Numbers 6:8-208All the days of his separation he is holy unto the Lord. 9And if any man die very suddenly by him, and he hath defiled the head of his consecration; 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 he shall bring two turtles, 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. 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, 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. 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 basket of unleavened bread: the priest shall offer also his meat offering, and his drink offering. 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. 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 and heave shoulder: and after that the Nazarite may drink wine. (Numbers 6:8‑20)
The Lord Jesus was the true Nazarite who would not allow His mother to occupy Him with natural ties (Mark 3:32-3432And the multitude sat about him, and they said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren without seek for thee. 33And he answered them, saying, Who is my mother, or my brethren? 34And he looked round about on them which sat about him, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren! (Mark 3:32‑34)), but in her time of need He would commend her to the care of John. (John 19:26, 2726When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son! 27Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home. (John 19:26‑27).) Surely He was perfect in all things and a blessed Example for us, but how many a young man has hindered his usefulness to the Lord by allowing himself to become occupied with natural joys and relationships—quite right in their place—but which have tied him to earth so that he could not be a Nazarite. Still others have started out in the path but did not continue, lacking in that spiritual energy to go on. It is only with the eye upon Christ that we can continue.
The long hair of the Nazarite, as we have mentioned, is typical of the despised place we are to occupy now, for the long hair was a shame to a man. Our blessed Lord was the despised One when here, and if we are to follow Him devotedly we shall find the world will not want us either. Very often our troubles come because of our unlovely ways, but since the long hair typifies submission, we would learn in it that we should be careful that we “suffer according to the will of God”—in the path of obedience to Him. (1 Peter 4:1919Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator. (1 Peter 4:19).) To suffer persecution in any other way is only our own folly, and not suffering for Christ at all.
Nor was the Nazarite to be defiled for the dead. Even if someone unexpectedly died beside him and he became defiled, his Nazariteship was broken. We are in a world of evil, and oh how watchful we have to be. There is even a danger, because of our desire to be devoted to God in the midst of evil, that we become defiled by it. For example, we are to carry the message of God’s grace to the vilest, but unless it is in the power of complete separation to God, we might be defiled. It is most needful in serving the Lord that the inner devotedness to Christ and walk with Him is maintained, or we may be carried away with the very evil in which such service places us. In a word, let any of us who seek to serve the Lord be watchful that our service does not go beyond our communion, for if it does, we are in great danger at once. This was the case with Samson, whose very strength and energy for the Lord put him among the Philistines and then, alas, he married one of them, put his head in her lap, and gave up his Nazariteship.
We notice in our chapter that when this Nazarite separation was broken whether intentionally or otherwise, the Nazarite had to shave off all his hair and offer a sacrifice. He was not to pretend to be what he was not, and if he left his hair long it would appear that he was still a Nazarite when he was not. Let us watch against pretentions of spirituality which are not true of us. God looks on the heart.
When the vow of the Nazarite was ended he was to offer a burnt offering, a sin offering, and a peace offering, as well as meat offerings. How beautifully this typifies the time when our separation will he over, when we will come into the full fruit of redemption’s work, and drink that wine of joy with Christ, without hindrance above. There will be no evil to be separate from in heaven. Of course we can have this joy in measure now by the Spirit as we walk in separation to Christ, but then we shall know and enjoy in fullness what is now only known in part.
ML 07/29/1951