THE NAZIRITE VOW

 

 

 

Again Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, "Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, 'When a man or woman makes a special vow, the vow of a Nazirite, to dedicate himself to Yahweh, he shall abstain from wine and strong drink; he shall drink no vinegar, whether made from wine or strong drink, nor shall he drink any grape juice nor eat fresh or dried grapes.  All the days of his separation he shall not eat anything that is produced by the grape vine, from the seeds even to the skin.

 

'All the days of his vow of separation no razor shall pass over his head.  He shall be holy until the days are fulfilled for which he separated himself to Yahweh; he shall let the locks of hair on his head grow long.

 

'All the days of his separation to Yahweh he shall not go near to a dead person.  He shall not make himself unclean for his father or for his mother, for his brother or for his sister, when they die, because his separation to God is on his head.

 

'All the days of his separation he is holy to Yahweh’” [Numbers 6:1-8].

 

 

As evidenced in The Curse of 1920, once again we will see in a very profound way that government, law, and order define Yahweh’s ways and actions; and He meticulously follows these ways from beginning to end.  When Adam fell seven years following his creation, the pattern of his fall, including its timing, the way it occurred, the outcome, and the consequences, as well as the means and timing of both man’s as well as the Garden’s restoration, are entirely according to the legal order of Yahweh God.  Yahweh is not a God who impulsively reacts to man; for even before creation, man’s fall and the timing and means of his restoration, were all preordained and legally set forth and are being fulfilled.  Only now are we beginning to see His plan and understand His ways.  Only now is light beginning to dawn and restoration at hand.

 

We noted in Appendix 10 of The Curse of 1920 that Yahweh set forth a specific period of time in order to bring man to Jubilee, the promise that “each of you shall return to his own property, and each of you shall return to his family” (Leviticus 25:10).  As we saw, the purpose of Yahweh’s Jubilee is to restore man back to the Garden of Eden, back “to his own property” that He gave man in the very beginning.  This restoration He has begun to accomplish since 1994 when Jubilee was declared.

 

Also noted in Appendix 10, in order for Yahweh to restore man back to the original Garden, this could be effected through only one available legal means – the Nazirite vow!  As you will now see, this vow was the sole link for man to be able to go all the way back to that original Garden and legally undo the problems that began there.  As recorded in the Scriptures, three men were set forth to try, and failed; but, there was only one who could effect that work, only one who had the power to take this vow, defile it, and restore it, thereby restoring access to the Garden.

 

First, we will consider the legal aspect of this critical vow, as well as the three who were availed the opportunity to effect its essential purpose.

 

 

The Three-part Vow

 

In Numbers 6 we read this highly important Nazirite vow.  The institution of it by the candidate required three points of obedience: 

 

1.  They had to abstain from anything whatsoever from the grape,

 

2.  They could not cut their hair, and were to let it grow long, and

 

3.  They could not go near a dead person. 

 

Here we find in legally representative form the three unique elements of the Garden of God.  Let us see.

 

Two of these were clearly the two trees located in the middle of the Garden – the forbidden tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and the tree of life.  A third element making the Garden experience unique was that Adam and Eve were clothed with God’s glory – they had no clothing as we know it today, but rather were covered with Yahweh’s glory, His splendor.  In Psalm 104:1-2 we read: "O Yahweh my God, you are very great; You are clothed with splendor and majesty, covering Yourself with light as with a cloak.”  Before Adam and Eve sinned, Yahweh was their covering, taking full responsibility for them; and whether literally or simply governmentally, they were clothed by His splendor, His light.

 

There were many other things unique to the Garden, but these three – the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the tree of life, and the glory of God covering them – were of great judicial significance.  Let us now see how the Nazirite vow and the Garden of Eden relate.

 

The first requirement for the Nazirite was that they had to abstain from anything whatsoever from the grape.  It is clear from the Scriptures that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was a grape tree.  But you object: "Grapes don't grow on trees; they grow on vines!  The tree of the knowledge of good and evil could not have been a vine."  But this is the very point.  Snakes don't walk on legs anymore either; they crawl on their bellies, like vines.  Even as the snake was cursed to crawl on its belly, obviously the snake-inhabited tree of the knowledge of good and evil was likewise cursed. 

 

What fruit prevails in testimony throughout the entire Scriptures more than the grape and its wine?  There is none.  The fruit of the vine flows uninterrupted from the Garden of Eden to Revelation.  What one fruit upon fermentation, in the end "bites like a serpent and stings like a viper" (Proverbs 23:32)?  The snake-offered grape!

