Prayer: Lord, we believe that the reality of the Divine Trinity is with us. We thank You for Your cleansing blood and the anointing Spirit. Lord, we trust in You for Your blessing. We realize that we are nothing and that we can do nothing. Whatever we do by ourselves is in vain. How we need You! We need You for the divine revelation, the divine mystery, of the Divine Trinity. Make the Trinity real to us. Lord, we need Your fresh speaking so that we may receive the bountiful supply of Your life. Lord, cleanse us once again, and accept us. May our heart be open to You and hungry and thirsty for You.
In this chapter we will consider the Divine Trinity as revealed in five cases in Numbers: the separation of the Nazarite, the threefold blessing of Jehovah to His people, the function of the tabernacle and the offerings, the cloud and the fire covering the tabernacle, and the smitten rock.
The word Nazarite means “one who is separated.” The root of the noun Nazarite is the Hebrew verb nazar, which means to be separated (6:2). The Nazarites were separated from the world unto God. In the Old Testament God ordained that the descendants of Aaron would be the priests. Thus, some were born into the priesthood according to God’s selection. However, the door was not closed for others who desired to serve God, for God also established the principle of the Nazarite. If those who were not born into the priesthood had a heart to serve God, they could volunteer as Nazarites. Samuel was a Nazarite. He was not born a priest, but by becoming a Nazarite, he eventually acted and served as a priest (1 Sam. 1—3). The Aaronic priests were chosen by God, but the Nazarites volunteered themselves. These two principles still exist in the church life today. On the one hand, we are chosen by God (Eph. 1:4); on the other hand, we need to volunteer as Nazarites in order to serve as priests. Although we know that we are chosen by God, in our actual service we do not have much consciousness of being chosen. Instead, when we serve in the church life, we are mainly conscious of the need to volunteer. The Lord Jesus was the real Nazarite. As His followers, we need to volunteer to serve God. Romans 12:1-2 speaks about voluntarily offering ourselves and being separated from the world unto God.
I knew from my youth that to be a Nazarite means to volunteer oneself, yet only recently did I see that the Trinity is altogether involved with the separation of the Nazarite. In the separation of the Nazarite there was the need of several offerings—the burnt offering, the sin offering, the peace offering, and the meal offering of different kinds of cakes anointed and mingled with oil. These four kinds of offerings are basic to the separation of the Nazarite.
Numbers 6:13 says, “This is the law of the Nazarite when the days of his separation are fulfilled: He shall be brought to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting.” The Tent of Meeting refers to Christ as the dwelling place of God and the meeting place of His people. Every instance of enjoying the Trinity that we have seen throughout Exodus and Leviticus is at the Tent of Meeting. We must never leave Christ as the Tent of Meeting, because He is the ground and sphere for our enjoyment of the Divine Trinity.
Verse 14 begins, “He shall present his offering to Jehovah.” The Old Testament almost always uses the expression offering to Jehovah; very rarely does it use the expression offering to God. The divine title Jehovah bears two primary characteristics in the Old Testament. It denotes God’s relationship with man, and it denotes the Trinity. We have seen that in Exodus 3:6 Jehovah said, “I am...the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Jehovah identifies Himself as the God of three generations, a threefold God, implying the Divine Trinity. Thus, in the separation of the Nazarite in Numbers 6 Jehovah is the Triune God.
Verse 14 continues, “One male lamb a year old without blemish for a burnt offering, and one female lamb a year old without blemish for a sin offering, and one ram without blemish for a peace offering.” The burnt offering signifies Christ for God’s satisfaction, and the sin offering signifies Christ for the Nazarite’s sin. The burnt offering was the base, the basic offering, of the Nazarite vow. In order to be a Nazarite, we need to live a life as a burnt offering—a life absolutely for God. The sin offering is necessary because our sinful nature frustrates us from living absolutely for God. The vow of the Nazarite does not include a trespass offering because the basic cause of our not living a life absolutely for God is not our trespasses but our sinful nature. Even if we did not commit any sins or trespasses, we would still have this inward sin. Some unbelievers are apparently able to be good people with a high character and may even control their temper better than some seeking Christians do. However, such well-behaved ones are far away from God, and sin is still within them. Our natural constitution is sinful and not for God regardless of how good it might be in the eyes of man.
The peace offering in the Nazarite vow shows that we enjoy peace when we live a life of volunteering to serve God. When we do not live a Nazarite life, a life absolutely for God, it is difficult to have peace. If we do not live a Nazarite’s life, outwardly we may have no problem with others, but inwardly we will have a problem with everyone. The peace offering typifies Christ as the Nazarite’s peace with God and with His people.
Verses 15 through 16 say, “A basket of unleavened bread, cakes of fine flour mingled with oil, and unleavened wafers anointed with oil, and their meal offering and their drink offerings. And the priest shall present them before Jehovah and offer his sin offering and his burnt offering.” The basket of unleavened bread contains the constituents of the meal offering. Anointing is an outward union; mingling is an inward blending. Few Christian teachers dare to talk about mingling, because in the early church an erroneous doctrine of mingling was condemned as heretical. Some oppose our teaching that in Christ God was mingled with man, because they think that mingling two things of different natures produces a distinct, third nature. However, Webster’s Third New International Dictionary defines mingle as “to bring or combine together or with something else so that the components remain distinguishable in the combination.” Thus, when two things are mingled together, their natures remain distinguishable. When tea and water are mingled together, they do not lose their distinct natures. The picture of the fine flour being mingled with oil in the Old Testament type of the meal offering shows us clearly that in Christ humanity was mingled with divinity.
The unleavened cakes of fine flour mingled with oil and the unleavened wafers anointed with oil refer to the sinless Christ mingled with and anointed by the Spirit as food to both God and the priest. Christ is sinless, and He is anointed outwardly by the Spirit and mingled inwardly with the Spirit. He is without sin, and He is full of the Spirit. Such a Christ is food to both God and to the serving ones.
The meal offering typifies Christ for God’s satisfaction, and the drink offering typifies Christ for God’s pleasure. The drink offering was of wine (Lev. 23:13), which is for the pleasure of the drinker. Satisfaction and pleasure are different. Although we are satisfied with the main course of a meal, we may not experience pleasure until we eat dessert. God desires not only satisfaction but also pleasure. We may satisfy God by offering ourselves to Him, but we also need to please God by pouring ourselves out.
The apostle Paul said that he was poured out as a drink offering to God (Phil. 2:17; 2 Tim. 4:6). Paul poured out his entire being for God’s pleasure. The part of Paul’s life that was a pleasure to God was his martyrdom. Paul lived a consecrated life, a Nazarite’s life, which was a reproduction of Jesus’ life and a satisfaction to God, and when Paul was martyred, he was poured out as a drink offering to God. Paul satisfied God as food while he was alive, and he pleased God as a drink offering at the conclusion of his life.
With the consecration of the priests in Leviticus 1—7 there was the burnt offering, the sin offering, the peace offering, and the meal offering but no drink offering, but with the separation of the Nazarite the drink offering was included. This indicates that if we serve God based only on His selection, we may satisfy God, but we must volunteer to serve God to give Him pleasure. Voluntary service is very pleasant to God.
The separation of the Nazarite was so that he might participate in the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity in type. Even before a Nazarite began serving, he participated in the riches of the Trinity when he separated himself from the world unto God. According to the charge in Romans 12:1, we need to voluntarily consecrate ourselves to God, and the types in the separation of the Nazarite in Numbers 6 show that the Divine Trinity is fully involved in our consecration.