Bereans Corner
Bereans Corner
Thru the Bible - #120 - Numbers 6 - Law of the Nazarites
Welcome back. Thank you for hanging out with me here on Berean's Corner, the podcast where we go through books of the Bible chapter by chapter, verse by verse. Open your Bible to Numbers, chapter six. The title of today's lesson is Law of the Nazarites. As always, grab yourself a glass of water, a cup of tea, a cup of coffee as we get into today's lesson, numbers, chapter six, and let's read.
Speaker 2:Number 6. The Lord said to Moses speak to the Israelites and say to them if a man or woman wants to make a special vow, a vow of separation to the Lord, as a Nazarite, he must abstain from wine and other fermented drink and must not drink vinegar made from wine or from other fermented drink. He must not drink grape juice or eat grapes or raisins. As long as he is a Nazarite, he must not eat anything that comes from the grapevine, not even the seeds or skins. During the entire period of his vow separation, no razor may be used on his head. He must be holy until the period of his separation to the Lord is over. He must let the hair of his head grow long. Throughout the period of his separation to the Lord. He must not go near a dead body. Even if his own father or mother or brother or sister dies, he must not make himself ceremonially unclean on account of them, because the symbol of his separation to God is on his head. Throughout the period of his separation, he is consecrated to the Lord. If someone dies suddenly in his presence, thus defiling the hair he has dedicated, he must shave his head on the day of his cleansing, the seventh day, then, on the eighth day, he must bring two doves or two young pigeons to the priest at the entrance to the tent of meeting. The priest is to offer one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering to make atonement for him because he sinned by being in the presence of the dead body. That same day he is to consecrate his head, he must dedicate himself to the Lord for the period of his separation and must bring a year-old male lamb as a guilt offering. The previous days do not count because he became defiled during his separation. Now, this is the law for the Nazarite when the period of his separation is over, he is to be brought to the entrance to the tent of meeting. There he is to present his offering to the Lord a year-old male lamb without defect for a burnt offering. A year-old ewe lamb without defect for a sin offering. A ram without defect for a fellowship offering, together with their grain offerings and drink offerings and a basket of bread made without yeast, cakes made of fine flour mixed with oil and wafers spread with oil. The priest is to present them before the Lord and make the sin offering and the burnt offering. He is to present the basket of unleavened bread and is to sacrifice the ram as a fellowship offering to the Lord, together with its grain offering and drink offering. Then, at the entrance to the tent of meeting, the Nazarite must shave off the hair that he dedicated. He is to take the hair and put it in the fire. That is under the sacrifice of the fellowship offering. After the Nazarite has shaved off the hair of his dedication, the priest is to place in his hands a boiled shoulder of the ram and a cake and a wafer from the basket, both made without yeast. The priest shall then wave them before the Lord as a wave offering. They are holy and belonging to the priest, together with the breast that was waved and the thigh that was presented. After that, the Nazarite may drink wine. After that, the Nazarite may drink wine.
Speaker 2:This is the law of the Nazarite, who vows his offering to the Lord in accordance with his separation. In addition to whatever else he can afford, he must fulfill the vow he has made. According to the law of the Nazarite, the Lord said to Moses Tell Aaron and his sons, this is how you are to bless the Israelites. Say to Moses Tell Aaron and his sons, this is how you are to bless the Israelites. Say to them the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace. So they will put my name on the.
Speaker 1:Israelites and I will bless them All right. The last time that we were together we looked at numbers five, where we looked at defilement and the adultery test. Today we are looking at the Nazarite law. Before we get into the lesson, let's look at a little about a nazirite. Some think that being a nazarene is the same as one who takes a nazirite vow. Jesus was called a nazarene because he was from nazareth. Taking a nazirite vow is to be consecrated or separated, and this comes from the word nazar.
Speaker 1:Three times in the scriptures we see those who took a nazarite vow. The first would be the prophet samuel. Turn to first samuel, chapter one. First samuel, chapter one. And we can look at this. First Samuel one. All right, all right, I'm there, keep your finger in numbers. Chapter six First Samuel, chapter one.
Speaker 1:We are looking at versus. We are looking at verse 22. First, samuel one, 22. This is about Hannah. Hannah asking for a son, but Hannah did not go up, for she said to her husband I will not go up until the child is weaned. This child is Samuel. Then I will bring him that he may appear before the Lord and stay there forever. Drop down to verse 28. So I have also dedicated him to the Lord. As long as he lives. He is dedicated to the Lord and he worshiped the lord there. The second would be samuel the judge. So keep your finger in number six, but go right in your bible to judges. Go to judges, chapter 13, judges 13, and then, when you get to Judges 13, we are looking at verses one through five, judges 13, one through five.