 

Seeking to be brief yet provide enough information to reveal the truth of this important fact, let us lay out three parallel events occurring in the Scriptures that soundly confirm this identity of the grape tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  These include the Genesis creation account, as well as the two judgments upon the world:  by water (the flood) and by fire (Sodom and Gomorrah).  We will list these three in parallel fashion so their unmistakable similarities can be seen.  In reading this, examine each column – Creation, The Flood, and Sodom – point by point, comparing the entries in each column one with the other.

 

 

 

 

Can there be any question that when all these events line up so unmistakably perfect, that the wine drunk by Noah and Lot was a repeat of that which was partaken of in the Garden?  Thus, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was unmistakably a grape tree.  Solomon noted: "That which has been is that which will be, and that which has been done is that which will be done.  So, there is nothing new under the sun" (Ecclesiastes 1:9).  That which occurred in the Garden, occurred on the mountain with Noah, which occurred on the mountain with Lot – the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in each case was partaken of with equal far-reaching consequences.

 

Also, from Arthur Custance’s book, The Virgin Birth and the Incarnation, Part 2, we read some of his like findings regarding the certainty of this grape tree.  From the Book of Enoch he quotes from Chapter 32 where its writer went in search of the Garden of Eden:

 

Finally I came into the Garden of Righteousness, and saw a many coloured (sic) crowd of trees of every kind, for many and great flourished there, very noble and lovely; and the tree of wisdom which gives life to anyone who eats it.  It is like the Johannis bread tree: its fruit is like a cluster of grapes, very good.

 

Custance adds: “The writer of the book then went on to tell how he questioned his angelic guide about this particular tree:

 

I said, Fair is this tree and how beautiful and ravishing its look, and the holy angel Raphael who was with me answered and said to me, This is the tree of wisdom of which thy forefathers, thy hoary first parent and thy aged first mother, ate and found knowledge of wisdom: and their eyes were opened and they knew that they were naked: and they were driven out of the Garden.”

 

Thus, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was the grape tree.  Custance continues: “The American Journal of Archaeology some years ago carried an article by Nelson Glueck reporting on the general findings in Palestine and elsewhere during the years of excavation immediately prior to 1933.  He mentioned:

 

In one of the two tombs discovered southwest of the Jewish colony of Hedra, a lead coffin was found.  On one side it is decorated with an arch which rests upon two twisted columns.  Under the arch stands a naked boy who holds a serpent in his right hand and a bunch of grapes in his left.”

 

Also: “Paul Isaac Hershon, in his book, A Rabbinical Commentary on Genesis, stated that in Genesis 3:6, against the words ‘that the tree was good for food,’ there is this rabbinical comment:

 

Some … sages say that the tree was a vine. Eve pressed the grapes and gave Adam red wine to drink, as red as blood.”

 

The grape throughout the span of history has continued to prove its power to be this tree of both good and evil.  As an unfermented drink the fruit of the grape is very good for men and children, but a little leaven in it produces a drink that can be very evil and destructive.

 

Thus, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of God was a grape tree, and the first injunction of this vow of the Nazirite therefore forbade partaking of its fruit or anything from its fruit.  The Nazirite's total abstention from grapes represented abstention from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

 

The second point of this vow – they could not cut their hair, but were to let it grow long – represents yet another unique element of the Garden of God: Adam and Eve were clothed with God’s glory.  While we cannot devote ourselves to a thorough and just study of this matter, it is clear from the Scriptures that long hair represents God’s glory (addressed in the book – Coverings).  In 1 Corinthians 11:15 we read that a woman's long hair "is glory to her."  This has far reaching and profound significance, but let it be noted here that long hair on the woman is glory.  Her long hair is a prophetic testimony of the glory the woman (as well as the man) lost in the Garden of God at her temptation, fall, and death via the serpent.  Thus we see the second point of identification of the Nazirite with the Garden of God – letting the hair grow long represented God’s glory that covered Adam and Eve. 

 

Third, they could not go near a dead person.  This point of the vow obviously represents the second specifically noted tree in the Garden – the tree of life.  If Adam and Eve had eaten from that tree, they would have never died.  Once Adam and Eve ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and were cursed, they were removed from the Garden.  Thereupon, a cherubim with a flaming sword was placed there to guard the way to the tree of life, lest man "stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever" (Genesis 3:22). Appropriately, the Nazirite's third and final point of this vow – abstention from contact with death – clearly represented eating from the tree of life and not experiencing death.

