I have many fun memories of our camping adventures as a kid and as a dad. Camping is one activity that can involve the whole family and can be enjoyable if you like camping.
Some consider going to a Motel 6 as camping, while others have to kill and eat a deer or trout for it to be considered camping. Whatever your likes or dislikes, there was never camping as the Israelites did in the wilderness.
In Leviticus 23, there was even to be camping on top of camping. There God gives instructions for the special celebration called the Feast of Tabernacles or what we might call the Great Tent-out.
The people would have special meals and festivities during this once-a-year celebration and would sleep in "lean-to" type shelters all week. I can see the look on Mom's face. Oh my! However, this was a real celebration that commemorated the harvest and illustrated how that God "had the Israelites live in temporary shelters when (He) brought them out of Egyp" (23:43). That is SO practical—a camping week with a lesson that God attached.
As a family, we never did the wilderness-type camping mentioned in this chapter. However, we did do the camping thing with lessons attached. We did what we called missions trips, where one year we went to Missouri to visit New Tribes Language school and helped with some minor construction. Another year we took the girls to the Dominican Republic to observe the work of Paul and Linda McMillen. We thought that God might lead us there as missionaries. We also did one to Brazil, which is where God eventually led us to serve.
Do you think that camping trips should be about something more than cool pools and clean bathrooms? God did. He taught His people to teach their kids about Him. It makes for fun times and great memories. And, it just might be life-changing.
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