Genesis 28:20 - 22; Genesis 35:13 - 15 Numbers 6:1 - 5, 22 - 27; Psalm 66:8 - 17; 2 Timothy 4:1 - 10

We are called upon to love God with all our heart, all our soul, all our strength, and all our mind. This is God's due from the creature. But the real measure of a man's love for God is seen in the manner in which, and the extent to which, he is committed to God's interests down here, and particularly to that which is His chief interest on earth at the moment. Thus there was a time when a man's devotedness to God was evidenced by his valuation of Jerusalem, what he was prepared to do for Jerusalem. The psalmist says, "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its cunning". When Daniel was far away, his devotedness to God was evidenced by the fact that he prayed three times a day with his window opened toward Jerusalem, God's chief interest on earth at that time.

At the present time, God's chief interest on earth is His house, which is the assembly of the living God, the pillar and base of the truth; and in the type Jacob learned in Genesis 28 that heaven's interest was concentrated at that point. Jehovah had stationed Himself at the top of the ladder, angels of God were ascending and descending upon it, and Jacob said, "this is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven". The great reality, the antitype, is now existing; and it is a great thing to get into our souls that the attention of heaven is concentrated upon what God has established upon earth as His chief interest at the moment. God's chief interest is never given up by a faithful lover of Christ. So whatever the day, a true lover concentrates on

that upon which Christ is concentrating, God is concentrating, and also the Spirit of God. That is really the test for us at the moment. We have been through experiences and many have taken the ground of having come out to the Lord. But then, the reality of our devotion to the Lord, as to how far we have really come out to Him is being tested.

Psalm 66 depicts trials that saints pass through. It says in verse 11, "Thou broughtest us into a net". God may permit us to get into a position where we seem to be caught and we cannot see a way out. If you get into a net, it is no use struggling, for the more you struggle the more you get entangled. Once you are in a net, you are shut up to God to release you; you have to give up your struggles. "Thou broughtest us into a net, Thou didst lay a heavy burden upon our loins; Thou didst cause men to ride over our head; we went through fire and through water:" and then it says, "But Thou hast brought us out into abundance". It is all God's doing; God allows discipline, He brings us into it and He brings us out. In discipline of this kind we could not get ourselves out; we have got to stay there till God brings us out, a great test for faith. But then God does bring us out, as it says in verse 9, "Who hath set our soul in life;" so the Psalmist is full of jubilation because he has been in this position and he is out; full of praise to God, starting the Psalm, "Shout aloud unto God, all the earth:" Then it says in verse 10 "For Thou, O God, hast proved us: Thou hast tried us, as silver is tried". Think of the fining pot for silver and the furnace for gold! When we are in the fining pot, what can we do about it? We cannot get out of that. The Refiner and Purifier of silver is watching, as the heat gets more and more intense, until His end is reached. So it says, "Thou ... hast proved us: Thou hast tried us as silver is tried". Saints all over the earth have gone through a time of being

tried and proved, and it is astonishing what devotion to the Lord, what courage and faith, have come to light. But still there is to be further testing even yet. The Lord would continue the refining process and increasing the heat until there is purification of motives, so that there is no dross left. The Lord knows our hearts; how much dross, how many mixed motives may be there. The trials are to bring about a pure heart so that we are considering for Christ and Christ alone. It is wonderful liberty to be brought into. "If I were yet pleasing men, I were not Christ's bondman", the apostle said. It is bondage to try to please men, but perfect liberty to please Christ. Thus the process has gone on; and it is in the course of such a process that people make vows. So the Psalmist goes on in verse 14, "I will go into Thy house with burnt-offerings; I will perform my vows to Thee, which my lips have uttered, and my mouth hath spoken, when I was in trouble". May we be set to perform the vows we have made when in trouble.

