Numbers 6:1 - Meaning and Application

After the law that exposed and shamed those who had made themselves unclean by sin, it is fitting to follow with a law for those who had made themselves honorable by special devotion to God. This law gives direction and encouragement to people who set themselves apart by strong faith and holy living, and who stood out from their neighbors. It is very likely that some people were already known as Nazarites before this law was written, since the vow is treated here as something already familiar, though it is now given clearer rules.

Joseph is called a Nazarite among his brothers (Genesis 49:26), not only because he was set apart from them, but because he was greater than they were. A Nazarite was a person separated to the Lord (Numbers 6:2). Some were Nazarites for life, either by God’s own choice, like Samson (Judges 13:5) and John the Baptist (Luke 1:15), or by a parent’s vow, like Samuel (1 Samuel 1:11). This law is not speaking about those cases. It is speaking about people who became Nazarites for a set time, by their own willing vow, and for them God gives these rules.

A woman could also make this vow, within the limits described in Numbers 30:3, where the vow a woman makes to the Lord seems to include this one in a special way. The Nazarites belonged to the Lord during the time of their vow, and they likely spent much of that time in studying God’s law, in prayer, and in helping teach others. Their whole way of life was meant to show godliness. They also separated themselves from ordinary people and ordinary things, because those who are set apart for God must not be shaped by the world around them.

They did this by making a vow of their own. Every Israelite was already bound by God’s law to love him with all his heart, but the Nazarite went further by taking on extra acts of worship and self-denial as signs of that love. In that way, some people became special examples in the church, leaders in religion, and patterns of holy living. God had shown great kindness to Israel by raising up some of their young men as Nazarites (Amos 2:11). They were known in public as people who were cleaner than snow and whiter than milk (Lamentations 4:7).

Christ was mocked as a Nazarene, as were his followers, but he was not a Nazarite under this law. He drank wine and touched dead bodies. Even so, this picture found its true meaning in him, because in him all purity and perfection came together. Every true Christian is, in a spiritual sense, a Nazarite, separated by vow to the Lord. Paul, at the urging of his friends and in kindness to the Jews, took part in this Nazarite practice for a time, but it was also made clear that Gentile believers were not required to keep it (Acts 21:24, Acts 21:25). To be a Nazarite was seen as a great honor. If a man spoke of it as if it were a burden, saying, “I would rather be a Nazarite than do such a thing,” the Jews considered him wicked. But if he vowed to the Lord in holiness to be a Nazarite, then, as they said, the crown of his God was upon his head.

God himself set the rules for these people, so that human ideas would not keep adding new restrictions without end. First, they were to have nothing to do with the fruit of the vine (Numbers 6:3, Numbers 6:4). They could drink no wine or strong drink, and they could not eat grapes, kernels, husks, or even raisins. Dr. Lightfoot thought this may have been meant to picture the pure life of humanity before the fall, and that the vine may have been the forbidden tree in Eden. If so, the law would point back to innocence and holiness. Those who gave Nazarites wine to drink were doing the tempter’s work (Amos 2:12), pushing them toward what God had forbidden. The Rechabites show that refusing wine was seen as a sign of discipline and honor (Jeremiah 35:6).

They were to avoid wine, first, so they would be examples of temperance and self-control. Those who set themselves apart for God must not satisfy the desires of the body, but must keep it under control. Scripture allows a little wine for health, such as Paul mentioned to Timothy (1 Timothy 5:23), but drinking for pleasure is not fitting for those who aim to live by the Spirit rather than the flesh. Second, they were to be fit for God’s service. Wine could dull their minds and make them forget the law (Proverbs 31:5), or cause them to go astray through drink (Isaiah 28:7). Christians should also be very careful and moderate with wine and strong drink, because when love for these things takes over, Satan can easily trap a person.

It is striking that because they were forbidden wine, the main thing in view, they were also forbidden everything that came from the vine. This teaches us to avoid sin with great care, and to stay away from anything that leads toward sin or may tempt us into it. We should abstain from all appearance of evil (1 Thessalonians 5:22).

Second, they were not to cut their hair (Numbers 6:5). They were not to trim their heads or shave their beards. This was the mark of Samson’s Nazariteship that appears often in his story. It showed a noble disregard for the body, its comfort, and its beauty. Since they were set apart for God, they were meant to be focused on the care and beauty of the soul. It also showed that they had given up worldly pleasures for the time being and chosen a life of self-denial. Mephibosheth, in grief, did not trim his beard (2 Samuel 19:24).

Some also note that long hair is spoken of as a sign of submission (1 Corinthians 11:5 and following). If so, the Nazarite’s long hair showed that he was under God’s rule and had placed himself under his authority. It also made him easy to recognize, so that others would respect him as one set apart. His hair made him stand out naturally, without art or display. It was like a crown from nature, and it gave witness that he had kept himself pure. If he became unclean, his hair had to be cut off (Numbers 6:9). See also Jeremiah 7:29.

Third, they were not to go near a dead body (Numbers 6:6, Numbers 6:7).

Other people might touch dead bodies and become ceremonially unclean for a time. In some cases, they had to do that, or the dead would not be buried. But the Nazarites had to avoid this, on pain of losing all the honor of their Nazarite vow. They could not even attend a funeral for a close relative, not even father or mother, just as the high priest was forbidden to do, because God’s consecration was on their head.