 

Here then in this all-important vow were all three elements of the original Garden of Eden:

 

1. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil – abstaining from the grape,

 

2. The glory of Yahweh clothing them – letting the hair grow long, and

 

3. The tree of life – not going among the dead.

 

And very importantly, any attempt to restore the original Garden, “to return (man) to his own property,” had to be legally effected through this sole representative touch-point.  This vow, we find, was the solitary legal link back to the Garden; and anyone who was to restore the corrupted Garden had to effect it as a Nazirite.  The word "Nazirite" (which does not mean one from Nazareth) means – "one consecrated, devoted."  In truth, the Nazirite was devoted to God for the all-important purpose of restoring the Garden.

 

 

Three Who Tried, and Failed

 

We find in the Scriptures that Yahweh raised up three men as Nazirites to try to effect this restoration.  The first of these was Samson.  In Judges 13:4-5 we read Yahweh’s instruction to Samson’s mother: “Now therefore, be careful not to drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing.  For behold, you shall conceive and give birth to a son, and no razor shall come upon his head, for the boy shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb.”

 

The next Nazirite, Samuel, is not generally thought of as having long hair like Samson, but obviously he did.  In 1 Samuel 1:11 we read Hannah’s vow to Yahweh in her distress of not having a son: ''O Yahweh of hosts," she cried, "if You will indeed look on the affliction of Your maidservant and remember me, and not forget Your maidservant, but will give Your maidservant a son, then I will give him to Yahweh all the days of his life, and a razor shall never come on his head." 

 

The third individual to be under this vow is found in the New Testament, and very likely had long hair like Samson and Samuel.  John the Baptist was specifically placed under the portion of the vow to not drink from the fruit of the vine: "For he will be great in the sight of the Lord," said the angel to Zacharias, "and he will drink no wine or liquor; and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, while yet in his mother's womb" (Luke 1:15).

 

These three men – Samson, Samuel, and John the Baptist – bear unique common unifying identities in at least four highly significant ways.  First, they are the only individual Adamic men recorded in the Scriptures to have been under this special vow of the Nazirite.  Second, each of these three were placed under their vows prior to their conceptions.  Third, and very uniquely, they each had miraculous births.  All three of their mothers were barren and could not naturally conceive children.  Yahweh's miraculous and sovereign intervention was required for each of these women to bring forth these devoted Nazirite vessels.  And fourth, they each experienced failure in their lives.

 

Samson failed because of his immorality (Judges 16).  Samuel failed because he could not bring forth godly offspring – his sons did not follow in his ways (1 Samuel 8:3).  And John the Baptist failed at the end of his life in that he faltered in his belief (Luke 7:19-20).  But most importantly, since their vows were life-long, no matter if they had perfectly kept them all their days, their vows were violated at their deaths – they too, in the end, went among the dead, and their vows could not be restored since the grave held them captive!

 

 

The Law of Restoring the Vow

 

We just noted this critical issue of restoring a Nazirite vow that had been violated.  In Numbers 6:9-12 we read the sole legal provision for restoring one’s defiled vow.  You will notice that it has only to do with being among the dead, and there is no mention of defiling one’s vow by accidentally eating from the grape or if one’s hair was cut.  Quite obviously, this speaks prophetically regarding this unique and critical vow.

 

“But if a man dies very suddenly beside him and he defiles his dedicated head of hair, then he shall shave his head on the day when he becomes clean; he shall shave it on the seventh day.  Then on the eighth day he shall bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons to the priest, to the doorway of the tent of meeting.  The priest shall offer one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering, and make atonement for him concerning his sin because of the dead person. And that same day he shall consecrate his head, and shall dedicate to Yahweh his days as a Nazirite, and shall bring a male lamb a year old for a guilt offering; but the former days will be void because his separation was defiled.”

 

Thus we see that the restoration of one’s vow was specifically an eight day process; and once completed, the former days were void.

 

 

The Fourth Nazirite

 

All of this has been laid out thus far for one purpose – to point to the only one who would come and fulfill this vital vow and thereby make Jubilee possible, legally restoring man back to the Garden of God, the Garden of Eden.  Who was that one?  Yahshua.

 

Following His predecessors, He was the fourth man to have come under this vow.  But unlike His three predecessors, Yahshua did not take this vow until the end of His life.  However, certainly before His conception by the Holy Spirit, it too was determined that He would become a Nazirite.  And regarding His conception, like the preceding three, very significantly, He too was a miracle birth.  Yahweh's miraculous and sovereign intervention was required once again in order to bring forth this fourth Nazirite vessel devoted to His redeeming purposes.  But unlike the three, this Nazirite was without sin and would accomplish what the others failed to perform.

 

At His last Passover meal with His disciples, just before His crucifixion, Yahshua declared and entered into His Nazirite vow. 

