THE BOOK OF NUMBERS
CHAPTER 6
We welcome you back today to our study
of the book of Numbers here at Daily Bread. Last time we learned about how
God kept the camp of the Israelites cleansed of sin, and today we're going
to find out about the vow of the Nazarite.
To clear up a little confusion, we've got a Daily
Bread Crumb to start off with. We've done a little research on the word
Nazarite. There are two spellings of the word.
Nazarite and Nazirite
These words
come from the Hebrew word nazir, which means "consecrated." Now
there is a city in Galilee called Nazareth and if you came from that city,
you would be called a Nazarene, not a Nazarite.
The Lord explained to Moses, if a
person wanted to dedicate themselves to God, they would make a vow of a
Nazarite. It was a period of time that a person vowed to separate himself
or herself from certain things and be holy to the Lord. During the days of
the vow of separation, the Nazarite:
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·
May have no wine or strong drink
·
May have no vinegar of wine or
strong drink
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May have no liquor of grapes
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May have no moist or dried grapes
(raisins)
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May have nothing made of the
grapevine
·
May have no razor come upon his
head
·
May not touch any dead body
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(Even if his father, mother, brother
or sister die, he may not touch them because the separation of his God is
upon his head.)
All the days of his separation, he is
holy to the Lord.
If anyone dies suddenly by him and he
has defiled the head of his consecration, then he will shave his head on the
seventh day after that. On the eighth day, he will bring two turtledoves or
two young pigeons to the priest to the door of the tabernacle of the
congregation. The priest will offer them and make his head holy that same
day. He will dedicate to the Lord, the days of his separation and will
bring a firstling lamb for a trespass offering, but the days before he was
defiled will not count because his separation was defiled.
When the Nazarite has completed the
days of separation, he is brought to the door of the tabernacle of the
congregation and he offers his offering to the Lord. The offering includes:
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One male firstling lamb
One she firstling lamb
One ram without blemish
One basket with
Unleavened bread
Cakes of fine flour mingled with oil
Wafers of unleavened bread anointed
with oil
The fourth part of an hin of wine
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Burnt offering
Sin offering
Peace offering
Meat offering
Drink offering |
The priest will bring the offerings
before the Lord and the Nazarite will shave his head at the door of the
tabernacle of the congregation, then take the hair and put it in the fire
underneath the sacrifice of the peace offering.
The priest will then take the boiled
shoulder of the ram and one unleavened cake out of the basket and one
unleavened wafer and put them upon the hands of the Nazarite after the hair
of his separation is shaven. And the priest will wave them for an offering
before the Lord. This is holy for the priest, and after that, the Nazarite
may drink wine.
And this is the law of the Nazarite
and his offering.
It may seem strange and very
ceremonial to you, but even today, people give up things for various
reasons. Some people give up things during the 40 days before Easter,
called Lent, and some people give up things at the beginning of the year and
call it a new years resolution, to give you a couple of examples. This vow
was a very special thing to the Lord, that someone would give up these
things to make themselves more holy to Him during a period of time.
And the Lord told Moses, Tell Aaron
and his sons, In this way, you shall bless the children of Israel, saying to
them:
The Lord bless the, 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.
And Aaron and his sons will place my
name upon the children of Israel and I will bless them.
We’re looking forward to the next time
you join us, when we’ll be talking more about the things in the book of
Numbers, here at your Daily Bread.
