Num 5:1-3, Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, "Command the sons of Israel that they send away from the camp every leper and everyone having a discharge and everyone who is unclean because of a dead person. You shall send away both male and female; you shall send them outside the camp so that they will not defile their camp where I dwell in their midst." 
	In this morning’s reading, we have the stipulations from the Lord regarding the fact that the camp of the Children of Israel needed to maintain its purity because of the Presence of the Lord in their midst. They needed to consider His Holiness in the manner in which even their daily lives were conducted. This will be the emphasis for the next number of Chapters as the people were being prepared to march forward as His Chosen nation. They were being transformed from a motley group of released slaves into the nation that represented the Living Lord God Almighty within the whole of the known world.
	That is why there were so precise and strict regulations in place throughout the social structure of the nation. They were no longer just a haphazard and disjointed group of shepherds and laborers, but they were being brought into the uniformity of a social order under the direction and kingship of God, Himself. He was establishing those laws and social orders that would set them apart from the other nations surrounding them. They were under His banner as they were to proceed into the Promised Land and conquer those nations who did not so honor the Most Holy and Righteous and Living Lord God Almighty. To do that, they needed to be separate and distinct in the manner in which they lived and operated and functioned with each other and with the Lord.
	Accordingly, they required instruction as to the acceptable social patterns of behavior that would be pleasing to the Lord. This meant that they would function always with the reality of His Immediate Presence within the nation, as represented by the Tent of Meeting. As they journeyed forward, it was always as He so directed with His pillar of cloud by day and His pillar of fire by night. This was the means by which God made very evident that He was their king and they were His Chosen people. He supplied their every need and they were to obey His every commandment as precious and wonderful in the course of their walk with God.
	In line with this, they were to array their camp as detailed in the first chapters of Numbers, including the central area in which the Tent of Meeting was located with the Levites so distinctly arranged around it. In these next chapters, God, through Moses, set up the social structure of the nation that would transform them into a people with order and dignity and laws that protected them from the defilement and the dangers of the ungodly peoples surrounding them. 
	In dealing with those who were struck with sores and discharge from their bodies, the Lord was setting up a barrier of health around His people. Those who were excluded from the central portion of the encampment were those who had visible signs of physical distress and illness. This was signified by the word used as leper but is not the same word that we use to identify those with what is now called Hansen’s disease. As well, those who had dealt with a dead body were as well kept outside the camp until their cleansing was completed. 
This manner of isolating those who could be contagious was in place until such time as the sores were healed and the priests would declare them to be clean again. Then they were permitted to return to the social structure from whence they had been removed, no longer considered a possible danger to the entire populace. This was God’s grace and mercy in action for the protection of the whole nation, as well as the means by which those who were healed could be restored into the community. 
	Also, this detailed protection was evident in the manner in which the Israelites were to deal with the refuse of the camp including the sacrifices by the priests as we have stipulated in Lev 4:11+12. Lev 4:11+12, 'But the hide of the bull and all its flesh with its head and its legs and its entrails and its refuse, that is, all the rest of the bull, he is to bring out to a clean place outside the camp where the ashes are poured out, and burn it on wood with fire; where the ashes are poured out it shall be burned. 
The Lord was setting into place all the sanitary health instructions for such a large populace dealing with their interactions as a people. They could not just throw their garbage everywhere and anywhere as was so common in the other civilizations of the world that had no ideas concerning germs and waste-born illnesses and bad food handling procedures. These stipulations were so far ahead of the known practices, as God was establishing them for His Chosen people before human scientific knowledge caught up with His ordinances for the safety of the nation.  
	Again, as stipulated in Lev 15:31-33, even the manner of the private relations among husband and wife were under the direct protection of the Lord in detailing the way in which they should interact with each other for the sake of a healthy and satisfied relationship. Lev 15:31-33, "Thus you shall keep the sons of Israel separated from their uncleanness, lest they die in their uncleanness by their defiling My tabernacle that is among them." This is the law for the one with a discharge, and for the man who has a seminal emission so that he is unclean by it, and for the woman who is ill because of menstrual impurity, and for the one who has a discharge, whether a male or a female, or a man who lies with an unclean woman. 
    	Moreover, as we read in Lev 26:9-12, even the supply of food was subject to the safe handling practices as ordained by God for His people. The old was to be cleared out in order to not contaminate the new. Lev 26:9-12, 'So I will turn toward you and make you fruitful and multiply you, and I will confirm My covenant with you. 'And you will eat the old supply and clear out the old because of the new. 'Moreover, I will make My dwelling among you, and My soul will not reject you. 'I will also walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people. This would ensure the fruitfulness and the safety of the people of God in the course of both their practical, daily routines, and their spiritual development as the people of God.
	All of these ordinances and stipulations were indicative of the fact that this was a holy nation unto the Lord. This people was no longer the lowly servant class of humanity, but the regal bearers of the standard of the One True Living Lord God Almighty, Yahweh. Accordingly, they needed to learn to conduct themselves in the manner which reflected the fact that the Lord God was dwelling in their midst. They needed to be separated from all those things which were bringing impurity and filth into the holy presence of God, including even their dealing with their toiletry issues. Nothing was too insignificant for the purification of God’s people
	This was dealt with in Deut 23:9-14, where the Lord gave precise instruction as to how the members of the army were to conduct themselves in their war encampments. This was in order that they would not fall ill, as was common in so many battle situations with so many men camped together. 
