Our next passage of scripture in the COME AS A CHILD Bible Study (which is held on this blog every Thursday) discusses the requirements for the vow of a Nazarite. This will be Lesson 265.
Today’s study takes us all the way through the Book of Numbers, Chapter 6. We may dwell on this passage for a few future lessons.
After the intensity of our study in Numbers Chapter 5, it was at first tempting to make a cursory trip through Numbers Chapter Six and just barely touch on The Vows of The Nazarite, which God was now setting into motion through the leadership of Moses.
Oh dear; the author is much too human and The Holy Spirit did a good job of reminding her of that.
Skipping over this section of the passage would have been a HUGE mistake!
DEEPER WATERS
I know we have waded through some pretty deep waters from the Book of Numbers already; but buckle your seat belts again; because the water is about to get even deeper.
The whole passage in Numbers Chapter Six discusses the requirements that God clearly laid out for anyone who wanted to take a Nazarite vow.
I realized when first reading the passage that this concept of a Nazarite vow sounds so foreign and so unrelated to the church today. Honestly; I just wanted to skip it.
At first glance, this passage of scripture seemed simply to be yet another passage about taking a vow before God.
It does seem that is exactly what we all do every time we begin to fast, study, pray or continue down the pathway of making efforts to turn ourselves around spiritually and grow closer to God. This seems to be a common thing and such a big part of every-day Christianity. At first this seemed so much so that I actually felt it didn’t really even need to be discussed.
It is telling the story of a person taking a vow before God. Isn’t the act of taking vows before God a crucial part of the life of a Christian already?
Why make a special vow and name it a Nazarite vow?
What was God really doing here?
Was this so different from any other vow?
What is so special about this particular vow of the Nazarite; because everyone needs to take vows before God at some point in time; right?
THE NAZARITE TAKES A VERY SPECIAL AND SPECIFIC VOW
Well; I changed my mind about the importance of this vow once I came to know more about it. Now, I’m here to tell you that this particular vow is probably the most special vow that anyone could ever make.
I’m sure I lost half the church when I made that statement.
Our current culture seems to be totally against vows in any form, shape or fashion. There is an often quoted scripture that says “let your yes be yes and your no be no” and it basically declares that you don’t need to be taking any wasteful vows that you can’t ever begin to fulfill.
That advice would certainly apply to a person taking a Nazarite vow. It is good advice, yet the vow is still a good thing to do.
I don’t think the vow of the Nazarite is something to be taken lightly or without intent of honoring. This would mean honoring the vow all the way through the time period that is determined by God and the person taking the vow.
A VOW WITH A BEGINNING AND AN ENDING
One of the things established when God laid down the rules for such vows was the fact that the vow was taken only for a determined period of time.
Some vows were only 30 days; some were longer.
Vows for a very few people were even taken by their parents before they were born for the length of that child’s lifetime.
The vow only lasted for the time established between the vow-taker and God.
When the time was up; the person who was living a consecrated life because of the vow could then go on with his daily routines again. He could drink wine, cut his hair and indulge in grape products and attend funerals again.
WHAT WOULD JESUS DO?
Besides the fact that most of us do not desire to take vows anymore; many think that Jesus also was opposed to taking such a vow as the vow of the Nazarite.
They come to this conclusion from looking at the things that Jesus did during his life on earth.
Doesn’t that seem a little odd to you though; that Jesus would oppose and/or ignore something that God The Father had spelled out to Moses?
Yet; the internet is crawling with articles on the fact that Jesus, though he lived as a boy and grew up in the City of Nazareth where many prophets were taking such a vow before God; never actually took the vow of the Nazartie.
Perhaps his time had not yet come.
We will talk of this more in another soon-coming lesson.
Up until the point of death on the cross in the life of Jesus, these modern day theologians are certainly correct. Jesus did not take the vow of the Nazarite.
But; as usual, there is more to the story than that one simple fact, and this is the key to understanding why God gave Moses the rules for the vows of the Nazerites right after he had given the rules for the test to determine an unfaithful wife.
WHAT REALLY APPLIES TO TODAY’S CHURCH?
