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Opening Prayer
Thank the Father for the blessing of coming to his Word, asking him to teach, help, give understanding, and apply it to our lives.
Read
Scripture Passage
The Law of the Nazirite
6 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When either a man or woman consecrates an offering to take the vow of a Nazirite, to separate himself to the Lord, 3 he shall separate himself from wine and similar drink; he shall drink neither vinegar made from wine nor vinegar made from similar drink; neither shall he drink any grape juice, nor eat fresh grapes or raisins. 4 All the days of his separation he shall eat nothing that is produced by the grapevine, from seed to skin.
5 ‘All the days of the vow of his separation no razor shall come upon his head; until the days are fulfilled for which he separated himself to the Lord, he shall be holy. Then he shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow. 6 All the days that he separates himself to the Lord he shall not go near a dead body. 7 He shall not make himself unclean even for his father or his mother, for his brother or his sister, when they die, because his separation to God is on his head. 8 All the days of his separation he shall be holy to the Lord.
9 ‘And if anyone dies very suddenly beside him, and he defiles his consecrated head, then he shall shave his head on the day of his cleansing; on the seventh day he shall shave it. 10 Then on the eighth day he shall bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons to the priest, to the door of the tabernacle of meeting; 11 and the priest shall offer one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering, and make atonement for him, because he sinned in regard to the corpse; and he shall sanctify his head that same day. 12 He shall consecrate to the Lord the days of his separation, and bring a male lamb in its first year as a trespass offering; but the former days shall be lost, because his separation was defiled.
13 ‘Now this is the law of the Nazirite: When the days of his separation are fulfilled, he shall be brought to the door of the tabernacle of meeting. 14 And he shall present his offering to the Lord: one male lamb in its first year without blemish as a burnt offering, one ewe lamb in its first year without blemish as a sin offering, one ram without blemish as a peace offering, 15 a basket of unleavened bread, cakes of fine flour mixed with oil, unleavened wafers anointed with oil, and their grain offering with their drink offerings.
16 ‘Then the priest shall bring them before the Lord and offer his sin offering and his burnt offering; 17 and he shall offer the ram as a sacrifice of a peace offering to the Lord, with the basket of unleavened bread; the priest shall also offer its grain offering and its drink offering. 18 Then the Nazirite shall shave his consecrated head at the door of the tabernacle of meeting, and shall take the hair from his consecrated head and put it on the fire which is under the sacrifice of the peace offering.
19 ‘And the priest shall take the boiled shoulder of the ram, one unleavened cake from the basket, and one unleavened wafer, and put them upon the hands of the Nazirite after he has shaved his consecrated hair, 20 and the priest shall wave them as a wave offering before the Lord; they are holy for the priest, together with the breast of the wave offering and the thigh of the heave offering. After that the Nazirite may drink wine.’
21 “This is the law of the Nazirite who vows to the Lord the offering for his separation, and besides that, whatever else his hand is able to provide; according to the vow which he takes, so he must do according to the law of his separation.”
The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), Nu 6:1–21.
A — About
What Is This Passage About?
A man or woman may take a voluntary Nazirite vow of special separation to the Lord. During it, the Nazirite avoids grape products, does not cut the hair, and avoids defilement by a corpse; if defiled, the person begins again, and at the vow's completion brings the commanded offerings.
B — Best Verse
A Verse That Summarizes the Passage
Numbers 6:21
Distilled from the devotional exposition; the speaker did not explicitly name a best verse.
No one identifies a best verse in the full transcript. Verse 21 is distilled because it summarizes the law of the Nazirite and stresses that the person must fulfill the vow according to its law.
C — Called or Christ
C — Called to Do & Christ Connection
Be a person of integrity who keeps vows made to the Lord. Above all, trust Jesus, who perfectly kept his commitments and whose promises to his people will never fail, and walk before God in a pleasing way.
Devotional Study
Transcript of the devotion. Minor transcription errors may remain.
