“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).
“And 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).
“Therefore I, for my part, have lent him to Jehovah; all the days that he lives, he is lent to Jehovah” (1 Sam. 1:28).
“For he will be great in the sight of the Lord, and 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).
In Exodus and Leviticus the Lord ordained and appointed many kinds of people to serve Him. Then, in the beginning of the book of Numbers, the Lord told Moses how to coordinate these different people into one army to fight the battle. While He was telling Moses how to coordinate these people, the Lord gave Moses a supplement in chapter six of Numbers. This supplement was His special provision against degradation in the priesthood. The Lord had appointed and ordained only the house of Aaron, of the tribe of Levi, to be 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. Such a thought may be strange to us, but not to the Bible. Abraham was chosen by God after the created race had fallen. Out of Abraham came the people of Israel, of whom God intended to make a kingdom of priests. According to the Bible, a priest is one who opens himself to the Lord so 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, due to Israel’s failure, the Lord chose the tribe of Levi to replace the nation of priests in Israel. But not all of the tribe of Levi were chosen by the Lord. Only those of the house of Aaron were to be the priests.
Do 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 (1 Sam. 2:12-17).
However, the Lord foresaw this situation. Besides His ordination of the house of Aaron as priests, He provided a supplement in the sixth chapter of Numbers. This supplement means “in case of.” In the case of failure in the house of Aaron, the Lord opened a side door as an emergency provision. When the front door is damaged, there is the need for a side door. Therefore, we have the vows of the Nazarite.
To be a Nazarite is not limited to certain people, for anyone can become a Nazarite. 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 be bothered that all the priests in the Old Testament were men; the side door is open to both men and women. During normal times, the main entrance is sufficient, but when the times are abnormal, the side door is necessary. The principle of the Nazarite vow is that the door is open for everyone. No one is excluded.
What then, is the principle of the Nazarite? It is voluntary consecration. It is not a matter of being appointed, ordained, or even chosen by the Lord, but of voluntarily consecrating yourself to Him. In the words of Hannah, the mother of Samuel, you simply “lend” yourself. 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. At the time of Eli, the Lord was really poor as far as the priesthood was concerned; so Hannah lent Samuel to Him. She told the Lord that if He would give her a male child, then she would lend him to the Lord. When things are abnormal, causing the Lord to be poor in His administration, someone needs to voluntarily lend himself to the Lord.
To what tribe did Samuel belong? Apparently, Samuel was of the tribe of Levi, but actually he belonged to the tribe of Ephraim (1 Sam. 1:1-2). Samuel was not even 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 by coming through the main entrance. He became a priest according to the supplement provided in Numbers 6, not according to an appointment or ordination.
Samuel was not only a priest, but also a judge. All the judges were in the line of authority. He was a person in the priesthood and in the kingship. In addition to this, Samuel was also a prophet, 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 prophethood, and the turning of the age of degradation into the age of the kingdom. Samuel was not chosen by the Lord; neither was he ordained or appointed by the Lord. Such a wonderful person came into God’s administration only by the principle of the Nazarite. When the priesthood became degraded, 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 sufficient. Therefore, the supplement is needed.
Do you think that the priesthood today is in a normal condition? Without a doubt, the priesthood is in an abnormal state; consequently, we must realize that the priesthood by appointment or by birth is not adequate. Since the main gate is not adequate, the side door is needed. Do not argue by saying 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 as a side door. All real Christians are born priests and kings, but unfortunately they do not function as 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 a Nazarite and consecrate and separate ourselves unto the Lord. No matter how much we realize that we are born priests and kings, if we are not willing to separate ourselves unto the Lord, we can never be in the genuine priesthood. The main gate in today’s abnormal situation is not adequate. We must use the side door by applying the principle of the Nazarite to separate ourselves unto the Lord.
Within the consecration of the Nazarite, there are four items of separation. First, a Nazarite should not drink or eat anything of the grape, from its seeds to its skin. In typology, wine or anything of the grape signifies earthly pleasure or worldly enjoyment. If we are going to have the genuine priesthood, we must be separated from all earthly pleasures. To be separated from worldly enjoyment is very difficult because this is a nation of worldly enjoyment. Young people in this country find it hard to realize the genuine priesthood because of the 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 become priests and kings, but nearly all of them have been spoiled by the wine of earthly enjoyment. This is a very serious matter.
