Ques. Is there a peculiar glory in an economy of local assemblies, held together in the unity of the Spirit in a great universal fellowship?

G.R.C. I thought so; and I wondered if you get a picture of this in the chapter in Numbers which follows the Nazarite. Here the word is,

• “But ye profane it”, that is, God's name, “in that ye say, The table of the Lord is polluted”.

• That table of the Lord there would be a reference to the altar, where God made such abundant provision. His food was offered there, as He says in Numbers 28,
  • “my bread”.

• But there was food there also for all the people, so it was the Lord's table; the peace-offering provided food for every clean person. So the New Testament says,\
  • “We have an altar of which they have no right to eat”, Hebrews 13: 10.

• The altar is the place of eating, as well as of divine service, and God is thinking of His table and what was being put on it. Corrupt things were being put on it, according to these verses.

• But following the Nazarite's vow in Numbers 6 there is the dedication of the altar, and nothing polluted was brought forward.

• The twelve princes of Israel, the heads of the fathers' houses, the princes of the tribes, came forward with a marvellous offering. Each prince provided,
  • “one silver dish of the weight of a hundred and thirty shekels, one silver bowl of seventy shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, both of them full of fine flour mingled with oil for an oblation; one cup often shekels of gold, full of incense”, Numbers 7: 13.

• This links with what we have in Malachi,
  • “incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure oblation”.

• Then the princely gift goes on to,
  • “one young bullock, one ram, one yearling lamb, for a burnt-offering; one buck of the goats for a sin-offering; and for a sacrifice of peace-offering, two oxen, five rams, five he-goats, five yearling lambs”, Numbers 7: 15-17.

• What food there was at God's altar, food for God and food for the people in these abundant offerings! It says,
  • “This was the offering of Nahshon the son of Amminadab”,

• but I think we need to note that, according to verse 10 of that chapter, the princes presented the dedication gift at the altar on the day that it was anointed.

• I would understand this to mean that all twelve princes brought their offering forward at once on the day that the altar was anointed, and then that they were directed that each one should offer on his day.

• It is a wonderful picture of what should be true at the present time.

• The twelve princes represented the tribes encamped around the tabernacle, and in that way they can be taken as representing local companies;
  • but we are all serving the same God in the same habitation, and we are all serving at the same altar; there is no such thing as a local altar,

  • “We have an altar”, is the Christian altar, the great universal altar;

• and every locality is serving at the same altar, and there should be uniformity in the offerings.

• It is a remarkable view of the work of the Holy Spirit that here were twelve men, the heads of twelve tribes, spontaneously bringing exactly the same thing.
  • And I believe that is how things should work out today in principle.

• As the greatness of God's name is brought before the saints, there is spontaneous response in all parts of the earth from all the local companies, and wherever you go you find the offering is of the same character.

Ques. It seems a peculiar tribute to the Spirit's presence and operations at the present time, do you think?

G.R.C. And I wondered whether, while it may not fit exactly chronologically, Numbers 7 is put after Numbers 6

• to indicate how free the Holy Spirit would be where the spirit of Nazariteship is in evidence,

• the blessing therefore of Jehovah resting upon the saints and His name being put upon them.

• What liberty and uniformity in the Spirit would be brought about; so that the whole habitation of God, though set in local companies today, would be functioning in all parts of the earth in a similar manner.

Rem. Hence the need of being perfectly united in the same mind and the same opinion in our local companies.

G.R.C. Yes. I think this is what we might call the highest level of that.

• We need to be perfectly united in the same mind and the same opinion
  • as to matters of separation, as to fundamental matters of judgment,

  • as to fundamental doctrines;

• but surely it is meant to lead up to this remarkable expression of unity, where the saints in every place are so under the control of the Spirit that
  • there is a similar tribute of praise and worship brought to God in every locality, without any human coordination.

Ques. Would verse 84 of Numbers 7 really bear out what you are saying – “twelve silver dishes, twelve silver bowls, twelve cups of gold?" They are all the same.

G.R.C. That is it; and so, “This was the dedication gift of the altar, on the day when it was anointed”, verse 84.

• All these things were brought forward, and what wealth there was! But each was to do it on his day.

• In the local companies it would all happen every Lord's day, from the rising of the sun to the going down thereof; and on other days too, I hope, in our personal devotions.

• But there is also instruction in the fact that while all this material came forward at one time, there was subjection, there was no rivalry, they were content to wait their turn.

• And that bears on the way the actual service operates locally. We may all be full of matter;
  • but then the Holy Spirit's control would enter into things, so that there would be restraint, each contribution coming in at the right time.

Ques. Do you think, then, that where there is this feature of the Nazarite taken on by the saints there will be the pure oblation entering into the service of God?

G.R.C. Just so. Can we not understand that what is princely, with all the wealth that that conveys, would be brought about through Nazariteship?

Rem. Paul speaks in Romans 15,

• “that ye may with one accord, with one mouth, glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ”, verse 6.

G.R.C. That is the point; and therefore this passage in Malachi is most encouraging:

• “For from the rising of the sun unto its setting my name shall be great among the nations”.

• It is God's name which stimulates this great unified response; and Malachi's name means 'Messenger of Jah'.

• Although he comes in at the close, he is the messenger of Jah; he is bringing the greatest things forward at the end, the greatest light and truth as to the Name.

Ques. As regards the blessing at the end of Numbers 6, and your suggested reference to the Spirit, the Son and the Father, and the Name, would you kindly enlarge on that?