Well, good morning, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This is where every day you and I, we get together. We have a little bit of coffee, tea, milk, water, something, maybe nothing. I don't know. We all have a little bit of something to drink.
We get into God's Word. And this year, 2024, Lord willing, we'll make it through the books of Numbers, Deuteronomy, and Hebrews. Numbers, Deuteronomy, and Hebrews. Good job. We're gonna read down here. Let's have some coffee or tea. We'll pray and we'll get into God's Word. You want your milk?
Okay. Let's pray. Father we thank you so much for this day. What a blessing it is. Let's pray. What a blessing it is to get to come to your word. We pray now, Lord, that as we read it, that you would teach us and help us. Father, we pray that we would understand it and that you would apply it to our lives. In Jesus' name, Amen.
Daddy, I can't believe I'm right now. Oh, that's fine. Yeah, you got a little cold going on. Okay, so Numbers chapter 6. Then the Lord spoke to Moses and The next one's a big one. Consecrates. L.A. can you blow your nose over there please? Thank you. separate himself to the Lord, he shall separate himself from wine and Similar. Drink. Vinegar.
Similar. or drink as neither shall he drink any grape juice nor eat ash grapes all the days of his separation and he shall eat no nothing that is produced by the grape vine from said seed Alright, so this is talking about a man or a woman can make what type of vow? A Nazirite vow. And if they take a Nazirite vow? They can't eat anything like grapes. They can't eat wine. Wine, vinegar, raisins, grape juice, none of it, right? No grape juice? Nope, no grape juice. All right, Debra, can you read verse 5 to 8?
Sure. All the days of the vow of his separation, no razor shall come upon his head. until the days are fulfilled, for which he separated himself to the Lord, he shall be holy. Then he shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow. All the days that he separates himself to the Lord, he shall not go near a dead body. He shall not make himself unclean, even for his father or his mother, his sister when they die because his separation to God is on his head. All the days of his separation he will be holy to the Lord.
Okay, so the last paragraph it was nothing with the grapes, right? Now there's two things. Alright, what are the two things? He can't go to a funeral. Alright, well maybe he could go to a funeral, but could he touch the dead body? No, so nothing like that. And then what about the stuff on his head? No haircuts. No haircuts, right? Okay. Nathan, can you read 9 through 12? Sure, I'll do 12. I'll read some.
And if anyone dies recently besides him, and he defiles his consecrated... consecrated head. Then he shall shave his head on the day of his cleansing. On the seventh day he shall shave it. Then on the eighth day he shall bring two turtle doves, or two young pigeons, to the place, to the door of the Temple Mount, as the Temple Mount will be made. Keep going. And the priest shall offer one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering, and make atonement for him, because he sinned in regard to the corpse. He shall sanctify his head, and the same day he shall consecrate to the Lord the days of his separation, and bring a male lamb in its first year as a trespass offering, but the former day shall be Lost because the separation was defiled.
Okay, so what's that talking about? It didn't have a sense. I don't get it. Well, it's okay. You're here now. So Nathan, what was that paragraph about? What happens if you accidentally break it? Yeah, good. So what happens if you accidentally break it? Okay. Now this is the vow or the law of the Nazirite. When the days of his separation are fulfilled... Alright, so what's this going to talk about now? Well yeah, but now it's like okay the vow is done. So what do you do when the vow is done?
He shall be brought to the door of the tabernacle of meeting, and he shall present his offering to the Lord, one male lamb in its first year without blemish as a burnt offering, one ewe lamb in its first year without blemish as a sin offering, one ram without blemish as a peace offering, a basket of unleavened bread, cakes of fine flour mixed with oil, unleavened wafers anointed with oil, and their grain offering with their drink offerings, right? So he's got to do a male lamb, a ewe lamb, a ram, and a basket for unleavened bread, or of unleavened bread for sacrifice. Yeah, it's okay. Yeah.
