Okay lets start with my answering a question you asked before and finishing up with the specific question regarding shovels.
The way I, and most believers I know, start trying to live like Messiah lived and commanded us to live after accepting salvation through His Grace is pretty simple.
First we begin with the Jerusalem council in Acts 15. Here we find the apostles gathered and trying to decide what new believers must do to join their fellowship. Some believed that they would be instantly accountable to the full Torah, some had different ideas. The final decision came down as to what believers must do in order to fellowship with the saints. Let’s start in verse 20.
20 But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood.
Okay, so the REAL church fathers. The very apostles that walked with Messiah, believed and taught that these four laws were required of anyone who wished to fellowship with Messiah's believers. Immediately. If you do not agree with them then I guess you should not quote any of their other writings or you might be guilty of “cherry picking”. And I would be very curious as to why you would discount the apostles own words. It would seem at that point you were leaving the fold and following your own understanding. But it does not end there. Let’s continue in Acts 15.
21 For Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every sabbath day.
So since the early church went to synagogue every Sabbath along with every other Hebrew sect, the apostles knew that new believers would hear and learn the law of The Father as revealed to Moses every Sabbath and begin to live accordingly. I feel I should point out that in the first century, as amply pointed out in scripture and history, all believers in the bible would meet on Sabbath to fulfill the worship and reading requirements of Torah before breaking into smaller dogmatic groups such as the Pharisees on the temple steps and The Masters followers in the upper room.
So the Jerusalem Council concluded with the idea that believers would study and learn Torah. So by this example there would be nothing wrong with believers of today learning our faith every Sabbath in Synagogue. Except that synagogues no longer operate in this manner. They are just as denominational as todays churches. And most are Talmud centered, Midrash heavy, quabbalah influenced places. Not all of course… there are groups of Torah only Jewish groups such as the Karites. And if there were a Karite group near you that were willing to teach someone of another faith Torah, probably much could be learned.
Since most of us do not have this option available to us, we are indeed blessed to be able to individually have access to bibles and concordances so that we can study and show ourselves approved. Or join assemblies that meet biblical standards and learn that way.
We are also blessed that while giving Torah, The Father saw fit to not only give us instruction in how to live his way, but also when these things were applicable. Such predications as “when you are in the land you are going to possess…” or, as in the verse you referenced, “in the camp” lets look.at the verse….
Deuteronomy 23:12 Thou shalt have a place also without the camp, whither thou shalt go forth abroad:
13 And thou shalt have a paddle upon thy weapon; and it shall be, when thou wilt ease thyself abroad, thou shalt dig therewith, and shalt turn back and cover that which cometh from thee:
So we see that this mentions the camp again, even though it is in a section talking about the camp. Our Father is not the author of confusion and constantly clarifies his words simplifying things.
Let’s see what the word camp means here using a concordance. After all this was written in Hebrew not English.
H4264
Original: מחנה
Transliteration: machăneh
Phonetic: makh-an-eh'
BDB Definition:
encampment, camp
camp, place of encampment
camp of armed host, army camp
those who encamp, company, body of people
Origin: from H2583
TWOT entry: 690c
Part(s) of speech: Noun Masculine
Strong's Definition: From H2583; an encampment (of travellers or troops); hence an army, whether literally (of soldiers) or figuratively (of dancers, angels, cattle, locusts, stars; or even the sacred courts): - army, band, battle, camp, company, drove, host, tents.
So it’s easy to see here that this was originally directed at those wandering in the Exodus with Moses. With future implications on others in camps such as troops, caravans, travelers, shepherds, etc. And this is still observed by these groups to this day.
Which lets us know as well that it does not apply to settlements and cities that have a system of sanitation in place. Unless you believe that back in the day you would often see Hebrew folks running through cities looking scared. Shovel in one hand and the other covering their backside.
The Master told us his commands weren’t grievous. His burden was light.
Does this answer?