 

Nowhere in any of the four gospel accounts of the last supper do we read that Yahshua drank from the cup of wine.  It clearly records that, “He took a cup and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you’” (Matthew 26:27).  But the indication here is, at this point He ceased drinking wine.  And not only did He cease drinking wine, but at this supper at the close of His life He instituted His vow and vital work as a Nazirite!  Up to now He ate and drank with men.  But having fulfilled that fellowship, He prepared to enter into His work of redeeming not only man, but also, very importantly, the original Garden.

 

Matthew, Mark, and Luke record Yahshua's vow to not drink from the fruit of the vine.  In Matthew 26:29 we read His very significant final statement while they were eating the Passover meal, just prior to singing a hymn with His disciples and then departing to the Mount of Olives (and we quote Him, not only here but in each case, in a more literal translation of the Greek in order to get the thrust with which He spoke):

 

"And I tell you – by no means will I drink from this time on of this fruit of the vine, until I drink it with you new in the kingdom of the Father of Me."

 

Luke records a similar statement from Yahshua as He made this all-important vow:

 

"For I tell you – by no means will I drink from now on from the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes" [22:18].

 

But the most emphatic of all accounts is recorded in the book of Mark.  In this book the entire Passover meal is recorded in a brief ten verses, yet very importantly includes this vital vow:

 

"Truly I tell you – no more by no means will I drink of the fruit of the vine until I drink it new in the kingdom of God" [14:25].

 

At this pivotal point, Yahshua entered into the all-important Nazirite vow, even as His cousin John had been under it for life.  Yahshua came to fulfill the Law (Matthew 5:17), and as you will see, it was vitally important that He fulfill the Law concerning the Nazirite.  As recorded in Numbers 6, that Law provided for a man or woman to establish their vow for a given numbered "days of his separation."  The vow was not necessarily lifelong, as it was for Samson, Samuel, or John the Baptist.  Yahshua established "the days of His separation" to be specifically from that last supper, when He did not drink with His disciples, until He drank it "new" with them in the kingdom of God.  And He was about to make that “new” kingdom possible!

 

Upon making this highly important vow, very significantly, He then removed Himself into a garden (John 18:1).  Where was Yahshua at that point?  Some would answer – the garden at Gethsemane.  Yes, but far more importantly, as a Nazirite, intercessorally He was now in the Garden of Eden! 

 

What is intercession?  Intercession is identification; it is standing in the place of another.  This God did by becoming a man in Yahshua.  But, this identification also required His identification with the original Garden of Eden; and as a God-man He was able to do so by the one available legal link back to that Garden, and that was as a Nazirite, a “devoted one.”  Through the Nazirite vow, Yahshua could therein legally identify with, or make contact with, the original Garden – a type of time travel, without leaving His place in time.  This act was critical for man’s redemption.  Remember, Yahweh God is law, He is government, and in order to effect man’s redemption, Yahshua had to effect this in every regard legally!

 

Only in John is it stated that Yahshua went into a garden, and the specific identity of that garden is not stated; it only identifies it to be "a garden."  While we read in these accounts the drama that took place at a natural level, a far more important, much higher level intercession was taking place.  Intercessorally, as a Nazirite, Yahshua was in the Garden of Eden – alone.  Where was man?  Sleeping!  Peter, James, and John slept – pictorially they were dead, even as the like three preceding Nazirites were dead, sleeping.  And in profound and very significant truth, Yahshua declared in the garden/Garden concerning sleeping man – "the Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak" (Matthew 26:41 and Mark 14:38).

 

At this immensely pictorial moment, Yahshua lucidly summarized the profound truth concerning man’s state in relation to the Garden of Eden: God's willingness to give His kingdom to man, yet his possession of that kingdom reveals his great weakness – his flesh!  "The Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak."  This was exactly the problem in the original Garden, and this was the problem noted by Yahweh when He gave man 120 years to repent – “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh” (Genesis 6:3).  And this has been the problem  concerning man to this day – his flesh!

 

Having taken this vow, three times in the garden Yahshua cried out to His Father: "if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will" (Matthew 26:36-46).  As we have seen, “this cup” was clearly the cup of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  And making His abstention even more significant, equally three times in the course of His crucifixion He resolutely rejected drinking from the cup possessing this fruit of the cursed tree:

 

1. “They tried to give Him wine mixed with myrrh; but He did not take it” (Mark 15:23).

 

2. “They gave Him wine to drink mixed with gall; and after tasting it, He was unwilling to drink” (Matthew 27:34).

 

3. “The soldiers also mocked Him, coming up to Him, offering Him sour wine” (Luke 23:36).

