There is a principle which runs through the entire Scriptures, which is but little heeded and followed in these days of abounding evil-days when we find the name of Jesus attached to the grossest worldliness, evil practice, and corruption of the truth, and used as a covering to almost every device of the enemy of souls, who cordially hates the name of Jesus, and who, when he could not succeed, as at first he attempted, to blot out that name from the world, successfully carries out his purposes and designs under its shelter and apparent sanction. Satan, when he finds it does not answer his ends to be a roaring lion, does not cease his endeavors to delude and destroy. But he takes another form-that of a serpent, wily and subtle. This is far more to be feared than his open power. The believer, when in the midst of trial and persecution, finds God near, and looks up to Him out of the trial and never is so happy. But by and bye, when Satan finds that his persecutions only produce a brighter testimony, and fuller confidence in God, he changes his tactics and becomes a seducer, cleverest and most successful when he brings his seductions under the name of Jesus, and more likely to succeed.
Would that there was more familiar hearkening to the voice of the Good Shepherd, a deeper acquaintance with the tones of His voice! If there were, there would be less power in the seductions of the enemy; his wiles and his seductions would be detected and exposed, and the heart kept steady and at rest.
The desire of unity in the heart of the Lord’s people has been always a dear one. It was dear to the heart of Jesus when He prayed “that they all may be one.” But we must always remember that His name cannot be identified with evil and falsehood. Such a thought is horrible. “If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth.” We bless His name for it that He saves His people out of the midst of all the corruptions in the world; His grace is infinite in this. It is His prerogative—He is sovereign in this, and He does it in the display of His grace. But the thought that because He does this, that He thereby sanctions the evil in which He finds them, is revolting to the spiritual mind. But while He is sovereign in all this, and goes where He pleases, His servants must be obedient to His mind as revealed. ‘Tis then they find themselves in a position in which He can bless them and be with them, where nothing is allowed and sanctioned dishonoring to His name, or contrary to His truth.
The principle of which we speak is that of Separation from evil, to God. It is one largely dwelt upon in the Word of God in all dispensations. We will look at some of the instances.
1. When the world had gone into idolatry and the worship of demons (as we learn from Josh. 24:2; Deut. 32:17; 1 Cor. 10:20)—even the family of him of whom it was said, “Blessed be the Lord God of Shem.”—God separated to Himself one man, Abraham, who was descended from the family, and whose ancestors were idolaters (Josh. 24:2)— “Get thee out from thy country, “and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house” (Gen. 12:1); and Abraham, thus separated to God, becomes His witness in the world, and is in a position to know his mind—and the Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do” (Gen. 18:17), and he was called the “friend of God.”
2. The nation of Israel, when slaves in Egypt, were redeemed out of it and separated to God, that He might dwell among them (Ex. 29:46,) and that they may be His witnesses in the world that He was the one true God. “Ye are my witnesses... that I (Jehovah) am God.” (Isa. 43:12.)
When that nation made the golden calf and worshipped it as the god which brought them up out of the land of Egypt (Ex. 32:1-6,) Moses came down from the mountain, where he had been with God, and said, “Who is on the Lord’s side I let him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him. And he said unto them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbor. And the children of Israel did according to the word of Moses: and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men.” (Ex. 32:26-28) Faithfulness to God was in separating themselves to Him, when the evil was there: and we find how He owned their faithfulness, in Deut. 33:8-10,— “And of Levi he said,... Who said to his father and to his mother, I have not seen him; neither did he acknowledge his brethren, nor know his own children: for they have observed thy word, and kept thy covenant. They shall teach Jacob thy judgments, and Israel thy law: they shall put incense before Thee, and whole burnt sacrifice upon thine altar.”
Moses, too, conscious that God could not. identify Himself with the evil of the people, took the Tent or Tabernacle and pitched it outside the camp of Israel; and “everyone which sought the Lord went out unto the Tabernacle of the Congregation which was without the camp:” and the Lord owned the faithfulness of His servant who had thus recognized what was due to Him, thus putting himself in a position to receive the communications of God: and we read, “The Lord spake to Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend.” (Ex. 33:7-11.)
