Love With Everything Within And Without (3)

[Zac Loh]

THE 12 MATERIALS/ITEMS/ASPECTS OF GIVING

Gold: Malleability & Beauty

Silver: Purity & Reflectivity

Bronze: Durability & Ability

Blue, Purple And Scarlet Thread: Availability & Distinctly

Fine Linen: Uprightly & Mentality

Goats’ Hair: Faithfully & Exclusivity

Ram Skins Dyed Red: Sacrificially & Superiority

Badger Skins: Hospitality & Security

Acacia Wood: Sensitivity & Eternity

Oil For The Light: Energy & Visibility

Spices: Ecstasy & Testimony

Stones: Memory & Monumentally

Blue, Purple And Scarlet Thread: Availability And Distinctly

The dye of these colors were expensive because it took a long process of time to obtain very little of it.

The blue and purple dyes were extracted from shellfish found at the seabed of the Mediterranean. The diver had to go to the very bottom. The dyes were obtained in a slow process. The pigment was secreted by a gland in the lining of the stomach. The shell was punctured and the fish removed in order to secure the dye. It was dried under the sun for a few days. The juice, at first whitish, changed on exposure to yellowish or greenish and finally to red, amethyst or purple, according to the treatment. The coloring matter in each separate shellfish amounted to only a single drop, and hence the great value of this dye.

Scarlet, or crimson, was a brilliant color. It was procured from a certain worm or grub, which was a small parasitic insect. The dye was procured from the eggs, therefore, only from the female grub. This process entails time.

And time speaks to us of availability. Do you have time for Him? Are you available to Him anytime? Are you willing to spend time in His presence? Are you giving Him your time?

Time is a most precious commodity. One writer explained `worship’ as `worthship’. God is worth it. You clearly see now that God requires everything from us? Yet, He is worthy of everything!

These colored threads were sewn to clothing worn by the rich and the royalty. It made them outstanding in the public. It was striking in contrast to the plain color of linen (whitish). Is God distinct in our heart? Is He special to us? The influence that makes us outstanding must be God. Our most outstanding feature must be God.

God is to be spiritually conspicuous in us. Are we spending enough time in God’s presence so that He can affect us?

God wants such a person who will avail himself so that God can be outstanding in his life. That is why we describe someone as `a godly man’. Or why we term a person as `a man of God’. God is prominent in His life!

Fine Linen: Uprightly And Mentality

The word `fine linen’ denotes Egyptian linen of peculiar whiteness and fineness. It was made of flax, a plant early cultivated in Egypt. Whiteness tells us that there is no dirtiness to it.

And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. (Revelation 19:8)

Uprightness of the heart is what God is looking for. What we tell God should be what we meant in our heart, like the phrase: “say what you mean, and mean what you say.” God is not looking for lips service. He looks into the heart.

Nevertheless they flattered Him with their mouth, And they lied to Him with their tongue; For their heart was not steadfast with Him, Nor were they faithful in His covenant. (Psalm 78:36-37)

You have tested my heart; You have visited me in the night; You have tried me and found nothing; I have purposed that my mouth shall not transgress. (Psalm 17:3)

Jesus instructed us that our `yes’ should be `yes’ and our `no’ should be `no’ (Matthew 5:37). Look at the character of Jephthah (Judges 11:29-40). He made a vow to God, to offer as a burnt offering - whatever or whomever that came out of his house when he arrived home from battle. The daughter, his only child, came out and met him with trimbrels and dancing to celebrate his victory. Even with such great sorrow and distress, he fulfilled his word to the Lord. The battle was over, and the Lord had already granted him victory. Yet, he did not back-out. He was an upright man. Let us all begin to be upright with God.

The purpose of wearing fine linen was to minimize sweating, especially when water was lacking to wash them. Furthermore, the color white deflects light, and therefore, reduces heat and sweating. Sweat is the effect from working. We cannot gain righteousness by our works, the Bible says in Romans 4:1-8. Some of us are performance oriented. This is a type of thing that is expected of this world, but not with God. He, first, seeks what is within us.

Unfortunately, many have a `works’ culture. Even in the family circle, one is accepted and respected by his performance in career or business, or by one’s financial/material contribution to the family. Many are hooked to doing lots of things in life.

Apparently, we value ourselves by strings of achievements. Like it or not, we inadvertently become productivity based in our relationship with God. That is why it is difficult for some people to wait upon God while doing nothing at all! God wants us to spend time loving Him. He wants our attention, an intimacy. Spiritual intimacy is about being in His presence, beholding Him, and conversing with Him. God prefers us to love Him more than working-for-Him-and-far-from-Him.