 

Why did He continually reject the cup?  Because to drink from it would have been to take upon Himself all the sins of man, from Adam onward, and to die.

 

Many times He had drunk wine with others; but now as a Nazirite, that cup held something entirely different – the cup which in the end bites like a serpent, the cup of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  That cup was now the touch point, the one tie drawing all the way back 4,000 years to the origin of death, and as a Nazirite He was about to taste death for all men – “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:22).  And in verse 45 we read: “The first man, Adam, became a living soul.  The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.”  In order to become the last Adam, Yahshua had to legally, and thus intercessorally, return to and stand in the very place of Adam and reverse his sin and the sin for all those who followed thereafter.  Just as it is equally written, Yahshua had to be “slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8). 

 

How then could Yahshua go back to "the foundation of the world" and effect being slain there, having been born 4,000 years later?  The answer is in this most important and vital principle of intercession and the vow of the Nazirite!  Through identifying with the Garden elements in the vow of the Nazirite – the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the glory of God, and the tree of life – by intercession Yahshua in fact:

 

1. Returned to the Garden – attested by His entering "a garden" upon taking His vow at the Passover meal,

 

2. Identified with dead man – attested by the sleeping three disciples,

 

3. Rejected the tree of the knowledge of good and evil – He prayed three times that the wine-possessing cup would pass from Him, and actually rejected it three times as well, and

 

4. Identified with the curse of man to work the earth by the sweat of his brow – in the garden, equally Yahshua sweat, and it was "like drops of blood, falling down upon the [cursed] ground" (Luke 22:44). 

 

Truly, and most assuredly, through the vow of the Nazirite and His garden experiences, Yahshua entered a place of intercession, and therein returned to the Garden of Eden to legally redeem the sins of all men (1 Timothy 4:10, 1 John 4:14) and restore the defiled Garden!  In "time travel" reality, Yahshua, by intercession, was in fact slain as a Nazirite "from the foundation of the world," legally taking the cross within the original Garden!  Such is the immense power of intercession!  It is the power to travel through time and space!


 

 

“I Am Thirsty”

 

Three times in the garden Yahshua cried out that, if possible, the cup could pass from Him.  Three times in the course of His crucifixion He resolutely rejected drinking from the cup.  But then, as His final act, Yahshua declared – "I am thirsty"! 

 

Oh such a request, the profound impact and vast meaning thereof being wholly overlooked apart from examining and understanding the legal drama leading up to it!  Many times Yahshua had drunk wine with others; but now as a Nazirite, that cup held something entirely different.  As a Nazirite, His final request upon this earth was His Gethsemane relent to the Father to drink from the cup that held the death of all mankind.  That cup was the one touch point, the one tie drawing all the way back 4,000 years to the origin of death; and now as a Nazirite, He was about to taste death for all men.

 

John enlighteningly records the significance of this moment: "Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished, in order that the scripture might be fulfilled, said 'I am thirsty'" (John 19:28).  What "scripture might be fulfilled"?  Far more was being fulfilled here than Psalm 69:21: “They also gave me gall for my food and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.”  This passage was more likely fulfilled when they offered Him “wine to drink mixed with gall; and after tasting it, He was unwilling to drink” (Matthew 27:34).  Truly, the scripture being fulfilled at this critical end of His life was Numbers 6 – the vow of the Nazirite!  In order to restore the Garden of Eden, the kingdom of God, Yahshua had to take the vow of the Nazirite and then partake of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil which effected the death of all men.

 

Thus, at the culmination of this entire drama, at the final request of the Son of God, sour wine was lifted up to Him in a sponge upon a branch of hyssop (one of the items dipped in blood for the cleansing of a healed leper), and as His final act, as a Nazirite He drank from the cup of the fruit  of the vine!  All things now completed, it was written: "When Jesus therefore had received the sour wine, He said, 'It is finished!'  And He bowed His head, and gave up His spirit."  As a Nazirite, His final identification with the cursed Garden of God and cursed man by drinking the cup of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was completed, and He died.  His vow had come to its crescendo, and His life’s work was thereby complete.

 

By partaking of the vine as a Nazirite, Yahshua legally went all the way back to the Garden and identified with dead man and the corrupted kingdom.  By taking the Nazirite vow, He had in legal type reentered the Garden.  By drinking of the cup of the cursed vine, He identified with all the sins of fallen man from its very source – the Garden tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  By taking the Nazirite vow, He was “slain from the foundation of the world”!

