Scripture Reading: Lev. 1:3-4a, 9, 16; 6:8-13; 7:8; 8:18; Num. 6:1-9, 22-27; Acts 1:12-14; 26:19
I. The burnt offering (Lev. 1:1-17) typifies Christ not mainly in His redeeming manfrom sin but in His living a life that is perfect and absolutely for God and for God'ssatisfaction (vv. 3-4a, 9; John 5:19, 30; 6:38; 7:18; 8:29; 14:24) and in His being the lifethat enables God's people to have such a living (2 Cor. 5:14-15; Gal. 2:19-20; Eph.4:20-21):
A. The burnt offering is God's food so that God may enjoy it and so that it will satisfy Him asa satisfying fragrance to Jehovah—Lev. 1:9b; Num. 28:2; cf. 2 Cor. 2:14-15; 2 Kings 4:8-10.
B. This offering was to be offered daily, in the morning and in the evening—Exo. 29:38-42;Lev. 6:8-13; Num. 28:2-4. C. The ram of the burnt offering signifies the strong Christ as our burnt offering for the assumingof our New Testament priesthood (Lev. 8:18); this offering, the ram of consecration(v. 22; 7:37 and footnote 1), reminds us that as serving ones we must be absolute for God,yet we are not; thus, we need to take Christ daily as our burnt offering for our priestly service(6:12; cf. Heb. 10:5-10). D. The laying on of hands on the head of the burnt offering signifies our identification, ourunion, with Christ; by laying our hands on Christ as our offering, we are joined to Him,and He and we become one—Lev. 1:4a:1. In such a union all our weaknesses, defects, and faults are taken on by Him, and allHis virtues become ours; this requires us to exercise our spirit through the properprayer so that we may be one with Him in an experiential way—1 Cor. 6:17. 2. When we lay our hands on Christ through prayer, the life-giving Spirit, who is thevery Christ on whom we lay our hands (15:45; 2 Cor. 3:6, 17), will immediately moveand work within us to live in us a life that is a repetition of the life that Christ livedon earth, the life of the burnt offering (Gal. 6:17). E. We need to take Christ as our burnt offering daily (Num. 28:3-4; Lev. 1:2-4; 6:12-13; cf.2 Tim. 1:6) so that we may experience Christ in His experiences as the burnt offering, notimitating Christ outwardly but living Him in our daily life—2 Cor. 5:14-15; Phil. 1:19-21;Acts 27:22-25; 28:3-9; 1 Cor. 1:9. F. As we continually take Christ as our burnt offering, the more the outward expression ofHis beauty is ascribed to us for His magnification (Lev. 7:8; Psa. 90:17; Exo. 28:2; Phil. 1:20),and the more we enjoy Christ as our enveloping power to cover, protect, and preserve us(4:13; 2 Cor. 12:9). G. The fire on the altar of burnt offering should be kept burning continually; it must not goout (Lev. 6:8-13); day by day and on many occasions, we need to offer ourselves in Christto God as a continual burnt offering to be burned by Him so that we may burn others—cf.Rom. 12:1-2; Num. 28:3-4, 9-11, 19, 26-27; 29:1-2, 7-8, 12-13, 39-40. H. This kind of consecration is an upper room consecration, a consecration in which we aremarried to and beside ourselves with the heavenly vision of God's eternal economy—Acts 1:12-14; Rev. 3:18; Acts 26:19-29. I. We need to be reduced to ashes to become the New Jerusalem for God's expression—Psa.20:3; Lev. 1:16; 6:10-11; 1 Cor. 3:12a; Rev. 3:12; 21:2, 10-11, 18-21. J. The ashes of the burnt offering signify Christ reduced to nothing—Mark 9:12; Isa. 53:3:1. The Lord's desire is that all the believers in Christ be reduced to ashes. 2. Since we are one with the Christ who has been reduced to ashes, we also are reducedto ashes, that is, reduced to nothing, to zero—1 Cor. 1:28; 2 Cor. 12:11. 3. The more we are identified with Christ in His death, the more we will realize that wehave become a heap of ashes. 4. When we become ashes, we are no longer a natural person; instead, we are a personwho has been crucified, terminated, burned—Gal. 2:20a. 5. The ashes are a sign of God's acceptance of the burnt offering as fat, something that issweet and pleasing to Him—Psa. 20:3; cf. 36:8-9. 6. Putting the ashes on the east side of the altar, the side of the sunrise, is an allusion toresurrection—Lev. 1:16; John 11:25; Phil. 3:10-11; 2 Cor. 1:9: a. With Christ as the burnt offering, the ashes are not the end—they are the beginning—Mark 9:31. b. The ashes mean that Christ has been put to death, but the east signifies resurrection. c. The more we are reduced to ashes in Christ, the more we will be put to the east,and on the east we will have the assurance that the sun will rise and that we willexperience the sunrise of resurrection—Phil. 3:10-11. 7. Eventually, the ashes will become the New Jerusalem—Rev. 3:12; 21:2, 10-11: a. Christ's death brings us to an end, reduces us to ashes, and in resurrection theashes become precious materials for God's building—1 Cor. 3:9b, 12a. b. When we are reduced to ashes, we are brought into the transformation of the TriuneGod to become the precious materials for the building of the New Jerusalem—Rom.12:1-2; 2 Cor. 3:18; Rev. 21:18-21.
