We need to go Outside the Camp of Idolatry and Religion unto Christ in our Spirit

After the children of Israel worshipped the golden calf, Moses moved to a place outside the camp, where the Lord’s presence was with him, and all who sought God came to his tent to receive God’s presence and speaking; we need to beware of idolatry in all its forms and come outside the camp to Jesus.

Oh Lord Jesus, shine on us! Save us from camping where idolatry is. Save us from being in our mind. Save us from being religion. We just want to touch You, enjoy You, and worship You! We come to You outside of any camp! Amen!

As we are seeking the Lord and allowing Him to lead us as the many sons of God into glory, the way we take is within the veil and outside the camp.

On the one hand, we exercise our spirit and contact the Lord in spirit so that we may enter within the veil. Here, within the veil, we have the Lord’s presence, His speaking, and His fresh infusion.

When we are with the Lord within the veil, we become one with Him, we allow Him to live in us and be expressed through us, and we become His corporate expression, His reproduction. This is on the positive side.

On the other hand, on the negative side, we need to come outside the camp.

When we speak of this matter of coming outside the camp, we need to know the story in Exodus 33:7-11 and Numbers 12:6-8. Moses went to the mountain to receive the law and the pattern of the tabernacle, and he was there with God forty days and forty nights.

While he was there, Moses was just in God’s presence, being infused with God, loving God, and gaining God.

However, while he was away for such a long time, the children of Israel grew restless, and they went to Aaron and told him to make a god for them, for they didn’t know what had happened to Moses.

The children of Israel had an evil heart of unbelief (Psa. 106:24-25), and they didn’t believe God’s word. They murmured in their tents and complained against God and against Moses.

Aaron gave in to the people’s request and fashioned for them a golden calf, and declared, Here is your god, Israel, who took you out of the land of Egypt!

So the people had a party, drinking, eating, and dancing, around the golden calf, which they worshipped.

When Moses was about to go down from the mountain, with his helper Joshua, they heard the sound of music in the camp; Joshua thought it was a sound of war, but Moses told him it is a sound of rejoicing.

The people sat down to eat and drink, and they rose up to play. Moses was very upset; he was so angry that he smashed the tablets of the law and rebuked Aaron, and there was discipline also applied to God’s people.

When Moses asked Aaron what he did, Aaron said that he only took the people’s gold and silver and threw it in the fire, and a golden calf came out. Oh Lord!

This of course did not happen this way; he fashioned it and made it in that shape. It is out of such a camp that we need come outside of.

Being Warned by the Principle of the Golden-Calf Idol which makes God’s People an Idolatrous Camp

We need to be warned by the principle of the golden-calf idol, as seen in the history of the people of Israel at the foot of Mount Sinai.

This idol was made by God’s redeemed people and it made them an idolatrous camp (1 Cor. 10:5-7; Ezek. 14:3; 1 John 5:21 and paragraph 1 of footnote 3 in the Recovery Version Bible).

In 1 Corinthians 10 Paul applies their experience to us, saying that these things occurred as examples to us, that we should not be ones who lust after evil things, even as they also lusted, nor become idolaters.

We, the New Testament believers, need to learn from their example.

There are some people in Christianity who are like Aaron, skilful in fashioning an idol.

They may do it in God’s name, and many may follow them. It takes skill to fashion gold into a golden calf, an idol.

If we are skilful, we need to be before the Lord regarding this, for Satan can use our skills for us to fashion, in God’s name, an idol, thus leading many of God’s people into idolatry (1 John 5:21). Oh Lord!

Even among us in the church life today, there are some skilful brothers and sisters, and it is easy for us to “fashion a golden calf” which can lead the saints astray, even lead them into idolatry.

Most of us may not have the skill or ability to fashion gold into idols, but some do. We need to inquire of the Lord,

Oh Lord, what about our work here for You? Are we making an idol? Are we using the skill You gave us to make an idol, something apart from God? Oh Lord, purify our heart. Purify our intentions. Make us one with You. We want to build up the church as the Body of Christ. We do not want the enemy to misuse or usurp our skills to build something that is a counterfeit of Christ and the church!