G.R.C. I would only suggest that it is another veiled allusion, such as we get here and there in the Old Testament, to the holy Trinity.

• If so, it would seem to me that the first item would refer to the Holy Spirit,
  • “Jehovah bless thee, and keep thee" – the Holy Spirit is here to that end, that the saints might be blessed and kept; then,

  • “Jehovah make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee”, would, surely, link with the Lord Jesus, whose face we can look upon unveiled; and then it says,

  • “Jehovah lift up his countenance upon thee" – surely that is the Father who lifts up His countenance upon His own with pleasure as loving them even as He loves the Son – “and give thee peace”. Then it says,

  • “And they shall put my name upon the children of Israel”.

• We have been baptised to that Name, but it is another thing to have the Name put upon us.

• Would it not mean that we, as set together, should become a living witness here in testimony to the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit?

Ques. Is it not the declaration and revelation of that Name which brings out the response in its fulness? I was thinking of the word in John 13 where it says of the Lord,

• “knowing that … he came out from God and was going to God”, verse 3.

• I was wondering if that would suggest, on the one hand,
  • the coming out of Christ freighted with the declaration and revelation of that Name,

  • and then His return, taking up the response occasioned by that Name.

• Would that be right?

G.R.C. I think so. Mr. Raven taught, did he not, that the approach is equal to the revelation.

• The response is in the same Person in whom the revelation is.

• It is remarkable how the greatness of God's name arouses the deepest feelings in the souls of the saints; and so it says,
  • “in every place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure oblation; for my name shall be great among the nations”.

Ques. Would the offering of the incense be the performance of the vow at the present time – Psalm 65?

G.R.C. I thought so –

• “unto thee shall the vow be performed”.

• While praise is still silent in Zion, the vow should be performed.

Ques. Is Psalm 48 in accord with this? It begins

• “Great is Jehovah, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the hill of his holiness”;
  • then it says,

• “According to thy name, O God, so is thy praise unto the ends of the earth”, verses 1 and 10.

G.R.C. It fits very much with this –

• “unto the ends of the earth”;

• and we have to take that to heart in our outlook, that the habitation of God in the Spirit stretches out to the ends of the earth.

• If we are with God, often in His presence, we shall share His outlook, and we shall have the whole of His habitation in our thoughts and hearts, shall we not?

• And we shall be desirous that every locality should function, and that the number of localities may increase. Why should there not be more meetings, as well as more in the meetings?

Ques. Would the scripture in Exodus 20 have in mind the service of God?

• “In all places where I shall make my name to be remembered, I will come unto thee, and bless thee”, verse 24.

• I wondered whether that would be linked with the supper?

G.R.C. Very interesting, because that is how the service begins,

• “This do in remembrance of me”.

• We gather to the Lord's name, and the Name is a great subject in scripture.

• It includes the name of the Lord Jesus, the great testimonial name to which we gather. We could not gather to the name of a mere man.
  • The fact that we gather together to His name implies His Deity.

• And then there is the name of the Father which Jesus makes so much of in John's gospel.

• And then there is the name to which we are referring, the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

• The service takes account of the Name in each of those features of it.

Ques. Had you anything further in mind in speaking of more meetings?

G.R.C. In the light of a verse like this our hearts would surely desire that the number of meetings should be multiplied, that there should be meetings in localities where there are none at present. “In every place”, it says.

Rem. If gatherings are increasing in numbers, this might stimulate us to consider for God on the line of more in assembly response.

G.R.C. Yes. In Acts 11: 5 it says,

• “the assemblies … increased number every day”.

• We would desire the places to be multiplied where the Incense is offered, and we should be praying about these things. Why should there be vast tracts of territory where there is no meeting?

Ques. You have in mind that the more meetings there are, the more there should be for God?

G.R.C. Yes.

Ques. Does verse 9 of this Psalm apply?

• “Thou hast visited the earth, thou hast watered it; thou greatly enrichest it: the river of God is full of water: thou providest their corn, when thou hast so prepared”.

G.R.C. I think that would encourage us to pray for these matters,

• “the river of God is full of water”.

• The Spirit is here active; why should not life spring up for God in more localities?

Ques. And should there also be a growing concern that more should function in the service of God? We all have our part, of course, in the combined response which is conveyed in the singing;

• but is it not also a concern that there should be more functioning by brothers on these occasions?

G.R.C. I think the idea of a vow would enter into that.

• I think every brother should commit himself in a definite and irrevocable way to the service of God.

• If you are committed to what is most exalted, that is the service of God, you will realise that your whole life has got to be regulated in relation to it;
  • so it means that you have got to regulate every department of your life if you are to perform the vow.

• That is the way a prince, I think, is developed. I do not think anyone becomes a prince who is not committed to God. A prince is spiritually a wealthy man; he has got substance and material.

• The priest is another side. We are all priests in virtue of the anointing; and as together we all are privileged, in priestly affection, to take up what others bring.

• But in Numbers 7 it is the princes who bring the gifts. It does not speak of the priests bringing.

• Princeliness involves that we are right with God in every department of life, every department of our life becoming contributory to the service of God.

Ques. Does that include the sisters also?

G.R.C. Yes, Sarah was a princess.

Ques. Would the word in Nehemiah, where it says,

• “we charged ourselves”

• with regard to the house and the service of God, link with this? Does the principle of a vow enter into that? They committed themselves completely to it.

