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“Then Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, When a man or a woman makes a special vow, the vow of a Nazarite, to separate himself to Jehovah, he shall separate himself from wine and strong drink; he shall drink no vinegar of wine or vinegar of strong drink, nor shall he drink any juice of grapes, nor eat fresh or dried grapes. All the days of his separation he shall eat nothing that is produced by the grape vine, from the seeds even to the skin. All the days of his vow of separation no razor shall pass over his head. He shall be holy until the days are fulfilled for which he separated himself to Jehovah; he shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow long. All the days that he separates himself to Jehovah he shall not come near a dead person. He shall not make himself unclean for his father or for his mother, for his brother or for his sister, when they die, because his separation to God is upon his head. All the days of his separation he is holy to Jehovah.
“And if anyone dies very suddenly beside him so that he defiles the head of his separation, then he shall shave his head on the day he becomes clean; on the seventh day shall he shave it. And on the eighth day he shall bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons to the priest at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, and the priest shall offer one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering, and make expiation for him because he sinned by reason of the dead person. And he shall sanctify his head that same day. And he shall separate to Jehovah the days of his separation and shall bring a male lamb a year old for a trespass offering, but the former days shall be void because his separation was defiled” (Num. 6:1-12).
“She [the mother of Samuel] made a vow and said, O Jehovah of hosts, if You will indeed look upon the affliction of Your female servant and remember me and not forget Your female servant, but give to Your female servant a male child, then I will give him to Jehovah for all the days of his life, and no razor will come upon his head” (1 Sam. 1:11). This means that the male child will be a Nazarite. Let us also read verse 28. “Therefore I, for my part, have lent him to Jehovah; all the days that he lives, he is lent to Jehovah.”
“He will be great in the sight of the Lord, and he shall by no means drink wine and liquor. And he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb” (Luke 1:15). According to this verse, John the Baptist was also a Nazarite.
In the two books of Exodus and Leviticus the Lord ordained and appointed many kinds of persons. Then in the beginning of the book of Numbers, the Lord told Moses how to coordinate all these different persons into one army to fight the battle. In chapter 6, while He was telling Moses how to coordinate these persons, He gave him something as a kind of supplement. The Lord had appointed and ordained only the house of Aaron of the tribe of Levi as the priests. The rest of the Levites who served in the tabernacle were not the priests.
But suppose the house of Aaron would not be faithful to the Lord and would even forsake Him. What would the Lord do? This thought may be strange to us but not to the Bible. We know that Abraham was chosen of God when man failed God after creation. Out of Abraham came the people of Israel, with whom God intended to make a kingdom of priests. We must remember that a priest is one who opens himself to the Lord that the Lord may be mingled with him. The Lord is his content, and he is the Lord’s expression—this is a priest. God’s intention was to make the whole nation of Israel a kingdom of priests; however, through Israel’s failure the Lord chose the Levites as a tribe of priests to replace a nation of priests in Israel. But not all the tribe of Levi were chosen by the Lord. Only those of the house of Aaron were to be the priests.
Could you believe that the house of Aaron would never fall? The house of Aaron eventually came to the point of being fully and utterly fallen at the time of Eli’s sons.
However, the Lord foresaw the situation. Besides His ordination of the house of Aaron as priests, in the sixth chapter of Numbers, He made a supplement. This supplement means “in case of.” In case of failure on the part of the house of Aaron, the Lord opened a side door as an emergency provision. In case the front door is damaged, there is a side door. Therefore, we have the regulation of the Nazarite.
The regulation of the Nazarite is not limited to certain persons, for anyone can become a Nazarite. Regardless of whether you are a Levite, a member of the house of Aaron, a man or a woman, the side door is open. Even the sisters need not worry that the priests in the Old Testament were all men. The side door is open to both men and women. During normal times only the main entrance is needed, but when things are abnormal, the side door is necessary. The principle of the regulation for the Nazarite is that the door is wide open for everyone. No one is prohibited.
What then is the principle of the Nazarite? The principle is voluntary consecration. It is not by being appointed, ordained, or even chosen by the Lord, but by voluntarily consecrating yourself to Him. In the words of Hannah, the mother of Samuel, you simply “lend” yourself. For example, if I am rich, you do not need to lend me anything. Only when I am poor do I need to borrow something from you. As far as the priesthood was concerned at the time of Eli, the Lord was really poor. So Hannah lent Samuel to Him. She told the Lord that if He would give her a male child she would lend him to the Lord. When the priesthood is poor, causing the Lord to be poor with respect to His administration, there is the need for someone to voluntarily lend himself to the Lord.
