(Numbers 6.)
WE have here, in type, the separation of Christ, and of those that are in Him, from the world unto God. That we might thus be set apart by His separation, He commenced it afresh in resurrection through His offering for sin.
The sanctification of the Nazarite did not go beyond the purifying of the flesh. It was in this, like the other shadows of the law, ceremonial, and not that which purgeth the conscience. But as the sanctuary made with hands was the pattern of heaven itself, so did the carnal Nazarite set forth Him who was always, thoroughly, intrinsically separate from sinners, and holy unto the Lord. From His mother's womb, Christ was really that which the Nazarite outwardly prefigured—" that holy thing." (Luke 1:35.) As a child, He was the same. The grace of God was upon Him. (Luke 2.) Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business? He alone could say in its full force: "My flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land where no water is; to see thy power and thy glory so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary." (Ps. 43.) Again, as in Ps. 84.: "My heart and my flesh, crieth out for the living God." Beside other and higher glory of His person, Christ was the blessed man who never walked in the counsel of the ungodly nor stood in the way of sinners, nor sat in the seat of the scornful. Other blessed men there are whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. (Ps. 32.) But Christ was the one blessed man who, regarded as made of a woman, made under the law, had no transgressions to be forgiven, neither sins to be covered, but his delight was in the law of the Lord, and in His law did He meditate day and night. In this, then, He stood alone, truly and totally separated unto the Lord, wholly apart from the world for God. Here below, in the flesh, He was the pure and holy Nazarite, blessed in Himself. All others were' sinners. If these were blessed, they were blessed exclusively through Him: and this was by death and resurrection.
But if, in the flesh, He stood thus alone, in resurrection Christ is the first-born among many brethren. This is another condition in which we may view His Nazariteship, and a condition most precious it is to us.
Now, let us consider in what the separation consisted.
First, "He shall separate himself from wino and strong drink, and shall drink no vinegar of wine, or vinegar of strong drink; neither shall he drink any liquor of grapes, nor cat moist grapes or dried. All the days of his separation shall he eat nothing that is made of the vine tree, from the kernels even to the husk." (Verses 3, 4.)
Wine maketh merry; it maketh glad the heart of man. But Christ had not one feeling in common with a world estranged from God. He could love and pity, but kept aloof from all earthly joy and gladness. To Him, in whom God was well pleased, nothing here below yielded enjoyment. He needed not that any should testify of man; for He knew what was in man. (John 3) If men would come and take Him by force to make Him a King, He departs into a mountain Himself alone. (John 6.) If His unbelieving brethren would have Him to show Himself to the world, He says, My time is not yet come. (John 7.) This blessed Nazarite walked as God's heavenly stranger through the world; and the more Ile know the fullness of joy in Jehovah's presence, the more He detected and stood aloof from the spurious pleasures of men, and the more He felt the wretchedness, and sin, and sorrow, of all around Him. The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth His handy work. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge; but man had no ears, no voice for God. Could this gladden the heart of the Nazarite? Looking up to heaven, He sighed. (Mark 7:34.)
Secondly, "All the days of the vow of his separation there shall no razor come upon his head; until the days be fulfilled, in the which he separateth himself unto the Lord; he shall be holy, and shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow." (Verse 5.)
The head and beard are referred to in Scripture as the seat of glory and strength. Thus, in Ps. 133., "it is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard; " and, therefore, it was that the priests, in the case of the death even of near kindred, were forbidden to make baldness upon their head, or to shave off the corner of their beard. (Lev. 21.) These tokens of humiliation did not become those who enjoyed special access to God. On the other hand, he who typifies the defiled and defiling outcast from God and His people, the leper, even in the days of his cleansing, had to "shave off all his hair off his head, and his beard and his eyebrows, even all his hair he shall shave off." (Lev. 14.) Sin has utterly tainted that which otherwise would be comely. But the Nazarite is typical of Christ in His separation as a man unto God, and He was without blemish and without spot, and all that sprang up in that Holy One was lovely and acceptable to God. Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man. (Luke 3.) His meat was to do the will of him that sent Him, and to finish His work. (John 4.) Lo, I come to do thy will, O God, He could say throughout; even as at the termination of His earthly career, He told the Father, I have glorified thee on the earth; I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. To have cut off the beauteous locks of the untainted Nazarite, would have been to have cut off the feelings, interests, thoughts, affections, purposes and acts of Christ, which were all fragrant and precious in the sight of God.
Thirdly, "All the days that he separateth himself unto the Lord he shall come at no dead body. He shall not make himself unclean for his father, or for his mother, for his brother, or for his sister, when they die: because the consecration of his God is upon his head. All the days of his separation he is holy unto the Lord." (Versos 6-8.)
Christ is life and the prince of life, as Satan is he who hath the power of death. And when one, bidden to follow Him, said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father, Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead; but go thou and preach the kingdom of God. (Luke 9.) This world will care for its own things, but Christ and His people are for the living and true God—for Him only. So truly was this verified in Christ, that even death itself He accepts as leaving to do with God and God with him. It is not Judas, nor the Jews, nor the Romans, nor Satan, that His eye is upon; but “the cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it? (John 18.)
No type ever reaches up to, much loss can it exhaust, the glory of the Lord. Hence we constantly find a point where Christ personally is rather the contrast than the object pictured. Aaron was the high priest taken from among men, but Jesus was the Son of God. The one with the blood of bulls and goats offered once every year for himself and for the errors of the people; " but Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us." (Heb. 9:11, 12.) So Christ, as we know, was incapable of defilement: the deaths of man or of Israel in the scene which surrounded Him, did not and could not affect Him, who, if he were the Nazarite, was infinitely more. None could take His life from Him. If He laid it down, it was purely and entirely the spontaneous act of His grace, though eves then He will not swerve from the will of the Father. "I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father."
