"The Nazarite Vow"

Scripture Passage for Today

Numbers 6:1-27; Numbers 10:1-36

Scripture Focus

“This is the ritual law of the Nazirites, who vow to bring these offerings to the LORD. They may also bring additional offerings if they can afford it. And they must be careful to do whatever they vowed when they set themselves apart as Nazirites.” (Numbers 6:21 NLT)

Observation

Out of nowhere and without introduction, the Scriptures take up the matter of a “Nazarite vow”. And the subject is then dropped as suddenly as it appeared. Indeed, beyond the Old Testament stories of Samuel and Samson, who were both divinely subject to the terms of the Nazarite vow (from birth and for life) and, in the New Testament, a passing indication that the Apostle Paul may have made a Nazarite vow, I don’t recall that the Nazarite vow is mentioned in Scripture again.

Even why someone would make a Nazarite vow is never actually explained. Presumably though, a Nazarite vow was fundamentally an act of special consecration and might be made as an expression of devotion to God, or to affirm the intensity of one’s desire for God, or perhaps as an expression of thanksgiving to God.

Whatever the reason, I wonder why such expressions aren’t considered more often today. I don’t mean people making a Nazarite vow per se, but redeemed believers making special commitments—if only for a season—that reflect their commitment to God, their desire for God, or their thanksgiving to God.

Here’s something I hadn’t seen before, either. It appears from the regulations to be followed at the conclusion of such a vow that perhaps a group of people might make a vow together. (Notice all the plurals in vv 13-20.) I like the notion of, say, a group of God-hungry believers agreeing to abstain from (insert your specific interest here!) for some pre-determined length of time simply as a way to say, “God, we belong to you and you mean more to us than anything! We long, every day, to be ‘holy and set apart to the Lord’” (Numbers 6:5 NLT).