A Survey of the Old Testament Law--Numbers 6, the Nazirite Vow (Part 1)

Numbers 6:1-8—1 Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 2 "Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: 'When either a man or woman consecrates an offering to take the vow of a Nazirite, to separate himself to the LORD, 3 he shall separate himself from wine and similar drink; he shall drink neither vinegar made from wine nor vinegar made from similar drink; neither shall he drink any grape juice, nor eat fresh grapes or raisins. 4 All the days of his separation he shall eat nothing that is produced by the grapevine, from seed to skin. 5 All the days of the vow of his separation no razor shall come upon his head; until the days are fulfilled for which he separated himself to the LORD, he shall be holy. Then he shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow. 6 All the days that he separates himself to the LORD he shall not go near a dead body. 7 He shall not make himself unclean even for his father or his mother, for his brother or his sister, when they die, because his separation to God is on his head. 8 All the days of his separation he shall be holy to the LORD.

This is the section where God lays out the law of the Nazarite. A man or woman who was not a Levite could consecrate themselves to God by taking a vow as a Nazirite. The word “Nazarite” comes from the word נָזִיר (nazir), which means “to dedicate, separate, consecrate”. This vow could be taken by either a man or a woman, anyone who wanted to consecrate themselves to God could take the vow. And there were three key elements in this vow:

 

1)                They could not eat grapes or eat or drink anything that was made from grapes

2)                They could not take a razor to their hair, and

3)                They could not touch a dead body

First, the prohibition against eating or drinking grapes or grape products. Not just wine, but even grapes themselves, or raisins, which are dried grapes. And why would that be? Why would this Nazarite not touch grapes? Well, as the Nazarite was consecrated to God, they were not to see how close they could come without becoming intoxicated. It was a way for them to keep from testing God. You see, grapes themselves can sometimes taste like wine, and can tempt the person into drinking wine. This was something the Nazarite was to abstain from in order to serve God, so they may always have their minds on God. There are many warnings in the Bible about wine and strong drink. For example, Proverbs 20:1—Wine is a mocker, strong drink is a brawler, and whoever is led astray by it is not wise. Proverbs 23:29-35—29 Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who has complaints? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes? 30 Those who linger long at the wine, those who go in search of mixed wine. 31 Do not look on the wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it swirls around smoothly; 32 at the last it bites like a serpent, and stings like a viper. 33 Your eyes will see strange things, and your heart will utter perverse things. 34 Yes, you will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea, or like one who lies at the top of the mast, saying: 35 "They have struck me,  but I was not hurt; they have beaten me, but I did not feel it. When shall I awake, that I may seek another drink?" “All these woes came upon me because I got drunk. When can I get another?” Wine is seen as something more cultured, something that is consumed by elites and the wise. And when someone wants to look and act like they are more upper class than what they are, they won’t drink beer or whiskey; they will pour a glass of wine.

But here’s the thing: you can get just as drunk on wine as you can on whiskey or rye. Ever heard the term “wino”? Because it is alcohol. And it is common knowledge that alcohol impairs judgement and lowers inhibitions. And look at the passage in Proverbs 23 to see all the things that can come upon you from drinking too much wine. It can make you feel depressed, it can make you easily outraged, it can make you mad at the world, it can cause you to fall down and injure yourself, it can give you bloodshot eyes, it can throw off your equilibrium. Do those sound like the traits of one who has set themselves apart to God? I like what Alexander MacLaren says “Intemperance delights in scoffing at all pure, lofty, sacred things. It is the ally of wild profanity, which sends up its tipsy and clumsy ridicule against Heaven itself. If a man wants to lose his sense of reverence, his susceptibility for what is noble, let him take to drink, and the thing is done.”

One Nazirite we come across in Scripture is the prophet Samuel. Samuel was set apart as a Nazirite from the womb. His mother, Hannah, was barren and had not conceived any children, and was constantly ridiculed by her husband’s other wife, Penninah, because *she*gave Elkanah children. But then one day when Hannah was at the temple mouthing te words to a prayer, the priest Eli saw her and thought her moved by wine, and told her 1st Samuel 1:14— So Eli said to her, "How long will you be drunk? Put your wine away from you!", to which Hannah replied 1^st Samuel 1:15—“No, my lord, I am a woman of sorrowful spirit. I have drunk neither wine nor intoxicating drink, but have poured out my soul before the LORD.” Then we see in 1st Samuel 1:20 that God opened her womb, and she called the child Samuel, "Because I have asked for him from the LORD." The name Samuel (Heb. שְׁמוּאֵל, šᵊmû'ēl) means “His name is El”, and, Hannah gave him to the service of God, and declared him a Nazirite in 1st Samuel 1:11—Then she made a vow and said, "O LORD of hosts, if You will indeed look on the affliction of Your maidservant and remember me, and not forget Your maidservant, but will give Your maidservant a male child, then I will give him to the LORD all the days of his life, and no razor shall come upon his head." Samuel was a fascinating man; he was prophet when Saul was chosen as the first king of Israel. And being a Nazirite he was perfectly suited to be the man God needed him to be to be strong enough to stand up to this king. He had to be sharp in his mind, had to be able to hear from God and proclaim what he had heard. And when Saul offered a Burnt Offering when Samuel was not there, he had to be clear enough in his mind to tell Saul that the kingship would be taken from him for his rash deed.

