Reading: Deuteronomy 23:9-25
Please read this passage before you
begin the article.

When you go out as an army against your enemies,
you shall keep yourself from every evil thing.
Deut. 23:9 NAS

It is God's extravagant desire to
"show Himself strong in the behalf of those whose
hearts are perfect toward Him." 

The scriptural God is always interested in our human wars.
The god of our puny invention removes himself from
human struggle.

The real One is with us. In it all.
Not distant Watcher but a
near and real Participant.
He calls for conflicts, He enters them and He solves them.
God is a present God in wartime. 

Our Father has His purposes that override the conflict and
overrule His enemies.
He has His methods and plans for protecting His friends
and for showing Himself real.
Even miraculous! 

Training is not might. It is merely knowledge and preparedness.
Weapons are not protection to the person or the group.
They are merely tools held by those who
must be held by God.

In preparing for battle,
know what God requires as well as your Captain.
Know what engages God with you in war,
what entreats Him to defend you, right beside you. 

This He requires for His presence
to dwell in the camp of the military: holiness.

Moses prepared Israel for their many wars.
His manual of war was instruction by the Almighty.
It had nothing to do with weapons or skill . . .
only with purity.

In the most practical level of real living -
knowing the earthiness of humanity -
the Lord gave the solutions to
our common impurities.

There was to be washing from sexual impurity.
The cleansing water of the Word of God
by seeing the holiness of His standard.
Washing the soul from base desires and
cleansing the mind from the stain of them:
the ever fresh power of the Spirit
to ignite the scriptures for this moment.
The charge was given to bury refuse,
outside the camp.
Meticulous order: for health but also for spirit.
Bury, out of sight, the refuse of just living.

For the Lord your God walks in the midst of your camp,     
to deliver you and give your enemies over to you,
therefore your camps shall be holy,
that He may see no unclean thing among you,
and turn away from you.
Deut. 23:14 NKJ  

These are symbols of covering sin with the
Blood of Christ the Lamb who alone was
holy among men
and whose purity is our gift.
Sin, accessed and buried
by faith in the Cross.
This is righteousness.
Only by God's vast forgiveness is holiness.

The instructions continue to include
rectitude with others,
moral purity and
fair dealings.
Righteousness in practical living.

Holiness is a gift of Christ.
It is neither in our nature nor our ability.
The gift of literal innocence waits for
the humility of need through moral poverty.

So all can prepare for war's bloodshed by
taking Jesus' Holy Blood first.
No matter the sin, God gives the way that
you can prepare for His eye to watch
and His steps to walk in the camp of the soldier,
the deck of the sailor,
the plane of the pilot . . .
and the secret place of the agent.

The Word, for cleansing by seeing.
The Blood, for burying and forgetting.

The unshakable, undeniable,
unequivocal promise of the New Covenant through Jesus . . . .

For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness,    
and their sins and their lawless deeds
I will remember no more.
Hebrews 8:12 NKJ  

Forgiveness brings holiness.
The Blood of the Lamb covers sin so completely
that God has no obstacle to being God.

But there must be actual righteousness and
genuine integrity in real living.
Scripture is clear, we are to live in practical goodness
and moral rectitude.
Because of Christ's life we must.
By Christ's life we can.

Before Christ, came John the Baptist.
Crying for repentance. Shouting for purity.
Pleading for goodness.
All of which created the need for God
that is the open door to His arrival.

"Only God is good" but I am called to embody His rightness
by repentant despair of my wrongness.
Nothing less than actual holiness by
the power of Another's holiness is enough.
Ever the standard is Christ Himself and
Christ Himself is His own fulfillment in me.
I only need to need His purity
by the absolute deficit of my own. 

It is possible for Christ to be present and
I, blind and unbenefited by His nearness.
How could they who saw Him miss such a God?
Simply by the presence of tolerated sin.
Sin is blindness and guilt is separation from God.

His inward presence is my strength.
His outward power is my victory.

My weakness and trembling are His invitation.
My purity is by confession and reception:
confession of my sin and
the receiving of His purity
as my own practical integrity for everyday living.
Then comes His intervening presence,
walking with me
taking on my battles, and my enemy.
Giving me wisdom and direction by an explicit voice. 

Moses, the best of humanity, could not go into the Land
of God's rest and victory.
Only Joshua, a picture of Christ Himself, can
enter the Rest, win the War.
Another Life, not mine.
Holiness by gift.

Let the camp be holy - with Christ's character
and the Lamb's blood -
that God might walk in the
midst of those who stand on the front lines
to defeat their enemies Himself!

Copyright © 2003 Martha Kilpatrick