Numbers 6

THE LAW OF THE NAZARITE.

This chapter contains two items of supplementary legislation: 1.) The law of the Nazarite; 2.) The form of the priestly blessing. (Numbers 6:22-27.) The fact that the Nazarite vow was not obligatory, but purely voluntary, is a sufficient reason for omitting it from the Levitical code, and for treating it as a supplement. See Leviticus 27:0, introductory note. The custom of special consecration, as shown in Spencer’s Hebrew Laws, prevailed from the earliest ages in Gentilism. Hence Mosaism regulates this practice by setting up safeguards against idolatry, superstition, and other abuses. This vow was a “spontaneous appropriation of what was imposed upon the priest by virtue of the calling connected with his descent, namely, the obligation to conduct himself as a person betrothed to God, and therefore to avoid every thing that would be opposed to such a surrender.” Oehler. Hence it beautifully prefigures the sanctity and ultimate freedom and blessedness of the believer in Christ anointed a priest unto God. In ascertaining the typical significance of the Nazarite, we remark that our Lord Jesus did not observe the laws relating to that order, yet nevertheless he was, in the spirit of his life, a perpetual Nazarite. The Nazarite also prefigures the higher Christian life attainable by all who fully consecrate themselves to Christ, and closely walk in his footsteps. As the Hebrew devoting himself to superior sanctity did not withdraw from the Jewish Church, neither should the wholly sanctified isolate themselves from the body of believers in Christ.