Numbers chapter 6 just a few
weeks ago Gabe had us turn here during a message and that message
was such a blessing to me and I've been contemplating this
chapter since since we were here it just the Lord blessed it to
me and There is so much in this one little chapter that I My mind, my thoughts have just
gone all over the place with this chapter. We heard a message
yesterday morning from David Edmondson on he shall be great. And how can you stand up here and we try to declare
our Lord's greatness in just a few minutes. It's overwhelming. But I pray this morning the Lord
will enable us to see Christ glorified as our Nazirite and
make this a blessing to us. As we look at this chapter, I
want to see kind of the uniqueness of the Nazirite vow or the law
of the Nazirite, how the Nazirite was revealed, how the vow was
ended, and our Lord's fulfillment of the vow. So first, the law concerning
the vow of the Nazirite was singular and different in many ways than
all the other laws, perhaps all of the laws. I'm not a legal
expert. I don't know all the laws, but
all of them I could think of, this one is unique. Number six,
verse two, speak 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. The first thing that caught my
attention was that This vow is to anyone, man or woman, any
child of Israel could enter into this vow. And the second thing was this
was a vow they could take upon themselves. All the other offices
that I could think of in the Old Testament required either
a divine call, an inheritance, or an appointment. The prophets
were called of God and they were revealed to be true prophets
if what they said came to pass. The priests were of Aaron's seed. By inheritance they gained the
title. Kings were either divinely revealed
or after the king was on the throne, inheritance took over. Even down to captains of the
army, they were appointed by the king. But the vow of the
Nazirite could be entered into by any child of Israel, male
or female. And the next thing that caught
my attention was that this vow was voluntary. Any child of Israel
could enter into the vow. But if you never took that vow,
if you were never led to take the vow of a Nazirite as an Israelite,
You were no less an Israelite than the man or woman who took
the vow of the Nazirite. It was completely and totally
voluntary. And the last thing I found to
be rather unique about this law is its time period. This law,
for the one who voluntarily entered into it, also had a voluntary
end. Verse 8. All the days of his
separation, he is holy unto the Lord. Every other law that I
could think of, there was some determined period of time that
went along with that law. But this one, every bit of it,
from the entering in of it to the amount of time you stayed
under it, it was all voluntary up to the person entering into
it. This vow was something any child
of Israel could enter into. It was completely voluntary.
And the final thing that stood out to me concerning this vow
was it was a public vow. Nazarites were distinguished
by three abstinences, three things they were to be avoided while
you were under your vow. The first was he could not eat
or drink anything made from grapes. Verse three and four. He 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. All the days of his separation
shall he eat nothing that is made of the vine tree, from the
kernels even to the husk. Secondly, the Nazirite could
not get a haircut. Verse 5. All 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 separateth himself
unto the Lord. He shall be holy and shall let
the locks of the hair of his head grow." And the final abstinence
was he was not to come near a dead body. Regardless of who it was
that died, the Nazirite was not to attend the funeral. Verse
6. All the days that he separateth himself unto the Lord, he shall
come at no dead body. He 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. Of course, the shorter the time
frame, the more difficult it would be to know that someone
had vowed the vow of the Nazirite. But if the vow lasted some months,
meeting a person on the street, you would be able to tell this
person is under the vow of the Nazirite, his heirs. Now, if the law of the Nazirite
ended here, if all that was required to be a Nazirite was that I avoid
grapes, grape juice, wine, soured rind, not get a haircut, not
go to a funeral, that's a pretty easy thing to keep in general. The glory, the honor, The blessing
of this law is in how it is fulfilled. Turn
over to verse 13. And 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. First note where the Nazarite
had to be for the vow to be ended. He shall be brought unto the
door of the tabernacle of the congregation. What happened at
the tabernacle? Tabernacle is where God met with
his people. It's where the sacrifices were
offered. Within the door was the holy
place. and beyond it the Holy of Holies,
wherein was the mercy seat. The Nazarite was to come to the
door of the tabernacle, and he was not to come empty-handed. And he shall offer his offering
unto the Lord, one he lamb of the first year without blemish
