Outside the Norm and the Camp

I receive more phone calls from people who want advice about how to deal with the bad behavior of annoying people in their lives and from people who worry about being judged harshly by Jesus for their own bad behavior than from people who are asking advice about how to live more closely to Jesus. It will forever be possible to draw closer to Him.

Joshua went out of the normal, out of the average, out of the popular, “out of the camp,” to spend time in the tent of meeting with Yahweh. Anyone else apparently could have done the same. The effects on Joshua of staying in the tent even longer than Moses did on days seem to have prepared him for leadership. You can’t hide while you are walking out of the camp to go out to the place where you can meet with the Lord. You have to stick your neck out.

Jesus isn’t calling “clergy” to deeper walk and to seeking His face. He is calling “believers” to those levels of commitment. Consider yourself invited by the King to awesomeness at its greatest levels of realization.

Now Moses took a tent and set it up outside the camp, far away from the camp; he called it the tent of meeting. Anyone who wanted to consult the Lord would go to the tent of meeting that was outside the camp. Whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people would stand up, each one at the door of his tent, and they would watch Moses until he entered the tent. When Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and remain at the entrance to the tent, and the Lord would speak with Moses. As all the people saw the pillar of cloud remaining at the entrance to the tent, they would stand up, then bow in worship, each one at the door of his tent. The Lord spoke with Moses face to face, just as a man speaks with his friend. Then Moses would return to the camp, but his assistant, the young man Joshua son of Nun, would not leave the inside of the tent.
(Exodus 33:7-11 HCSB ©®)