Thursday Evening Bible Study

January 21, 2010

Introduction

Do people see Jesus? Is the gospel preached? Does it speak to the broken hearted? Does it build up the church? Milk – Meat – Manna Preach for a decision

The book of Numbers is the history of Israel during their forty years of wandering in the wilderness. It is called “Numbers” because twice Israel is numbered, once at the beginning of the forty years, and once at the end.

We’ve seen how at the beginning, God is in the process of organizing this nation of delivered slaves into a lean, mean fighting machine.

Numbers 5

5:1-4 Removing unclean persons

:1 And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying:

:2 “Command the children of Israel that they put out of the camp every leper, everyone who has a discharge, and whoever becomes defiled by a corpse.

:3 You shall put out both male and female; you shall put them outside the camp, that they may not defile their camps in the midst of which I dwell.”

:4 And the children of Israel did so, and put them outside the camp; as the LORD spoke to Moses, so the children of Israel did.

What it meant practically, historically

1. It quarantined those with disease

These laws protected the Jews during the Middle Ages, when everybody was dying of the black plague. The plague was spread by rats, which were in abundance because of the lack of cleanliness of the people. But the Jews were spared because of their following of the Law

2. It taught the holiness of God to the people.

This was because God was in the midst of the camp.

God does not tolerate uncleanness in His presence.

It’s not just outright sin, but even areas that are just unclean, yucky.

Lesson:

Separate from the unclean

 (1 Co 5:9–11 NKJV) —9 I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. 10 Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. 11 But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner— not even to eat with such a person.

Those who call themselves Christians, yet continue to live in sin, without repenting, those who don’t care that they’re living in sin, we are to distance ourselves from.

It’s not those who struggle with sin that we are to distance ourselves from, but those who don’t struggle with sin.

It’s not that we’re “better” than they are, but the problem is that eventually they will influence us and cause us to stumble.

5:5-10 Restitution

:5 Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,

:6 “Speak to the children of Israel: ‘When a man or woman commits any sin that men commit in unfaithfulness against the LORD, and that person is guilty,

:7 then he shall confess the sin which he has committed. He shall make restitution for his trespass in full, plus one-fifth of it, and give it to the one he has wronged.

:8 But if the man has no relative to whom restitution may be made for the wrong, the restitution for the wrong must go to the LORD for the priest, in addition to the ram of the atonement with which atonement is made for him.

:9 Every offering of all the holy things of the children of Israel, which they bring to the priest, shall be his.

:10 And every man’s holy things shall be his; whatever any man gives the priest shall be his.’ ”

If you were caught and convicted of a particular sin you had to do three things (vs.7)

Lesson:

True repentance

1. Confess

Admit what you did, spell it out.

2. Replace

If you stole $50 from the cash register, you had to pay back $50.

3. Pay the penalty

You had to pay a 20% penalty to the victim.

Could you imagine today if you had your car stolen, and when they caught the thief, he not only had to give you your car back, but pay you 20% of its worth?

People might get to thinking that crime doesn’t pay.

If there was no one from the family of the victim to pay the penalty to, then the penalty was to be paid to the priest.

I could see some of the priests looking for an increase in the crime rate – ha!

In some circumstances, the penalty was higher:

(Ex 22:1 NKJV) —1 “If a man steals an ox or a sheep, and slaughters it or sells it, he shall restore five oxen for an ox and four sheep for a sheep.

I think that some people have the mistake idea that if they confess their sin to God, that God forgives them and it’s all done and over with.

It may be done and over with in God’s ledger book, but it isn’t with others if you’ve wronged them with your sin.

5:11-31 Law of Jealousy

Jealousy can be an ugly thing.

It can destroy any relationship.

Sometimes there is good reason for a person to be jealous.

Sometimes there is no good reason, and the problem is not in the person you are jealous over, but the problem is in you.

:11 And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,

:12 “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘If any man’s wife goes astray and behaves unfaithfully toward him,

:13 and a man lies with her carnally, and it is hidden from the eyes of her husband, and it is concealed that she has defiled herself, and there was no witness against her, nor was she caught—

:14 if the spirit of jealousy comes upon him and he becomes jealous of his wife, who has defiled herself; or if the spirit of jealousy comes upon him and he becomes jealous of his wife, although she has not defiled herself—

:14 spirit of jealousy

The word “spirit” has several different kinds of interpretations.

It can mean something like a demonic spirit, as in some kind of spirit being.

It can also have the meaning of a human attitude.

Here, the word doesn’t carry the idea of something demonic, that needs to be cast out, but a human attitude that needs to be dealt with.

Note that there are two different situations being described.

In the first situation, the woman has done something bad, and even though the husband doesn’t have all the facts, he is suspicious.

