IN THE DEVIL S BARBER SHOP By Edward B. Hart, D.D.* H UMAN interest!” This is the test by which the daily news editors screen their news. “ Does it have
no contact with the dead. The best source of information is Numbers 6. Verses 1-4 tell us, “No wine.” Wine is a symbol of natural joy. None of this for the Nazar ite, that is, his joy was to be alto gether the real thing, true joy, not the human imitation of the joy of the Lord. His body was not to be defiled with alco holic drinking. This contrast is seen in the Ephesian letter, “ Be not drunk with wine . . . be filled with the Spirit.” Not the human intoxication, of sin and pleasure, lusts of the flesh, but the in toxication in a holy sense when one is truly filled, possessed, controlled by the Holy Spirit of God. Wine leads to loss of control. It surrenders the faculties of the body to sin. Alcoholism is more than a “ disease” in spite of the Yale studies and apologies. Dr. Harry Rimmer ex posed the fallacy in a poignant state ment, “ Alcoholism a disease? So is syph ilis.” It is a sinful misuse of the body. No wine for the Nazarite; he was to be holy unto God. The Nazarite vow further demanded, “ No cutting of the hair.” Yet Samson finally found himself in the Devil’s Bar ber Shop! Numbers 6:5-7 is the passage to study. Long hair was to be the visible sign of the Nazarite. You cannot see long hair on a man without looking twice, and when you see it, you wonder what’s wrong with him. Something different, to say the least. But while long hair was a shame to a Hebrew man, it was re quired of the Nazarite. He was to bear the reproach of long hair. Do we have here a willingness to bear “ the re proach” of the Lord before men? “ Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach” (Heb. 13:13). Are we willing to be different for Christ’s sake? That does not mean we should be queer. You see, long hair or short hair is a matter of custom. Short hair helps to identify men, while long hair identifies women. But with the Nazarite the long hair identified one wholly devoted to God. It was the visible sign, something others could see. Our heart-devotion must somehow get out into the open, not to be boasted of, but as a testimony to others. If within the heart and soul of a believer there is true consecration unto God, it will be seen of men in the difference between his life and the sub-normal experiences of oth ers. But, oh, how Satan likes to trim down this consecrated life! “No contact with the dead.” That was the third requirement of the Nazarite *Pastor of the Immanuel Baptist Church, Pasadena, California.
who was to be a Nazarite, devoted to God. Later Manoah shared the blessed ness of the divine visit, this theophany, this manifestation of God to men. Read it yourself in Judges 13. Take time to realize that God made Himself know- able to the parents of Samson. He waits to do the same for us, in different ways from Old Testament appearings, but nonetheless real and personal and in timate in our lives. The child Samson was a God-chosen instrument. He was to
human-interest appeal?” If so, it makes the headlines, even the front page. Our Christian message, while changeless in its content and truth, must nevertheless reach people. We must make “ contact” with the minds and souls of men. That means touching them right where they are living.-Our gospel must get beyond a “ philosophy of life” and come to grips with the day-by-day class-room experi ences of the school of life. The labora tories in which the “ truth of the gospel” will be tested and proved are not in the cloistered halls of learning but out on the highways of life, in the home, the school, the shop, the field. Truth, the call to righteousness, the wondrous of fers of Divine Grace, will make their appeal to the heart of man when the approach is on this human-interest level. In the Devil’s Barber Shop! Here is a story of a divine intervention in the life of a family and a nation. Three hundred years of Israel’s national his tory were like soiled pages. There were seven apostasies, seven servitudes, seven deliverances. It is the old cycle of in- and-out with God, obedience then dis obedience, in fellowship with God then out of fellowship, right with God then rebellious toward the divine will. This period of the Judges of Israel must be summarized by four words which de scribe each of the seven cycles: back sliding, judgment, repentance, restora tion. How often we wait until our sins catch up with us before we believe God’s warnings and heed His call to repentance and a true heart change of our ways of living. We take advantage of the long- suffering and patience of God and test His kindness to the limit. We drift along with cold indifference, or we drag our feet in the Christian life and service with halfhearted devotion. But we can not always live thus. Sooner or later we find ourselves in “ the way of sin ners” or “sitting in the seat of the scorn ful,” no longer avoiding God’s will, but resisting it, and giving God our refusals. Then we compel the Almighty to move in on the scene and catch us up, to startle us awake, to call us back to our lost fellowship and power. Samson, timeless symbol of great strength, was born into a home of re ligious devotion, a home of faith (Judg. 13:2, 3). The angel of the Lord whis pered to the wife of one Manoah, that she was to become the mother of a son
Verdier The Gates of Gaza Taken by Samson become one of the Judges of Israel. An other cycle was about to take its upward turn and the nation be called back from its lethargy and spiritual decay. The parents were carefully instructed con cerning the child’s training (Judg. 13:12- 14). He was to be a Nazarite. The mother was also to be a Nazarite (Judg. 13:14). The characteristics of the child were to be in the parents’ lives too. They were called to be godly in life. How often someone used of God can trace back to a spiritual heritage in a devoted parent. What a privilege for Christian parents! The Nazarite vow? We live in a world of promises, of contracts, of vows, of treaties. But this Nazarite vow was a vow between an individual and God. Essentially it was composed of three parts: no wine, no cutting of the hair,
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