Numbers 5

Numbers 5:1-6

Subdivision 3. (Numbers 5:1-31; Numbers 6:1-27.)The sanctification of the camp. The camp being thus ordered and arranged, the next thing is to have it cleansed from evil, that God, in whom alone their strength is, may be with them. The place of this, and its necessity, need not be dwelt upon: the details are full of interest, their connection with one another made quite plain only by their typical significance, according to which alone leprosy and contact with the dead would be defilement. How evidently are the things that happened unto Israel -types which are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the ages are come!

1. First, in the leper and the man with an issue we find, though in different degrees, the outbreak of the flesh. The taint of the natural life, poisoned by sin, is easily read in these things, which are in fact the penalties of sin. From this there would be no escape, for it no help, did we not receive a new life, divine, and so in itself incorrupt, untainted. With this comes the responsibility of judging what is of the old, which these two things show us unjudged. They who are thus marked as indulging sin are to be put out of the camp; and with them those defiled with the dead, for the life we have received is eternal.

This eternal life is therefore to be maintained in incorruption, and dissociation from all that is incongruous with it. Our Lord’s words are the New Testament enforcement of this, -“Let the dead bury their dead; but go thou and preach the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:60.) Defilement with the dead is characteristic of the book of Numbers: we have it again in the law of the Nazarite, in the provision of the second passover, and above all in the ordinance of the red heifer, which is specifically for purification from it. Thus the evil is one of great importance, and in close relation to the wilderness-journey. Nor is it difficult to see this connection. The wilderness, in its barrenness, in its lack of what would sustain life, naturally suggests death. On many an one the skeletons of animals and men lie far and wide, bleaching in sun and wind. The world in the same way has on it the stamp and seal of death, the evident mark of its distance and alienation from the living God.

No wonder if all connected with it naturally should be thus associated with uncleanness in the Word of God. So that which dies of itself may not be eaten, though that which is slain and offered to God is, on the contrary, the food of both God and man. The contact that defiles is of course for us spiritual. It is that cleaving to the world which the apostle laments, even weeping, in the professors of Christianity, and in its full development makes them such as “whose god is their belly, whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.” (Philippians 3:19.) These he calls enemies of the cross of Christ," for the cross of Christ is that by which we are crucified to the world and the world to us (Galatians 6:14). And “in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.” “Our conversation” -our citizenship -“is in heaven, from whence we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Philippians 3:20.) There are lighter grades, of course, and some forms of it that seem inevitable; yet in its lightest form it is a most serious evil. The world is all around us, the scene through which we pass,- and in which we have our daily occupation, attractive still to the old nature, and an enemy’s country, where “the prince of the power of the air,” with unseen subtle influences, “worketh in the children of disobedience.” Unlike Adam in Eden, here we are called to suspect everywhere the stratagems of an active foe, who makes the very place of tombs his stronghold. In it we have to be; of it we are not: we are a new creation -citizens of heaven, and to act in character with this, as strangers and pilgrims," thus to “abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul.” 2. The second thing in this purification of the camp is the restitution enjoined for trespass -a restitution which we have already seen is to be in excess of the injury inflicted by the trespass. It does not satisfy God to have the loss made up; there must be an overplus of gain to him who has suffered the loss, wherein God too is glorified. This is the positive side of blessing in the conflict with evil, not as before simply the banishment of it; and for this the work of Christ must come in, as seen in the accompanying sacrifice: it is a triumph of holiness which redemption alone can secure, and has secured, and which those redeemed from sin are called to imitate. 