Behold the Nazarite Numbers 6:1-12
What is weird about you, something that nobody else has or is afflicted with? For me, it’s sucrose intolerance. I can’t handle complex sugars – sucrose and fructose. I.E those sugars found in fruit and sugar cane. That wipes out a lot of food for me. I can’t have fruit; even though God created it, I get sick on it. Obviously, I can have no sweets, chocolate ice-cream, juices. I’m weird, and very hard to accommodate when it comes to eating out or over at your place. But aren’t we all? What personality traits, what character nuance, what physical or mental attribute, or dietary horror story do you have? We all have something if we look hard enough.
The Nazarite vow was an enforced weirdness that was embraced by certain people. The vow pointed to a very important message about the God of Israel for all those who took the vow.
So, what was the vow? Firstly, it could be taken by both males and females. The only way a female could not take it was if her husband or father said no. (Numbers 30) But what Israelite man would ever dare to stop his wife or daughter devoting themselves to God? The man would be shamed by his mates.
No Alcohol, no grapes or grape products, don’t cut your hair, for a prescribed period – likely more than a year. No touching of a dead body, not even your dead brother or sister or parent; if you did the clock would have to be restarted. Plus, it cost you: at the end of it, you went from one extreme to the other. Your mat of hair was shaved off – completely bald; and it would cost you financially: you had to offer “one male lamb a year old without blemish for a burnt offering, and one ewe lamb a year old without blemish as a sin offering, and one ram without blemish as a peace offering, and a basket of unleavened bread, loaves of fine flour mixed with oil, and unleavened wafers smeared with oil, and their grain offering and their drink offerings.” (Verses 14, 15) There was a serious financial hit at the end of your Nazarite vow period.
The Nazarite was a constant reminder - Israel was to be separated, set apart, called to keep the law and be a light to the nations. The person keeping the vow was a signpost to others in Israel that they don’t serve themselves, but that they serve God and keep the Law. They were God’s people.
Some people in scripture took the vow. The most famous Nazarite was Samson, but he blew it big time. (Judges 13:5) He let his hair grow long because it looked cool no doubt, but he had plenty of wine and went near dead bodies. One example is a dead lion – he got some honey out of it after some bees had lodged in the carcass for a few months. We know how the story ended, with Delilah cutting off his hair.
But others took the vow including Samson’s mum. The Apostle Paul seems to have taken the vow in Acts 18 and there were a number of others in the book of Acts who had shaved their heads according to a vow they had taken. Which vow? No doubt the Nazarite vow because it is the only one that required head shaving recorded in scripture.
These were weird people to look at; unkempt, but holy. Likely, the prophet Elijah looked like this. We know John the Baptist in the New Testament had similar distinctives in his dress code and his diet. All for the purpose of his message, which was repent and be baptized because the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world is coming.
What’s weird about you? What’s different? Some things we don’t have a choice in – like my sucrose intolerance. It’s weird, but I was born with it, I had no choice.
You are in every way a modern-day Nazarite, either male or female you stand out. How do you feel about that? I don’t like being at a restaurant or a party and unable to partake of the whole of the menu – especially the sweet bits that everyone else seems to hang out for. It’s a bit lonely at times. My weirdness.
What about you and your relationship with Christ?
But are you a true Nazarite? Or do you quietly take a nip of wine or have the odd very slight haircut? People ask, aren’t you a Nazarite – gee your hair grows slowly. To the point where they don’t even notice and your Nazarite vow isn’t even an issue any more.
What sort of signpost are you as one who says they are a follower of Christ? Are you a faithful ambassador or someone who should really just give up the charade? Be honest with yourself and say, I actually don’t believe this stuff. But if you do believe, you acknowledge Christ and His payment of your sin, then let’s be a bit bolder with the vow we have claimed to make.
Although the Nazirite vow is an Old Testament concept, there is a New Testament parallel to the Nazirite vow. The Apostle Paul puts it this way in Romans 12:1-2, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” For Christians, the ancient Nazirite vow symbolizes the need to be separate from this world, a holy people consecrated to God. (2 Timothy 1:9; 1 Peter 1:15)
Following Christ means we do stand out…in ever increasing measure, but that’s who we are. In actual fact, we were born this way; born from above, born from the Spirit. (John 3:7, 8) We can act no other way. It’s who are at our core, in our soul. We are children of God, Nazarites following the Nazarene, Jesus. My prayer is that we are blessed with boldness to embrace that identity more and more. Sharing the gospel with others – friends, family, neighbours, study mates, gaming mates, work associates - that following Jesus isn’t weird, but life; that Christ means absolutely everything us, to the point where we would even die for it if we had to. It starts by dying to sin, dying to fear, dying to self. That’s what picking up your cross and following Jesus means.
Another practical way of being a modern-day Nazarite is simply keeping your word. Jesus says not to vow but simply “let your yes be yes and your no, no, anything else is evil.” (Matthew 5:37) Sadly, we live in a day when ‘yes’ means ‘probably not’. Followers of Christ keep their word.
If you have done that and accepted Christ, another way of testifying to that is getting baptized and sharing your testimony with others. The Nazarite’s life and external obedience was on display; baptism does that as well. Sharing your testimony is a bold declaration for what has happened in your life. Examples are the Apostles Paul and Peter; they shared how Christ had changed them. We are to do the same.