Come Outside the Camp: no Self-Beautification, Not Usurping God’s Gifts, and Not Worshipping the Things we Enjoy apart from Christ

In order for us to be brought into glory as the many sons of God, following the Lord Jesus as our Forerunner and as the Pioneer, we need to come outside the camp and enter within the veil.

We may know and really enjoy entering within the veil, for we love our mingled spirit.

However, how about coming outside the camp? What does it mean for us to come outside the camp? What is the camp?

The camp represents religion; in our case, as we live Christ and live the church life in the local churches today, we need to be warned by the principle of the golden-calf idol, which will make us an idolatrous camp. Oh Lord!

We need to beware of idolatry. First, self-beautification leads to idolatry (Exo. 32:1-3; 33:5-6; Gen. 35:2-4; cf. Exo. 28:2; Isa. 60:21).

The gold used to fashion the golden calf was taken from the gold nose rings and earrings worn by the people of Israel.

They used the gold to beautify themselves; this gold was meant for God to have a tabernacle, a house on earth, but it was misused by people for their self-beautification.

Before the children of Israel made the golden calf as an idol, they already had idols present among themselves, but in a different form; they had self-beautification.

The wives, the sons, and the daughters of the children of Israel wore gold rings in their ears and in their nose for the purpose of self-beautification. Oh Lord!

In God’s eyes, self-beautification is an idol. This is why the Lord commanded His people in Exodus 33:5-6 not to have any ornaments.

When we seek to beautify ourselves, this leads to idolatry.

We should not beautify ourselves but rather, seek to enjoy the Lord, come outside the camp – the idolatrous camp, and enter within the veil to enjoy the Lord in our spirit.

Lord Jesus, we love You and we give ourselves to You! We do not want to beautify ourselves. You are the most beautiful One. We worship You. We come outside the camp and refuse to remain in any idolatrous camp. Save us from self-beautification. Oh Lord, may we see that self-beautification is idolatry in God’s eyes! May we come to You as we are, even be one with You to build the beautiful house of God, the church! May the gifts You gave us and the beauty You bestowed on us be used for Your building, as we exercise our spirit so that we may come outside the camp and enter within the veil!

Another principle of idolatry, of which we need to beware, is that Satan is usurping what God has given us in order to make it a waste.

Each one of us was given by the Lord certain gifts, abilities, and capacities.

But abusing what God has given us and not using God’s gifts for God’s purpose leads to idolatry, making us an idolatrous camp. Oh Lord!

Both our material and our spiritual gifts can be usurped by Satan to lead to idolatry. We see this in Exodus 32 where the children of Israel wasted a lot of the gold that has been given to them by God.

Before they left Egypt, God defeated the Egyptians and caused them to give the children of Israel gold and other precious things.

These were for the building of the tabernacle, the house of God.

The house of God, the tabernacle, required a lot of gold to overlay the standing boards, and many other precious materials were necessary.

God provided these things to the children of Israel, but they abused them and misused them to make an idol. Oh Lord!

Before the gold could be used for the building up of God’s dwelling place, Satan came in to usurp it and make it into an idol. Oh Lord!

In our Christian life, as we realise that the Lord has given us certain things which are for the building up of the church, we need to pray and be one with the Lord, even remain in fellowship and coordination in the Body, so that we may not usurp God’s gifts in order to build an idol.

We need to enter within the veil by being in our mingled spirit, and we need to remain in fellowship with the saints the Lord put us with so that any gifts the Lord gave us would be for His building, not for the building up of an idol.

We really need to pray before the Lord regarding this matter, for the enemy is very subtle. We may tell Him,

Lord Jesus, we love You and we want to use what You gave us for Your building! Amen, Lord, we give ourselves with all that You have given us to You for the building up of Your dwelling place. May Satan have no way to usurp what God has given us in order to make it a waste. May we not abuse what God has given us, and may we not misuse God’s gifts by not using them for God’s purpose. Keep us coming to You, Lord, in our spirit, so that we may enter and live within the veil. We come to You outside of any camp, leaving idolatry and Satan’s usurpation behind!

