Num. 6
Separation unto the Lord is now connected with separation from the vine of earthly stimulants and joys, and it will continue until Jesus exercises His rights directly as the Lord of all here below. For “this [is] the law of the Nazarite, when the days of his separation are fulfilled: he shall be brought unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation: and he shall offer his offering unto Jehovah, one he lamb of the first year without blemish for a burnt-offering, and one ewe lamb of the first year without blemish for a sin-offering, and one ram without blemish for peace-offerings, and a basket of unleavened bread, cakes of fine flour mingled with oil, and wafers of unleavened bread anointed with oil, and their meat-offering, and their drink-offerings. And the priest shall bring [them] before Jehovah, and shall offer his sin-offering, and his burnt-offering: and he shall offer the ram [for] a sacrifice of peace-offerings unto Jehovah, with the basket of unleavened bread: the priest shall offer also his meat-offering, and his drink-offering. And the Nazarite shall shave the head of his separation [at] the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and shall take the hair of the head of his separation, and put [it] in the fire which [is] under the sacrifice of the peace-offerings. And the priest shall take the sodden shoulder of the ram, and one unleavened cake out of the basket, and one unleavened wafer, and shall put [them] upon the hands of the Nazarite, after [the hair of] his separation is shaven: and the priest shall wave them [for] a wave-offering before Jehovah: this [is] holy for the priest, with the wave-breast and heave-shoulder: and after that the Nazarite may drink wine” (vers. 13-20). The Lord will no longer refuse to be a King, and retire alone on high to intercede as Priest; but, actually invested with dominion and glory, and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations and languages, should serve Him, He will come again, and He will bring to rein with Him those whom. He now separates from the world, as cleansed through His blood and risen with Him. The days of separation are fulfilled..... and after that the Nazarite may drink wine. Then will be the fulfillment of the millennial psalms in all their meaning: “Jehovah reigneth, let the earth rejoice.” In that day, truth is no longer fallen in the streets, for it shall spring out of the earth, and the Father's will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Until then the blessing is deliverance, not only from sin but from this present evil world. If I have learned the cross, I have learned that thereby the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world (Gal. 1-6). Now, that which stamps the world, as the world, is ignorance of the Father. “O righteous Father,” says the Lord, “the world hath not known thee, but I have known thee.” He and the world had no fellowship; neither have His disciples, for, just before, He had thus spoken of them to His Father: “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” It is not they ought not to be, but they are not. Men may reason plausibly; but to hear any excuses for, or exhortations to, union with the world, is to listen not to the good Shepherd's voice, but to the deceits of the enemy. And is it not enough that Satan should accuse the brethren, and deceive the whole world? Ought brethren also to be deceived by that old serpent?
Our place for the present, our only true place, is separation from the world in every shape. “For their sakes,” said our Master in His ever-memorable prayer for us, “I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth;” for our separation is through the knowledge of Christ in His separation. As He is, so are we in this world. We know Him where He is, that we may know ourselves as there in Him also. This is sanctification through the truth, resulting from Christ's sanctification of Himself.
By-and-by the saints shall judge the world (1 Cor. 6:22Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters? (1 Corinthians 6:2)). Meanwhile, an apostle says: “What have I to do to judge them also that are without?” (The powers that be should do that.) “Do not ye judge them that are within?” (1 Cor. 5). Such is the province of the church, now at least. And preaching the gospel to the world, so far from being fellowship with it, is rather to gather people. out of it, These then say; “We know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in the wicked one.” They are separated unto God, and should preserve their Nazariteship intact until the kingdom of this world is become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, when the world shall know that the Father sent the Son, and loved us as the Son was loved.