3. When Israel were apostate in their land, and had openly professed to be worshippers of Baal, and that Elijah was raised up of God to re-establish the worship of Jehovah, there were 7000 souls, unknown and unheeded, faithful to the true God, who had not bowed the knee to the image of Baal. God saw them in their humble testimony: it was nothing striking or outward, such as that of Elijah; no display of power; but what was grateful to God, and what He owned, and could point to, separation in heart to Him, and faithfulness in the midst of corruption. — “They have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal”—the great thing, when everyone else had done so, they had not done it, but in faithfulness had separated themselves to God. (1 Kings 19)
4. When the false prophets and the popular falsehoods had possession of the ear, heart, and the desire of Judah, the words of God were found by Jeremiah (see Jer. 15:15-21), and he did eat them—digested them inwardly—and they became the joy and rejoicing of his heart. The word of God had its own separating power in him, and he sat not in the assembly of the mockers, but sat alone, filled with indignation. The answer of the Lord comes to him, “If thou return, then will I bring thee again, and thou shalt stand before me: and if thou take forth the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as my mouth: let them return unto thee, but return not thou unto them.
5. Again, in the day when the remnant of Judah and Benjamin returned from the Babylonish captivity to the city of Jerusalem, separating themselves from the Gentiles, (see Ezra and Nehemiah) we find that on this return to a divine position and a divine city, there was,—
1St, Separation from those whose genealogy could not be found or produced. (Ezra 2:59-63.)
2nd, Separation from those of the world who wanted to rebuild the temple with them. (Ezra 4:1-6.)
3rd, Separation from Gentile wives, and children of such—all that was not of Israel. (Ezra 10:1, &c.)
6. Again, when this returned remnant had fallen into corruption after their return from Babylon, when their words were stout against the Lord, and the proud esteemed happy, and those who wrought wickedness set up; when all was ruin and corruption again. (See Mal. 3:13-17) We find a little company separating themselves from the abounding evil, to God; a little flock, driven together by their spiritual wants, who feared the Lord, and spake often one to another, and the Lord hearkened and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon His name. And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.
7. The Good Shepherd Himself separates Himself from the Jewish fold, into which He had entered by the door, and where His words, and His works, and Himself were rejected. And He then becomes the door by which the remnant who had heard His voice might go out of that fold to Him. “He calleth His own sheep by name, and leadeth them out” of that which He could no longer recognize and own. (John 10)
8. The church of God should have maintained her place of separation from evil in the world, and put out from amongst themselves that wicked person. (1 Cor. 5).
Regarding the worship and service of God we are told,—
9. “Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers; for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? and what concord hath he that believeth with an infidel (unbeliever)? and what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore, come out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. (2 Cor. 6:14-18). Thus separating from the worldly and from unbelievers, we take practically the position in which God can dwell and walk with us; and we enter practically into the relationship which grace has given, that of sons and daughters of the Father, who is Jehovah Almighty.
10. When the house of God, instead of maintaining its position as God’s witness in the world— “The house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Tim. 3:15)—has been filled with corruptions and iniquity, and has its vessels not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and of earth, some to honor and some to dishonor (2 Tim. 2:19,20), thus becoming a “great house,” the faithful disciple is not to rest satisfied with its corruptions; nor can he remedy the evil and purge the house, nor can he get out of it; and his resource is the same principle, “separation from evil;” he is to “depart from iniquity.” While it is his joy to know that in such a state of things “The Lord knoweth them that are His,” still the responsibility of each one who names the name of the Lord is to “depart from iniquity,” separating himself thus to God in the midst of the evil, exercising the spirit of the Nazarite, when the enemy is an inward one in the bosom of the church (Samson’s source of strength was his Nazariteship, when the Philistines were in the midst of the people in the land). He is then in the position to be a vessel unto honor, who has purged himself from the vessels to dishonor, separated or sanctified and meet for the Master’s use. His separation is not denying that the others are vessels, but they are vessels identified with that which does dishonor to Christ as the Holy and True, and therefore soiled vessels. “If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified and meet for the Master’s use, and prepared unto every good work.”
The moment we see a disciple who has thus purged himself, and departed from iniquity, we see one whom we can recognize. God’s eye may discern him when mixed up with the corruption, for He knows them that are His. We can discern him when he has separated himself to God; and with such we can then walk, through grace, following righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. (2 Tim. 2:19-22.)
11. When Israel rejected their Messiah, and the testimony to a risen and exalted Christ, by the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven, the whole system is given up to judgment, and consequently the exhortation to those who had received Him is, “Let us go forth, therefore, unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach” —(Heb. 13:13),—separating thus from a judged system to God, as the Christian is bound to do from any religion which accredits the flesh, and connects itself with the world, and not with that which entereth within the vail.
12. It is impossible that Christ and falsehood can be identified. Fellowship with the Father and His Son must be according to the essential character of God, which is “Light,” and in whom is no darkness at all; and “if we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth.” (1 John 1:6.)
It is true that “he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey” (Isa. 59:15), but the Lord will own his faithfulness when His day comes, as one who, with a little strength, had kept His word, and not denied and falsified His name. (Rev. 3:8.)
Is my Christian reader thus a Nazarite to God?