We need to realise that idolatry is the worship of the things which we enjoy, such as the worship of enjoyment, amusement, and entertainment (see Exo. 32:6, 18-19; cf. Psa. 36:8-9).

It is a mixture of things related to God and things of Satan. Oh Lord!

Today many Christians think they worship God, but in reality they worship a golden calf, for what they worship has elements of God and the Bible in it, but the object of their worship is not God.

The people of Israel offered sacrifices to the golden calf, as they were told to do so for God, and they ate and drank before the golden calf; they sat down to eat and drink, and then they rose up to play.

So much of today’s Christian worship is a matter of sitting down to eat, and then rising up to sport, sing, and dance around some kind of enjoyment, which is a golden calf.

Many Christians say that they worship God, but the way they do it, the means they use, the musical instruments and the band, and even the object of their worship is not Christ but rather, it is their enjoyment.

They worship their enjoyment, their amusement, and their entertainment.

These days even more than ever, people spend a lot of money, time, and energy in being entertained; this is true even in the worship of God.

The offerings may be right, for they say Praise the Lord, and, Hallelujah, but the object is not God; it is their feeling of enjoyment and entertainment.

And this is not happening just out there in Christianity; even we today in the church life can worship not Christ in a pure and sole way but our enjoyment, our amusement.

We should inquire before the Lord concerning our worship. Is our worship pure, or is it a mixture?

Do we worship God in spirit, within the veil, and outside the camp, or are we in an idolatrous camp, having fun, being entertained, and also mentioning God and the Bible?

When we sing some hymns, do we sing them to enjoy the Lord or just to have enjoyment? Do we touch the Lord when we sing and praise the Lord in the meeting, or do we just have a great time with the saints?

With idolatry, what we have is the pretense of worshipping the true God (Exo. 32:4-6; 1 Kings 12:26-30); in reality, a mixture in worship.

May the Lord have mercy on us and cause us to see any mixture in worshipping God in us and among us.

May we come outside the camp, following the suffering Jesus, so that we may worship Him in a pure way in spirit.

May we let the divine light shine and expose anything of idolatry so that we may worship only God and not have any mixture in our worship!

Lord Jesus, purify our heart and intention in our worship of God. Cleanse us and wash us by the water in the Word. May the living word of God be able to operate in us and divide the soul from the spirit in us. Amen, Lord, we exercise our spirit to worship God in spirit and in truthfulness. Save us from worshipping the things that we enjoy. Save us from worshipping enjoyment, amusement, and entertainment. May we come outside the camp and refuse to be in any idolatrous camp in our being. May we worship God in purity and singleness, and may we be in our spirit, within the veil! Oh Lord, purify our way of worshipping God. Save us from any mixture!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by the brother Ed Marks on this topic, and portions from, Life-study of Exodus, msgs. 173-178, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Experiencing, Enjoying, and Expressing Christ (part 3 – 2025 Summer Training), week 31, The Author (the Captain) of Salvation and the Forerunner Leading Many Sons into Glory by Entering within the Veil and Going outside the Camp – day 5.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Idols once they won thee, charmed thee, / Lovely things of time and sense; / Gilded thus does sin disarm thee, / Honeyed lest thou turn thee thence. / What has stripped the seeming beauty / From the idols of the earth? / Not a sense of right or duty, / But the sight of peerless worth. (Hymns #437 stanzas 2-3)
  – How we must give Him all our heart and from all idols turn! / Oh, who else could there be who loves so tenderly? / Lord Jesus, You’re the only One who makes our heart to burn— / O please do not delay! Come quickly, e’en today! (Hymns #1311 stanza 2)
  – Tell me not of earthly pleasures, / Tempt me not with sordid gain; / Mock me not with earth’s illusions, / Vex me not with honors vain. / I am weaned from sinful idols; / I am henceforth not my own; / I have giv’n my heart to Jesus, / I belong to Him alone. / I am not my own, / I am not my own. / I belong to Jesus, / And I am not my own. (Hymns #452 stanza 1 and chorus)