People often make vows when in trouble; God wants committal of that kind and puts us through trials to bring it about. Jacob's is the first vow in Scripture, and was made when he was in trouble. Think of Jacob that night; we have got broken families today, and there was a broken family; Esau ready to kill his brother. That kind of spirit is abroad today, the spirit of Edom, hatred that, but for the laws of the land, might lead to murder, burning at the stake, and so on; and families are divided. Here was a divided family; Jacob afraid of his brother and his brother prepared to pursue him with the sword without pity. So Jacob was having to leave his father and mother; he was indeed in trouble. He was a homely man, living in tents. He was not used to the field like Esau, a man of the field, a man of the world, a man who always wanted to be out and about. Jacob was not like that, he loved home

life, and now the very thing he loved was taken from him; and there he was, a lonely man, outcast from his own home (Genesis 27). What a desperate plight for a man who loved his home! But God took account of him. How wonderful that God takes account of us in our troubles; how He would turn them to account! How could He have got access to Jacob otherwise than this? Taking everything away from him that He might, in grace, come near Himself, and give him one of the greatest disclosures that has ever been vouchsafed to man, the light of His House, the most wonderful home of all.

The first mention of a thing in scripture is always important. The principles brought out here as to the house of God are remarkable. The holiness of the place, the way the top of the ladder reached to heaven, the fact that it was the gate of heaven; what glorious light was coming in! Here was something God had set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven; and it was the gate of heaven, heaven's bounty was being dispensed. That is great light as to the house of God. God took the opportunity of Jacob being there, in those terrible heart-rending conditions, to give him this light. It says, the sun had set. Poor Jacob, alone, away from home. What had he got? He had got nothing as far as this world was concerned; and then God came in, and he suddenly got more than any man on earth. Even Abraham had not had light like this. Jacob was given distinctive light for himself from God, although not yet equal to it in his state of soul. What an impression it made upon him! And then God told him what He had got in mind for him, saying, "Behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places to which thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee until I have done what I have spoken to thee of". Think of God being prepared to commit Himself in such a manner to one man in

such a desperate plight. Yet, in some measure, God has committed Himself to each one of us like that. He has appeared to each of us at a point in our history that He has made opportune, and in some way He has conveyed to our souls that He will not leave us until He has accomplished His purpose of blessing. What a wonderful committal on the part of the Almighty God! "I will not leave thee until I have done what I have spoken to thee of".

But then, it was in that night of trouble that Jacob made his vow. The vow was a responsive committal. God had committed Himself, saying, I will not leave thee; and Jacob vowed a vow, saying -- "If God will be with me, and keep me on this road that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and a garment to put on, and I come again to my father's house in peace -- then shall Jehovah be my God. And this stone, which I have set up for a pillar shall be God's house; and of all that Thou wilt give me I will without fail give the tenth to Thee". I have heard it spoken of as a poor sort of vow; but I believe it is a vow which, in the general principle of it, God would desire every young person here to make. Have you ever done it? God has committed Himself to you, have you ever committed yourself to Him? It is in line with Paul's teaching in Timothy. He says to Timothy, "Having food and raiment, let us be therewith content", (1 Timothy 6:8 A.V.) and that is all Jacob asked for. What young man do you know who, if God had said to him, I will be with you all the way, would have asked for so little? He virtually says to God, 'If Thou wilt give me enough to eat and enough to wear, I will be for Thee, and of everything Thou dost give me I will give a tenth to Thee!' And what does that mean? It means the best tenth. Sometimes when people think about the tithes, they think of the last tenth, but that is not the idea of the tithe. The tithe was put first, the best was for God; and

the lover of God would have it so. That was Jacob's vow. For himself, just bread to eat, and a garment to put on. It would be good if we were more like that, not entangling ourselves with the affairs of this life, but content with getting through. God has said He will see us through; how it must please Him when we say, 'That is all I want; just to get through. I want to stand in relation to Thine interests'. The House of God, you see, is to be the chief concern.

Now God remained with Jacob, as He said He would, till He brought to pass all that He had spoken of; and in chapter 35 you see the end of Jacob's history relative to the house of God. God had brought him into suitability to His house, and He was therefore no longer at the top of the ladder but talking with him in nearness. God is a wonderful God. Had He come down to be near Jacob in the 28th chapter, Jacob would have been too terrified to take anything in, or to speak. "How dreadful is this place", he said. You see, he was not ready in his state of soul; but God works in him till he is ready. At Padan-Aram He appears to him, and says, "I am the God of Bethel, where thou anointedst the pillar, where thou vowedst a vow to Me". God had not forgotten it. Does it not touch your heart sometimes, when God reminds you years afterwards what you said to Him years ago? He has not forgotten it even if you have. He said, 'Go and return to Bethel where you anointed the pillar and vowed a vow'. So away Jacob goes, and he puts everything out of his house which was out of keeping with the house of God. He had learnt how to behave himself, he knew what was needed -- how to behave himself in the house of God. He gets rid of all the idols, washes his garments, and he comes to Bethel now in a right state. Instead of God being at the top of the ladder, God is right down beside him; that is what God wants. He works with us till we come to that, that we are at home