II. God desires that all His people be Nazarites, those who separate themselves untoGod to be absolutely, utterly, and ultimately for God, that is, to be for nothing otherthan God—loving God, seeking God, living God, and being constituted with God tobless others with God for the expression of God—Num. 6:1-9, 22-27; Psa. 73:25-26;Jer. 32:39; 2 Cor. 13:14; cf. Psa. 110:3; Matt. 26:6-13:
A. According to typology, among the human race the unique Nazarite is the Lord Jesus Christ;a Nazarite is a type of Christ in His living absolutely for God in His humanity—John 4:34;5:19, 30; 7:18; 14:24.
B. The Nazarite's separation lasted for seven days (Acts 21:27), signifying a full course, evena lifetime (Num. 6:8; cf. 1 Cor. 5:7-8; Exo. 12:15; 13:2-4, 6-9). C. Only the Nazarites can bring back the Lord Jesus; all those who are used by God to turnthe age must be Nazarites—voluntarily consecrated ones who are sanctified absolutelyand ultimately to God. D. All overcomers live in the principle of the Nazarite with a voluntary fourfold consecrationto God—1 Cor. 6:15-20; Rom. 12:1-2; 9:23; cf. Dan. 5:23:1. A Nazarite must overcome worldly enjoyment and pleasure, signified by his abstainingfrom wine and anything related to its source—Num. 6:3-4; cf. Psa. 104:15; Eccl. 10:19;James 4:4; 1 John 2:15: a. Worldly pleasure leads to lustful intentions and lustful conduct; we must abstainfrom the worldly wine by enjoying Christ as the new wine to make us people whocheer God and cheer man—Judg. 9:13; Matt. 9:17; 1 John 2:15-17; 2 Tim. 3:1-5; cf.Isa. 42:4. b. We need to maintain our joy in the Lord day by day; I will go to the altar of God /To God my exceeding joy—Psa. 43:4; 16:11; 36:8-9; 46:4; 48:2; 51:12; Neh. 8:8, 10;Jer. 15:16; Lam. 3:21-24, 55-56; Hymns, #523. 2. A Nazarite must overcome rebellion, signified by his not shaving his head; not shavingthe head signifies not rejecting, but being absolutely subject to, the headship of theLord—Num. 6:5; cf. 1 Cor. 11:3, 6, 10, 15: a. A Nazarite is absolutely subject to the headship of the Lord as well as to all deputyauthorities appointed by God—Eph. 1:10, 22b-23; Col. 1:18; Rom. 13:1-2a; Eph. 5:21,23; 6:1; Heb. 13:17; 1 Pet. 3:1-7; 5:5. b. A Nazarite is a person full of hair, full of submission; with him there is a submissiveatmosphere and intention; if you are such a person, there will be a greatblessing for you and for your future—Col. 1:18; 2:19. c. It is a blessing to be under someone or some thing. It is even a blessing to be severelylimited. I thank the Lord that from the day I came into the recovery, the Lord putme under someone, some thing, or some environment—Witness Lee, Life-study ofNumbers, p. 70; cf. Eph. 4:1. d. Samson was a Nazarite from his mother's womb for the full course of his life, andthe source of Samson's power was his long hair; from this we see that in submissionthere is power—Judg. 16:17; cf. Josh. 9:14. 3. A Nazarite must overcome death, signified by his not being allowed to be defiled by thedeath of the relative closest to him or by the sudden death of one beside him—Num.6:6-7, 9: a. Death is more defiling before God than sin; different kinds of spiritual death mayspread among God's people in the church life—wild death (the carcasses of beasts),mild death (the carcasses of cattle), or subtle death (the carcasses of creepingthings)—Lev. 5:2; Rev. 3:4; Rom. 8:6. b. We must be those who are full of life, which is anti-death; this depends on howmuch we exercise our spirit to pray, not in a general way but with a prayer thatfights against the enemy—2 Cor. 5:4; 6:1a; Matt. 26:41; Dan. 6:10; 9:17. c. If we sense deadness in a meeting, we need to pray very much to counter thatdeadening situation: Lord, cover me with Your blood against any deadening,against any spiritual deadness. Lord, cover this meeting with Your prevailingblood. Under this blood, we participate in the divine life. d. The Nazarites are numbered for the formation of God's army and are very vigilant,full of feeling for the war against death; because the germs of death are even in thechurch life, we need to pray daily, hourly, fighting against death, the last enemy ofGod—1 Cor. 15:26. 4. A Nazarite must overcome natural affection, signified by his not making himself uncleanfor his father, mother, brother, or sister when they die—Num. 6:7; Matt. 12:46-50;2 Cor. 5:16: a. The natural life with its natural affection is typified by honey that ferments andbrings in rottenness (in the meal offering, honey is prohibited); the problem betweenPaul and Barnabas was caused by the honey of the natural life—Lev. 2:11;Acts 15:35-39, 25-26; Col. 4:10. b. God does not want us to love with our natural love but with Him as our love—Phil.2:2; 1 Cor. 13:4-8, 13; 2 Tim. 1:7. E. Once our former separation has been made void, we must reseparate ourselves to God bytaking Christ as the reality of all the offerings—Num. 6:8-21. F. Our separation unto God is for our being blessed by God to bless others with God in thedivine dispensing of the Divine Trinity for the carrying out of His eternal economy—vv. 22-27;cf. 2 Cor. 13:14.