Separated unto the Lord

All the days of his separation he is holy unto the LORD. NUMBERS 6:8

Separation and Service is Hudson Taylor’s meditation on Numbers 6 and 7: the law of the Nazarite, the priestly blessing, and the long record of the princes’ offerings. He saw one movement running through them. Separation to God is followed by blessing from God, and those who receive large blessing from Him render Him service in which He delights. This chapter follows the first step, separation.

An open invitation

Taylor begins with grace. The Nazarite vow, he points out, was a gift from God, given unasked. Israel had forfeited the privilege of being a kingdom of priests, but God still opened a way for any individual, man or woman, who wished to draw near to Him, and for as long as their own hearts desired. Whosoever will might come.

Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When either man or woman shall separate themselves to vow a vow of a Nazarite, to separate themselves unto the LORD. NUMBERS 6:2

For the Christian, Taylor says, what was temporary and optional under the old covenant is permanent: the believer is always separated to God. Yet devotion is still in some sense voluntary, and that, he thinks, explains why Christians differ so much in what they attain. Salvation is a free gift. Knowing Christ deeply is possible only through unreserved consecration and unquestioning obedience. And this, he insists, is not a hardship but the highest privilege.

Obedience in indifferent things

The first mark of the Nazarite was abstinence from the fruit of the vine: not only wine and strong drink, but fresh grapes, raisins, even the seeds and skins. Grapes are good. As Adam’s obedience was tested by one tree, pleasant and good for food, so the Nazarite’s was tested by a thing harmless in itself. “It was not that the thing was harmful in itself, but that the doing the will of God, in a matter of seeming indifference, was essential to his acceptance.”

Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. 1 CORINTHIANS 10:31

He applies it to a question every generation of Christians asks about amusements and pleasures: where is the harm in this? The question itself, he suggests, may be the wrong one. Even if a thing is harmless, it does not follow that it pleases God or helps us spiritually. Paul gave up not bad things but good things, things that were gain to him, to win Christ.

Then comes a sentence that summarises his life: “The highest service demands the greatest sacrifice, but it secures the fullest blessing and the greatest fruitfulness.” Christ could not stay in His Father’s bosom and redeem the world. Missionaries, he adds, cannot win the unreached and enjoy the comforts of home.

Unmistakably peculiar

The second mark was the uncut hair. God claimed the right to determine the appearance of His servant, so that separated ones would be manifestly such. Taylor admits that many shrink greatly from appearing peculiar. His counsel: “While we are not to seek to be peculiar for its own sake, we are not to hesitate to be so when duty to God renders it necessary, or when the privilege of self-denial for the benefit of others calls for it.”

And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind. ROMANS 12:2

It is impossible to read those words without thinking of Taylor’s own Chinese dress. He knew what it cost to be peculiar, but he would not let fear of looking odd decide the path of obedience.

Death and defilement

The third mark was that the Nazarite must not touch a dead body, not even for father or mother. Taylor does not use it to cheapen the command to honour parents; indeed, he counsels young Christians whose parents oppose their missionary call to thank God for the obstacle and pray patiently for its removal. But he draws from it the solemn truth that death is the wages of sin, and that the consecrated life must keep apart from sin and its fruits.

Then there is unwitting defilement. If someone died suddenly beside the Nazarite, his vow was broken, even though he had done nothing deliberately. The days already served were lost, and he had to begin again after sacrifice. Taylor finds here a truth he thought his generation badly needed: that sin is guilt and not merely misfortune, and that God’s holiness is not measured by our awareness. But if we become conscious of the slightest failure, even by inadvertence, we are to confess it at once and receive cleansing through Christ’s sacrifice, and walk on in the light.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 JOHN 1:9

Blameless but not sinless

The last part of the law is the most evangelical. When the days of his vow were fulfilled, the Nazarite had to bring a burnt-offering, a sin-offering and a peace-offering. Why a sin-offering, if he had kept his vow? Because, Taylor says, there is an important difference “between being blameless and being sinless.” Even the best service is stained, and “not our worst, but our best, is only acceptable to God through the atonement of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. ISAIAH 64:6

This keeps separation from turning into pride. The Nazarite is not a spiritual aristocrat. He is a sinner who has been allowed to draw near, and who remains accepted only in the Beloved. Taylor quotes at length an anonymous poem about a mother mending a garment who finds her little daughter’s clumsy attempt to help, and loves her the more for it; and he applies it to the Father who receives our marred and bungled service for the love that was in it.

Taylor also notices that the text says the Nazarite shall be brought to the door of the tabernacle, not that he shall come. Even at the end of a faithful vow, he needed a priest to present him. So do we. Our High Priest will present us faultless before the presence of His glory.

Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. JUDE 1:24

Reading it wisely

Taylor’s typology is sometimes more confident than the text, and his reasoning about the offerings goes further than some readers will follow. The call to be peculiar can also be misused as licence for mere oddity, or for a separation that despises others. But his main lesson is sound, and it is needed. Separation is not a list of taboos; it is a heart given wholly to God, obedient even in small things, and resting always on Christ’s sacrifice rather than its own achievement.

FOR REFLECTION AND ACTION

1. Replace the question Where is the harm in this? with the question Does this please God and help me spiritually? Apply it to one habit this week.

2. Name one good thing you might give up for the sake of Christ or of others, and pray about whether He is asking it.

3. Consider where fear of seeming peculiar is keeping you from obedience.

4. When you become aware of a failure, even an unintended one, confess it at once and receive cleansing, rather than excusing it.

5. Thank God that your best service is accepted in Christ, and let that free you from both pride and despair.

A PRAYER

Holy God, You have opened a way for whosoever will to draw near to You. I want to come, and to be wholly Yours.

Teach me to obey You in small things and in things that seem indifferent, and to care more for Your pleasure than for my own.

Give me courage to be different when love and duty require it, and keep me from pride when I am.

And when my best service is marred, receive it for Christ’s sake, and present me faultless at the last by His grace. Amen.