Wisdom's Corner
Break the Camp

In the time of the New Testament, armies traveled mostly by walking. They would march for a couple of days and then stop and rest for a day. Then they would travel again for a couple of days before resting again. When stopping for any length of time, the soldiers would put up their tents.

The tents were held in place by wooden stakes in the ground tied to the tents with rope. These tents would be the soldier's home until it was time to start marching again.

When it was time to leave a place and march on, the soldiers would take the stakes up and pack the tents to march. This was called "breaking camp." The word used for this is found in Philippians 1:23. "For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better." The word "depart" is the word for breaking camp. Paul was telling the Philippians that he had a desire to leave this world and go to heaven.

He was giving a picture of taking up the stakes from the tent of this life and going on to the final destination. Are you interested in living with God in heaven? We should all desire to live with God. The only way we can be sure of doing that is to obey his word, the Bible. We need to study it every day so that we can learn what we need to do in this life. Only by following what he has told us to do will we be able to take up the stakes and travel to heaven. When we break camp of this life, we will either go to heaven or hell.

Keep reading the Bible. Learn all you can about God's will. And if any of this is hard to understand, ask an adult to help you.

Mark McWhorter

Copyright 2002

Published by The Old Paths Bible School
(http://www.oldpaths.org)