G.R.C. It certainly does – they charged themselves; and it says in that book that they entered into a covenant.

Ques. Would the end of Psalm 45 bear upon it?

• “Instead of thy fathers shall be thy sons; princes shalt thou make them in all the earth. I will make thy name to be remembered throughout all generations; therefore shall the peoples praise thee for ever and ever”, verses 16 and 17.

G.R.C. It shows the necessity for the princely side of things.

• “I will make thy name to be remembered throughout all generations”.

• It is princes who ensure that that is so.

• The Psalm would indicate, I think, that where we are right collectively in assembly response to Christ – first love for Him, for it is a song of the Beloved – princes will develop.

Ques. Does it involve wrestling?

G.R.C. It does. In involves what Jacob went through when his name was changed to Israel, meaning prince of God – Genesis 32: 8.

• It is coming face to face with God over matters, and having things out with God about every department of life.

Ques. Is it noticeable that in this very passage – Malachi 1: 14 – Jehovah of hosts is spoken of as the great King.

• Does that assert the royal glory of the system in which God is, and tend to develop with His own the princely side in the midst of the corruption which is spoken of; Princeliness according to God?

G.R.C. I think we ought to take account of that, that we are serving the great King, and the assembly is the city of the great King according to Psalm 48.

• In the presence of an earthly monarch we should be careful about our demeanour, even the way we sit and so on.

• If an earthly king came in we should look to it that in every way our deportment was right.

Ques. Does Peter's reference to the kingly priesthood bear on this?

• “That ye might set forth the excellencies of him who has called you out of darkness to his wonderful light”, 1 Peter 2: 9.

• It is more than the preaching, is it not; it is what is set forth in persons? Do these vessels which the princes offered answer to that? They are open vessels in which things can be set forth.

G.R.C. I think they may represent persons – the silver vessels and the golden cup – and, in away, they may represent local gatherings.

• The prince represents the tribe, and we should seek that our local gathering in a corporate sense is like a great silver vessel, holding an oblation, and a silver bowl and a golden cup.

• It is right that we should always be in the liberty of sonship, and that is why we can be seated during the service.

• Indeed God has raised us up together, and made us sit down together even in the heavenlies.

Ques. So that dignity is a great feature of princeliness, and of sonship.

G.R.C. Quite so. While at the Lord's Supper, and what follows, we touch what we might call Divine home life in its sweetest and most blessed sense

• – and there could be nothing greater – yet, on the other hand, it is a state occasion.

• We are in the public position to bring honour to the great King.

Ques. Following, “I am a great King" it says, “and my name is terrible”, or to be revered.

• Would that thought be ever with us, and thus prevent unseemly familiarity – never forgetting who God is?

G.R.C. Just so. We are sons, and we can sit in the presence of God. If an earthly monarch came in we should all stand.

• The remarkable thing is that the great King is amongst us, and we are still privileged to sit.

Ques. Would the queen of Sheba, as coming to see the wisdom of Solomon, be like one coming in and taking account, in the Supper, of the order of the service, and the deportment of those who are there, and their apparel;

• and then there is the ascent by which he went up into the house of God?

G.R.C. That is a good illustration. We have also to remember that principalities and authorities in the heavenlies are occupied with assembly service, the service of praise.

• Ephesians 3 does not refer only to assembly administration, but also to what is greater – the service of praise to God.

• The queen of Sheba was an earthly principality, and Solomon and his servants came under her observation;
  • but the service of praise is under the observation of heavenly principalities.

Ques. Is that involved in a verse at the end of Hebrews 12 –

• “let us serve God acceptably with reverence and fear”, verse 28?

G.R.C. Very good.

Ques. “We being assembled to break bread”;

• would that be a dignified and august occasion?

G.R.C. It was a dignified company, too. Now in verse 14 of Malachi 1 it says,

• “Yea, cursed be the deceiver, who hath in his flock a male"

• – we were noticing in Leviticus 22 that in connection with a vow the offering had to be a male –
  • “and voweth and sacrificeth unto the Lord a corrupt thing."

• That is, if we have vowed, we must be in keeping with the requirements of a vow; we must bring a male without blemish, and even one leg must not be shorter than the other.

• We have to do with God. He is encouraging us to make vows, and we should make them;
  • but let us see that we perform the vow according to Divine requirements.

Ques. Does the male represent the very best quality?

G.R.C. The very best of our energies, nothing less would suit the great King.

Ques. Did you say earlier that the vows would eventuate in the service of God?

• I was thinking that if we commit ourselves to the Lord, and to His interests, and to the assembly, and to the kingdom, the house, and the gospel, it is all to eventuate in service Godward, is it not?

G.R.C. That is where we need the law of the Nazarite, to ensure that our devotedness is rightly directed.

• People who are not governed by that law may be devoted, but they may give themselves up exclusively to the blessing of men.

• But the vow, whatever form of activity it involves, gospel or otherwise, is always to have as its objective God dwelling in His habitation, and the service due to Him in it.

• It was when Jacob had light as to the house that he made his vow. That gives us the setting of the vow.

• It is related to God and to His house, and for the support of His service; and so in Leviticus it is a question of the burnt-offerings and the peace-offerings, a question of maintaining what is for God in His house.

• So also with the Nazarite, his devotion resulted in his hands being filled, and in bringing his peace-offering he contributes to the priest, to the service of God, and to the whole fellowship.

