Why take a nazarite vow

And that same day he shall consecrate his head, and shall dedicate to the Lord his days as a Nazarite, and shall bring a male lamb a year old for a guilt offering; but the former days shall be void because his separation was defiled. And he shall present his offering to the Lord: one male lamb a year old without defect for a burnt offering and one ewe lamb a year old without defect for a sin offering and one ram without defect for a peace offering, and a basket of unleavened cakes of fine flour mixed with oil and unleavened wafers spread with oil, along with their grain offering and their libations.

Then the priest shall present them before the Lord and shall offer his sin offering and his burnt offering. He shall also offer the ram for a sacrifice of peace offerings to the Lord, together with the basket of unleavened cakes; the priest shall likewise offer its grain offering and its libation. The Nazarite shall then shave his dedicated head of hair at the doorway of the tent of meeting, and take the dedicated hair of his head and put it on the fire which is under the sacrifice of peace offerings.

Then the priest shall wave them for a wave offering before the Lord. It is holy for the priest, together with the breast offered by waving and the thigh offered by lifting up; and afterward the Nazarite may drink wine. May He write its eternal truth upon our hearts. The vow of the Nazarite, the laws of the Nazarite, provide an Old Testament picture of what every New Testament disciple should be.

Now I hope that that sentence has your curiosity peaked! Am I suggesting that we all forego haircuts and funerals, and tee-totally abstain?

The Nazarite is a picture of someone who is consecrated to God, devoted to God, handed over in His service. And, a Nazarite is a God-treasuring person—someone who loves God above everyone and everything else—and these are qualities of discipleship that we see spelled out in the New Testament.

This is a very special vow. There are elements to this vow that are found in other parts of the Old Testament. Priests, for instance, were not allowed to partake of wine while they were serving in the tabernacle. These three things in combination make the Nazarite vow singular, or unique. Secondly, notice that this Nazarite vow is voluntary. If you were a child of Levi, if you were in the tribe of Levi and if you were a male, you were either going to be serving the Lord as a priest or as a Levite.

But this is a voluntary vow. And even in the Old Testament with its outward forms and its shadows and its types, there was a recognition that religion is in its very essence a matter of the heart, the will, the desires, the affections.

And here the Nazarite has an option. He or she does not have to take this vow. The desires of the Nazarite impel him or her to take this vow. Thirdly, notice that this Nazarite vow is personal. This Nazarite vow is also public. Must be a Nazarite. There were external things which set him apart from the people in his time. Fifthly, this Nazarite vow was costly. The Nazarite vow did not allow you to attend a family funeral, no matter how close the relative.

The Nazarite vow involved bringing very expensive offerings or sacrifices to the Lord. And, if in the course of your service as a Nazarite someone drops dead next to you, you are defiled. All of the time that you have served according to your vow up to that point is nullified.

If a Nazarite has become unclean by accident, he must offer a sacrifice and begin the period of his vow anew. He is "holy unto the Lord" Num. In ancient times the priests were persons dedicated to God Ezek. Young men especially, who found it difficult to abstain from wine on account of youthful desire for pleasure, took the vow. The most prominent outward mark of the Nazarite was long, flowing hair, which was cut at the expiration of the vow and offered as a sacrifice Num.

The history of Nazariteship in ancient Israel is obscure. Samson was a Nazarite, whose mother abstained from wine during her pregnancy. His superhuman strength lay in his long, unshorn locks Judges xiii. Samuel's mother promised to dedicate him to God during his whole life, saying, "There shall no razor come upon his head" I Sam. Neither the nomadic Rechabites nor their wives or children drank wine Jer. The Nazarite law was minutely developed in post-Biblical times and became authoritative, while the popularity of Nazariteship and the influence it exercised on men's minds appear from its numerous regulations, which form a voluminous treatise of the Mishnah, and from the many expressions and phrases accompanying the taking of the vow.

As a consequence of the universal custom, peculiar words and phrases, some of which are now unintelligible, were formulated for the taking of the vow Naz. When the sanctuary was defiled at the time of the wars of the Maccabees the people assembled all the Nazarites before God as persons who could not be released from their vows I Macc. The expenses of the offerings of poor Nazarites were borne by the wealthy, this charitable obligation being expressed by the phrase "to have [his head] shorn"; and King Agrippa had many Nazarites "shorn" Josephus, "Ant.

Simeon b. In the case of he found a reason for annulling their vows, but in the case of the others he found none. He went to his brother-in-law King Jannai [ B.

Noble persons also, both men and women, took Nazarite vows. Queen Helena was a Nazarite for fourteen or twenty-one years Naz. Paul, as a sign of good faith and solidarity with his Jewish brethren, sponsor 4 Nazirites who had completed their vow period: So the next day Paul took the men along and was purified with them, and he visited the Temple to give notice of the time when the period of purification would e over and the offering would have to be presented on behalf of each of them.

The Latin word sacramentum is translated as "oath". In the Sacraments we swear our oath of consecrated service to the Most Holy Trinity and claim that one perfect sacrifice that is ours for all time and eternity. In the Book of Hebrews, St. Paul writes: "He says first You did not want what the Law lays down as the things to be offered, that is: the sacrifices, the cereal offerings, the burnt offerings and the sacrifices for sin, and you took no pleasure in them; and then he says: Here I am!

I am coming to do your will. He is abolishing the first sort to establish the second. And this will was for us to be made holy by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ made once and for all.

In this sense all New Covenant believers serve God as perpetual Nazirites who are not defiled by death for our Savior has conquered death. In our vow of holiness we offer our lives as a living sacrifice in service to Christ: "I urge you, then, brothers, remembering the mercies of God, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, dedicated and acceptable to God; that is the kind of worship for you, as sensible people.

Do not model your behavior on the contemporary world, but let the renewing of your minds transform you, so that you may discern for yourselves what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and mature. Permissions All Rights Reserved. According to the requirements of a Nazirite in Numbers for the period of time of the vow the man or woman Nazirite must: Make a formal swearing of an oath of service to God [Numbers ] Abstain from drinking wine and fermented liquor, including vinegar derived from either wine or any fermented liquor, and will abstain from eating grapes fresh or dried or eat anything that comes from the vine [Numbers ].

Let his hair grown uncut for the length of the vow [Numbers ] For the entire period of the vow he must not come in contact with a corpse. These characteristics highlighted his total devotion to God and his message of the coming Messiah.

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