for a burnt offering, and one you lamb of the first year without
blemish for a sin offering, and one ram without blemish for peace
offerings. and 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. The Nazirite was not to come
empty-handed, nor was he to come alone. Verse 16, And the priest
shall bring them the offerings before the Lord, and shall offer
his sin offering and his burn offering, and he shall offer
the ram for a sacrifice of peace offerings unto the Lord with
the basket of unleavened bread, the priest shall offer also his
meat offering and his drink offering." The Law of the Nazirite begins
somewhat unique in character and its ending is also somewhat
unique. Three blood sacrifices were required
in the vow. The priest on behalf of the Nazirite
would first offer one new lamb of the first year without blemish
for a sin offering. Why a sin offering? Surely this
Israelite who has undertaken voluntarily the vow of a Nazirite
and has come declaring he has fulfilled his vow. The end of
his days of separation are over. Surely this Nazarite doesn't
need a sin offering. Consider our own heart. Having
decided upon an action for a specified period of time or a specified
goal. Let's say we're going to go on
a diet and we Determine, I'm going to do this diet for this
amount of time, or until I reach this weight. When having reached
that date, that weight, whatever it was we said, this is our goal. Having reached it, are we not
puffed up in pride? Look at me. I've slimmed down. What a wretched man I am. I will
take the very graces of God and I will make them a law unto myself. And then I'll glory in it as
if I have somewhat in which I can boast in. I'll make a promise. I'm going
to pray every morning. And then I will go through the
motions, and sadly, that's generally all it is. I go through the motions
of saying a prayer. And I say it every morning. And
at the end of the week, I'll go, I made it. I did it. I made it. Seven days
I prayed every morning. Our hearts will rise up and take
pride in the least nothing that we do. For that man or woman that fulfilled
the vow of the Nazarite, they needed a sin offering for their
trespasses against God while fulfilling the vow. The second
offering that the priest offered on behalf of the Nazirite was
a burnt offering. This was a thanksgiving offering,
thanksgiving of acceptance of the sin offering. And finally,
he offered the peace offering, the sin offering, the blood of
the lamb, the burnt offering, the blood of the lamb. the peace
offering, the blood of the ram. All three blood sacrifices were
required to fulfill the law of the Nazarite. To end the vow,
the Nazarite was brought to the door of the tabernacle. He brought his offerings and
he was to be abased. Verse 18. And 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 glory of his or her long
hair was to be shaved off and the hair was to be consumed by
the fire under the peace offering. After this, the priest made intercession
for the Nazarite, verse 19. And 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 Nazirite, after the hair of his separation is shaven.
And the priest shall wave them for a wave offering before the
Lord. This is holy for the priest, with the wave breast and heave
shoulder. And after that, the Nazirite
may drink wine. In considering our Lord taking
upon himself and fulfilling the law of the Nazarite, my thoughts went to the many
offices which our Lord holds. He is everything we need to be
accepted of the Father. We need a prophet to reveal the
word of God to us. He is our prophet. We need a
priest to make intercession for us. He is our great high priest. We need a king to reign in righteousness
and to overrule our wicked, evil hearts. He is our king. We need a tabernacle wherein
God can dwell and meet with us. He is our tabernacle. We need
a sacrifice. He is our sacrifice. He is our
accepted sacrifice, the lamb slain from the foundation of
the world. All our needs, he provided, and so much more. As it is written, I hath not
seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man
the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. I love
my family. I love Stacia, Audrey, Elam,
and Abram. And because I love them, I love
to provide for their needs. They need a home. They need food. They need shelter. They need
school. They need things. And it's my
privilege to provide that for them. But how much more do I
enjoy providing for them things they want, sometimes things they
don't even know they want, because I love them. I love to freely
give to them beyond what they need. Our Lord Jesus Christ has certainly
provided for our needs, but consider all that he's done above that. He took upon himself the office
of our husband. And for us, he left his father
and cleaved unto his bride. As upon that cross, he cried
out, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? For us. He is our brother, born for adversity. Our friend that sticketh closer
than a brother. And the list just keeps going. He, without being forced into
it, voluntarily took up our cause and he vowed the vow of the Nazirite. Let's look at our Lord's fulfillment