Blessed be His name! He did lay down His life for the sheep. For it was the will of God that we should be separated by that true Nazarite unto God Himself, and Christ came to effect His will of sanctifying us, and this could only be by the offering up of the body of Christ once for all. For as Jesus had said, “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." And Christ would not abide alone as God's Nazarite, but, having died, and thus removed our defilement and death by His own death for us, He is beyond the region of the dead; and there too are we brought, as risen with Him. The dead corn of wheat has produced much fruit. Risen with Him, great is the company of the Nazarites now.
It is wondrous, yet most certain, that He who knew no sin was made sin for us. Never was Christ's consecration of Himself more holy than when the spotless Victim was wreathed and filleted with our sins, which He verily owned, and bore, and suffered for, according to the judgment and wrath of God. Perfectly without sin, He alone could be a sacrifice for us; perfectly made sin for us, He alone could blot out our sins by the sacrifice of Himself. But now the work is finished, and He has taken His seat on God's right hand, “for by one offering He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified." (Neb. 10:14.) Do we think of our need of a sin-offering? The answer is, Christ was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. (2 Cor. 5.) Do we think, further, of the need of a burnt-offering? The answer is again, Christ also hath loved us, and hath given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor. (Eph. 5:2.)
Accordingly, all our Nazariteship flows from, and is in unison with, this original source. Whatever professes to be holiness, whatever is accredited as holiness, that is not based upon the death of the flesh and is not carried on in resurrection-life, is not true Christian holiness. It may be indeed a fair show in the flesh, but it is virtually a denial of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Once, beyond doubt, when God owned a worldly sanctuary, He owned a fleshly holiness, which rose no higher than mere outward restrictions. For the world and the flesh, however clearly known to Him, had not yet proved themselves to be irremediably evil. But now He owns neither the one nor the other. The cross of Christ was the end of both to those who see as God sees; and Christ is risen and seated at His right hand in the heavenly places, and His power to usward who believe is according to the working of that mighty power which wrought in thus exalting Christ. A man, as such, may be wise, mighty or noble; (1 Cor. 1.) he may be possessed of a thousand natural advantages; he may be even religious in the flesh to a high degree. (Gal. 4.-6.) Earthly things are these, though they may be called earthly blessings; and the Holy Ghost designates those who mind them as enemies, not exactly of Christ, but of THE CROSS of Christ. (Phil. 3.) Men may court such earthly things, they may boast of them, and lean upon them; but shall we, shall Christians? Shall we not rather, as true Nazarites, count those things which were gain, loss for Christ? Shall we not seek yet more to know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death, if by any means we might attain unto the resurrection of the dead? It is as dead and risen with Christ that we are Nazarites, and not by subjection to ordinances, such as Touch not, taste not, handle not. Whatever is unworthy of such dead and risen men is not meet for us. Therefore, brethren, beloved of God, let us set our mind on things above, not on things on the earth. Even while we are here below, we are one with Him above: our life is hid with Him in God. And so really and inseparably are we identified, that when Ile shall appear, then shall we also appear with him in glory. Meanwhile, therefore, let us mortify our members which are upon the earth.
Thus, then, sin and death having entered, the death of Christ could alone meet our defilement; and hence He resumes His Nazariteship in resurrection. And it is in resurrection that He associates believers with Himself, as His brethren in the truest sense. "Touch me not," said Jesus to Mary Magdalene, for I am not yet ascended to my Father; but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto any Father and your Father, and to my God and your God." Such is the gracious provision hinted at in the type: "And if any man die very suddenly by him, and he hath defiled the head of his consecration; then he shall shave his head in the day of his cleansing, on the seventh day shall he shave it. And on the eighth day he shall bring two turtles, or two young pigeons, to the priest, to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation: And the priest shall offer the one for a sin-offering, and the other for a burnt-offering, and make an atonement for him, for that he sinned by the dead, and shall hallow his head that same day. And he shall consecrate unto the Lord the days of his separation, and shall bring a lamb of the first year for a trespass offering: but the days that were before shall be lost, because his separation was defiled." (Verses 9-12.)
"The eighth day" (verse 10) is the introduction, the first day of a new week; and so we find the Nazarite commencing, as it were, his 'separation over again. If sinners are to be separated to God, it can only be by death—the death of Christ. By His resurrection, He began in power the new creation. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. (2 Cor. 5:17.) The total accomplishment may not be until the new heavens and new earth; (Rev. 21:5;) but faith looks at Christ, and can speak this language even now. Our separation is maintained in his separation, as to our life. And separation in our walk must be from walking according to the life we have in Him. “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit." To walk as men—not merely as bad men, but as men, after a human way—is beneath those who are Christ's. (1 Cor. 3.) Wherefore, says the apostle elsewhere, (Col. 2.) if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, &c. In truth, they were dead, and they were risen too, risen with Christ, and therefore are called to seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God.
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 the Lord, 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 the Lord, and shall offer his sin-offering, and his burnt-offering: and he shall offer the ram for a sacrifice of peace-offerings unto the Lord, with the basket of unleavened bread: time 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 time head of his separation, and put it in the fire which is under time sacrifice of the peace-offerings. And the priest shall take the sodden shoulder of the ram, and one unleavened cake out of time 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 the Lord: this is holy for the priest, with the wave-breast and heave-shoulder: and after that time Nazarite may drink wine." (Verses 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 people, nations and languages, should serve Him, He will come again, and He will bring to reign with Him those whom He now separates from time 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: “the Lord reigneth, let the earth rejoice." In that day, truth is no longer fallen in the streets, for it shall spring out of time 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 bye the saints shall judge the world. (1 Cor. 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, far from being fellowship with it, is rather to gather people out of it. These can 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.—(Founded on Notes from Demerara.)