with God. We are at home with God in His own house, and He talks with us. It does not mean that He does all the talking, He is listening to us as well, a mutual communion. We want to know such communion -- fellowship is the same word. "If we say we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness we lie". There were dark things with Jacob, but they have been dealt with, the idols have been buried and now there is true communion, He talked with him; God could talk with Jacob and Jacob could talk with God. He was a homely man in his natural surroundings, and now he is at home with God. The reason he could be at home with God was because God said his name was not going to be called Jacob any more. Typically, he had been through the exercises of Romans 7 and 8. Let us all get through, brethren, with the exercises of Romans 7 and 8, so that we become princes of God having learnt to give place to the Spirit; to mind not the things of the flesh, but the things of the Spirit, to walk not according to flesh, but according to Spirit, and to let Christ be in us so that the body is dead on account of sin and the Spirit is life on account of righteousness. Thus a man becomes a prince of God. Then we are ready for the holy conditions of the house of God, to be at home with the Holy One Who inhabits eternity. That is like Jacob in chapter 35.

Now he performs his vow. It is one thing to make your vow; you make your vow when you are in trouble, but take heed to perform it. I want to raise the question with each of us here. Are we performing our vows? You say you came out to the Lord, and I am not going to question that. You came out to the Lord with freshly revived affections; what is happening now? Are the affections waning? When you first came out you wanted to be more truly separate than ever; I have heard many people say

that. You left a false, carnal, imitation separation, (Satan attacks through imitation) but desired true separation of heart and ways to God. The Lord has heard your vow, but are you performing it? Are you more separate than ever in the right sense? Because a vow is of no value unless it is performed. The Psalmist says, "I will perform my vows unto Jehovah, yea, before all His people, In the courts of Jehovah's house, in the midst of thee, O Jerusalem". (Psalm 116:18 - 19). Scripture speaks about making vows, and it speaks about performing vows, and we have come to the time for performing. Let us each challenge ourselves as to whether we are performing the vows we have made. The Lord would help us to perform them, the Holy Spirit would help us to perform them; we have got no strength in ourselves. In this second scripture Jacob performed his vow in that he poured the drink offering on the pillar. It says he poured a drink offering on it, and he poured oil on it. The first time, in chapter 28, he poured oil on it only. He had it in his soul, as a matter of light (typically) that what was required to maintain the pillar character of things down here was the Holy Spirit. Nothing can be done without the Spirit, you must have the oil, the flesh profits nothing. But then it was an abstract idea; now, in chapter 35, he has come to what is concrete. He poured the drink offering and then the oil. The drink offering was himself, typically. Paul says, "I am already being poured out". Paul's drink offering was completed when he poured himself out on the pillar, in that way Paul performed his vow. At his conversion he said, "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?" That was Paul's committal. He virtually said, 'I will do anything You direct'. Have we each made a committal like that? The Lord did direct Paul. He was to bear His name before nations and kings and the sons of Israel, and to suffer much for that Name.

Paul performed his vow according to 2 Timothy 4, "I am already being poured out", he says, the drink offering was almost completed. He had said to the Philippians that he would rejoice to be poured out as a libation on the sacrifice and ministration of their faith. He poured himself out relative to God's chief interest on earth. Outwardly things had gone to pieces, all in Asia had turned away, but he gave up nothing. Let us in our day give up nothing. "Fight the good fight of faith", he says in 1 Timothy; and "I have fought the good fight" in 2 Timothy. He would not give up one item of the Christian faith. Give up everything of man, discard it with abhorrence. Think of a man-made priesthood! It is abhorrent to God; everything man-made religiously is abhorrent to God. But, on the other hand, give up no item of the Christian faith. So Paul says, "I have fought the good fight, I have run the race, I have kept the faith", and it involved Paul being poured out as a drink offering. It says of the Lord Jesus, "He poured out His soul unto death". That was the great drink offering, when Jesus poured out His soul unto death, Paul following on. So let us exhort one another to perform the vows which our mouths uttered when we were in trouble. This is the day of performance. May God grant that we may perform them! Maybe many will be allowed to lapse, alas. What will you say at the judgment seat of Christ? But even if there are only a few available, let us perform our vows. "Luke alone is with me", he says; "Demas has forsaken me". We may withdraw from a system governed by commandments of men, and yet forsake Paul. 2 Timothy 2 precedes this. Paul had already had to say, "Let those that name the Name of the Lord withdraw from iniquity". Do not think that is a recent thing that began in the last century, it began in Paul's day. Coming out to the Lord has marked the whole dispensation; time

