FBC Daily Devotional – May 10, 2021

Well a good Monday to you. Hope you had a wonderful weekend. We're able to get together with God's people yesterday worship the Lord. And I hope that you learned something from God's Word, and I hope especially that There's some way in which God's Word found lodging in your heart and that he's used his word Even in the last 24 hours from what you heard yesterday.

It has somehow impacted you and And and and led you in a particular way. That's the way the Lord works in these days. He takes his word applies it to our hearts our lives and we grow by it he uses it to make us more and more like the Lord Jesus and Develop us in Christ likeness and so forth.

So I hope the Lord's Day was a good day for you in encountering God's Word. Well in speaking of encountering God's Word today If you're in the Bible reading plan, you're reading in Numbers chapter 6 and 7 as well as Psalm 49.

The Nazarite Vow in Numbers 6

And these two chapters in Numbers one of them one of them talks about this rather strange strange to us practice of. It's called the Nazarite vow. The word Nazarite, it doesn't have anything to do with being from Nazareth like Jesus was from Nazareth.

Nazarite has to do with separation. The word comes comes from the idea of separation and the the person who Engaged in this Nazarite vow is one who separated himself unto the Lord for some particular kind of service for a time of service and it could have been as short as a month or a lifetime and This was you know, what exactly somebody who Vowed this Nazarite vow did in service.

It could depend from person to person. Sometimes they may have engaged in practices that were reserved for the priests. I think for example some of the lifelong Nazarites included Samuel Samson and John the Baptist for example and Samuel remember was one who was supposed to do the offerings of The sacrifices when Saul took took it upon himself to do it.

So anyway, so so these this Nazarite vows rather interesting thing because the way that the Nazarite Symbolized his separation to God Was in the first place by separating completely from anything having to do with grapes.

He couldn't he couldn't drink any wine couldn't drink any vinegar made from grapes. He couldn't eat the skins of grapes. Couldn't eat raisins. Nothing to do with grapes. Secondly He was to he couldn't touch anything dead.

If he touched anything dead that would defile his separation and he'd have to go through a process of Renewing that vow and the third thing he couldn't cut his hair as long as he was under this vow. He could not cut his hair.

And so You know Someone like Samson for example, his strength was in the length of his hair. It wasn't the length of his hair itself. It was the fact that he was separated unto the Lord for particular kinds of service and that long hair Represented that Nazarite vow.

Counting the Cost of Consecration

I remember As a college kid, I went to a Christian college that had very strict regulations about the length of a guy's hair you know couldn't be touching the collar in the back of his head and Couldn't couldn't be over his ears and so forth and this particular passage caused no little Bit of exegetical gymnastics for For you know trying to justify such a strict Hair code and and I didn't have a problem with it.

I thought it was fine I remember I I was a college student in the the days of the hippie generation when you know long hair on guys was kind of like a way of Expressing rebellion against society and against the norms and so on and so forth.

So I never didn't have a problem with it, but I did find it to be interesting.

That.

Those who tried to argue that It was unbiblical for a man ever to have long hair and I even heard things like, you know, Jesus He didn't have long hair. He had a Roman haircut his hair was cut above his ears office off his collar and all the rest that kind of stuff.

Which is of course, you know balderdash. I mean, there's no way you can really justify that. But I found it interesting that those who would who would try to do that. You know, they really they were really kind of befuddled when you say well wait a minute now.

What about now? What about the Nazarite vow? What about John the Baptist? What about Samson? What about? Numbers chapter 6 and it was a special sign of dedication to the Lord not to cut your hair. So, okay, maybe I'm going to commit myself to the Lord and show my consecration to the Lord by not getting a haircut.

How's that gonna work? I? Suppose I could have found another place to go to college is what they would have told me. But anyway. This this whole vow. It seems to be a strange thing to our ears, but it was a very real tangible way of Identifying and clarifying One's consecration to the Lord for a special time or way manner of service.

So remember in that Old Testament system in the in the nation of Israel only the priests and Levites by virtue of their national identity and Consecration to the Lord. Through the firstborn remember the firstborn belongs to the Lord and those those were the Levites.

The Levites took the place of all the firstborn in the rest of tribe. They were the ones who were particularly called by virtue of that identity to serve the Lord. But any Israelite.

Could.

Commit himself to some kind of consecrated service By way of this Nazarite vow, and this was a way of demonstrating that. So what I take away from that is, you know, not that we are to perpetuate the Nazarite vow, but that any any believer any believer can consecrate himself to the Lord and And do so Consciously deliberately and wholeheartedly and that's the thing about that Nazarite vow.

This wasn't something that was a spontaneous Emotional decision, you know, you you know, you you you get you get excited about things of the Lord and all of a sudden I'm gonna commit myself to Consecrate myself to the Lord and do something special for him.

This was a serious thing. You had to think it through because There were some very definite implications. You weren't gonna touch anything that had to do with grapes you weren't gonna cut your hair and If some close relative died you loved one spouse, whatever.

You couldn't be involved in that in that process dealing with the dead person. So the people had to think it through and they had to count the cost of their vow. We're exhorted to do the same thing in the New Testament to count the cost of our commitment to the Lord.

Well, I hope you'll do that. I hope you have done that and I hope that even on a day-to-day basis. You you think through your dedication to the Lord and you enter into it.

Willingly.

Regardless of the cost just as the Nazarites did so. Let's pray and ask the Lord to help us to be a dedicated people who are consciously.

Deliberately.

Focused on our dedication to the Lord Father we thank you for what we can learn from this. What is to us a strange Old Testament practice of the Nazarites. And I pray that the seriousness with which one entered into that Nazarite vow and the deliberate voluntary nature of it would speak to us about the about the way in which we Live our lives in consecration to you.

Encourage us to be a dedicated faithful.

Committed.

Consecrated people.

By.

By virtue of Deliberate deliberate intent and this we pray in Jesus name. Amen. All right. Well have a good rest of your Monday. Hope your week gets off to a great start and it's a very productive week.

For.

Your life spiritually as well as every other way. May the Lord give you great health and prosperity in every way in this week. God bless.