When we are productivity based, attention is usually to ourselves rather than to Him. God wants all our works. He wants us to give Him all of them!

It’s not what we do, but how much of yourselves are given over to Him. It’s called surrender. It’s not easy to some of us because we like to work things out. But remember, we can only work out what God has already worked within us (Philippians 2:12-13).

Grace points us to a relationship with God.

It is about God’s grace in our relationship with Him.

In the production of white linen, natural flax fibers were spun and woven into linen fabric.

The raw materials were spun and woven into fabric sections about six feet in width and as long as necessary.

Looms, the apparatus for making thread or yarn into cloth by weaving strands together at right angles, were employed.

These looms consisted of two uprights, a horizontal beam, and a warp stretched between the beam and a series of loom weights.

The process of producing fine linen has a symbolic parallel to the following passage of scripture:

For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, Line upon line, line upon line, Here a little, there a little.” (Isaiah 28:10)

The process of producing fine linen gives us a picture of our thought process. Every strand is like every line of thought we process in our mind. A piece of fabric of white linen represents our mental fabric, our mental make-up, our thought pattern, our mental attitude.

Fine linen speaks of righteous thoughts. The Lord wants us to give Him our thoughts. Only when our thoughts are given to God, can they be righteous. There can be no righteousness originated from us.

Let God have every line of thinking which we have, every single fine minute thought. Let’s give God our thought process, our mental attitude, the whole fabric of our mind. Let God have access to our mind. He is the most trustworthy, reliable and skillful surgeon and sculptor. Let the Divine Maker computer scientist Who created us, rectify and maintain our human computer main frame – He is the best.

“Lord, penetrate my heart …penetrate my mind …penetrate my thought.”

“Perform a surgery to rectify me.”

Goats’ Hair: Faithfully And Exclusivity

Goat’s hair was the nearest in similarity to the human hair. Let us look into the vow of a Nazirite.

Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: `When either a man or woman consecrates an offering to take the vow of a Nazirite, to separate himself to the LORD, (Numbers 6:1-2)

All the days of the vow of his separation no razor shall come upon his head; until the days are fulfilled for which he separated himself to the LORD, he shall be holy. Then he shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow. (Numbers 6:5)

The longer a Nazirite kept his vow, the longer his (or her) hair would be. The length of the hair would be the measurement of the length of time of devotion. In other words, the hair represents faithfulness.

Samson, a Nazirite, lost God’s power because he allowed his hair to be cut. It simply meant that He was no longer being devoted to God; he was no longer devoted to God’s plan and purpose (Judges 16:16-20) (pun unintended).

Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place - unless you repent. (Revelation 2:4-5)

The beginning of sin is when we lose our intense love for Jesus.

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that he might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. ... this is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. (Ephesians 5:25-27 ... 32)

A Nazirite was a person who would give himself wholly to God. We eventually would become like the thing or person we give ourselves to. Take for example, a book or a movie. To really, thoroughly, enjoy it; we have to give ourselves to it. Our attention, thought, imagination and feeling are captured. Nobody can say that he is not in someway influenced by something that he enjoys!

Let’s devote ourselves to God alone. Obsession is the giving of ourselves to something, or someone, totally. When we give ourselves totally to God, what results is holiness. To reject the sanctifying work of the Lord in our life is to reject His love. He wants to make us His beautiful spiritual bride. All of us are His spiritual queen Esther. Not anybody else queen, but His queen alone (Esther 2:1-18). Reservation has been made. You have been exclusively booked for Him. Holiness means exclusivity. `Holiness Unto The Lord’ written at the forehead of Aaron means to us that our minds belong exclusively to Him (Exodus 28:36-38).

A Nazirite reserved himself/herself for the Lord.

“Let me reserve myself to the Lord.”

PRAYER

Gold: “God, I surrender myself to You, shape me.”

Silver: “God, search me, sanctify me.”

Bronze: “God, let me be steadfast, and steady, for You and in You.”

Blue, Purple And Scarlet Thread: “God, as I spend time in Your presence, be significant in me …in my life.”

Fine Linen: “God, set me free from wrong thought patterns, synchronize my thoughts with Yours.”

Goats’ Hair: “God, I want to continually, consistently, stay in my devotion and dedication to You; I want to be separated, set apart, to be exclusive to You.”

“In Jesus name. Amen.”