Ques. Is that suggested in Deuteronomy 16, where,

• “Three times in the year shall all thy males appear before Jehovah thy God in the place which he will choose, at the feast of unleavened bread, and at the feast of weeks, and at the feast of tabernacles; and they shall not appear before Jehovah empty; each shall give according to that which is in his power to give, according to the blessing of Jehovah thy God which he hath given thee”, verses 16 and 17?

G.R.C. In that connection the vow would be specially connected with the peace-offering, and that is what is in mind in verse 14 of our chapter.

• “Cursed be the deceiver, who hath in his flock a male, and voweth and sacrificeth" – a sacrifice usually means a peace-offering – “unto the Lord a corrupt thing”.

• It is in connection with the coming up to Jerusalem that the sacrifices of peace-offering would assume such great importance.

• There might be a million or more persons to be sustained before God; how were they to be fed and sustained in joy before God? It was by the peace-offerings.

• It depended upon how much devotion there was among the people generally, because the peace-offerings were not prescribed; it was left to love to make and perform its vows.

Rem. I thought that linked up with,

• “each shall give according to that which is in his power to give, according to the blessing of Jehovah”.

G.R.C. So in the first chapter of Samuel,

• “And Elkanah her husband, and all his house, went up to sacrifice to Jehovah the yearly sacrifice and his vow”, verse 21.

• Elkanah was not up to Hannah, we know, but nevertheless he was a man who, when he went up to Jerusalem, took the yearly sacrifice and his vow; he contributed to the occasion.

Ques. Your reference to the gospel would have in mind the filling of God's house with a view to His getting a greater response?

G.R.C. Exactly. We are not decrying gospel work in the least; far be the thought. It is essential, but it should not be detached from the assembly.

Ques. Would the solemn side of this be illustrated by Ananias who vowed a vow and then retained part for himself, not recognising the glory of the Spirit of God in the assembly?

G.R.C. It is very much like Malachi 1: 1.4. He had in his flock a male, as you might say, but he did not give the male; he vowed and sacrificed a corrupt thing.

Ques. Does not the spirit of committal bring into operation the whole system of Divine help, both in the acquiring of substance, and in the bringing it in in the service of God?

G.R.C. I am sure it does. We cannot over emphasise sufficiently the importance of youth in the testimony from a testimonial standpoint.

• If persons come in and hear the sacrifice of praise in the assembly, they may not take very much account of the older man. Their day is almost done anyway.

• But what will astound people is to hear young men with their hearts full of God and His greatness. The enemy has no answer to that,
  • “Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou established praise because of thine adversaries, to still the enemy and the avenger”, Psalm 8: 2.

Ques. So that Hannah's vow is answered in a boy being girded with a linen ephod?

G.R.C. Yes. Think of that boy, the subject of his mother's vow, in the temple of Jehovah where the ark of God was! Think of a boy there, and girded with a linen ephod!

Rem. It was by the last words of David that the levitical age was reduced to twenty.

Rem. “Let no one despise thy youth, but be a model of the believers, in word, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity”, 1 Timothy 4: 12.

• That would be the basis of activity in youth.

Ques. What does “the wife of thy youth" represent?

G.R.C. We are coming now to God speaking to the people through His messenger. Jah is speaking to the people.

• When you think of the title Jah, you think of Psalm 150, the climax of praise.

• God would recover His people to the best at the end; and so He speaks to Levi about his brightest day. Levi would be specially the priests here, as is indicated in verse 1 of chapter 2 and verse 6 of chapter 1.

• It is the tribe of Levi as being the priestly tribe. He reminds Levi of his brightest day,
  • “My covenant with him was of life and peace”.

• That would link with Numbers 25 as well as Exodus 32. God made a covenant of peace with Phinehas.

• Then He turns to Judah, and reminds him of the brightest day. Judah's brightest day is recorded in Psalm 132 when David made his vow.

• David was representative of Judah when he vowed to the mighty One of Jacob that he would not give sleep to his eyes nor slumber to his eyelids until he had found a place for Jehovah, habitations for the Mighty One of Jacob.

• That was Judah at his best! And God is recalling Judah to his vow, for that vow involved that Judah was married to the sanctuary.

• That is implied in that verse 11 of Malachi 2;
  • “for Judah hath profaned the sanctuary of Jehovah which he loved, and hath married the daughter of a strange god”.

• David was married to the sanctuary, just as we say a man is married to his business or his garden.

• Judah was married to the sanctuary, and spiritually every believer belongs to the tribe of Judah.

• We should all be married to the sanctuary, that should be our main concern; our vows should be on that line.

• The sanctuary was the wife of Judah's youth. He was not to deal unfaithfully with the wife of his youth. He had been married to the sanctuary, and what was he doing now?

Ques. Is it important that the sanctuary and the Name are the standard? We have brought in

• “to give glory unto thy name”,

• and then the word in regard of Levi that he, “trembled before my name”.

G.R.C. You are linking that with the sanctuary?

Rem. I was thinking of the standard when it comes to a question of the maintenance of the truth.

• It is the maintenance of what is due to God in His sanctuary; the standard is the Name – great and glorious.

G.R.C. It is in the sanctuary that the Name is, as it were, enshrined, is it not?

Ques. We have a reference elsewhere to the

• “blaspheming of the name”,

• and does not that bear upon the great public position?

