CHAPTER 6

(1490 B.C.)

THE NAZARITE

¹And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying,

²Speak unto the Children of Israel, and say unto them, When either man or woman shall separate themselves to vow a vow of a Nazarite, to separate themselves unto the LORD (from the Nazarite idea came the Rachabites, the Essenes, Anchorites, Hermits, Monks, and other monastic orders; to say that Christ was a Nazarite is unscriptural, for He drank of the fruit of the vine and touched the dead, which Nazarites were forbidden to do [Mat. 9:25; 11:19; 26:29; Mk. 14:25]):

³He shall separate himself from wine and strong drink, and shall drink no vinegar of wine, or vinegar of strong drink, neither shall he drink any liquor of grapes, nor eat moist grapes, or dried (the Nazarite must not touch any type of alcoholic beverage, or even anything that pertained to a vineyard, such as grapes or grape juice).

⁴All the days of his separation shall he eat nothing that is made of the vine tree, from the kernels even to the husk (while the life of the Nazarite was one of separation, it was not to be one of isolation; in fact, his life was to be one of action, one of uninterrupted devotion to the Divine Service).

⁵All the days of the vow of his separation there shall no razor come upon his head: until the days be fulfilled, in the which he separates himself unto the LORD, he shall be holy, and shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow (in those days, long hair on a man signified weakness, and the evidence is, most of those who entertained a Nazarite vow were men; so, by demanding this, the Holy Spirit was showing the weakness of man, irrespective as to who the person might be).

⁶All the days that he separates himself unto the LORD he shall come at no dead body (death in all of its forms is a product originally of sin [Rom. 6:23]).

⁷He shall not make himself unclean for his father, or for his mother, for his brother, or for his sister, when they die: because the consecration of his God is upon his head (even if a close loved one died, he was not to touch them).

⁸All the days of his separation he is holy unto the LORD.

⁹And if any man die very suddenly by him, and he has defiled the head of his consecration (has touched a dead body); then he shall shave his head in the day of his cleansing, on the seventh day shall he shave it.

¹⁰And on the eighth day (Resurrection day) he shall bring two turtles (turtledoves), or two young pigeons, to the Priest, to the door of the Tabernacle of the congregation:

¹¹And the Priest shall offer the one for a Sin Offering, and the other for a Burnt Offering, and make an Atonement for him, for that he sinned by the dead, and shall hallow his head that same day (all sin, and all defilement, and to any degree, can only be addressed at the Cross).

¹²And he shall consecrate unto the LORD the days of his separation, and shall bring a lamb of the first year for a Trespass Offering: but the days that were before shall be lost, because his separation was defiled.

¹³And this is the law of the Nazarite, when the days of his separation are fulfilled: he shall be brought unto the door of the Tabernacle of the congregation:

¹⁴And he shall offer his Offering unto the LORD, one he lamb of the first year without blemish for a Burnt Offering, and one ewe lamb of the first year without blemish for a Sin Offering, and one ram without blemish for Peace Offerings (even though Christ never took the Nazarite vow, the truth is, He was the One True and Perfect Nazarite in the world. He maintained from the first to the last the most complete separation from all mere earthly joy.

Concerning this, Mackintosh says, From the moment He entered upon His Public Work, He kept Himself apart from all that was of this world, His Heart was fixed upon God and His Work, with a devotion that nothing could shake. No claims of Earth or nature were ever allowed, for a single moment, to come in-between His Heart and that Work which He came to do. His Eye was single and His heart undivided. This is apparent from the first to the last. He could say to His Disciples, I have meat to eat that you know not of; and when they, not knowing the deep significance of His Words, said Has any man brought Him ought to eat? He replied, My meat is to do the Will of Him Who sent Me, and to finish His Work [Jn. 4:34]),

¹⁵And a basket of unleavened bread, cakes of fine flour mingled with oil, and wafers of unleavened bread anointed with oil, and their Meat Offering, and their Drink Offerings (everything said here typified Christ in some fashion, regarding His Mediatorial, Intercessory, and Atoning Work).

¹⁶And the Priest shall bring them before the LORD, and shall offer his Sin Offering, and his Burnt Offering:

¹⁷And he shall offer the ram for a Sacrifice of Peace Offerings unto the LORD (with the Sin Offering and Burnt Offering now offered, the Peace Offerings can now be offered, simply because peace with God has now been re-established), with the basket of unleavened bread (typifying the Perfection of Christ as a Man): the Priest shall offer also his Meat Offering (a Thanksgiving Offering), and his Drink Offering (typifying a life poured out solely for the Lord).

¹⁸And the Nazarite shall shave the head of his separation at the door of the Tabernacle of the congregation, and shall take the hair of the head of his separation, and put it in the fire which is under the Sacrifice of the Peace Offerings (the long hair, which the Nazarite might be tempted to keep as a proud memorial of his consecration, he had to place into the fire to be burnt; and so will the Holy Spirit do to our pride, if we allow Him proper latitude).

¹⁹And the Priest shall take the sodden shoulder of the ram, and one unleavened cake out of the basket, and one unleavened wafer, and shall put them upon the hands of the Nazarite, after the hair of his separation is shaven:

²⁰And the Priest shall wave them for a Wave Offering before the LORD: this is holy for the Priest, with the wave breast (thanksgiving to the Lord) and heave shoulder (symbolizes Christ coming from Heaven to this Earth, in order to give His Life that humanity might be redeemed): and after that the Nazarite may drink wine.

²¹This is the law of the Nazarite who has vowed, and of his Offering unto the LORD for his separation, beside that that his hand shall get: according to the vow which he vowed, so he must do after the law of his separation. (Even though all the separation was done by the Nazarite, he must ever understand that the separation itself contained no Blessing. The Blessing came from the Lord and, more particularly, from Christ, and what He would do at the Cross, typified by the many Sacrifices offered.)

PRIESTLY BENEDICTION

²²And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying,

²³Speak unto Aaron and unto his sons, saying, On this wise you shall bless the Children of Israel, saying unto them (how very many times we think that the Blessings come upon us because of our separation, consecration, or dedication; however, it must forever be understood that God cannot bless sinful man, irrespective of his dedication or consecration, but rather He blesses Christ within us, and Christ Alone),

²⁴The LORD bless you, and keep you:

²⁵The LORD make His Face shine upon you, and be gracious unto you (Christ is the Source of all blessings, with the Cross being the Means; Grace is made possible solely by the Cross [Gal. 2:21; 5:2-4]):

²⁶The LORD lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace.

²⁷And they shall put My Name upon the Children of Israel; and I will bless them. (Above all, God is a God of blessing. He desires to do such for His children. All blessings come exclusively, as stated, through Christ and the Cross; consequently, the Cross must ever be the object of our Faith, which then gives the Holy Spirit latitude to work within our lives [Rom. 6:3-14; 8:1-2, 11].)