When I was a kid I remember a restaurant, I forget the name of it, but on their sign out front it said “Fine Food and Spirits”. Spirits, like ghosts? No. I asked my mom, who told me that “Spirits” referred to wine and other such drinks. Ever wonder why they call them “spirits”? Ever see someone become a totally different person after a few drinks? Now, don’t get me wrong, a bottle of whiskey or rye is not a literal spirit, but it certainly does make people’s spirits change when they’ve had a few. The people at Pentecost thought the Apostles had those kinds of spirits. Acts 2:12-15—12 So they were all amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, "Whatever could this mean?" 13 Others mocking said, "They are full of new wine." 14 But Peter, standing up with the eleven, raised his voice and said to them, “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and heed my words. 15 For these are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day.” These were not drunk on wine, but were filled with the Holy Spirit. We are warned, even in the New Testament, about the dangers of alcohol. Ephesians 5:18—And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit. 1st Peter 4:3-4—3 For we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles—when we walked in lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries. 4 In regard to these, they think it strange that you do not run with them in the same flood of dissipation, speaking evil of you. Romans 13:13—Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. We may not be Nazirites, but in this regard we should probably follow their example.

The second regulation concerns not taking a razor to one’s head. A Nazirite was only to shave his head if he was defiled by a dead body. But why the prohibition from cutting one’s hair? Doesn’t Paul say in 1st Corinthians 11:14—Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a dishonor to him? Yes, but then he goes on to say in 1st Corinthians 11:15—But if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her; for her hair is given to her for a covering. So why, then, would God command that men who set themselves apart to Him should wear this long hair that nature tells him is a dishonor? The male Nazirite was not wearing his hair long as a way to be seen as feminine, but as a sign that he was under the covering of God.

Samson, in the Book of Judges, was a Nazarite and he is famed for his long hair. Like Samuel, he was born to a mother who was barren. That is, until she and her husband were visited by an Angel of God. Only it wasn’t the child’s mother who declared him a Nazirite, but the Angel who visited her. Judges 13:2-5—2 Now there was a certain man from Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his wife was barren and had no children. 3 And the Angel of the LORD appeared to the woman and said to her, "Indeed now, you are barren and have borne no children, but you shall conceive and bear a son. 4 Now therefore, please be careful not to drink wine or similar drink, and not to eat anything unclean. 5 For behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. And no razor shall come upon his head, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb; and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines." This man was set apart by God to do a great thing in God’s name. He was meant to deliver God’s people from their enemies.

Remember, we are in the period of the Judges, and if you have read the Book of Judges you know this may be the most depressing book in the Bible. Moses led them in the wilderness for 40 years, then he died and Joshua took his place. Then when he died, the wheels fell off the wagon, so to speak. The nation of Israel falls into chaos, and instead of being led by God, they followed men. It’s interesting, it says in Joshua 24:16—So the people answered and said: “Far be it from us that we should forsake the LORD to serve other gods”. Yet that is exactly what they did! Just like at the foot of Mt. Sinai, when God was still speaking to Moses and they convinced Aaron to make the golden calf. Joshua dies in Judges 2:8. Then, a few verses later, this people who said “Far be it from us that we should forsake the LORD to serve other gods” DID JUST THAT! Joshua’s body was barely cold when we read in Judges 2-13—They forsook the LORD and served Baal and the Ashtoreths. This is a theme that gets repeated in Judges. And don’t think we’re any better. Were it not for the Holy Spirit given to us by God, we would do the exact same thing.

So by the time Samson comes along, Israel has lived under Othneil and Ehud and Shamgar—who slew 600 Philistines with and ox goad—and Deborah/Barak and Abimelech and 7 other Judges for a period of roughly 400 years. Some were good, some were not. And Samson would prove to be the last of the Judges. And for the good he did in his death, his life is not one we should try to model ourselves after. If you read the account of his life, it is full of pride and almost arrogance and indifference. He gave to his parents honey that he had obtained from the carcass of the lion he killed—honey which made the person eating it unclean. He burned up a wheat field, slew 1000 men with the jawbone of a donkey, and pretty much joked with Delilah about his strength.

And if we don’t think too much about it, we can assume that his strength derived from his long hair. But that is not true. Yes, it is true that when Delilah’s accomplices shaved his head that his strength left him. Or did it? Judges 16:20—And she said, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson!" So he awoke from his sleep, and said, "I will go out as before, at other times, and shake myself free!" But he did not know that the LORD had departed from him. Not that his strength had departed, but that YHVH—the LORD—had departed from him. The fact that he no longer had the strength he once possessed was not simply due to his head being shaved. That was incidental. He lost his strength because this man, who was set apart as a Nazirite by God, had made a grievous mistake: He had let his pride carry him away, told his mistress the secret of his strength, and a bunch of pagans caused him to break his vow to God. Keil & Delitzsch—

 

 The superhuman strength of Samson did not reside in his hair as hair, but in the fact that Jehovah was with or near him. But Jehovah was with him so long as he maintained his condition as a Nazarite. As soon as he broke away from this by sacrificing the hair which he wore in honour of the Lord, Jehovah departed from him, and with Jehovah went his strength.

