VOW OF THE NAZARITE

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:

·        May have no wine or strong drink

·        May have no vinegar of wine or strong drink

·        May have no liquor of grapes

·        May have no moist or dried grapes (raisins)

·        May have nothing made of the grapevine

·        May have no razor come upon his head

·        May not touch any dead body

            (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:

            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.

CONTINUE TO THE NEXT STUDY