of being our Nazirite. At the last Passover supper,
on the very night he was betrayed, our Lord said to his disciples,
I will not drink of the fruit of the vine. Right then, he publicly
declared, I am entering into the vow of the Nazarite. And
he continued, until the kingdom of God shall come. And with that,
he declared the days of his separation. What was required to end the
vow? And did our Lord succeed? He declared, I am the way, the
truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. As the door to the tabernacle
was the way into the holy of holies, picturing the way unto
God, our Lord himself is the way into the true holy of holies. As he ended his vow, he went
to the place of sacrifice, where God declares he will meet with
men in peace, in Christ Jesus. Number 618, and the Nazarite
shall shave the head of his separation at the door of the tabernacle
of the congregation, and shall take the hair of his head of
the head of his separation and put it in the fire which is under
the sacrifice of the peace offerings. Jesus of Nazareth is the Almighty
Eternal God. Yet when he came in the flesh,
he made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of
a servant and was made in the likeness of men. He veiled his
internal glory. He came in the likeness of sinful
men. Upon that cross at Calvary, the
wrath and vengeance of the holy God, reserved for wicked, depraved
sinners, reserved for me, fell without mercy upon him. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise
him. He hath put him to grief when
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. His soul was put in
the fire so that our peace offering would be accepted. When our Lord went to fulfill
his vow, he did not go without blood. Hebrews 9, But Christ,
being come and high priest of good things to come, by a greater
and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is
to say, not of this building, neither by the blood of goats
and calves, but by His own blood, He entered in once into the holy
place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. There, upon
the cross, bearing the sins of his people, bearing my sin as
a lamb, meek and mild, the Lord Jesus Christ laid down his life,
offering himself as my sin offering and as my burnt offering. He
consumed the burning wrath and judgment of God in my place as
a strong man. taken in his prime as that peace
offering, the ram. The man, Jesus of Nazareth, made
peace. Ephesians 2, 14, for he is our
peace, who hath made both one and hath broken down the middle
wall of partition between us, having abolished in his flesh
the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, for
to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace. The bread of life gave his body
to be broken and poured out his precious blood as our meat and
drink offering. Then our great high priest took
his broken body, his precious blood, He took His perfect holy
righteousness, His spotlessness, and He entered within the veil
to make intercession for us. After this, Jesus, knowing that
all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled,
saith, I thirst. Now there was set a vessel full
of vinegar and they filled a sponge with vinegar and put it upon
hyssop and put it in his mouth. When Jesus therefore had received
the vinegar, he said, it is finished. And he bowed his head and gave
up the ghost. All things were now accomplished. The vow was complete. The sacrifices
had been made. Intercession had been made. After
that, the Nazarite may drink wine. And so our Lord Jesus Christ
drank the soured wine. Where sin abounded. Does that hit you this morning
like it does me? Where does sin abound? Right here. In this evil heart,
even as I stand here trying to declare the sweet gospel of our
Lord Jesus Christ, where sin abounded. How greatly I need him to accomplish
the law that I cannot keep. Where sin abounded, grace did
much more abound. I suppose it may have been technically
possible. I suppose. For Christ to keep
the law, to offer the sacrifice, to fulfill all righteousness
out of duty. The father chose a people, he
gave those people to his son, and Christ could have laid down
his life and redeemed us, just barely. I suppose, legally, technically
speaking, I suppose that could be possibly true. For a lesser God, it may have
been possible. But not for our God, not for
our Lord, not for our Savior. Where sin abounded, grace did
much more abound. He met our every need, and he
went infinitely further. Seeing how great things our Lord
and Savior Christ Jesus has done for us, God, the holy, just,
righteous God, can freely say to the children of Israel, those
freely loved, freely called, freely elected children of God. Number six, verse 24. The Lord bless thee and keep
thee. The Lord make his face shine
upon thee and be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up his countenance
upon thee and give thee peace. The Lord, our Nazarite. The Lord bless thee and keep
thee. The Lord make his face shine
upon thee and be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up his countenance
upon thee and give thee peace. Amen.