 It was not his hair that made him strong. It was God working through him, as a man called a Nazirite by God Himself that made him strong. Likewise for us, we can do mighty things. We can preach, and teach, and evangelize and sing and do all these wonderful things. But if we do them simply out of our own treasury these will have no effect on those who hear. 1st Corinthians 2:14—But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. Think you can understand and believe this Book with human knowledge? No. You can understand what it *says*, but you will never know what it *means*. That’s why Jesus spoke in parables: to separate those who were His from those who weren’t. He knew His sheep would understand what He was saying, but to those who weren’t His sheep they would just be words. And if anything convinced me that Jesus was really real, it was His parables. I understood them. And I did not understand them because I was smarter or more righteous than anyone else. Far from the truth! He gave me that understanding. And far from making me puffed up, it has humbled me, and more so the more I read and study His word.

Part 2 next week

 

Jesus Christ is Lord.

Amen.

A Survey of the Old Testament Law--Numbers 6, The Nazirite Vow (Part 2)

The third and last regulation for the Nazirite was to not touch, or even go near, a dead body—even someone in their own family. The one set apart to God is commanded to not defile themselves by the dead. This may be why John the Baptist preached in the wilderness—less chance of being near a dead body. We don’t have concrete proof that he was a Nazirite, but we can surmise it from when the Angel of God tells his parents in Luke 1:15— “For he will be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb.”  Like Samson and Samuel, he was called to be a Nazirite before he was born. He preached repentance with the zeal of Samuel, and with a passion Samson should have had. The kind of zeal all who follow Christ should have, like it says in Titus 2:14. And like when Samuel confronted King Saul about his sin, John Baptist did likewise when he confronted Herod about Herod sleeping with his brother’s wife in Matthew 14:1-10.

John the Baptist was the one spoken of in Malachi 3:1— "Behold, I send My messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple, even the Messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight. Behold, He is coming," says the LORD of hosts. Malachi was the last prophet of the Old Testament, and for about 400 years, God was silent. Then suddenly, this man appears in the wilderness of Judea, preaching and proclaiming the Kingdom of God. Many thought him mad, what with his dress and diet. But how many times did they think the prophets of old mad. We have Samuel who prophesied naked (1st Samuel 19:24) and Ezekiel laying on his left side and then his right (Ezekiel 4:4-6). And here was this guy now coming along, wearing a robe of camel’s hair cinched with a leather belt and eating bugs and honey. And he came preaching repentance from sin. Matthew 3:1-3—1 In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, 2 and saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!" 3 For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying: "The voice of one crying in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the LORD; make His paths straight.'"

Now, I want to camp on this verse for just a second. When we talk about the deity of Christ, we point to John 8:58, and we do well to do so. But really, this verse in Matthew shows more evidence that Jesus was God in the flesh. John the Baptist is quoting Isaiah 40:3 pretty much verbatim. And in Isaiah 40:3, the word translated “LORD” is the Hebrew YHVH, the name which God spoke to Moses in Exodus 3:14. So to use this verse that speaks of God in order to point people to Christ, he is, in fact, declaring that Jesus is God.

And that is what he did. As a Nazirite he was commanded to not be defiled by the dead. And he wasn’t. Rather, he pointed to the One who gives life (John 6:67), and gives it more abundantly (John 10:10). He warned the Pharisees to repent from their dead works, warned them to do things that would evidence their repentance, that this was the way to life. You see, we need to be pointed into the way to life, because we don’t know it on our own. But the One who is life shows us the way to life. You see, following Jesus is not a way to simply have a better life financially and live in ease and comfort. Following Jesus is about having peace with God, serving God, and being endowed with eternal life. Jesus tells one of His disciples in Matthew 8:21-22— 21 Then another of His disciples said to Him, "Lord, let me first go and bury my father." 22 But Jesus said to him, "Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead." We are called to follow Christ, and to let nothing hinder us in our walk. He even commands us to love Him more than we love our own family (Luke 14:26). 

For the life that you have given,

For the love in Christ made known,

With these fruits of time and labor,

With these gifts that are your own:

Here we offer, Lord, our praises;

Heart and mind and strength we bring;

Give us grace to love and serve you,

Living what we pray and sing.

(“For the Life That You Have Given”, Carl Daw)

 Now, before we leave this passage in Numbers, let us dispense with a certain conundrum that presents itself to us in Matthew 2:23—And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, "He shall be called a Nazarene." Many have tried to link this verse to Judges 13:5—For behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. And no razor shall come upon his head, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb; and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines." Fact of the matter is we do not find the words of Matthew anywhere in the Old Testament. And although many have undertaken to somehow explain this away, the problem has never really been solved. So why does Matthew use this phrase? Well, for one thing, this was the word given to Matthew by the Holy Spirit.

By the same token, we know that Jude repeated a quote from Enoch, although not found in the Bible, in Jude 1:14-15—14 Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, "Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints, 15 to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him." This passage is not from the Book of Enoch, as that was not written until the 3^rd Century BC, and the claim by some is that Jude is quoting Enoch 1:9, which says Behold, he comes with the myriads of his holy ones, to execute judgment on all, and to destroy all the wicked, and to convict all flesh for all the wicked deeds that they have done, and the proud and hard words that wicked sinners spoke against him. So why would Jude have included this quote and attributed it to the great-grandfather of Noah? Well, here is my opinion, and take it for all it is, an opinion. Deuteronomy 33:2 says, And he [Moses] said: “The LORD came from Sinai, and dawned on them from Seir; He shone forth from Mount Paran, and He came with ten thousands of saints; from His right hand Came a fiery law for them.” It is possible that the quote mentioned by Jude actually is from the biblical Enoch, and was carried along orally until the time Moses said it in Deuteronomy and Moses used the occasion to offer commentary on the words of Enoch and apply it to his time. But that is my opinion. Again, do with it what you will.

