Day 43, or February the 12th. Simply keeping
the rules is not enough. Our thoughts today are
rooted in Numbers chapter 6, verses 1 to 4. The
Lord said to Moses, Speak to the Israelites and
say to them, If a man or woman wants to make
a special vow, a vow of dedication to the Lord
as a Nazarite, They must abstain from wine and
other fermented drink. As long as they remain
under their Nazarite vow, they must not eat anything
that comes from the grapevine, nor even the seeds
or skins. Now the big picture that surrounds
these verses. God wanted his people to be the
light of the world, a people who would radiate
their God to the rest of the world, but they
never quite made it. They kept missing the point
of his rules and regulations. They were not there
to grind them down, but were given to declare
a standard which made it clear that they needed
God's help to achieve lives that honoured him.
Their call was to be God's holy people in an
unholy world. The particularly dedicated followers
were called Nazarites, and the most famous of
these was Samson. who, much later, was a judge
as the Israelites settled into the promised land.
And now our action step for today. We are to
be salt and light in the world, Matthew chapter
5 verses 13 to 14 remind us. Following the rules
should be a sign that you are committed to God.
Simply following the rules does not make you
committed to God, it just makes you a great rule
-keeper. In our passage today, there are lots
and lots of detailed instructions about being
separate from worldly living, being in the world
but not of it. This whole concept is an enormous
challenge and is reflected in the New Testament
book of James, chapter 2, verse 26, where James
tells us, Just as the body is dead without breath,
so also faith is dead without good works. In
other words, your faith should produce good works,
but good works are inadequate by themselves and
not a substitute for faith. Don't stop doing
good, but rather check your motives to see that
you're doing God's will rather than yours.