G.R.C. It does; so that there is really no other course for a devoted soul than to be married, in this sense, to the sanctuary, because of love for God and His great name.

Ques. Does Isaiah 62 bear on the matter?

• “Thou shalt no more be termed, Forsaken; neither shall thy land any more be termed, Desolate; but thou shalt be called, My delight is in her, and thy land, Married; for Jehovah delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married.

• For as a young man marrieth a virgin, shall thy sons marry thee; and with the joy of the bridegroom over the bride, shall thy God rejoice over thee”, verses 4 and 5.

G.R.C. I think that confirms what we are saying.

Ques. Is there a wonderful blend seen in Psalm 148,

• “Both young men and maidens, old men with youths, Let them praise the name of Jehovah” – verse 12?

G.R.C. Yes; we are getting to the climax of praise there.

• “Kings of the earth and all peoples, princes and all judges of the earth; both young men and maidens, old men with youths –

• Let them praise the name of Jehovah; for his name alone is exalted; his majesty is above the earth and the heavens”.

• A wonderful blend, as you say, because it does not suggest youth movements in the way of separating youths from other people, but they merge with the old.

Ques. Would you say a further word on the thought of the sanctuary in this connection?

• Does it involve a holy environment where the presence of God is known and enjoyed, and where God can be approached? The sanctuary is not exactly the thought of heaven, is it?

G.R.C. No, it is not. I think our love for the sanctuary will be greatly fostered if we regularly enter the holiest; so that we become acquainted with the presence of God,

• the effulgence of His glory, and come into the presence of the One in whom all the fulness of the Godhead dwells.

• It needs to be a habitual resort to our hearts; and then the thing is to seek to find among the saints, as far as it is possible in this day of public ruin, a practical answer to that.

• Because, after all, all that we apprehend and enjoy in the holiest individually is enjoyed in a greater measure in the assembly, if there are right conditions.

• Thus the more we enter the holiest, the more we shall be concerned about the assembling of ourselves together, and that conditions may be right among the saints.

• We shall thus be married to the sanctuary. Is that right?

Rem. I am sure it is. It would lead us to spend all our spiritual energies to the improvement of that condition of things.

G.R.C. A marriage vow is one of the strongest vows you can conceive of.

• Even as to natural marriage we know how God hates divorce, as He says here. We can apply this to the natural link,
  • “for I hate putting away, saith Jehovah the God of Israel”.

• God hates it, so we should have great respect to the natural link of marriage; it is the most solemn vow in nature, and it is a vow which God recognises.

• But then, being married to the sanctuary is a most solemn matter, and it is a very serious matter to turn away from it.

Ques. Could I recall that previous remark of yours, when you reminded us that we go into the holiest, not to serve, but to contemplate? The service is at the altar, is it not?

• Going into the holiest and contemplating glory in God, and all that stands connected with His name, would help us in being married to the sanctuary, would it not?

G.R.C. It would. The holiest, as you say, is marked by contemplation, adoration and prostration; also conversation,

• in the sense that Moses went in to speak with Him, and he heard a voice speaking to him. But it is not the service of prayer.

• In the holiest we are in the presence of the fulness of the Godhead, bodily dwelling in a Man. We are in the presence of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

• The effulgence of God's glory, all that He is in His nature and character, is in radiant display. What a contemplation!

• Underlying it all is the sense in our souls that God is the great King.

• It is a marvellous thing that the holiest is open to us, and we could not go into the holiest without being impelled to serve at the altars.

• We shall get such an outlook that we shall want to pray and to praise.

Ques. Would you say a word on chapter 3,

• “Will a man rob God?”

G.R.C. In that part He is reminding them of Jacob's vow. He takes them back to Levi's committal, to Judah's committal, and then right back to Jacob's committal.

• So in this final message we are recalled to the three-fold committal –
  • the committal of the priesthood,

  • the committal of Judah, and then

  • the committal of Jacob, the man in responsibility, covering all our responsible life which is all to yield for God as a tithe in the treasure house.

Ques. As to entering the holiest, have you in mind the morning and evening?

G.R.C. Yes, the morning and evening oblation; because we cannot properly offer the oblation and the incense unless we have been in the holiest first.

• We are not like Israel; our service should take character from being inside.

• Christ's service takes us in the holiest, not ours. We do not have to begin at the altar, and work up to the holiest.

• Christ's service at the altars has made a way for us to go right in, and our privilege is to go right in;
  • and in the power of what we see and enter into within, to come out, as it were, and ourselves serve at the altars.

Rem. Having boldness by the blood of Jesus.

G.R.C. There is just one more word as to,

• “Then they that feared Jehovah spoke often one to another; and Jehovah observed it, and heard, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared Jehovah, and that thought upon his name”.

• They “thought upon his name" – what an occupation! It is what God has brought us back to in a remarkable way in these last days – to think upon His name.

• And let us keep on thinking thus in the power of the Spirit – not with natural thoughts.

• We need the Spirit in everything divine, but we are really in the deepest waters when we think upon His name.

• But, as someone said lately in reference to Ezekiel 47, while the waters were deep, they were to swim in. The Spirit enables us to swim; but we cannot feel our feet when we come to the greatness of God and His name.

• Nevertheless, we are to think upon His name, and it is in those who make no pretension to anything, but just fear Him, and speak often one to another, and think upon His name, that God finds that which He is seeking.

• These are the persons who perform the vow at the close of the dispensation.