I hope that last statement woke you up again; because the test of the unfaithful wife ALSO looked, at first glimpse, like just another boring Old Testament set of rules that did not apply to today’s church.
We have certainly proved that statement to be wrong; and now we are about to embark on a journey to help us see how important it was for God to spell out the rules of the vow of the Nazarite.
This vow truly mattered and made a difference in the life of many ancient prophets and judges as well as the life of some of the disciples of the New Testament, and in the life of Jesus; and actually now in the life of you and me as followers of Christ.
We will discuss the details of this fact further; but first; let’s look at the lives of some historical Nazarites who took this type of vow.
SAMPSON WAS A NAZARITE
Most of us have heard the story of Sampson from childhood.
Sampson was a Nazarite; one of the few who was given in birth to God under this Nazarite vow.
The vow could be taken by a man or a woman. Sampson’s parents took this vow while he was still in the womb.
Sampson lived almost his whole life keeping the rules of the Nazarite vow.
Those rules were that you could not drink anything containing alcohol, you could not cut your hair, and you could not touch any products that were grape-related (products that came from grapes and grew on a vine-tree.) Also; you could not come into contact with a dead person.
Do any of these rules sound vaguely familiar?
Did you notice how the rules of the Nazarite vow are very similar to the rules of the Levitical priesthood? We studied the requirements of the Levitical priesthood in past lessons.
People who took the vow of the Nazarite were considered priests too; except their roles were more ministerial in nature, and not so ceremonial. The Levitical priests were the only priests who could reside over the animal sacrifices; but the Nazarites qualified to handle all of the other priestly duties, excluding offering sacrifices at the tabernacle or the temple.
The main difference in a Nazarite preist and a Levitical priest (besides the fact that Nazarites did not perform the ritual of offering animal sacrifices) was that the Levites were born into their position. A Nazarite came to God by choice. He didn’t have to take the vow; he CHOSE to take the vow before God. It was a personal decision provoked by God’s Holy Spirit. The person involved could either accept it or deny it.
In the case of those whose parents took the vow before they were born; they had the choice to take the vow over when they became accountable; most who had been dedicated to God chose to keep following the vow that had brought them blessings.
WHY CREATE ANOTHER ORDER FOR PRIESTS?
Now maybe all of that just sounds a bit silly; right?
A priesthood had already been established and was firmly in place. There was not a need for another order of priests; or was there?
Apparently; even Jesus ignored these rules of the Nazarite; or so it might seem.
He drank wine, cut his hair on occasion, and enjoyed grapes and the products that grapes produced that were grown from a vine/tree. We know of several occasions that Jesus touched or came near the dead.
Why should we expect Sampson to be more diligent in worship than Jesus?
Wouldn’t that be a bit hypocritical?
This would lead one to thinking that the vow of the Nazarite is now out-dated and useless; but it this really true?
UNDERSTANDING GOD’S PURPOSES WITH THE VOW OF THE NAZARITE
The fact of the matter is that Sampson had a time and a destiny from God which required that he be a practicing Nazarite living under these particular, God-given rules.
Looking all through the scriptures; it appears that God wanted certain things done only by Nazarites.
For some un-obvious reason, God wanted Nazarite priests in the picture and they were to handle certain tasks instead of Levitical priests. Those tasks were always delegated by God in their proper times, and the men and/or women chosen for handling them were to be consecrated, or set aside. We will explore more of this subject as we go along.
It should be obvious to all of us by now that God never randomly makes up rules, nor does he waste his instructions by stating things that do not matter.
If God gave an instruction to Israel as he was forming them into a new and holy nation of his very own people; we can be sure there was a good reason for it.
Whatever Israel experienced in the physical past usually always plays out to be a symbol for what a child of God’s Kingdom needs to know in their spiritual part of the future.
A NAZARITE USED IN GOD’S SERVICE
God was showing us something important through Sampson’s life and it had everything to do with how Sampson kept this Nazarite vow.
Every man must conform to God’s destiny and purpose and plan for his life. Sampson was no different. Sampson’s plan called for him to honor his vows to God.