3. In the third case, there is not a dealing with known sin, but even the suspicion is not to be tolerated in the people of God. In the jealousy-offering, a direct appeal to God is provided in such a case, where indeed the sin suspected struck at the very foundation of that family relation which not only in Israel but elsewhere is itself the foundation of all other relation between man and man. Its place here, therefore, where the purification of the camp is in question, is perfectly simple, while the typical meaning adds to its significance. The relation of man and wife is that by which (as the nearest and most intimate of all,) it pleased God to set forth His own relation with His covenant-people (Isaiah 44:5; Jeremiah 31:32). The Church is at present but espoused to Christ, not married (2 Corinthians 11:2; Revelation 19:7); but as to the bond existing, Scripture treats it as the same in both cases (Deuteronomy 22:23-24). To the Church, therefore, also the type fully applies, -in its details, more completely than to Israel. How grave a question, then, is here! and there must not be even a question. The Lord is jealous over us with a heart that never wanders, a love that does not admit a question. How it would spoil all if the suspicion here could be allowed as to the husband! but “I have loved thee with an everlasting love” is what is ever true on His side. The church, alas! may give herself to another, as Israel also did: the history of one is in sorrowful correspondence with that of the other. When there is suspicion the man brings his wife to the priest, and for her a meal-offering of barley-meal, not the fine wheat-flour of the usual meal-offering. The reason for the substitution has been variously interpreted. The Rabbins took it as a sign that the adulteress had conducted herself like an irrational animal; but the woman is not yet proved to be an adulteress. Others suggest that “the persons presenting the offering were invoking the punishment of a crime, and not the favor of God,” but this is not strictly true, nor would an offering for the supposed guilty person appear suitable for such a purpose. Knobel takes it to indicate that the offerer might be innocent, and in that case no offering at all was required. Keil, rightly rejecting all these, supposes it to represent the questionable repute in which the woman stood, or the ambiguous, suspicious character of her conduct; but the first of these the offering does not seem able to express, the second might not be really the truth: circumstances might arise beyond her own control entirely which might bring her into suspicion.

Lange thinks that the “poor bond of union that still exists between the parties is designated by the inferior offering;” but the offering is the woman’s, not the man’s, though the man provide it: it represents in some way her alone. Oehler says, “As an accused person appears before the tribunal in mourning attire, without the question of his guilt or innocence being in any way affected, so may this sacrifice be said to exhibit a merely gloomy character.” Which, however, would give no precision to the type at all. The truth seems to be rather that the meal-offering of fine wheat-flour represents Christ, as we have seen; and although the Pentecostal wave loaves were an exception, figuring the Church, yet in this case the distinction is made plain by the introduction of leaven into the flour. In the case before us the leaven would have implied guilt, and the fine wheat would have been out of place: the barley-meal, coarser and commoner, might well typify a life which could not be professed to be very much, as in God’s sight, yet not corrupted in a manner charged. This offered from the woman’s hand would indeed call for God’s remembrance as to its truth or falsehood. The omission of oil and frankincense may indeed speak of one coming with a sad heart and not in the joyous spirit of praise. Before this is offered, however, holy (that is, consecrated) water is put into an earthen vessel, and dust from the tabernacle floor mixed with the water. The dust is here, as usually, “the dust of death,” which from the tabernacle-floor intimates that nevertheless God has come in for man. Death remains still, and as judgment to the flesh, and yet for blessing. The cross of Christ has made this familiar to us as Christians; and in it our old man is crucified with Christ, that the body of sin might be annulled, that henceforth we should not serve sin. Christ has died to sin once, and in that He liveth He liveth unto God: so are we to reckon ourselves dead indeed unto sin, and alive unto God in Christ Jesus. “The power of the Holy Spirit judging thus (according to the sentence of death against the flesh) the state of unfaithfulness which was thought to be hidden from the true husband of the people, makes the sin manifest and brings down the chastening and curse upon the unfaithful one, that evidently by the just judgment of God. Drinking death, according to the power of the Spirit, is life to the soul. ‘By these things,’ says Hezekiah, men live, and in all these things is the life of the Spirit;’ even when they are the effect of chastening, which is not always necessarily the case. But if any of the accursed things be hidden -if there be unfaithfulness toward Jesus, undetected though it may be by man and God puts it to the test; if we have allowed ourselves to be enticed by him who has the power of death, and the holy power of God is occupied with death, and comes to deal with the power of the enemy -the concealed evil laid bare, the flesh is reached; its rottenness and powerlessness are made manifest, however fair its appearances may be.” (Synopsis.) Here, then, sanctification in its innermost reality is insisted on, separation as united to