 

 

Restoring the Garden

 

Did this now restore the Garden, the kingdom?  Not at all.  At this point, the kingdom was still as corrupted as it remained when the three preceding Nazirites had died.  It would take more than the identifying commitment of a Nazirite to restore the Garden.  In order to restore the Garden, the defiled Nazirite, according to the Law of God, had to return to the tent of meeting (the place of Yahweh’s presence), offer sacrifices, and restore His vow (Numbers 6:9-12).  Neither Samson, Samuel, nor John had the power to accomplish that.  Death held them in the grave and forbade the restoration of their vows.  Only One, this fourth Nazirite, had the power to lay His life down, and the power to pick it up again (John 10:18)!  After rising from the dead, Yahshua departed for the heavenly "tent of meeting" and restored His vow, thereby, after 4,000 years, restoring the corrupted Garden of God!

 

How do we know that this was indeed what Yahshua performed while in heaven?  Did He really legally restore His vow as a Nazirite?  To answer this, one would have to know (1) how many days were required by God's Law to restore a Nazirite vow, and (2) how many days Yahshua was at the "tent of meeting" in heaven.  The answer to these two questions provides clear testimony and evidence to this essential work of Yahshua on behalf of the Garden of God. 

 

Numbers 6:9-12 tells us that the atoning process in the restoration of the Nazirite's vow, when defiled specifically by being among the dead, was an eight day process through which "the former days" were made "void."  How long was Yahshua in heaven?  John 20:26 clearly states: "And after eight days again His disciples were inside, and Thomas with them.  Jesus came, the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst, and said, 'Peace be with you.'"  What was Yahshua doing for eight days in heaven?  The answer is clear – He was (among other things) legally restoring His vow as a Nazirite, and thus restoring the Garden of God, "the former days" of the corruption of the Garden being made "void"! 

 

Though this phrase – "the former days shall be void" – might be thought to simply apply to the days of a Nazirite's vow, prophetically and intercessorally it speaks far more!  For it was through this all-important vow that all the "former days" of cursed man and the cursed kingdom were made legally "void" by Yahshua.  Therefore, by Yahshua taking the vow of the Nazirite at the Passover supper, His garden/Garden intercession, His final act of drinking from the cup on the cross, His death, His resurrection from the dead, and then His ascension to the Father for specifically eight days to restore His vow, He restored the defiled Garden of God/the kingdom of God and made the former days of the corruption of the Garden and man void.  Yahshua, as a Nazirite, and having the power of an indestructible life, restored the Garden of God!

 

 

Jubilee

 

The truth you just read was revealed to this man in May/June, 1994, the very year when Yahweh declared Jubilee for man 120 Jubilee waiting periods (or 5, 880 years) following Adam’s fall and his banishment from his land, from the original Garden (read The Curse of 1920, Appendix 10).  This is the year Yahweh afforded man the legal right to “return to his own property, and each of you shall return to his family” (Leviticus 25:10).  It is quite significant and telling that the very year of Jubilee, when the way back into the Garden was opened, was the year when He revealed for the first time in the history of man this legal work that Yahshua performed as a Nazirite.  Before then man had never known this truth.

 

So why then did Yahshua perform this redeeming work for the Garden 2,000 years ago, if it would not come into effect until now?  The answer lies in government and the ways of Yahweh.

 

We have repeatedly seen how legal Yahweh is; He is masculine and He does nothing outside of His Laws and His ways, even as we see here once again.  Satan knows this as well, and when the Son of God came to earth, everything He did was as a legal representative of the Father.  Thus, when Yahshua was casting the demons out of the man who lived among the tombs (dead man), they implored Him, “What business do we have with each other, Son of God?  Have You come here to torment us before the time?" (Matthew 8:29).

 

Why would they have asked if He had come to torment them “before the time”?  Because, as we noted in Appendix 10, Yahshua had indeed come early, “before the time,” before the 120 Jubilee waiting periods were complete and men could be legally restored to the Garden.  As recognized by those demons, they knew they still had another 2,000 years, and this account tells us this as well.

 

In this same account in Mark 5, we note that when Yahshua was saying to the demon to come out of the man, He then asked him his name, and he replied, “My name is Legion; for we are many” (vs. 9).  How many is a legion?  This is a very important question; for by answering it we begin to see the legal wrangling and negotiating, the “business,” that was actually taking place between Satan and Yahshua.

 

At the time of this event, a legion in the Roman army was 6,000 men.  Furthermore, how many years had it been from the fall of Adam to Yahshua’s coming?  It had been a legal 4,000 years.  Legion had already stated that Yahshua had come “before the time.”  According the Yahweh’s law, a Hebrew man could be held in bondage for six years (Exodus 21:2); so on the higher level of Yahweh God, that would equate to 6,000 years.  Satan knew he had a right to hold man in bondage for 6,000 years; so as Legion (6,000), he appealed to that legal right: “’Send us into the swine so that we may enter them.’  Jesus gave them permission.  And coming out, the unclean spirits entered the swine; and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea …” (vs. 12-13).

