The Camp 

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them. We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat. For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. (Hebrews 13: 8 to 13) 

Apostle Paul explained what he thought of the food offered to idols as below. 

Now concerning food offered to idols: we know that “all of us possess knowledge.” This “knowledge” puffs up, but love builds up. If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know. But if anyone loves God, he is known by God. Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that “an idol has no real existence,” and that “there is no God but one.” For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”— yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist. (First Corinthians 8: 1 to 6) 

The food in the house of God was not an issue from Christ’s point of view either as described in the Bible below. 

At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, “Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.” He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, and those who were with him: how he entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him to eat nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? Or have you not read in the Law how on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless? I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. And if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.” (Matthew 12: 1 to 8) 

However, there is a strict and specific rule about the sin offerings. Unlike other offerings, no one could consume the flesh of the sin offerings. Especially, the body of the sacrifice needed to be burned outside the camp as described below. 

But the skin of the bull and all its flesh, with its head, its legs, its entrails, and its dung— all the rest of the bull—he shall carry outside the camp to a clean place, to the ash heap, and shall burn it up on a fire of wood. On the ash heap it shall be burned up. (Leviticus 4: 11 12) 

So, Jesus also suffered outside the gate to sanctify the people through his own blood as described above. Since we are already sanctified through Christ’s blood, why do we still need to go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured? The camp symbolizes the domain of our life. While inside the camp, we have all the provisions to support our flesh which become our dependency. Only when we go outside of the camp, we would depend on nothing but faith. Then the revelation of Christ and his Spirit would manifest in our heart. Also, the more we rely on faith to bear the reproach Christ endured, the more we know Christ for him to grow in us as described below. 

until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. (Ephesians 4: 13) 

Apostle Paul described what happened afterward as below. 

But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. (Philippians 3: 7 to 11) 

To be sanctified by the blood is just the beginning. The goal is to know him and the power of his resurrection. So, we need to share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, so that by any means possible we may attain the resurrection from the dead. This is the mystery that faith could teach us. Emmanuel. 

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