Now, in light of this, let us again examine that passage in Matthew 2:23. Notice Matthew does not name a prophet that said this, but only states “the prophets”, And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, "He shall be called a Nazarene." When you see this, it is usually not referring to one particular prophet or prophecy, but is a summarization of different prophets and prophecies. And it is possible that Matthew used the term “Nazarene” (Gr. Ναζωραῖος) to describe, not the town where He was from, but as a descriptor of who Jesus was. In Isaiah 11:1, we see Jesus called a ונצר (netzer, branch) of Jesse, There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, and a Branch (ונצר, netzer) shall grow out of his roots. With this in mind, it makes it clear where the confusion comes from.  I must agree with what Spurgeon says of this assessment:

 

This [Nazarene] is the name commonly given to our Lord in the Old Testament. “And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.” Jesus was the sprout, or the shoot out of the withered stem of Jesse. When the dynasty of David was like the tree cut down, and only the stem of it left there sprang up out of it the Netzar, the Nazarene; so he is found dwelling in a city that is called by that name, and he also is called a Nazarene. And the name clings to him to this day, there are those who will call him by no name but “the Nazarene.”

 

Keep in mind, Matthew, being Jewish, would have been familiar with the passage in Isaiah. And the name Nazareth, in Greek, means “the guarded one”, but that name is of uncertain derivation, we don’t know how it got its name. It does not appear in any of the Hebrew Scriptures. Philip Schaff seems to think the name Nazareth is an Aramaic form of the Hebrew ונצר (netzer). So with all this being said, it is no contradiction at all, but rather a misapplication of the word “Nazarene”, not to describe a place, but a person. Jesus was not a Nazirite, as He himself said that He drank wine (Matthew 11:9, Luke 7:34, as well as at the Last Supper), and we read that He touched dead bodies (Mark 5:41), further distancing Himself from the Nazirite vow.  He was a Nazarene, a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised by the people (Psalm 22:6).

Part 3 next week

 

Jesus Christ is Lord.

Amen.

A Survey of the Old Testament Law--The Peace Offering Part 1 (3:1-17; 7:11-21)

Today we begin a look at the commands concerning the Peace Offering. But this time we’re going to take a slightly different approach.  We’re going to start in Leviticus chapter 7, and work our way back to chapter 3. The reason for this is simple: in chapter 7 we see the three different classes of Peace Offering (thanksgiving, vow, and free-will), while chapter 3 contains the commands that deal with which animals could be offered (from the herd or from the flock)—how they were to be cut up, what was to be burned, what was to be eaten, and what to do with the blood. Now, before we begin, we need another lesson on the Hebrew. While the translators have done a masterful job (and I would never try to convince anyone I knew better than the translators), we need to clarify what the Hebrew means here. The Hebrew phrase is וְאִם־זֶ֥בַח שְׁלָמִ֖ים  (veyim-zevah shelamim). It literally means “a slaughtering for (i.e., owing to) deliverance.” This was an offering that was given as thanks for salvation, and the “peace” that came with it. Let’s see here. The word translated “Peace Offering” is שֶׁלֶם (shelem). This comes from the Hebrew שָׁלַם (shalam), which is, in turn, the root of another Hebrew word we all are familiar with—which is? שָׁלוֹם (shalom). Interesting how that works, no?

At any rate, with this offering, the offerer was to partake in eating the bread and flesh of this sacrifice along with the priests, the fat being burned and consumed by YHVH. In their commentary, Keil and Delitzsch tell us, “The object of the shelamim was invariably salvation: sometimes they were offered as an embodiment of thanksgiving for salvation already received, sometimes as a prayer for the salvation desired; so that they embraced both supplicatory offerings and thank-offerings, and were offered even in times of misfortune, or on the day on which supplication was offered for the help of God.” For all those who have ever heard anyone say that we don’t need to study the Old Testament (especially the Law) because it has nothing to do with the New Testament—this is just one more chance to show how biblically ignorant they really are. This was an offering of supplication and/or thanksgiving for the peace they had with God. Hmmm. I do believe the apostle Paul had something to say about supplication and thanksgiving and the peace of God. Oh yeah, Philippians 4:6-7—6 In everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. But all that Old Testament stuff doesn't mean anything today. Right?

Well, that said, let’s start with Leviticus 7:11-15—“‘11 This is the law of the sacrifice of peace offerings which he shall offer to the LORD: 12 If he offers it for a thanksgiving, then he shall offer, with the sacrifice of thanksgiving, unleavened cakes mixed with oil, unleavened wafers anointed with oil, or cakes of blended flour mixed with oil. 13 Besides the cakes, as his offering he shall offer leavened bread with the sacrifice of thanksgiving of his peace offering. 14 And from it he shall offer one cake from each offering as a heave offering to the LORD. It shall belong to the priest who sprinkles the blood of the peace offering. 15 The flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offering for thanksgiving shall be eaten the same day it is offered. He shall not leave any of it until morning.’” For our purposes, let’s go ahead and stay with the term “Peace Offering.” Here we see the first class of Peace Offering, the “Peace Offering of thanksgiving.” (And, just for reference, each of these classes of Peace Offering (thanksgiving, vow, free-will) were prepared the same way and accompanied by the same offering of bread. The difference in the rules regarding the offerings was in the length of time you had to eat it. We will deal with that shortly). This was offered by a person as thanks to God for their deliverance or safekeeping during some kind of danger. If He spared your livestock during a famine. If He spared your crops during a drought. Perhaps your grateful that you were not killed by the intruder that snuck in by night. Whatever it was that God brought you through, if you were grateful enough for His grace in delivering you—you brought a “Peace Offering of Thanksgiving.”