Paul’s various epistles bring out the various features of unclean creatures in the way of warning.

• The Corinthian epistles bring out the features of the unclean animals – those who have not the cloven hoof and do not chew the cud.

• Romans brings out the features of the unclean fish without fins and scales; they go along with the stream; they cannot stand against the corruption around.
  • Scales are protective and fish with fins and scales can go against the stream; and that is what we are taught to do in Romans.

• In Colossians he brings out the features of the unclean birds, those who are vainly puffed up in the mind of their flesh, seeking to penetrate into things which they have not seen.

Philippians brings out the features of the unclean crawling things and, of course, our natural judgment would be that these are the least offensive.

• What is wrong in minding earthly things? Yet nothing drags the saints down like minding earthly things. So Paul tells us, even weeping, about such people; he weeps about them.

• God is presenting to us the greatness of the heavenly calling. He has set His house here, which is the very gate of heaven, where all the administration of heaven’s wealth in abundance is being carried on;
  • and yet persons who are called to that, and brought within the range of it, may be still minding earthly things!

• The word ‘mind’ all through Philippians is not the thinking faculty; it is the bent of mind. Let us see to it that our minds are not bent that way.

• The bent of mind is again used in Colossians.
  • “Have your mind on the things that are above”.

How important it is to fix our eyes on true models! Paul was a model, Timothy was a model, Epaphroditus was a model.

• We are to fix our eyes on them, and on any persons there may be who are in any way like them.

• But before I proceed with that, I want to say a word to young people here. Timothy was not an old man – he was very young – but Paul says to him,
  • “Let no one despise thy youth, but be a model of the believers”.

• So this would encourage the young people here. You can be a model, according to your age.

• We do not believe in prodigies; but according to your age, and spiritual growth you can be a model; you can help other young people by your example.

• I would say to every young brother and sister here, see to it that you are not one who is dragging the others down.

• If you are on that line you may become quite popular in a worldly sense, but you will incur the Divine displeasure.

• Think of the privilege which is yours, as a young man or woman, of being a right model – according to your age and stature!

• The Lord Jesus Himself is the great Model; and think of Him at twelve years of age saying,
  • “did ye not know that I ought to be occupied in my Father’s business?” or ‘in the things of my Father’, Luke 2: 49!

• What a delightful thing it would be to hear a young person of twelve using language of that kind – a young person of twelve set definitely, in the spirit of a vow, for the things of God,
  • and having nothing less before him, even at that age, than to be wholly in the things of God!

• He has, of course, to attend to other things. The Lord Jesus had to attend to other things. He went down with His parents to Nazareth and was subject to them; and it was said of Him,
  • “Is not this the son of the carpenter?” Matthew 13: 55. And another gospel says,

  • “Is not this the carpenter?” Mark 6: 3.

• He was known as the carpenter; He had His work to do. No doubt He had many things to carry in domestic life, and in His daily work; but it did not alter the fact:
  • “I ought to be occupied in my Father’s business”.

• He meditated on God’s testimonies day and night, and that is something we can do. We all have spare time; what do we do with it?

• That is the test of our devotedness – what we do with what we call our spare time!

• If we are devoted to God we have not any spare time, because the spare time is His; that is what committal means; and it is good to see young people set that way.

• Think of the Lord Jesus as the great Model! I would ask every boy and girl here to think of Him, because He is the One brought before us, in all His perfection, at the age of twelve, as a Model.

• True, Jairus’ daughter was raised up at that age; she becomes a witness to what God can do at that age;
  • but the Lord Jesus is the great Model, and He has been given to boys and girls as a Model in subjection and devotedness to God.

• Then that would lead me to say a word to parents to encourage their children on these lines.

• Have you made a vow about your children? Are you a Hannah or an Elizabeth? Are you like Manoah’s wife?

• If you have made a vow about your children you have to look to yourself. What kind of model are you?

• That was the point when Manoah’s wife wanted to know the manner of the child; she was to look to herself.

• If her son was to be a Nazarite of God from the womb, she must be herself a model.

• Are we all models as parents? How can we expect the young people to be wholly in the things of God if we are not? Where do the parents stand in the matter?

• The word to Timothy, after speaking about being a model is,
  • “Occupy thyself with these things; be wholly in them”, 1 Timothy 4: 15.

• That is the same word used by the Lord – ‘wholly in the things of My Father’. That is the only way to be a right model, to be wholly in things.

• Parents have a very grave responsibility if they are not models for their children.

God intends you to be a model. Sometimes we hear people express pity for the children of the saints – how much they have to give up.

• The saints’ children do not have to give up anything that is worth having; they are only called upon to give up unclean things and associations.

• You would not think your children were suffering great hardship if you asked them to give up what was unclean or diseased in a material sense. You would count them happy to be saved from such things.

• Surely it is the same in matters moral and spiritual; what they are asked to renounce are things they are well rid of; it is a great salvation.

• Do not let us, as parents, encourage the idea that they are giving up a lot; they are giving up nothing worth having; and the compensations are overwhelming.

• The children of the saints have a marvellous inheritance. They get many times better than what they give up of the things that are a hindrance to them.

• They get a hundredfold more in the present time and in the world to come life everlasting. Let us help the children to have a right outlook, to understand the
  • “hundredfold more”, and the “life everlasting”.

• Think of what favour our children have as coming to know God! They are able to put a right valuation even on what is natural, which the world does not know anything about.