 

Was that the end of those demons?  No, this was simply a means of legal negotiations.  Even as those swine ran into the sea, so for the last 2,000 years Satan has taken man, including kingdom man, to the sea of death!  Satan legally had a right to 6,000 years, Yahshua had come “before the time,” and he was thereby reassured of his rights to man for the remaining 2,000 years until Jubilee.  The certainty of this negotiation lies in the highly revealing fact as to how many swine went into the sea on that day – “and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea, about two thousand of them; and they were drowned in the sea.” 

 

We now see the full scope of this “business” negotiation that took place between Legion and Yahshua.  Man, who had lived among the tombs for 4,000 years, had been possessed by Legion, who had a legal right to man for 6,000 years.  Therefore, upon Yahshua’s early coming, Satan reaffirmed that right and requested permission to go into the 2,000 swine, representing the remaining 2,000 years of his tenure wherein he could take men to death, including kingdom men.  And this is precisely what has taken place.  But now, his time has legally run out!

 

You will recall that it is written in Genesis 3:24 that “at the east of the Garden of Eden [Yahweh] stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life.”  It is most interesting that the Hebrew word for “sword” – chereb – is the identical word for “drought” – choreb – just with different vowel points, and they both come from the same root word. 

 

The flaming sword, or burning drought, that has kept man from reentering the Garden, has been the drought that has been on Yahweh’s word ever since.  It has actually been this drought on His word, His truth, that has kept us out of the Garden, away from the tree of life.  And according to that which Yahweh revealed in May/June, 1994, along with what we have learned regarding Jubilee following 120 waiting periods, that burning drought is at an end, making it possible to reenter the Garden.  As provided by Yahshua’s Passover death and resurrection, man can now “stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever"!

 

Why then did Yahshua come early?  There are a number of reasons, two of which we will address in closing.  As mentioned in Appendix 9 of The Curse of 1920, Yahweh begins things early, in darkness.  Even as a child is formed in darkness or a seed germinates in darkness, so Yahweh begins His works in darkness.  In Genesis 1:2 we read that in the beginning “darkness was over the face of the deep.”  This “beginning” took place before light was ever created.  In like manner, the Jews begin a day at nightfall, and begin their months at no moon.  In like testimony, the throne of David actually had its beginning equally “before the time,” early, premature, when Saul was established as king.  The reign of Saul and darkness are the identical governmental principle.

 

Thus, in equal regard, the church began “before the time,” early, even as a Saul, for a span of 2,000 years of darkness.  This is the very darkness that Yahshua plainly spoke of when He warned: “We must work the works of Him who sent Me as long as it is day; night is coming when no one can work.  While I am in the world, I am the Light of the world” (John 9:4-5).  And most certainly, when He left, night came!

 

Only now, since Jubilee in 1994, is light beginning to dawn and can the promise of Passover be fulfilled.  When Yahshua was crucified, many say that He took away our sins as our Passover lamb.  But the sacrifice of the Passover lamb had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with forgiveness of sins.  Like the tree of life, its sole purpose was to prevent death, the death of the first-born (Exodus 12:1-13).  The legal decree of Passover is to overcome death, to not die – the tree of life!  This is in fact the tree that is availed to us via our reentry into the Garden. 

 

Only now, in the fullness of time, can we begin to walk through the blood-marked doorway and into the light of day afforded through Yahshua’s work 2,000 years ago when the Lamb was slain and His blood sprinkled on the doorposts.  But even as Yahshua declared and as evidenced by Passover, afterwards night came, and men since then have eaten roasted Lamb and bitter herbs with their sandals on and a rod in hand (Exodus 12:8-11).  Only now, following the night, comes the light of day and Yahweh’s Emancipation Proclamation, His Jubilee, and we can finally walk through the blood-marked doorway!  The fourth dimension of time is very demanding and restrictive, and only now is it Jubilee.  Only now can we begin to enjoy that which was provided through Passover 2,000 years ago – the tree of life!

 

And one final point regarding Jubilee – it is noteworthy that in the entire period of the Scripture’s accounts, it is never recorded that man ever fulfilled or carried out a single Jubilee.  In fact, in Jeremiah 34:6-22 we see the only attempt at such, and they miserably failed and thereby immediately thereafter went into bondage in Babylon on what would have been a Jubilee following 67 waiting periods.  The fact is that carnal man, in the proclaimed weakness of his flesh, cannot and will not fulfill the Laws and the ways of Yahweh God.  Yahweh alone must effect His word for us, and gratefully He is doing so!