Now, if you read carefully you will find one part of this offering that is not to be included in any of the other offerings we saw in chapter 1 or chapter 2. What might that be? Leaven. Leviticus 7:13—“Besides the cakes, as his offering he shall offer leavened bread with the sacrifice of thanksgiving of his peace offering.” This was the one time a person could offer bread that had been leavened. However, leaven was not to be burned on the altar. When the person brought their animal and their unleavened cakes or unleavened wafers with their leavened bread, they offered to the priest who would sprinkle the blood of the offering one of the loaves of leavened bread —but don’t even think about putting it on the altar. The unleavened bread, however, was given to the priest as a heave offering. When you gave it to the priest, he took it from your hand and “heaved” it into the air, and caught it when it came back down. This was done as a way for the priest to offer thanks on behalf of the offerer, to acknowledge that all things come to our hands from God.

Next, let’s talk about how long you had before you had to get rid of the flesh of the Peace Offering of thanksgiving. After the priest burned your Peace Offering of thanksgiving, you had until the end of that business day to eat it. You finish it before sundown—that’s it. If you don’t finish it before sundown, you burn it until it is obliterated. There are many instances when God is very specific regarding time. And in some of those cases, He gives the people until sundown to get the things done that He wants done. Think back to Exodus 16. The people are grumbling in the wilderness. They're crying out “Oh that we could have died in Egypt! Moses led us out here to kill us in the wilderness! Yada yada yada!” And God—being the ever-patient, ever-gracious God that he is—lets their obstinacy slide and, in fact, provides some kind of substance for their daily food. And what was that substance? Manna. And how long did they have to use the manna they gathered in the morning? (Remembering, of course, that what they gathered on the sixth day would suffice through the Sabbath). Exodus 16:14-19—14 And when the layer of dew lifted, there, on the surface of the wilderness, was a small round substance, as fine as frost on the ground. 15 So when the children of Israel saw it, they said to one another, "What is it?" For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, "This is the bread which the LORD has given you to eat. 16 This is the thing which the LORD has commanded: 'Let every man gather it according to each one's need, one omer for each person, according to the number of persons; let every man take for those who are in his tent'"…19 And Moses said, "Let no one leave any of it till morning." Let’s go back even further, to the night of the first Passover. What was the command that God enjoined upon the people concerning the Passover lamb? Exodus 12:8-10—“8 Then they shall eat the flesh on that night; roasted in fire…10 You shall let none of it remain until morning, and what remains of it until morning you shall burn with fire.” If God says you have such-and-such an amount of time to eat something, you eat it within that window. You don’t say to yourself, “Yeah, I know God said that, but did He really mean that?” If God says it, He means it.

Now, the other classes of Peace Offerings are fond in the verses that follow. The rules for these are different. Leviticus 7:16—“‘16 But if the sacrifice of his offering is a vow or a voluntary offering…’” Let’s talk about these individually. “If his offering is a vow…” There were, apparently, three different types of “vows” one could make—there was a vow of devotion, a vow of abstinence (the [קָרְבָּן, qorban), and the vow of destruction (the [חֵרֶם, cherem], or Greek [ἀνάθεμα, anathema]). First, the “vow of devotion.” Basically, this is a promise the person makes to God. They say, “If God delivers me through this, I will offer Him the best of my herd.” One example of this type of vow is that of Jacob in Genesis 28:20-22—20 Then Jacob made a vow, saying, "If God will be with me, and keep me in this way that I am going, and give me bread to eat and clothing to put on, 21 so that I come back to my father's house in peace, then the LORD shall be my God. 22 And this stone which I have set as a pillar shall be God's house, and of all that You give me I will surely give a tenth to You." He made a vow that if God would protect him, he would give God one-tenth of all God gives him. David made a similar vow, and fulfilled it in Psalm 66:12-15—12 You have caused men to ride over our heads; We went through fire and through water; But You brought us out to rich fulfillment. 13 I will go into Your house with burnt offerings; I will pay You my vows, 14 which my lips have uttered And my mouth has spoken when I was in trouble. 15 I will offer You burnt sacrifices of fat animals, With the sweet aroma of rams; I will offer bulls with goats. Selah.

Next is the “vow of abstinence.” If the term קָרְבָּן (qorban) looks familiar, it should. It was brought over directly into the Greek κορβᾶν (korban) (and is equivalent to the Greek δῶρον, doron) by Mark in his gospel. Mark 7:11—“11 But you say, 'If a man says to his father or mother, "Whatever profit you might have received from me is κορβᾶν (korban)"' (that is, a δῶρον [doron] to God), 12 then you no longer let him do anything for his father or his mother…” Under the old covenant, the קָרְבָּן (qorban) was a good thing. We read this passage, and Jesus’ rebuke of the Pharisees concerning קָרְבָּן (qorban) and we think “Ooh, קָרְבָּן (qorban) bad!” No!! קָרְבָּן (qorban) good! It was not the קָרְבָּן (qorban) that Jesus was denouncing—it was the Pharisees’ abuse of it to hold onto every penny they had at the cost of allowing their parents to suffer in poverty. If someone made a vow of קָרְבָּן (qorban), it simply meant that the person had set some possession and had dedicated it to the use of the temple. They may have held the object in their physical possession—but it belonged to God, and on the day it was required they were to give it over. And when it is time to devote it, you bring your animal, your unleavened cakes and wafers, your leavened bread—you give it to the priest, he kills, cuts up, heaves, burns and you all partake of it.