Deut 23:9-14, "When you go out as an army against your enemies, then you shall keep yourself from every evil thing. If there is among you any man who is unclean because of a nocturnal emission, then he must go outside the camp; he may not reenter the camp. But it shall be when evening approaches, he shall bathe himself with water, and at sundown he may reenter the camp. You shall also have a place outside the camp and go out there, and you shall have a spade among your tools, and it shall be when you sit down outside, you shall dig with it and shall turn to cover up your excrement. Since the Lord your God walks in the midst of your camp to deliver you and to defeat your enemies before you, therefore your camp must be holy; and He must not see anything indecent among you lest He turn away from you. 
    	The Psalmist, in Ps 68:15-20, declared the truth that God was the One Who kept His people safe because He is holy. He required that the people kept themselves from all impurity because of the fact that they were in His presence. The escapes from death fully include the sanitary restrictions which caused the people, unwittingly, to follow practices which limited exposure to disease and illness. 
Ps 68:15-20, A mountain of God is the mountain of Bashan; A mountain of many peaks is the mountain of Bashan. Why do you look with envy, O mountains with many peaks, At the mountain which God has desired for His abode? Surely, the Lord will dwell there forever. The chariots of God are myriads, thousands upon thousands; The Lord is among them as at Sinai, in holiness. Thou hast ascended on high, Thou hast led captive Thy captives; Thou hast received gifts among men, Even among the rebellious also, that the Lord God may dwell there. Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears our burden, The God who is our salvation. Selah. God is to us a God of deliverances; And to God the Lord belong escapes from death. 
    	With regard to our morning’s reading, then, we have the Lord dealing with those elements that required the people to honor His Holiness concerning the manner in which they dealt with the practical details of their daily walk before Him. As He was in their presence, so they had to live in the way which honored Him and indicated that they valued His presence and wanted to be holy as His people. The most basic elements of that were seen in the fact that those people who were infectious in some most visible manner were put out of the encampment until such time as they were healed or healthy again. This was a gracious manner of dealing with those outward, physical issues as evidenced in the body with recourse toward being returned to their families. 
The next level was that of the restitution of personal wrongs against the other members of the community. There was a need for righting the wrong. Even if that person, might be deceased and no longer had a legitimate living relative, restitution had to be made in order to give evidence that the evil doer was penitent and wanted to make things right again. The Lord’s holiness was therefore at the forefront of view in the way that the people were to treat one another. This showed the deepening level from the outward to the inward attitudes toward one another.
The next step was the husband and wife issue, dealing with the most intimate of relationships within the community of the Chosen people of God. This one dealt with the manner in which to handle those issues of the heart, the heart of jealousy and the heart of breaking covenant. Both the husband and the wife were put forward in this matter as needing to deal with impurity at its core element, within the heart and mind. Our current society cannot appreciate what was involved with the significance of how to deal with the marriage covenant in a male dominated society as was in place at that time. In almost all the other cultures, the husband would simply kill the wife and no one would question it. But God, in all His grace and mercy, made a way for the repair of the relationship and the restoration and protection of the marriage bond. This brought a cleansing manifestation of His righteousness into the core, basic relationship of His people.
The Prophet Isaiah, in Isa 12, detailed what the heart of the people should be for the great love with which God manifested His care and keeping of them from all the ills and diseases and filth of the world. There should be that recognition and that joy that God so chooses to dwell among His people. 
Isaiah Chapter 12. Then you will say on that day, "I will give thanks to Thee, O Lord; For although Thou wast angry with me, Thine anger is turned away, And Thou dost comfort me. "Behold, God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid; For the Lord God is my strength and song, And He has become my salvation." Therefore you will joyously draw water From the springs of salvation. And in that day you will say, "Give thanks to the Lord, call on His name. Make known His deeds among the peoples; Make them remember that His name is exalted." Praise the Lord in song, for He has done excellent things; Let this be known throughout the earth. Cry aloud and shout for joy, O inhabitant of Zion, For great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel. 
… For great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel… That is the key truth that should never be forgotten. We are dealing with the fact that God was in the midst of His people. That single reality made it imperative that His people conducted themselves in full accordance with the majesty and the holiness of His immediate presence dwelling among them. Accordingly they needed to be taught and encouraged to make certain that they were practicing all the behaviors, and the conduct of their attitudinal and intimate relationships which showed their respect and honor and reverence to God. 
As Christians, we too are subject to the holiness of God as so encouraged by the Apostle Paul, in 2 Cor 6:14-18. We are a people who are set apart unto God – Alone. Our every manner of operation on this earth is subject to and a testimony of and unto Him. 
2 Cor 6:14-18, Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, "I will dwell in them and walk among them; And I will be their God, and they shall be My people. "Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate," says the Lord. "And do not touch what is unclean; And I will welcome you. "And I will be a father to you, And you shall be sons and daughters to Me," Says the Lord Almighty. 
    	The ultimate disclosure of who we are, now in Christ, is set forth by the vision of John in Rev 21:2-5. All the cleansing and purifying work of God will be in evidence to the whole of His creation as the True Church, the Bride of Christ, is presented to Him. 
Rev 21:2-5, And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He shall dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be among them, and He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there shall no longer be any death; there shall no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away." And He who sits on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new." And He said, "Write, for these words are faithful and true." 
	It is the presence of God that makes us want to honor and reverence Him in the every manner of our conduct on this earth. The statement that we live unto Him is not just a saying; it is the manifested truth of who we are now in Christ, living unto Him in every practical, emotional, and spiritual detail of the life that He gives us. So be it.
	Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, "Command the sons of Israel that they send away from the camp every leper and everyone having a discharge and everyone who is unclean because of a dead person. You shall send away both male and female; you shall send them outside the camp so that they will not defile their camp where I dwell in their midst." Amen. 

This morning’s benediction is Ps 68:19. Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears our burden, The God who is our salvation. Selah. Amen.