We all must realize that today’s Christianity has become degraded. To take the standing of the priesthood, we must voluntarily be completely separated from the grape. The Lord’s recovery can only be prevailing with the priesthood which is entirely separated from earthly pleasures and worldly enjoyment. Whenever we partake of something of this world, we are finished with the priesthood. Others do not need to tell us; we already know it within. We are still children of the Lord, but we are no longer priests in reality. Oh, how the earthly pleasures and worldly enjoyments have damaged the priesthood!
You may ask, “What do you mean by earthly pleasures?” Do not ask me, but simply ask yourself. You know! You can never say that you do not know. You know exactly which earthly pleasures and worldly enjoyments are keeping you away from the priesthood. In today’s degradation, the Lord needs those who will pioneer the way in absolute consecration. This consecration must be 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 a little 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. To be peculiar in this sense is proper for a Christian.
What does it mean to forbid the Nazarite to cut his hair? First Corinthians 11:14 says that long hair is a shame to a man. It is not a glory, but a shame. Long hair is a glory to a woman, but a shame to 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 the shame for the Lord’s testimony and for His purpose. Do not be a glory-seeker; be a shame-bearer. 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, which 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 cause others to despise you. In this country of amusements and glory-seeking, you can speak about anything to Christians 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 of the Nazarite’s consecration is that he must not be defiled by anything dead, especially by the death of his nearest relatives. Our nearest relatives, representing our natural affections, can be a means to deaden us. We must be separated from our natural affections, which so easily deaden. We can easily be deadened by other people’s deadness. We must overcome our natural affections and not be affected by our mother, our father, our sister, or even our wife or husband. Our business with the Lord must not be involved with anything of our natural affections. If it is, then immediately we are deadened. We are born priests and kings, but what about our relationship with our parents, our brother, and our sister? All of this simply means that we must overcome our natural affections.
So many Christians who have been born priests and kings are out of function today because of these three things: earthly pleasure or entertainment, self-glory, and natural affections. If we are going to realize the position of the real priesthood, we must voluntarily consecrate ourselves unto the Lord to be separated from all of 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 by you, you are defiled. Not only our relative’s death, but anyone’s death 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 suppose one day in the church life a brother standing by 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 on his deadness to you. Satan is the very source of death, and he always likes to spread death toward 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.
Do you enjoy looking into a trash can? No matter how fine a home is, it always has a trash can. Even a king’s palace has a trash can. If you come to my home, will you come to smell and enjoy the trash can? Sometimes when you visit a local church, you do not go to the living room, but to the trash can. You do not exercise yourself to taste the good things, but to enjoy the trash can — the gossip, the criticism, and the murmuring. Eventually, you are deadened. The more you contact these negative things, the less you are able to pray. You are simply deadened. You may have one hundred reasons for listening to the negative talk, but you are deadened. If anyone dies very suddenly near you, you must run away. Run away from the dead members, or your spirit will be deadened.
Earthly enjoyment, self-glory, natural affections, and sudden spiritual deadness in others must all be overcome; otherwise, the priesthood will be ruined. We all 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, John the Baptist, who turned the Old Testament dispensation into the New Testament dispensation and ushered in the Lord Jesus Christ.
In these last days there must be a people who will turn this age into another age. Only the Nazarites can bring back the Lord Jesus. It cannot be done by today’s Christianity, but by those who will voluntarily separate themselves from earthly enjoyments, self-glory, natural affections, and sudden spiritual deadness in others. They will be the Nazarites of today who will turn this age of degradation into the age of the kingdom. They will bring back the Lord.
We must pray concerning this principle of the Nazarite. Do not say that we have been born priests and kings. This ordination by birth does not work under today’s degradation. There is the need for the side door, which is the vow of the Nazarite. We all must lend ourselves to the Lord. As far as spiritual personnel is concerned, the Lord is very poor today. We must offer ourselves to Him so that He can borrow us for His purpose. Only the vow of the Nazarite can meet today’s emergency. The Lord is calling for a people who will separate themselves entirely from all earthly enjoyment, self-glory, natural affection, and sudden spiritual deadness. Who will be the volunteers?