Another type of “vow of abstinence” was the Nazarite (or ‘Nazirite’, depending on your translation) vow. Numbers 6:1-8—1 Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: 'When either a man or woman consecrates an offering to take the vow of a Nazarite, to separate himself to the LORD, 3 he shall separate himself from wine and similar drink; he shall drink neither vinegar made from wine nor vinegar made from similar drink; neither shall he drink any grape juice, nor eat fresh grapes or raisins. 4 All the days of his separation he shall eat nothing that is produced by the grapevine, from seed to skin. 5 All the days of the vow of his separation no razor shall come upon his head; until the days are fulfilled for which he separated himself to the LORD, he shall be holy. Then he shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow. 6 All the days that he separates himself to the LORD he shall not go near a dead body. 7 He shall not make himself unclean even for his father or his mother, for his brother or his sister, when they die, because his separation to God is on his head. 8 All the days of his separation he shall be holy to the LORD.” This person, although not a Levite, could go through these rites and commit themselves to the service of YHVH. Samson was a Nazarite—not exactly the best example. John the Baptist was probably a Nazarite, since Jesus said of him that “John came neither eating nor drinking” (Matthew 11:18).

Now, not only did the Nazarite take this vow and go through these rituals, but there were other offerings—Peace Offerings of a vow of abstinence—they had to perform under certain circumstances. Pick it up at Numbers 6:9-21—“‘9 And if anyone dies very suddenly beside him, and he defiles his consecrated head, then he shall shave his head on the day of his cleansing; on the seventh day he shall shave it. 10 Then on the eighth day he shall bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons to the priest, to the door of the tabernacle of meeting; 11 and the priest shall offer one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering, and make atonement for him, because he sinned in regard to the corpse; and he shall sanctify his head that same day. 12 He shall consecrate to the LORD the days of his separation, and bring a male lamb in its first year as a trespass offering; but the former days shall be lost, because his separation was defiled. 13 Now this is the law of the Nazirite: When the days of his separation are fulfilled, he shall be brought to the door of the tabernacle of meeting. 14 And he shall present his offering to the LORD: one male lamb in its first year without blemish as a burnt offering, one ewe lamb in its first year without blemish as a sin offering, one ram without blemish as a peace offering, 15 a basket of unleavened bread, cakes of fine flour mixed with oil, unleavened wafers anointed with oil, and their grain offering with their drink offerings. 16 Then the priest shall bring them before the LORD and offer his sin offering and his burnt offering; 17 and he shall offer the ram as a sacrifice of a peace offering to the LORD, with the basket of unleavened bread; the priest shall also offer its grain offering and its drink offering. 18 Then the Nazirite shall shave his consecrated head at the door of the tabernacle of meeting, and shall take the hair from his consecrated head and put it on the fire which is under the sacrifice of the peace offering. 19 And the priest shall take the boiled shoulder of the ram, one unleavened cake from the basket, and one unleavened wafer, and put them upon the hands of the Nazirite after he has shaved his consecrated hair, 20 and the priest shall wave them as a wave offering before the LORD; they are holy for the priest, together with the breast of the wave offering and the thigh of the heave offering. After that the Nazirite may drink wine.' 21 This is the law of the Nazirite who vows to the LORD the offering for his separation, and besides that, whatever else his hand is able to provide; according to the vow which he takes, so he must do according to the law of his separation.”

If the Nazarite touched the dead body of one who died near him, he had to bring two turtledoves or pigeons, had to bring a ewe lamb of the first year, all the unleavened cakes and wafers and leavened bread, the oil, the drink offering, had to shave his head, give a Grain Offering. You get the idea. This was a Peace Offering of קָרְבָּן (qorban). The man had dedicated his whole self to the service of God; God granted that privilege so long as the Nazarite acted accordingly. If he didn’t, he had to bring his קָרְבָּן (qorban).

We will look at the next Peace Offering next time.

A Survey of the Old Testament Law--Numbers (Introduction, Part 1)

So I made an oopsie last week. I posted the first part of the introduction to Deuteronomy instead of the first part of the introduction to Numbers. I have since taken down the wrong post and will post it at the appropriate time. Now, on to Numbers 😬

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So now that we have finished with the Book of Leviticus, we now move on to the Book of Numbers. The title of this book is from the Greek Άρίθμοί (Arithmoi, “numbers”), from the Greek Septuagint. It was given this title by the Greek translators because of the two censuses that are recounted herein.  The original Hebrew title of the book was Bemidbar (בְּמִִדׅבּר, “wilderness” or “desert”), because it takes place in the desert, as the people are trekking through the desert from Mt. Sinai to the Promised Land of Canaan. This is the next part of the journey to the land that God had promised to Abraham. Genesis 17:7-8—7 And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you. 8 Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God." This was the land that was settled by Canaan, the grandson of Noah, whom Noah cursed after Ham uncovered Noah’s nakedness when he became drunk after planting vineyards and drinking the wine thereof after the ark came to rest following the flood. Genesis 9:25—Then [Noah] said: "Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants He shall be to his brethren." The land that we now know as Israel was once the land that belonged to this cursed grandson of Noah.