• They enjoy the things of God in nature in a right and true way. Think of the happy homes amongst the saints, and the broken homes in the world!

• Then, again, the affections of the saints universally rest upon them – unselfish affections; no such affections rest upon the children of the world.

• Though our children may not be known universally, the affections and prayers of the saints are towards them.

• And so, they have a vast spiritual inheritance to enter into, the inheritance amongst the sanctified; and, normally, as they grow up, they enter more and more into the wealth of the spiritual inheritance.

• Do not let us be on the line of false pity for our children; they are extremely favoured; their compensations are overwhelming, and what they have to give up they are well rid of.

Our children may get reproach and even persecution – unpleasant indeed and trying – but these are like the long hair of the Nazarite.

• That is where we can sympathise with and support our children.

• When they say ‘no’ to what is unclean, those who find their life and enjoyment in what is unclean think it strange that they should not run
  • “with them to the same sink of corruption”,

• and they speak evil of them, as Peter says. So, in keeping clear from what is unclean, our children do come into reproach.

• But normally, from what I have seen, children stand reproach better than adults do.

• They early get an impression that the living God is amongst His people and that what the saints do and say, and what they parents do and say, is right,
  • irrespective of what even the teacher may say; and they are prepared to make a stand, and God honours them in it.

• But I am saying all this so that we might get a right outlook as to the young and their privileges and opportunities.

• And so all this, then, should encourage young brothers and sisters early to become models that are worthy of other young ones fixing their eyes upon.

• Let each one challenge himself, what would happen if my companions of my own age fixed their eyes on me?

• Would I be dragging them down, or would I be a model according to God? It is much easier to drag people down than to move them on the upward way.

• If we are to be models, we need to fix our eyes on Paul and then on Christ.
  • “Be my imitators, even as I also am of Christ”

• – that is the order. We are helped to follow Christ by way of Paul. Christ is the great Model.

So we find Paul marked by the features of the Nazarite. He says,

• “All things are lawful, but all are not profitable; all things are lawful, but all do not edify”.

• You may say, all that I am going on with is lawful. But that is not the criterion; is it profitable? Is it good for my soul and for the profit of others? – as he says,
  • “Let no one seek his own advantage, but that of the other”.

• Is what you are going on with something that may influence your brother or your sister on the downward line?

• It may be that you are capable of handling it, it may not be hindering you yourself; but the one who sees you going on with it may not be able to hold it aright; he imitates you and is damaged.

• So Paul is always thinking of others:
  • “All things are lawful, but all are not profitable; all things are lawful, but all do not edify”;

• that is the language of a Nazarite. He only wants what is profitable and what would edify, and so he finishes the chapter by saying,
  • “Even as I also please all in all things; not seeking my own profit, but that of the many, that they may be saved”, 1 Corinthians 10: 33.

• In everything he sought to gain the confidence of people and to be a true model for them. Then he immediately goes on to say,
  • “Be my imitators”.

• There was nothing about him which he could not safely exhort his brethren to imitate.

• How far he went with the Corinthians! What a devoted man Paul was! He says in the second epistle,
  • “I do not seek yours, but you”; and,

  • “Now I shall most gladly spend and be utterly spent for your souls, if even in abundantly loving you I should be less loved”, chapter 12: 14-15.

• What could be stronger language than that? So long as their souls were maintained in life, so that God had His portion from them, Paul was satisfied, even though he was the less loved. What a model for us!

When we come to Philippians we find him pressing with all his energies to lay hold of the heavenly calling; truly one who could sing the hymn we began with,

• What things were gain to him he counted loss for Christ. He had reached a point where he counted all things but loss
  • “on account of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, on account of whom I have suffered the loss of all, and count them to be filth, that I may gain Christ”, verse 8.

• What a man he was! What a model! This is the one who says,
  • “Be imitators all together of me”.

• There is no different standard for Paul from that which there is for me, or for you. And so in the verses we read he says,
  • “Brethren, I do not count to have got possession myself; but one thing – forgetting the things behind, and stretching out to the things before, I pursue”.

• Note he says there, “one thing”. He was a man of one purpose as to his personal aim.

• Where it was a question of serving the saints he could spend and be utterly spent – that was one side of it –
  • then, as to his personal longings and aims, the longings of his soul, he was completely governed by one thing: this one thing I do.

• It has often been said, even in the world, that it is a man of one purpose in life who gets on; and that is the idea in Christianity.

• The calling is so great that nothing but the whole of our energies is worthy of it. It is a question of being men of one objective, one purpose.

• We have other things to attend to, but they need not divert us, in any way, from this one thing:
  • “forgetting the things behind, and stretching out to the things before, I pursue, looking towards the goal, for the prize” – what a prize it is! – “of the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus”.

• No wonder he could weep when he thought of the earthly-minded ones, with such a calling before them, such a goal and such a prize!

• But let us, dear brethren, from now on, in a way we have never done before, fix our eyes all together on Paul in this respect, to be persons of one inward motive and purpose, and that is to lay hold of the calling on high.

• And what will go along with that will be love for God’s house and all who form it, and preparedness to make the fullest sacrifice for the maintenance of what is established for God here on earth.

• The two things go together. The man whose inward exercise and longings are set on the calling on high of God will be
  • the man who, as far as things down here go, will be concerned about the assembly, God’s habitation in the Spirit, and that it should be fully functioning.