and time again movements that began in power have become so corrupted that the Lord has called people out. As brethren, in our conceit, we have tended to attach everything to ourselves, as though 2 Timothy 2 never applied till recently. It has applied from Paul's day onwards. The Lord has repeatedly called people out to Himself because man corrupts everything. As the Spirit of God makes a fresh move, man corrupts it, and there is another call out. That is what has been going on, century after century. The call out of the last century was special; and do not forget it was not a call out of Rome, like that which occurred at the Reformation. It was a call out of the Protestant sects. There are those who would not compromise with Rome, nor with the legal system we have left, and yet they are prepared to compromise with Protestant sects. Did J.N.D. then come out for nothing? We love all the Christians in them, and we are glad that there is a measure of soundness as to the fundamentals of the gospel, such as justification by faith. But why did J.N.D. come out, why did the Lord call him out? Some brethren are acting as though it was all for nothing. Everything man-made is abhorrent to God. Where man has interfered with things, we must go out if we are to be with God, according to His own desires. What is man-made is part of the camp and we are told in Hebrews chapter 13 to go forth to Him without the camp; and we are told (chapter 8 et seq.) about the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched and not man, and about holy places not made with hands. We have come to something which is not man-made -- the Divine System. What is man-made I must have done with; what God has set up I must cling to, for it remains inviolate. Evil had already come in like a flood when Paul wrote 2 Timothy He speaks of disputes of words, profitable for nothing, to the subversion of the hearers; profane, vain babblings;

foolish and senseless questionings; and of those who turn away their ear from the truth, and turn aside to fables. These things were present while Paul was still on the scene. So he says, "Let everyone who names the name of the Lord withdraw from iniquity". Demas had been there with Paul, but he had forsaken him. He had given up the fight "fight the good fight of faith". He is a warning to us. We take the ground of having come out to the Lord, and here was a man who was in the separate path with Paul but had forsaken him. If he had made vows, it is clear he did not perform them. It is a sad statement, the last we hear of him, "Demas has forsaken me, having loved the present age". What a grief to the prisoner there in Rome, about to be martyred, to be thus forsaken. Demas wanted an easier path, like the others who turned away from Paul. These things are put in Scripture to test us as to whether we are performing our vows. Tychicus was faithful -- "Tychicus I have sent to Ephesus" -- he was under command; then he says to Timothy, "Use diligence to come before winter". Let us get to Paul before winter. There may be worse times coming, the thing is to go to Paul, and to be fixed in our adherence to what Paul stood for, before worse times come. What would happen to a Demas should worse times come?

So it is a great thing, God having committed Himself to us, through grace, like He did to Jacob, to be true in committal to Him; to make our vows and perform them. May the Lord help us to do it; we cannot do it in our own strength. When Jacob poured the drink offering on the pillar he poured the oil on that. Once he had poured the drink offering he would get the gain of the oil, and that is very true. It is the man who has committed himself who gets the gain of the Spirit, not the double-minded man who is unstable in all his ways. The Lord is available to help us, and the Spirit is available to help us, so

that we can make our committal and pour ourselves out, in our measure, confident that there is almighty power to sustain us. The oil is on the drink offering.