Those who set themselves apart for God must learn to set themselves apart in practice and do more than others. They must keep their consciences clean from dead works, and they must not touch anything unclean. The higher our public profession of religion is, and the more visible we are, the more careful we must be to avoid sin. We have more honor to lose by it. They must also control their feelings even toward close family, so grief over loss does not destroy their joy in God or their willingness to submit to his will. See (Matthew 8:21-22).

All the days of their separation, they had to be holy to the Lord (Numbers 6:8). That was the true meaning of the outward rules. Without this inner devotion, those rules meant nothing. The Nazarite had to belong to God, serve him, and keep his mind fixed on him. He had to stay pure in heart and life, and in everything match God’s image and will. That is what it means to be holy. That is what it means to be a true Nazarite.

There was also a provision for cleansing a Nazarite if he became unclean by touching a dead body by accident. No penalty is given here for breaking the earlier rules on purpose. The law did not expect that a man with enough religion to make this vow would deliberately break it. He also would not likely drink wine or cut his hair by choice. But by God’s providence, without any fault of his own, he might come near a dead body. That is the case described in (Numbers 6:9): if a man dies suddenly beside him, he has defiled the head of his consecration.

Death sometimes takes people very suddenly, with no warning at all. A man may be alive and then dead so quickly that even the most careful Nazarite could not avoid contact with the body. So close, and so brief, is the step from time into eternity. May God prepare us for sudden death.

In that case, he had to be purified from the ceremonial uncleanness, as others were, on the seventh day (Numbers 6:9). In fact, more was required of a Nazarite than of other people who had touched a dead body. He had to bring a sin offering and a burnt offering, and atonement had to be made for him (Numbers 6:10-11). This teaches us that sins of weakness, and faults we are caught in by surprise, must be truly repented of. It also teaches us that we must apply the value of Christ’s sacrifice to our souls every day for the forgiveness of our sins (1 John 2:1-2). It also shows that if people who make a strong public profession of religion do anything that harms that profession, more is expected from them than from others, both for the recovery of their peace and for the recovery of their reputation.

He also had to start the days of his separation over again. All the days that had passed before his uncleanness, even if he was very near the end of his vow, were lost and did not count (Numbers 6:12). This made them very careful not to defile themselves by the dead, because that was the one thing that caused them to lose their time. It also warns us that if a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and defiles himself with dead works, all the righteousness he has done will be forgotten to him (Ezekiel 33:13). It is all lost, and all in vain, if he does not keep going (Galatians 3:4). He must begin again and do his first works.

When the time of the vow was completed, there was a solemn ceremony to release the Nazarite from it. He could not be released before the set time was finished. Before he made the vow, it was his choice. Afterward, it was too late to investigate whether he wished to continue. The Jews say a Nazarite’s vow could not be for less than thirty days. If a man said, “I will be a Nazarite for only two days,” he was still bound for thirty. But Paul’s vow seems to have been for only seven days (Acts 21:27), or, more likely, he was then carrying out the ending ceremony of a Nazarite vow from which he had already released himself years before at Cenchrea, by cutting his hair there only as part of the vow’s completion (Acts 18:18).

When the set time was over, he was to be made free, first publicly at the entrance of the tabernacle (Numbers 6:13), so everyone would notice that his vow was finished and no one would be offended if he now drank wine after having refused it for so long. He also had to do it with sacrifices (Numbers 6:14). Even after such an act of devotion, he was not to think that God now owed him anything. He still had to bring an offering to God when his vow was finished, because even after we have done all our duty, we must still confess that we are in God’s debt.

He had to bring one of each kind of appointed offering. First was the burnt offering, as a sign that God still had authority over him and over all he possessed, even though this particular vow was ending. Second was the sin offering. It is mentioned second in (Numbers 6:14), but it seems to have been offered first in (Numbers 6:16), because atonement must be made for sin before any sacrifice can be accepted. It is striking that even the Nazarite, who looked cleaner than snow and whiter than milk, could not stand before the holy God without a sin offering. Even if he had kept his vow without any outward uncleanness, he still had to bring a sacrifice for sin. The best people still contract guilt in ways they do not notice, even in their best actions, some good left undone and some evil allowed in. If God dealt with us by strict justice, that would ruin us. So we must rely on atonement and plead it as our righteousness before God.

Third was the peace offering, given in thankfulness to God, who had helped him keep his vow, and in prayer that God would keep him from ever doing anything unworthy of one who had once been a Nazarite. He had to remember that, although he was now free from the bonds of his own vow, he was still bound by God’s law. Fourth, the grain offerings and drink offerings were added, according to the rule (Numbers 6:15, 17), since these always went with burnt offerings and peace offerings. Along with them came a basket of unleavened cakes and wafers. Fifth, part of the peace offering, together with a cake and a wafer, was waved before the Lord as a wave offering (Numbers 6:19-20). This was a gift to the priest, who received it for his service after it had first been offered to God. Sixth, he could also bring freewill offerings, whatever he could afford, as stated in (Numbers 6:21). He could bring more than this, but not less.

To add dignity to the occasion, it was common for friends to help pay the cost (Acts 21:24). One more ceremony was required, like canceling a bond after its terms had been met: the man’s hair, which had been allowed to grow during his time as a Nazirite, was cut off and burned in the fire under the peace offerings (Numbers 6:18). This showed that the full keeping of his vow was accepted by God through Christ, the great sacrifice, and not in any other way. From this we should learn to make vows to the Lord our God and keep them, because he has no pleasure in fools.