Keep in mind the Israelites were not always Israelites as we now know them. Certainly Abraham was not an Israelite, as he was the grandfather of Jacob, who was later named by God Israel (יִשְׂרָאֵל, yiśrā'ēl, “God prevails”). Abraham was from Ur of the Chaldees (Genesis 11:28), which was in what was once called Babylonia and was later known as Assyria, in what we call today Iraq (see Acts 7:2). God promised Abraham that his descendants would possess the land of Canaan, and Abraham did not dispute it. He believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness (Genesis 15:6, Romans 4:3). And in that land, they did not know YHVH as God, but worshipped other gods. So what set Abraham apart, that God would call him out of the land, when he was surrounded by those who worshipped pagan gods, and he may have as well? The answer is that we don’t know. All we know is that God chose him to be the father of many nations, and that is really all we need to know. Very long story very short, Abraham had a son named Isaac, Isaac had a son named Jacob, and Jacob had twelve sons, one of whom was named Levi. And Levi had many descendants, one of whom was the man named Moses. And God chose him to be a prophet to the people of Israel (Jacob also had a son named Judah, who was a direct ancestor of our Lord Jesus Christ).

When Moses was born, the sons of Abraham were living in Egypt, and were slaves to the Pharaoh. Who was the Pharaoh at the time of the Exodus? It is not clear, and many suggestions have been made. Movies such as The Ten Commandments identify him as Ramses II, but I would caution against using this film as research, as it has its own problems. Others have suggested Merneptah, still other believe Thutmose I or his father Amenhotep I, or even Amenhotep II (which is the most popular theory). At any rate, the people of Israel were slaves in Egypt for 430 years, and many had forgotten the promises that God made to bring them into the land of Canaan. And they were crying out for deliverance from their affliction. Exodus 2:23-24—23 Then the children of Israel groaned because of the bondage, and they cried out; and their cry came up to God because of the bondage. 24 So God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. Why does it say that, at this time, God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob? Had He forgotten, and he was suddenly reminded of it? No, God does not need to be reminded of anything, as He does not (cannot) forget anything. The people were in the midst of a pagan nation, and were being forced to build monuments to the pharaohs and the false gods they worshipped. They were exposed to all sorts of abominations, and had, by this time, forgotten YHVH. But when they finally called out—not to Him, as they had forgotten Him—He “remembered”. He brought it up to the forefront of His mind, and stirred up Moses to be the one who would lead His people out of their bondage into the land flowing with milk and honey.

So He made Moses His prophet, called him to Mt. Sinai, and gave him the Ten Commandments and the other 603 commands of the Law. And he and the people with him remained at Mt. Sinai for two years, making the things that God commanded them to make—the Ark of the Covenant, the Table of Showbread, the Golden Lampstand, the curtains for the Tabernacle itself, the Altar of Incense, the Altar of Burnt Offerings, as well as all the necessary pans and shovels and censers—and they had erected them, and Moses anointed the Tabernacle. In Numbers 1:2, God commands Moses to take a census of the people according to their tribes (hence the name “Numbers”). He tells Moses to set apart to Him the sons of the tribe of Levi to be priests to Him (Numbers 1:47-54), and redeems them out of the population (Numbers 3:45-51). In Numbers 4, God lays out the commandments of the various duties of the sons of Aaron, Kohath, Gershon and Merari. The sons of Aaron were to cover the most holy things (The Ark of the Covenant, the Table of Showbread, the Altar of Incense, the Golden Lampstand) and sons of Kohath were to carry them (Numbers 4:4-15). The sons of Gershon were to carry the curtains for the Tabernacle and everything needed for it (Numbers 4:22-28), and the sons of Merari were to carry everything else (Numbers 4:29-33). These tasks were to be allotted to these families, to the males age 30-50.

Next, we have the rules concerning those who were impure by touching a leper, anyone with a discharge, and anyone who touched a dead body (Numbers 5:1-3). This was followed by the oath that a woman would take if her husband thought she had been unfaithful to him (Numbers 5:11-31). Many today have though this to be God commanding abortion, but we will see that is clearly not the case. This mistaken belief comes from one word which has been mistranslated in the 2011 edition of the NIV. Numbers 5:22 (NIV)—“‘May this water that brings a curse enter your body so that your abdomen swells or your womb miscarries.’” The words translated in the NIV as “womb miscarries” are the Hebrew words  יָרֵךְ (yārēḵ, “thigh”) and וְלַנְפִּל (nāp̄al, “to fall”). This edition of the NIV is the only translation that renders these words as “womb miscarries”, and the pro-abortion crowd has latched onto this as a way to say that God not only condones abortion, but commands it. And they are, of course, wrong. Nowhere in this passage does it even intimate a pregnancy is present. So to say that this passage commands abortion is wrong (at best) and completely ludicrous (at worst). For it says later in that chapter, Numbers 5:28—But if the woman has not defiled herself, and is clean, then she shall be free and may conceive children. Clearly, the admonition was not that if the woman was guilty of infidelity she would miscarry, but that her uterus would shrink and she would be barren (a sign of disapproval by God) since it says that if she was not guilty she would be able to have children.