Christ, being His alone; and this prepares us for the section that follows, in which in the Nazarite vow the earth-side of this sanctification is insisted on. 4. The very term, “Nazarite” speaks of “separation.” The three things re quired of him are all this: separation from the fruit of the vine, from the dignity of manhood by his long hair, and from the dead. The vow was (as looked at here) voluntary, and for a limited time; and these are the things in which its character declares itself. The vow was a special, extraordinary one; but we must not on that account imagine that it must typify what is special or extraordinary among Christians. The priesthood, the Levite-service, etc. were restricted to the few in Israel, while among Christians they represent what in responsibility and privilege is universal. The voluntary character gives here a special force, for all true sanctification must come from the heart freely devoting itself. There were Nazarites from their birth afterward, as in the case of Samson and of Samuel, a thing which typically is reconcilable with this; for we are saints from our new birth, and yet are free in our separation to Him who has won us to Himself. The limit of the vow on the other side is just as simple: for separation applies only to the present world , which sin has defiled, while holiness will be ours forever. The first point of separation is from wine and strong drink -from all that could intoxicate, or, as is said of wine, “take away the heart.” (Hosea 4:11.) Wine stands eminently for that which “maketh glad the heart of man” (Psalms 104:15), by no means of necessity evil, for we are told it “cheereth God and man” (Judges 9:13): God, no doubt, in the drink-offering. It stands therefore for pleasure, which may be spiritual and heavenly, as when (his vow ended) the Nazarite himself drinks it, but here as often for the pleasures of the world which take away the heart from God and from the things of God. Strong drink is that which has still more plainly and decidedly this character. But the separation is carried very far indeed, for he is to drink no vinegar of wine or of strong drink, nor liquor of grapes, nor eat grapes, fresh or dried. All the days of his separation, he is to eat nothing made of the wine-vine, from the seed-stones even to the skin. Here, the mention of the wine-vine would show that it is as producing the wine that the vine is condemned. Yet no intoxicating effects as of wine could be produced by any of these things. They are things pleasant to the taste, no doubt, and though not intoxicating, allied to that which does intoxicate: what do they typify, then, for us? Now the Nazarite is a man separated to God, as the saint is whom he pictures. And for the Christian Christ is to be his one sufficing joy. The knowledge of the new man is distinctly said to be in a sphere “where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond, nor free, but Christ is all and in all.” (Colossians 3:11.) How much of the world’s pleasures would that exclude? Only the intoxicating ones? Would it not exclude all in which one could not find Christ in some way? all that would be inconsistent with frank and unhesitating acceptance of that unspeakably gracious invitation, “If any man thirst, let him come unto ME and drink”? What less could result from the supreme conviction that “Christ is ALL”? If this appear extreme, did not the separation of the Nazarite from the very skin of the wine-vine" appear extreme? Or can it be that God’s principles demand any thing less than being carried out to an extreme? Can there be a too absorbing delight in Christ? Or can we turn to Him too entirely for satisfaction? Legality this is not. Legality is the spirit of self-righteousness, or of slavish dread, never of love, or desire after Christ, or of expectation from Him, such as that of which we have been speaking. Carry these ever so far, they can never land you in that in the direction of which they do not even point, but away from it. He who speaks of himself as doing but one thing, was neither a legalist nor an extremist. He was simply a man into whose heart, forever filling it, the glory of Christ had shined. Let us not confound this, however, with the spirit of asceticism that has peopled monasteries with men fleeing vainly from the world, or scattered through the desert the abodes of the recluse. Nor let us imagine as involved in it any “death to nature,” in which what God has made or instituted is branded as if it were unclean. It is striking that just in these two epistles in which Christian position is most emphasized (Ephesians and Colossians) the duties of earthly relationships are most largely dwelt upon. The lilies of the field could be seen by Him who as Son of Man was here on earth for us arrayed in glory beyond all Solomon’s. His hands indeed had made them, and if not a sparrow fell to the ground without His Father, He could say, “I and My Father are one.” Still as ever is it true that the Lord’s works are manifold, and in wisdom has He made them all: the earth is full of His riches; yea, and His works are sought out of all them that have pleasure therein. But the Christian Nazarite is Christ’s: therefore in his pleasures, in his