a person unclean, he had to go outside the camp until the evening, when washing with water made him clean again (vs.10-11)... for God was in the camp, and in His presence there is no place for uncleanness.
These verses sit inside instructions for an army on campaign — the very moment when a soldier might argue he has bigger things to think about.
Next we have Israel going out to war. Here men might plead the work in hand as an excuse for taking little care over smaller things. God does not think so. He insists on the most careful purity. Is not God with them their strength? What is all their human might worth, if their ways leave Him unable to show Himself for them? The lesson is very simple, and the reasoning cannot be argued with. Yet have His people learnt it?
Writers repeatedly connect this bathing in water to the cleansing Christ still carries out for His own. It is not a second forgiveness but a restored walk.
But there is a cleansing which may be repeated... washing with water. "You are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you." "Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word."... The word sanctifies and renews us by the truth that Christ's death and His place in heaven give us. Even so, we still pick up dirt as we walk. So the Spirit applies the word to our conscience, with Christ acting as our Advocate. We are humbled, we confess, and our souls are cleansed morally, purified in thought and heart. Then communion is restored.
God Himself supplies the cleansing, but it has to be used.
In His grace, God has made full provision for removing the uncleanness that His holiness detects and condemns. But the uncleanness must go, or communion is impossible... The Christian can never be cut off from Christ. But a single sinful thought can interrupt his communion. He must judge and confess that thought, and clear away its stain, before communion can be restored.
- Presence. God walked in the camp, so what suited His presence decided everything.
- Detail. The God who holds the universe together cared about a soldier's most private night.
- Campaign. Battle was no excuse for slackness. Their strength was God's presence, not their numbers.
- Provision. Water at evening meant the defilement had an appointed end — exclusion was never the last word.
- Restoration. The washing points to the word cleansing a believer's walk. The bond with Christ holds; communion waits on confession.