A
Nazirite, as defined, was a person who had set apart a season to devote
himself or herself to God. He or she would make a vow of separation and
observed a self-imposed discipline. During the period of the vow, the Nazirite
would abstain from three things: to abstain drinking strong drinks, such as
wine or vinegar; to abstain from shaving off his or her hair; and
from contact with anything unclean, especially a corpse. So serious was a
Nazirite’s consecration that in Numbers 6:9-12, God literally prescribed what
must be done when the vow had been broken unintentionally. Now in Numbers
6:13-21, God gave instructions on what must be done at the conclusion of the
period of the vow before the person could return to resume ordinary life.
A
person who had completed the Nazirite vow would be brought to the entrance of
the tent of meeting. There he would bring to God an unblemished one-year-old
male lamb for a burnt offering and an unblemished one-year-old ewe lamb for a
sin offering. Then he would also bring an unblemished ram as a peace offering.
These offerings signified his total consecration and the atonement of his sin.
And on top of these three offerings, he would also indicate his total
submission to God as master and king by presenting a grain offering. This grain
offering would consist of “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.” Next, the
Nazirite should shave off the hair from his consecrated head at the entrance of
the tent of meeting. He would take the hair and place them on the fire under
the fire of the peace offering.
When
that was done, verse 19 and 20 tell us that “…the priest shall take
the shoulder of the ram, when it is boiled, and one unleavened loaf out of
the basket and one unleavened wafer, and shall put them on the hands of
the Nazirite, after he has shaved the hair of his consecration, and
the priest shall wave them for a wave offering before the Lord.” With all the
sacrifices done, a fellowship and celebration meal would follow before the
Nazirite would return to normal life where he could drink wine and cut his
hair.
Devotion
and yielding to God is a crucial matter and must be done with serious intention.
Like the Nazirite, we must be willing to give up a self-indulgent life. We must
be willing to surrender the worldly values of the fallen life. What we give up,
know it or not, are but only temporary stuff. But what we will gain from our
surrendered life would be a life of eternal fellowship with God. Hear the words
of Jim Elliot as we close this reflection: “He is no fool who gives what he
cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose.”
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