business, in his duties, Christ is before him, with him, over him. He has fellowship with the Father and the Son, and there is nothing for him outside this. Here is the principle which makes him of necessity a stranger to what they find pleasure in, who find none in Him. The world’s vine of wine," as a whole, he is separate from. The second point of separation with the Nazarite, is from the dignity and rights of manhood. The long hair with the woman is the sign of authority under which she is, as the apostle teaches. If a man has long hair, it is a shame to him; but the Nazarite humbles himself to this, taking the dependent and subject place, and giving up the rights of man to consecrate himself wholly to God. Man is indeed a ruined creature, and the first Adam headship is gone forever; the last Adam is the second Man, not the first: yet He also upon earth had not His rights nor claimed them, “came, not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and give His life a ransom for many.” His people here also have to walk in His steps, and “he that will be great must be a servant.” Yet it is power, none the less, and blessing, -love’s privilege, in which again we have fellowship with Christ. Nor should we wonder that a Samson’s strength should be in his hair, for the place of dependence and subjection is ever the place of power. The third point of separation we have already looked at, -separation from the dead. It is life in Christ we have, and eternal: it is to be maintained as such, free from defilement with that which has come under the power of death. All these three parts of Nazarite separation are plainly connected and in most perfect harmony. As to failure, it is here in this last way that it is contemplated. To man’s eyes it would seem but an accident, but there are none; the power of circumstances should never prevail against those sanctified to God. How naturally we excuse ourselves by our weakness and the unexpected assaults of the enemy! But true weakness is always strength, and there are no circumstances in which God is not. Nothing of this sort, then, is admitted. The defiled Nazarite goes six days unclean, and on the seventh, he must shave his head. On the eighth, he brings his offering, two turtle-doves or two young pigeons, for the heavenly One to whom the earth was the place of service and sacrifice must be before His eyes on this day typical of new creation. The former days of his vow are lost days, and he must begin his vow entirely anew, because his separation had been defiled. This lack of fulfillment shows as to that time something which vitiated the whole of it, for if with God, there can be to the soul no lack of power in accomplishment. He brings also a lamb for a trespass-offering. For us the vow is completed only when our course here is completed. Now if Christ be in us, “the body is dead because of sin” (Romans 8:10), and in consequence we are exhorted to present our bodies a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1) -a sacrifice in life, in contrast with the bloody sacrifice of the law. They cannot be suffered yet to have their freedom, for our bodies as yet do not partake in the power of redemption: “we wait for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.” (Romans 8:23.) Thus we have to walk in Nazarite separation from what is of ourselves, keep under our bodies and bring them into subjection. (1 Corinthians 9:27.) The liberty of grace is not deliverance from the need of this, but power to enable us for it: the liberty of glory will be alone complete deliverance; we may “drink wine” when there will be no longer in us any evil to arouse, and the pleasures that present themselves to us are the “pleasures” which are at God’s right hand for evermore. (Psalms 16:11.) Yea, Christ shall “drink the wine new” with us in His Father’s kingdom. (Matthew 26:29.) Then, too, we shall be presented to God in the full value of His work and person, as typified by the offerings with which the Nazarite is presented; separation will be ended in the joy of perfect communion; and the “shoulder” that bare us all the way through according to the full demands of divine holiness, we shall indeed “wave” before God in triumphant exultation. 5. With this, the purification of the camp is completed, and as thus purified, the divine blessing is now given to them and Jehovah’s Name is put upon them. There are three pairs of related blessings with which this last is a seventh, making it perfect. The connection of the three parts of the blessing with the three Persons of the Triune God, often referred to, is indeed easy to be traced: that in the mouth of the apostle comes very near it, -“the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost.” (2 Corinthians 13:14.) For the first blessing here is that of preservation as from the Creator-Father; the second, grace in God as revealing Himself, as He has done in Christ; while the third speaks of inner experience and enlightenment, with the deep rest which flows from it, the work of the Spirit of God. All that God is is thus engaged for us; and His name upon His people makes them His representatives on earth. He identifies Himself with them, as One not ashamed to be called their God.