 

 

Higher Realm

 

In these writings, it is an oft repeated and demonstrated fact that government and Yahweh’s patterns are replicable.  This is certainly evidenced here with the restoration of the Nazirite vow.

 

We have seen that Yahshua was in fact in heaven for the required eight days in order to restore His vow.  But we find that this same pattern is followed at the much higher level as well.  Let us see.

 

We have already seen that Yahshua was slain from the foundation of the world.  This means that, legally, Yahshua was slain in the original Garden.  Thus, pertaining to the higher realm and beginning at the original Garden, He would not have eight days of restoring His vow, but 8,000 years, or eight 1,000 year periods. 

 

We read in Numbers 6:9 that the Nazirite was to “shave his head in the day of his cleansing; he shall shave it on the seventh day.”  Therefore, the Nazirite’s cleansing came on the seventh day.  Applying this to this higher realm, Yahshua’s cleansing would come in the seventh 1,000 year period, or the Millennial period.  We continue reading in verses 10-12:

 

“Then on the eighth day he shall bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons to the priest, to the doorway of the tent of meeting.  The priest shall offer one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering, and make atonement for him concerning his sin because of the dead person. And that same day he shall consecrate his head, and shall dedicate to Yahweh his days as a Nazirite, and shall bring a male lamb a year old for a guilt offering; but the former days will be void because his separation was defiled.”

 

Thus, as we see here, Yahshua would be required to present three offerings to Yahweh on the eighth day, or on the higher level, in the eighth 1,000 year period: one bird as a sin offering, another bird as a burnt offering, and a male one year old lamb as a guilt offering.  So how is Yahshua going to make these offerings to Yahweh? 

 

First, as we see in Matthew 24:22 and Mark 13:20, the two Gospels that apply to the first 2,000-year period of the church, Yahweh must cut the church’s three “days” short to two and perform His redeeming works one day, or 1,000 years, early.  This means that Yahshua would have to perform on the seventh day that which was not to take place until the eighth day, and this is in fact what He is effecting.

 

Therefore, since He is to make these offerings to Yahweh now, at the beginning of this seventh day, the Millennial reign (which began in 2004), what then are these three offerings?  The answer is quite clear.  Let us begin with the two birds.

 

You will  notice here that one bird is a sin offering, and the other is a burnt offering.  This is equal to the two birds in Leviticus 14:1-7 where the first bird is slain over an earthen vessel, and the second is dipped in the blood of the first bird and released alive over an open field.  Prophetically, there is no difference between burning a sacrifice, and releasing it alive to fly towards heaven.  They both speak of the same thing – ascending to Yahweh.  This is equally what the angel demonstrated in Judges 13:15-20 when he “ascended in the flame of the altar … toward heaven.”  A burnt offering is equivalent to ascending alive, just as the second bird in Leviticus 14:7 testifies.

 

Therefore, what then is Yahshua’s two-bird offering – one that dies as a sin offering, and one that ascends alive – which He will present to Yahweh at the beginning of the Millennial reign, the seventh “day”?  Clearly, this offering is the two-part Remnant – the mount of transfiguration “Moses” work that had to die, and the “Elijah” work that ascends alive.

 

So then what is His one year old male lamb guilt offering?  It is the other part of the church in the Millennial reign – the masculine body of Christ that remains on the earth at His coming.  This remaining part of the body in the Millennial reign qualifies it to be the “year old” male. 

 

Therefore, Yahshua offers the two-part Bride and the remaining masculine body of Christ to Yahweh as His three offerings on the eighth day.  But again, He must cut the days of the church short, stack the eighth day on the seventh, thereby laboring on the sabbath, and make His offerings one “day” early.  And He can do this in the seventh day, the Millennial reign period, for it is “the day of [H]is cleansing.”

 

Returning to this matter of the seventh day, we read in Numbers 6:9 that the Nazirite was to “shave his head in the day of his cleansing; he shall shave it in the seventh day.”  Relating this to Yahshua, His cleansing would come in the seventh 1,000 year period, or the Millennial period.  Once again, we can look at this two ways – the day of cleansing for the Nazirite, or the day in which Yahshua performs His cleansing of His kingdom.  Relative to the Millennial reign, this is certainly the case.  Yahshua can now, in the seventh day, perform His cleansing!

 

This entire matter of the Nazirite vow, the restoration of the Garden, Jubilee, circumcision, and stacking the eighth “day” on the seventh, afford exceedingly great hope for today!  May Yahweh be glorified in His people!

 

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