We all must do the same.
Jesus showed us how this was done.
Jesus did this very well; but God was using the life of Jesus for so much MORE than what he was showing us with the life of Sampson, Yet; the life of Sampson was an important part of the background leading up to the life of Jesus.
You see; by being consecrated to God in the act of taking the Nazarite vow Sampson had been given amazing strength and power. If he broke any of the rules of the vow of the Nazarite; all of that power (which came directly from God as a blessing of the vow) would leave him.
So: Sampson’s mother was very careful to teach him these things. She harped on the rules of the vow; telling him over and over again, if he ever cut his hair; he would be ruined.
Should he grow to love wine he would be shamed.
If he didn’t abide by the rules to leave the grape products alone; he would regret it.
Sampson’s mother warned him to stay away from corpses.
She spoke to him about these facts of the vow over and over until these words became embedded in his spirit and he would automatically respond and conform to these rules.
He knew breaking the rules of the vow would mean turning his back on God’s blessings for his life.
SAMPSON’S VOW OF THE NAZARITE AND THE CHURCH
For those of us who are children of God, who have decided to follow Messiah, the Church should be a lot like the function of Sampson’s mother. She should keep telling us the rules of our vows; reminding us of the ways that God has agreed to bless us if we continue to follow him and continue to overcome and live inside the walls of The Kingdom of God in our spirits. Yes, Jesus took our sins upon himself and we are forgiven, but our forgiveness is tied to the vows we take. We have vowed to be God’s children and that means following God’s ways – no matter how we feel or how tempted we are to follow the ways of the world instead.
A VOW OF THE NAZARITE THAT BROUGHT RESPONSIBILITY AND BLESSINGS
The vow worked too!
Sampson grew up to be a powerful judge in Israel.
The Nazarite named Sampson was actually the LAST FULL-TIME (until his death) JUDGE of Israel. (Samuel was a judge for a short time after him; but then Israel transitioned to the time of being ruled by kings which happened before the death of Samuel.)
When Sampson died from disobedience to God and his vows; a door closed for Israel.
There were no more judges.
Israel went into a time of darkness.
This happened because Sampson broke the vow of the Nazarites. He told someone the secret of his strength; the secret that when he kept the vow to God all went well for him.
Then one day someone who had allured him into a very weakened position used his very own words against him. She crept into the room while he was sleeping and cut off his hair. The vow was broken and Sampson came to ruin.
This woman with many similar traits to The Whore of Babylon (which we studied previously) brought Sampson to his ruin.
There is a lesson to the church here which shows us; had Sampson not turned to prostitution and adultery; his life would have been spared and the times of Israel might have been very different.
Physical adultery or spiritual adultery always comes to ruin and disgrace.
Also; when a Nazarite breaks his vows and suffers; all of Israel suffers.
WHEN ONE PART OF THE BODY SUFFERS; THE WHOLE BODY SUFFERS
I do not have time today to go into all the details of Sampson’s story; but I encourage you to study it on your own because it is unique and fascinating. The way Jarrett Stevens tells it is an interesting read. I’ll put his link here so you can read his version for yourself: https://www.christianitytoday.com/iyf/faithandlife/strangeverses/real-story-of-samson.html .
For now; let’s just remember that Sampson broke the vows of the Nazarite; and God’s blessings were removed from him.
The rules of this vow were carefully given by God to Moses in The Book of Numbers. They were spelled out before Sampson was even born.
Sampson suffered greatly from this broken vow and all of those around him suffered too.
For now let’s just remember that Sampson was one of the Judges of Israel and a Nazarite who broke his vows.
THE REST OF THE STORY CONCERNING THE VOW OF THE NAZARITES
Next week we will look at some more Nazarites and hear some of their stories.
We will continue to explore the purpose behind this form of a vow which God was establishing the rules for in the Book of Numbers.
Why did they matter so much?
What does it mean to the church today?
We will continue to explore these things in greater detail in our next lesson.
I hope you will meet us here next Thursday as we continue our journey through the Book of Numbers and as we learn more about the vow of the Nazarite.