The next chapter sets out the duties of one who had taken a vow as a Nazirite. We will study such notable Nazirites as Samson, Samuel and John the Baptist. There were three rules all Nazirites had to obey: Do not touch a corpse, do not cut your hair, and partake of nothing from the grapevine (Numbers 6:1-6). (Some commentators (even some highly respectable ones) have tried saying that Jesus was a Nazirite, but that is not so, as even a cursory examination of Scripture will show us, since He did drink wine (Matthew 11:19; Luke 7:34) and He touched dead bodies (Matthew 9:25; Mark 5:41)) The chapter ends with a passage that many churches use as the ending benediction of their services. Numbers 6:24-26—24 “The LORD bless you and keep you; 25 the LORD make His face shine upon you, and be gracious to you; 26 the LORD lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace.” What a magnificent prayer this is! Many say that the God of the Old Testament is a vengeful, angry God who wants to do nothing else but send His angry fire down and consume everyone. But this passage shows that He is not so. Can He be angry? Of course. Can He be vengeful? Of course. But He is so much more than that. He is also the God Who sent His son to die and pay the price for our sins. Does this sound like a God Who is only angry and vengeful all the time?

This is obvious in Numbers 9, which speaks of the “Second Passover”, the one that was to be kept by anyone who was not able to keep the Passover at the appointed time of the 14^th of Nisan. It points to a patient God, one who can see the failings and shortcomings of those who want to worship Him rightly but are prevented from doing so by some uncleanness or by being on a journey. He tells Moses to let the people know that if one is not able to keep the Passover at the appointed time, they can do so on the 14^th of the second month of Iyar. After this, God readies the people to move by having His cloud come down and envelope the Tabernacle, and having Moses tell the people that He will lead them by the cloud. “Well, what if the cloud stayed over the Tabernacle for, say, a month or two, or even a year?” Numbers 9:22—Whether it was two days, a month, or a year that the cloud remained above the tabernacle, the children of Israel would remain encamped and not journey; but when it was taken up, they would journey. Even if the cloud settled over the Tabernacle for a couple hours and was taken up again, they were to move. If the cloud stayed in its place for a year, the people were to remain. This was to let the people know that He was the one leading them, not Moses or Aaron, and that they were to follow Him.

Then, finally, they set out on their journey (Numbers 10:33). And not long after they set out, what do they do? They complain—a theme we will see over and over and over again as we go through Numbers. These who had been set free from their bondage to Pharaoh were now complaining about anything and everything they could. The first thing they complain about is—well, we don’t know; all it says is the people complained (Numbers 11:1). So God sends fire and burns the outside borders of the camp. Moses pleads with God to stay His anger, and God does. But this is not a good way to start their journey. Then, they listened to the Mixed Multitude which came with them out of Egypt, and they complained about the free food that came down from heaven and they only needed to collect every day at sundown (Numbers 11:4). So what does God do? He sends them quail. Not just a small flock of quail, but enough to cover the camp up to their thighs. Enough to quiet their murmuring and feed them for months. He sent them enough that they would have enough to last for a whole month, until it comes out of your nostrils (Numbers 11:20). The person who picked up the least gathered two bushels. When you consider that there were numbered 600,000 men and they had their wives and children, the total population had to have been well over a million people all munching on their quail. And while they were still chewing it, what happened? They died (Numbers 11:33). So they gave the place where they were at the name Kibroth Hattaavah, or “Graves of Lust”.

That quieted the people for a minute, but then Aaron and Miriam decided to complain (Numbers 12:1). Moses’ brother and sister were upset that God had placed Moses as the leader of the people! And what was the reason of their complaint? It was because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married (Numbers 12:1). So because they complained about the black-skinned woman that Moses had married, God caused a disease of leprosy to come upon Miriam, making her white as snow (Numbers 12:10). Moses then prayed to God to restore her, which He did after she had been put outside the camp for the prescribed seven days. After which God directed the people to pull up camp and move to the Wilderness of Paran. This was an area in the Sinai Peninsula not far north of Sinai. And it was from here that God commanded to send out men to spy out the land of Canaan, to see what it was like (Numbers 13:2). The report came back, saying that the land was plentiful, as they brought back a cluster of grapes so large they had to carry it on a pole between two men. Good news, right?

Well, in that report they also said "The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature. There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight" (Numbers 13:32-33). And because of the cowardice of these who brought the bad report, and because of the fearfulness of those who listened to this, God said that the people (other than Caleb and Joshua) would not be allowed to see the Promised Land, and that the people would wander the wilderness for forty years (Numbers 14:30-34). So those who complained did what they thought was right to get back into God’s good graces, and fought against the people of the land, trying to earn back God’s favor but were soundly defeated by the Amalekites and Canaanites (Numbers 14:44-45).

In Numbers 16-18 we read of the rebellion of Korah, Dathan and Abiram, who thought that they should be elevated to a station above which they were and the fallout from that rebellion. God had called Moses to lead the people, and Aaron to be the High Priest who would make atonement for them. But these did not like that arrangement, and dragged 250 men along with them to rebel against God, much like Satan dragged one-third of the angels to rebel against God for which these were kept in judgment until the Day of the Lord (Jude 1:6). And these men suffered a like punishment, as the earth opened up and swallowed them alive into it (Numbers 16:31-33). In Numbers 17 God gives a second sign that Aaron was to be High Priest, by causing his rod to bud (Numbers 17:8), and in Numbers 18 God gives ordinances that the priests were to do in order to keep themselves right to make atonement for the people. At the end of Numbers 18 we read about the tithes of the tithes the priests were to give, and we see that these would be counted as Wave Offerings and Heave Offerings. And we will see some obvious foreshadowing of the Cross in that section.

Part 2 next week

 

Jesus Christ is Lord.

Amen.