• That is why Paul was so concerned about the Corinthians, willing to spend and be utterly spent, and about the Philippians as regards whom he says,
  • “But if also I am poured out as a libation”.

• As we have had before us these days, the libation or drink-offering is the kind of crowning touch of an offering or a sacrifice,
  • and he was willing to bring in that crowning touch in the way of actually pouring out his life. He was willing to die for the Philippians.

• It says of the Lord Jesus,
  • “He hath poured out His soul unto death”, Isaiah 53: 12;

• and Paul was prepared to go all the way for that Philippian company. It was a matter of his soul, the emotions of his soul, when he says,
  • “But if also I am poured out … I rejoice”.

• He would count it a great privilege to be poured out
  • “on the sacrifice and ministration of your faith”.

• So that he would not only spend and be spent, but he was prepared to be poured out. The idea of pouring out links with the drink-offering.

• The Lord poured out His soul unto death. We can pour out our souls in worship, in thanksgiving and so on, and it moves the whole company when a man pours out his soul, the whole man is in it, the feelings of his being.

• But the climax of it,. for those who are called upon to do it, is the actual pouring out of the life – a man crowning his service with the pouring out of his life joyfully.

In Timothy we have the climax of it in Paul. He says,

• “For I am already being poured out”.

• The epistles to Timothy show that, while a company like the Philippians had a special place in his heart, he was not restricted in that which he was labouring for, for in the first epistle he speaks about
  • “God’s house, which is the assembly of the living God, the pillar and base of the truth”, chapter 3: 15.

• Paul had in his heart the whole habitation of God in the Spirit here on earth; he was thinking of God’s house,
  • where God’s character is known, from which the gospel goes out, into which men are invited,

• and the assembly of the living God where God is praised, where divine administration goes on, and
  • “the pillar and base of the truth”,

• the great vessel of testimony. What a wonderful structure the house of God is!

• It is through coming into it that persons are saved and they come to a full knowledge of the truth. In the house of God, which is,
  • “the pillar and base of the truth”,

• there is not a question which cannot be answered.

• Every genuine enquiry finds an answer there; and Paul had the whole matter in his heart and soul; and it was a joyful matter to him to say in the second epistle,
  • “I am already being poured out”.

• It was like Jacob coming to Bethel the second time and pouring the drink-offering on the pillar – Genesis 35: 14.

• The house of God is the pillar and base of the truth, and Paul was pouring himself out upon it, glad to do it. What a model he is!
  • “Be imitators all together of me”.

• What a man to imitate! But then he speaks of Timothy, a younger man, in Philippians:
  • “For I have no one like-minded who will care with genuine feeling how ye get on”, and

  • “ye know the proof of him, that, as a child a father, he has served with me in the work of the glad tidings”.

• He says elsewhere to the Corinthians,
  • “he works the work of the Lord, even as I”, chapter 16: 10.

Here was Timothy, an imitator all together of Paul, like a child with a father, having the same objective, the calling on high, and having the same care for the saints, caring with genuine feeling;

• another one who would be prepared to be poured out.

• Then he brings in this sorrowful statement,
  • “all seek their own things, and not the things of Jesus Christ”.

• How sorrowful it is that, in a day when Nazariteship should be normal – the order of the day – there should be so few in accord with what is normal:
  • “all seek their own things, and not the things of Jesus Christ”.

• “The things of Jesus Christ”, I believe, if we speak of the type, would be like the tabernacle system down here, the assembly as the tabernacle of witness.

• Jesus Christ was the antitype of the foundation of the whole tabernacle system – the acacia wood.

• Caring for the things of Jesus Christ is a very practical matter. It is caring for the whole tabernacle of witness down here in this world; and our own things can divert us from that.

• Scripture speaks of the things of the Spirit, the things of God, the things that God has prepared. They are different ideas.

• But the things of Jesus Christ, I believe, relate to the assembly as the tabernacle of witness down here, of which Jesus Christ is the foundation.
  • “For other foundation can no man lay besides that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ”, 1 Corinthians 3: 11.

• So that Philippians is a practical epistle; it is one thing to mind the things of the Spirit – we have been seeking to do so these three days – it is a blessed thing when the Spirit reveals to us the deep things of God;
  • but the answer to it in us should be that we would mind the things of Jesus Christ.

• We would care for everything that is of God in this world.

So Epaphroditus is another man prepared to be poured out as a libation.

• What a crowning thing Epaphroditus’ action was, how it crowned the service of the Philippians in sending the gift to Paul!

• Their gift was like the peace-offering, as he says in chapter 4,
  • “the things sent from you, an odour of sweet savour, an acceptable sacrifice”, verse 18.

• It was a sacrifice of peace-offering in principle,
  • “agreeable to God”.

• They had sent the sacrifice, and what crowned the sacrifice was Epaphroditus’ service, his libation.

• He did not actually have to lay down his life, but he was prepared to do it,
  • “for the sake of the work he drew near even to death, venturing his life, that he might fill up what lacked”.

• What was lacking? The drink-offering; and he filled up what lacked, and thus made their offering all the more valuable.

• How precious it must have been to Paul, precious was the sacrifice from the Philippians, but
  • made exceedingly more precious by the fact that Epaphroditus ventured his life to bring it to him.

• Well, may the Lord help us in these things, to be individually in line with Paul, fixing our eyes on him, as he says,
  • “as you have us for a model”.

Let us then, dear brethren, hold the ground in the devotion of Nazarites to God, for His Name’s sake!