Purifying The Camp
“Command the children of Israel, that they put out of the camp every leper, and every one that has an issue, and whoever is defiled by the dead: Both male and female shall you put out, without the camp shall you put them; that they defile not their camps, in the middle whereof I dwell.” (Numbers 2-3)
Chapter 5 deals with purifying both the camp and the people. The laws spoken of here for ridding the encampment of certain impurities were not because they were physically contagious nor because they could lead to disease, it was more about God dwelling in the midst of them.
This vigilant care to maintain external cleanliness in the people was typically designed to teach them the practice of moral purity, or cleansing themselves from all filthiness of the flesh. These regulations made for ensuring cleanliness in the camp suggest the adoption of similar means for maintaining purity in the church.
Today this might look like removing known sin from the church (for a time) in love. This becomes just as necessary to the moral purity of the body, as the exclusion of the leper was, to the physical health and ceremonial purity in the Jewish church.
However, remember upon cleansing, the people were always allowed to return to the body. Sin does separate us from fellowship with God but, “with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:10) making restoration into the body possible.
The Truth
“Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted.” (Galatians 6:1)