To what tribe did Samuel belong? It seems that Samuel was of the tribe of Levi, but his father dwelt in Ephraim (1 Sam. 1:1-2). Samuel was not of the house of Aaron, but he became a priest by being consecrated, separated, and lent to the Lord. Samuel became a priest by coming through the side door, not through the main entrance. He became a priest according to the supplement of Numbers 6, not according to an appointment or ordination.
Samuel was not only a priest, but he was also a judge. He was first of all a person in the priesthood, and second, he was a person in the kingship. All the judges were in the line of authority. Besides all this, Samuel was also a prophet, for he was the one who turned the age into the age of the kingdom with the kingship. How much was related to this one person! There was the priesthood, the authority, the prophecy, and the turning of the age of degradation into the age of the kingdom. Was Samuel chosen by the Lord? No. Was he ordained or appointed by the Lord? No. Such a wonderful person came into God’s administration only by the principle of the Nazarite. When things became abnormal, God provided the side door of voluntary consecration.
Although John the Baptist was the son of a priest and therefore a priest by ordination and appointment, he functioned as a strange kind of priest. He functioned not according to birth but according to the principle of the Nazarite. When things are degraded and abnormal, priests by birth, ordination, and appointment are not good enough. Therefore, the supplement needs to be applied.
Allow me to ask a question: are we living today in a normal situation of the priesthood? Without a doubt, we are in an abnormal state; consequently, we must realize that the priesthood by appointment or by birth is not enough. Since the main gate is not good enough, the side door is needed. Do not merely say that we are priests and kings by birth. Although this is true, the situation today is abnormal. Since the main entrance has been damaged, we need the principle of the Nazarite. So many Christians today are born priests and kings, but do they look like priests and kings? We must apply the principle of the Nazarite. Regardless of the fact that we have been born priests and kings, we must take the standing of Nazarites and consecrate and separate ourselves unto the Lord. Regardless of how much we realize that we are born priests and kings, if we are not willing to separate ourselves unto the Lord, we could never be in the genuine priesthood. The main gate, under today’s abnormal situation, is not good enough. We must use the side door by applying the principle of the Nazarite to separate ourselves unto the Lord.
In the consecration of the Nazarite, four things are mentioned very clearly. First of all, a Nazarite should not drink or eat anything of the grape, even its skin. In typology, wine or anything of the grape signifies earthly pleasure or worldly enjoyment. If we are going to realize the priesthood, we must be separated from all earthly pleasures. It is a very hard thing in this country to be separated from worldly enjoyment, because this is a nation of worldly enjoyment. It is very difficult for young people in this country to realize the genuine priesthood because of many temptations, earthly pleasures, and worldly amusements. As long as we drink anything of the grape, we are ruined for the priesthood. By regeneration all Christians have been reborn priests and kings, but almost all of them have been spoiled by the wine of earthly enjoyment. This is not a small matter.
We must realize that today is a day of degradation. To take up the standing of the priesthood, we must voluntarily be completely separated from everything of the grape. The Lord’s recovery can only be prevailing through a priesthood which is entirely separated from earthly pleasures and worldly enjoyment. Whenever we partake of something of this world, we are through. Others do not need to tell us; we already know it within. We may still be a child of the Lord, but we are no longer a priest in reality. Oh, how the earthly pleasures and worldly enjoyments have damaged the priesthood!
Some might ask, “What do you mean by earthly pleasures?” Do not ask me; simply ask yourself. If you ask me, I will return the question to you. You know! You can never say that you do not know. I know that you know. You know exactly which earthly pleasures and worldly enjoyments are keeping you from the priesthood. Under today’s degradation the Lord needs those who will pioneer the way in absolute consecration—a consecration without any reservation.
The second item of the Nazarite’s consecration is that his hair should not be cut. Those in the priesthood must be a peculiar people. We must be somewhat strange and uncommon. If I were to say that you are peculiar, you might not be so happy. But if you were to say that to me, I would be very happy.
What does it mean to forbid the Nazarite to cut his hair? First Corinthians 11:14 says that long hair is a dishonor to a man. It is not a glory, but a dishonor. It is a glory for a woman, but a dishonor for a man. A Nazarite is one who is willing to bear shame for the Lord. To have long hair means to be separated from self-glory. The self has been put to death; hence, there is no self-consciousness, self-righteousness, or self-glory. As long as we have something of self-glory, we can never be in the priesthood. We must bear shame for the Lord’s testimony and for His purpose. Do not be a glory-seeker, but be a shame-bearer.