Speaker 1:Now the sons of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord, so that the Lord gave them into the hands of the Philistines 40 years. And there was a certain man of Zerah, of the family of the Dananites, whose name was Manoah, and his wife was barren and had borne no children. Then the angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her Behold, now you are barren and have borne no children, but you shall conceive and give birth to a son. 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 nazarite to god from the womb, and he shall begin to deliver israel from the hands of the philistines. And then the third time would be john the baptist.
Speaker 1:So go all the way to the new testament and go to luke, chapter one. Luke, chapter one. All right, sorry, I went past it where I want it. Luke, chapter one. Okay, luke, chapter one.
Speaker 1:And we are looking at verses 13 to 17. But the angel said to him do not be afraid, zacharias, for your petition has been heard and your wife elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will give him the name John and you will have joy and gladness and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord and he will drink no wine or liquor and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit while yet in his mother's womb, and he will turn back many of the sons of Israel to the Lord, their God, and it is he who will go as a forerunner before him, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous, so as to make ready the people prepared for the lord. So those are the three times where we have seen this, that this nazirite vow given. Now we will get into this lesson in numbers, chapter six, and we will break this down into three parts. The first part, the legal rules of the nazirite vow. We see this in verses 1 through 13.
Speaker 1:Again, the lord spoke to moses. As I always like to point out, we need to see and remember who the lord is speaking to. He's speaking to moses. 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 the lord, he shall abstain from wine and strong drink. He shall drink no vinegar, whether made from wine or strong drink. Neither shall he drink any grape juice, nor eat fresh or dry grapes. All the days of his separation, he shall not eat anything that is produced by the grapevine, from the seeds even to the skin. Why? Why is that? Because we know that that wine and strong drink notice it doesn't just say wine wine and strong drink comes from the grapevine.
Speaker 1:Back to verse five. All the days of his vow of separation, no razor shall pass over his head. Remember we read that with the other three Samuel, samson and John the Baptist he shall be holy until the days are fulfilled for which he separated himself to the Lord. He shall let the locks of hair on his head grow long all the days of his separation to the Lord. 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 he has separation to God, excuse me, because his separation to God is on his head All the days of his separation. He shall be holy to the Lord. 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 comes, excuse me, when he becomes clean, he shall shave it on the seventh day. Then, on the eighth day, he shall bring two turtle doves or two young pigeons to the priest, to the doorway of the tent of meeting, and 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 the lord his days as a nazarite. When the days of his separation are fulfilled, he shall bring the offering to the doorway of the tent of meeting. So right there we see the rules concerning the Nazarite. So right there we see the rules concerning the Nazarite. Now a Nazarite could not even go to his closest relative's funeral, which would be his father, his mother, his brother or his sister. He was not to come near a dead body. As we read there, the only time that he could be near a dead body was if someone suddenly died around them.
Speaker 1:We move on to part two, the sacrifices that had to be made after the vow was over. We see this in verses 13 through 21. Now, this is the law of the nazirite. When the days of his separations are fulfilled, he shall bring the offering to the doorway of the tent of meeting. 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, his burnt offering. He shall also offer the ram for a sacrifice, a peace offering, to the lord, together with the basket of unleavened cakes. The priest shall likewise offer his grain offering and his 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. And the priest shall take the ram's shoulder, when it has been boiled, and one unleavened cake out of the basket and one unleavened wafer and shall put them on the heads of the Nazarite after he has shaved his dedicated hair. Then the priest shall wave them for a wave offering before the Lord. It is holy for the priest, together with the breast offering by waving and the thigh offering by lifting up, and afterwards the Nazarite may drink wine.
Speaker 1:This is the law of the Nazarite, who vows his offering to the lord according to his separation, in addition to what else he can afford according to his vow, which he takes. So he shall do according to the law of his separation. So these were the sacrifices that had to be made when the vow was over. Now we move on to part three, which is aaron's benediction, and we see this in verses 22 through 27. Then the lord spoke to moses saying speak to aaron and to his sons, saying thus you shall bless the sons of israel. You shall say to them the lord bless you and keep you. The lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you. The lord lift up his continents on you and give you peace, so they shall invoke my name on the sons of israel and I then shall bless them. Now, there you have it. That brings us to the end of numbers. Chapter six law of the Nazarite.
Speaker 1:All right, as always, I thank you very, very much for joining me. As always, you can find this podcast wherever you find your wherever you like to listen to your podcast. We're on Apple, spotify, amazon I'm still working on YouTube. We're on iHeart and some other places. If you want to follow along with the lesson, you can go to our website. Our podcast is on Buzzsprout. You go to brenscornerbuzzsproutcom. Over there, not only can you listen to the lessons that we have up, but we have transcripts over there, just in case you want to read along. If it's something you missed, you can read it. You can get over there and you can look it up and write down the notes over there. All right, I hope you enjoyed today's lesson Numbers chapter six law of the Nazarites. That's all for now, god bless, thank you, thank you.