Outside The Camp

Do you remember summer campfires? How our bodies we warm on one side and cold on the other? How everything in the glow of the fire was visible and warm and how, just beyond the warm glow of the campfire, it was dark and filled with incredibly scary things.

Back in Biblical days, life inside the camp of Israel was pretty good. But anytime you got sent outside the camp by the priest, well, it was never a good thing.

"The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp. 12And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. 13Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. 14For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come." - Hebrews 13:11-14

Jesus was crucified outside "the camp", outside of Jerusalem. That's why he had to walk there, carrying His cross. Sinful people were taken outside the camp to be banished, stoned or killed. Jesus, although sinless Himself, carried our sins (His cross) outside of the camp where He was killed. For us.

Jesus carried your sins and mine so that we might have eternal life. Contemplate that as you put away the Christmas decorations. Without Jesus we would have been sent outside the camp to die. Every last one of us.

There are billions of sinners in the world, both past and present. Jesus' death covered them all - a worthy sacrifice in the eyes of God. And how do we repay such a great gift? By continuing to sin? We should be on our knees, begging forgiveness, for ignoring what God did for us.

Let us start off the new year in prayer. Then let us obey God's commands. "Act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." - Micah 6:8