Many times some of the brothers have told me not to say or do certain things because they feared that I might get a bad name. But I desire to have a bad name! Some brothers even call me a troublemaker. I praise the Lord for such evil reports! We should not try to be so good or nice. When the Lord Jesus was on the earth, He was not always so nice. If we are going to be priests, we must learn to bear the shame.
Hebrews 13:13 tells us to go outside the camp and bear His reproach. This means to bear His shame. Do not be afraid of bad names or evil reports. If we are not bold enough to bear the shame, we cannot be in the priesthood. A priest is a person with long hair; that is, he has no self-glory. To be a genuine priest will, more or less, cause others to look down on you. This is especially true in this country, which is a nation of amusements and glory-seeking. In this country you can speak to Christians about anything except separation from the world and the denial of self-glory. Whenever you speak about these things, they are offended. There is a real price to pay for the priesthood. We must bear the reproach, denying all self-glory for His sake.
The third item in the Nazarite’s consecration is to not be defiled by anything dead, especially by the death of our nearest relatives. Our nearest relatives, representing our natural affections, can be a means to deaden us. We must be separated from our natural affection which so easily deadens. Our business with the Lord is our business with the Lord; it must not be involved with anything of our natural affection. If it is, then immediately we are deadened.
Why are so many Christians who have been born priests and kings out of function today? It is simply because of these three things: earthly pleasure or entertainment, self-glory, and natural affection. If we are going to realize the position of the genuine priesthood, we must voluntarily consecrate ourselves unto the Lord to be separated from all these things.
Moreover, the Word of the Lord is even clearer about the matter of spiritual deadness. Numbers 6:9 says that if anyone dies very suddenly beside you, you are defiled. Anyone can affect us. If we are deadened by them, all the days of our separation will be lost. We may have overcome our natural affections, but one day in the church, a brother standing beside us dies very suddenly. I do not mean that he dies physically, but spiritually. If this happens, we must be careful not to be affected by him. Do not let him pass his deadness on to you. Satan is the very source of death, and he always likes to spread death to others. Many brothers and sisters in the church life have been deadened by one or two dead members. Whenever we sense or smell the stench of spiritual death, we must run away. This is the fourth item in the Nazarite’s consecration.
Do you like to look into a garbage can? No matter how fine anyone’s home is, there is always a trash can. Even a king’s palace has a trash can. There is also a trash can in the universe. Hell is the universal trash can to contain all the garbage in the universe. Do not say that such-and-such local church is so wonderful, for every local church has a trash can. If you come to my home, will you come to smell and enjoy the trash can? No. But sometimes when we go to a local church, we do not go to the “living room” but to the “trash can.” We do not exercise ourselves to taste the good things but to enjoy the trash can—the gossip, the criticism, and the murmuring. Eventually, we are deadened. The more we contact these negative things, the more we cannot pray. We are simply deadened. We may have one hundred reasons for this or that, but we are deadened. If any man dies very suddenly near us, we must run away. Run away from the dead members, or your spirit will be deadened.
Earthly enjoyments, self-glory, natural affection, and sudden spiritual deadness in others must be overcome; otherwise, the priesthood will be ruined. We must realize that the situation today is not normal. If it were, it would be unnecessary to apply the principle of the Nazarite. We must volunteer to be a Nazarite, such as Samuel, who turned the age of degradation into the age of the kingdom. It was a Nazarite like John the Baptist who turned the Old Testament dispensation into the New and ushered in the Lord Jesus Christ. I believe that in these last days there will also be those who turn this age into another age. Only the Nazarites can bring back the Lord Jesus. It cannot be done by today’s Christianity, but only by those who voluntarily separate themselves from earthly enjoyments, self-glory, natural affection, and sudden spiritual deadness in others. Then they will be the Nazarites of today who will turn this age of degradation into the age of the kingdom, and they will bring back the Lord.
We must bring this principle of the Nazarite to the Lord and pray. Do not say that we have been born priests and kings. Under today’s degradation this ordination by birth does not work. There is the need of the side door which is the regulation of the Nazarite. We all must lend ourselves to the Lord.
Due to a lack of spiritual personnel for His administration, the Lord is very poor today. We must offer ourselves unto Him so that He can borrow us for His purpose. Only the regulation of the Nazarite can meet today’s emergency. The Lord is calling a people to separate themselves entirely from all earthly enjoyments, self-glory, natural affection, and sudden spiritual deadness. Who will be the volunteers?