Then the priest shall bring them before the Lord and offer his sin offering and his burnt offering. And he shall offer the ram as a sacrifice of a peace offering to the Lord, with a basket of unleavened bread. The priest shall also offer its grain offering and its drink offering. Then the Nazirite shall shave his consecrated head at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. and shall take the hair from his consecrated head and put it on the fire which is under the sacrifice of the peace offering.
So he's going to cut his hair, he's going to take his hair, and what are they going to do with it? Burn it. Good. And the priest shall take the boiled shoulder of the ram, one unleavened cake from the basket, and one unleavened wafer, and put them upon the hands of the Nazarite after he has shaved his consecrated hair. And the priest shall wave them as a wave-offering before the Lord. They are holy for the priests, together with the breast of the wave-offering and the thigh of the heave-offering. After that, the Nazarite may drink That's right.
This is the law of the Nazarite who vows to the Lord the offering for his separation. And besides that, whatever else his hand is able to provide according to the vow which he takes, so he must do according to the law of his separation. So, this whole section was about what? when the period has ended. Well yeah, but now I'm talking about that whole section, verses 1 through 21 of number 6. The vow of the Nazirite. The vow of the Nazirite, that's right. Can you think of a famous Nazirite in the Bible? I can remember a Nazirite, but I can't... It starts with an S, Ims of the Son. Simon? Nope, not Simon. Aleelah healed Samson. Samson, right? Samson was a Nazirite.
That's why they weren't able to cut his hair. Yeah, right, because he had taken a vow, right? He was a Nazirite, and so when they cut his hair, he lost his... Vow. Well, yeah, his vow was broken. He lost his strength, right? It's just wax, sweetie. It's okay. Do you think the point was, like, the strength was in his hair? No. Right, like the VeggieTales? Oh, where is my hairbrush? No, it's not his hair that's a strength.
But the point was, right, was he devoted to God or not? Why do you think somebody might take a Nazirite vow? It tells to show he is devoted. Okay, so as a sign of devotion, right? Do you think that people can still make vows to the Lord today? Yeah, I think we can still make vows to the Lord today.
Maybe somebody says, you know, for this period of time, I'm not going to do X, Y, or Z. We failed those when they took a vow not to drink wine. Yeah, right, so there were some elders in our denomination who took vows not to drink wine. Maybe not even that. Maybe you might say, I'm going to... Maybe you might take a vow to say, I'm not going to buy anything that has sweets in it this year, and instead I'm going to take all the money that I would spend on coffee and sweets, and I'm going to give it to the poor instead. Would that be a vow to the Lord that you said, okay, I'm going to do this good thing for God. And you can make a vow that way. Now, is that vow required? No. No, it's not required, but once it's made, it can't be like, oh, well, it's a bad boy. Yeah, once you take a vow, you better keep it, shouldn't you? Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Nathan and Debra, did you guys recently take vows at church? No. What vows did you take? Vows of membership. Yeah, membership vows. When did I get? Oh, you haven't taken membership vows. Vows to baptize. Are you serious? Yeah, Mommy and Daddy took vows when we baptized you, didn't we? So I had a vow. Well, the vow was for you. You were a passive recipient of that vow. Did you baptize me? Well, Pastor Micah baptized you, yeah. But I took vows.
Alright guys, let's go ahead and pray. Father, we thank you so much that we can be devoted to you, and we might even have special times or things that we might devote unto you. We pray that we would be people who would keep our vows. Lord, but we thank you most of all that you have sent us Jesus, who always kept his vows, and has made a lot of promises to us. And we know, Lord, that you will keep them. And so Father, we pray that we would walk in your ways, we pray that we would be people of integrity, and we pray that we would always walk before you in a way which is pleasing and acceptable in your sight. We pray in Jesus' name.
Amen. Well, may you walk before the Lord with reverence and fear. May you know that your great shepherd loves you and keeps you every day. And we'll see you next time. Daddy, I want to tell you a joke. Well, no joke right now. I want to say bye. Bye.
Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith in your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue. Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.