I read the passage in Numbers because it is the Nazarite's vow bearing on what I am saying. If you look at the order of things in Numbers it is most interesting. God had come down to dwell, and in the first four chapters of Numbers, the whole nation is organised around the dwelling place of God. It is God's thought for His people. Peter says, "Ye are ... a holy nation". The early chapters of Numbers show us the holy nation, mobilised for war and for service. We ought to think of ourselves more in that way. In the holy nation conscription for military service applies, no-one is exempt; and as Levites we are numbered for service from a month old and upwards. The Levites were to serve the tabernacle, the habitation of God. Then we are all priests, a kingdom of priests, we belong to the priestly family. It says in Numbers 3:10, "And Aaron and his sons shalt thou appoint that they may attend to their priest's office;" not optional, but a divine appointment. So you see, you have been conscripted as a soldier and you have been numbered amongst the Levites to work the work of the Lord. "Be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord". That is the Levite. It was said to the whole company at Corinth, men and women. And then you have been appointed to attend to the priest's office. That pulls us up. How much do you attend to the priest's office? It is the highest office. A priest of God is called to a greater office than the greatest earthly monarch or ruler. He is to attend to his office. Are you attending to the priest's office? Thus the nation was mobilised in every stratum, around the tabernacle where God was, God being the Centre of the nation. In our day, we belong to all three strata.

Following that, you get in chapter 5 the trial of

jealousy, because you may outwardly appear to be right, but what about your heart? "I am He that searches the reins and the hearts", the Son of God says. So we come under His all-searching scrutiny as to whether we are not only in the place appointed, but in it in the energy of first love.

Then chapter 6, the Nazarite's vow. There is this wonderful setting out of the holy nation, every person in his place for strenuous service, whether military, or levitical, or priestly. And the persons who will be sustained in it, and go through, are those who vow the vow of the Nazarite: Separated to Jehovah; not separated merely from evil things, but separated to God even from legitimate things; separated from wine and strong drink. What I understand by this is that the soul no longer relies on any form of natural stimulation to keep it going. We know how our natural hearts get stimulated; how, for instance, we work with renewed energy if there is hope of earthly prospects. But that kind of stimulation is not for the Nazarite. "God gives us all things richly to enjoy", but Paul gives us the outlook of the Nazarite in 1 Corinthians 7:29 - 31, when he says, among other things, "they that buy as not possessing; and they that use the world as not disposing of it as their own". He also says, "they who have wives be as not having any". This does not mean that a man neglects his wife, he is specifically told not to do so in that chapter. But as to what stimulates him and keeps him going, it is not earthly possessions or prospects, but God. "The God of the gladness of my joy", said the Psalmist. He does not need wine or strong drink to make him merry. He has God, the gladness of his joy. Do not think I am condemning those little thrills we get in life; I do not want to preach asceticism, I know how simple things of life are apt to give us a thrill and renewed energy; yet I must put before you what Scripture says, that the

divine ideal is the man that does not need those things to keep him going; GOD is his stimulation. Think of what a man like that meant to Israel; and what a number of persons like that would have meant amongst the holy nation. Paul was a true Nazarite, what things were gain to him he counted loss for Christ. His fulness of joy in the epistle to the Philippians was not the result of anything natural at all. There he was in prison and had lost everything, yet he says, "Rejoice in the Lord always;" you could not stop him rejoicing because of the God of the gladness of his joy. And even if it came to the point of laying down his life for the Philippians, "If I am poured out", he says, "as a libation on the sacrifice and ministration of your faith, I rejoice". That is the spirit in which the Nazarite carries out the obligations divine love puts upon him. You can see how, if we were marked even in a small degree by such joy, the testimony would go forward. The analogy between Numbers and what we have had before us already, is clear enough for it is still a question of the house of God and the testimony. It is called the tabernacle of testimony in Numbers; and the Nazarite's vow comes in to ensure that the thing will be carried through in buoyancy, not as a hardship, not as feeling it irksome, but out of the stimulation of divine love.

Paul says to Timothy, "Occupy thyself with these things; be wholly in them". Surely the Lord has this in view as an outcome of the present trials. What results there will be for God! Incense will be offered to His Name in every place and a pure oblation, as in Numbers 7 (see also Malachi 1:11), and we shall get the blessing set out at the end of Numbers 6. "The Lord bless thee, and keep thee; the Lord make His face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee; the Lord lift up His countenance upon thee, and give thee peace". Then it says, "And

they shall put my name upon the children of Israel; and I will bless them". In this setting of committal to Himself, He can trust His Name to be upon them; there will be nothing out of accord with His Name; everything they do will be for the honour of His Name.

May the Lord help us to be in keeping with God's Name, so that from His side, He can, without reserve, link His Name with us. May it be so for His Name's sake!