Morning Nourishment Num. 6:2 ...When a man or a woman makes a special vow, the vow of a Nazarite, to separate himself to Jehovah. 8 All the days of his separation he is holy to Jehovah. Psa. 73:25 Whom do I have in heaven but You? And besides You there is nothing I desire on earth. God desires that all of His people be Nazarites. To be a Nazarite is to be sanctified absolutely and ultimately to God. To be sanctified in this way is to be for nothing other than God....God wants His people to be clean, righteous, and faithful....God wants us to love only Him, to love Him with our heart, with our mind, emotion, and will, and with our physical strength (Mark 12:30). He wants us to have no one else and nothing else other than Him as our first love and our unique love. Even if we love Him in such a way, we still may not be absolutely and ultimately for Him. We may use married life as an illustration of loving the Lord without being absolutely for Him. God might have favored you with a wife who truly loves you. However, although she loves you and is altogether chaste toward you, she may not be utterly, absolutely, and ultimately for you. Even the most loving wife is still somewhat for herself in certain things. The matter of the Nazarite is a test of our absoluteness. If we would be a Nazarite, we must be absolutely, utterly, and ultimately for God. (Life-study of Numbers, pp. 55-56) Today’s Reading According to typology, among the human race the unique Nazarite is the Lord Jesus. Hence, a Nazarite is a type of Christ. A Nazarite signifies the Lord Jesus in His living for God in His humanity. Numbers 6:2 speaks of a man or a woman making “a special vow, the vow of a Nazarite, to separate himself to Jehovah.”...At times we might have made a vow to the Lord, but it might not have been very strong or absolute, and we might not have kept it. Can you make a vow and be faithful to it for your whole life? There is a difference between separation and sanctification. Separation is on the negative side, and sanctification is on the positive side. On the negative side, we separate ourselves from the worldly people. On the positive side, we sanctify ourselves; that is, we give ourselves to God. First we are separated, and then we are sanctified. Separating, sanctifying, oneself to God should follow the dealing with all the defilements (chapter 5). The priests, who are such by birth, are ordained by God out of His initiation. A priest must be a Nazarite, a person absolutely for God. This is according to God’s ordination. One’s becoming a priest is a matter of God’s initiation; it does not depend on what the person does but on what God does concerning him. The Nazarite, who becomes such by a vow, is separated to God by himself out of his initiation. This means that a person is not a Nazarite by birth but can make himself a Nazarite by making a special vow. Thus, the priests are ordained by God out of His initiation, but the Nazarites become such by a vow out of their own initiation. Today we are in the Lord’s recovery out of God’s initiation and also out of our initiation. Both are needed. The accomplishment of God’s purpose requires man’s cooperation to complement God’s ordination. This is illustrated by the case of Samuel. Samuel was a Nazarite who complemented the deficient Eli, a priest ordained by God. In his old age Eli had certain deficiencies. However, Samuel, out of his own initiation, came in to fill up the gap caused by Eli’s deficiencies and thereby to complement the deficient Eli. In ancient times, the Nazarite’s separation lasted for seven days [Num. 6:13, footnote]. In the Bible seven days indicate a full course, even a whole lifetime....At the completion of the Nazarite’s seven days of separation, he was to be brought to the entrance of the tent of meeting, and he was to bring his offerings to God. Each of these offerings was a type of Christ. The enjoyment of Christ as these offerings indicates the overcoming of natural affection, earthly pleasure, rebellion, and death. (Life-study of Numbers, pp. 56-57, 72) Further Reading: Life-study of Numbers, msg. 8
Posted on: Thu, 01 Jan 2015 15:33:17 +0000
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