In the second situation, the woman hasn’t done anything wrong at all, it’s the husband who has an unreasonable, suspicious nature, accusing her of something she isn’t guilty of.

:15 then the man shall bring his wife to the priest. He shall bring the offering required for her, one-tenth of an ephah of barley meal; he shall pour no oil on it and put no frankincense on it, because it is a grain offering of jealousy, an offering for remembering, for bringing iniquity to remembrance.

I find it interesting that there are some things left out of this grain offering.

:15 no oil –

We typically see oil as being a symbol of the Holy Spirit.

There is nothing “spiritual” about jealousy.

Jealousy is a work of the flesh:

(Ga 5:19–20 NKJV) —19 Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies…

:15 no frankincense –

This is a type of incense. Incense is seen as a picture of prayer that rises up before God. It leaves a sweet fragrance behind.

There is nothing lovely or godly about jealousy.

:16 ‘And the priest shall bring her near, and set her before the LORD.

:17 The priest shall take holy water in an earthen vessel, and take some of the dust that is on the floor of the tabernacle and put it into the water.

This “dusty” water will be referred to as the “bitter water that brings a curse”.

Then the ritual goes on (vs. 18-28) with the priest making the woman swear that she had not been unfaithful, writing down a curse on paper, that if the woman has been unfaithful, then her thigh will shrink and her belly will swell. The priest then scrapes off the “curse” from the scroll into the water and makes the woman drink the “bitter water”.

If the woman has not been unfaithful, then nothing happens.

If the woman has been unfaithful, then her thigh will shrivel and her belly will swell.

:18 Then the priest shall stand the woman before the LORD, uncover the woman’s head, and put the offering for remembering in her hands, which is the grain offering of jealousy. And the priest shall have in his hand the bitter water that brings a curse.

:19 And the priest shall put her under oath, and say to the woman, “If no man has lain with you, and if you have not gone astray to uncleanness while under your husband’s authority, be free from this bitter water that brings a curse.

In other words, if the woman has done nothing wrong, then this bitter water won’t have any effect on her.

:20 But if you have gone astray while under your husband’s authority, and if you have defiled yourself and some man other than your husband has lain with you”—

:21 then the priest shall put the woman under the oath of the curse, and he shall say to the woman— “the LORD make you a curse and an oath among your people, when the LORD makes your thigh rot and your belly swell;

:22 and may this water that causes the curse go into your stomach, and make your belly swell and your thigh rot.” ‘Then the woman shall say, “Amen, so be it.”

:23 ‘Then the priest shall write these curses in a book, and he shall scrape them off into the bitter water.

The woman is going to not only drink dirty water, but actually drink the words of the curse itself.

:24 And he shall make the woman drink the bitter water that brings a curse, and the water that brings the curse shall enter her to become bitter.

:25 Then the priest shall take the grain offering of jealousy from the woman’s hand, shall wave the offering before the LORD, and bring it to the altar;

:26 and the priest shall take a handful of the offering, as its memorial portion, burn it on the altar, and afterward make the woman drink the water.

:27 When he has made her drink the water, then it shall be, if she has defiled herself and behaved unfaithfully toward her husband, that the water that brings a curse will enter her and become bitter, and her belly will swell, her thigh will rot, and the woman will become a curse among her people.

:28 But if the woman has not defiled herself, and is clean, then she shall be free and may conceive children.

:29 ‘This is the law of jealousy, when a wife, while under her husband’s authority, goes astray and defiles herself,

:30 or when the spirit of jealousy comes upon a man, and he becomes jealous of his wife; then he shall stand the woman before the LORD, and the priest shall execute all this law upon her.

:31 Then the man shall be free from iniquity, but that woman shall bear her guilt.’ ”

Two kinds of Jealousy

1. Good jealousy

Example: God’s jealousy towards us.

(Ex 34:14 NKJV) —14 (for you shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God),

God wants us all to Himself.

There’s nothing wrong with wanting your spouse all to yourself. That’s the way God intended it to be.

2. Bad jealousy

Example: The kind seen here.

It’s a kind of fear, an irrational paranoia about losing your spouse. It isn’t always well founded.

In our passage, the woman may have committed adultery, but she just as likely might not have.

If you don’t deal with it, it can destroy your marriage or other relationships.

I’ve seen the vicious circle where one partner starts experiencing jealousy, and no matter what the other person does, there’s always a reason to feed the jealousy.

It can get so bad that a wife doesn’t feel safe if their husband is even in the same room with any other woman.

The victim starts feeling cornered, and doesn’t appreciate that the other person doesn’t trust them.

They usually are very much in love with their spouse, and can’t even figure out why they aren’t trusted. Eventually the jealousy will drive them away.

Sometimes the person gets so sick of not being trusted, they decide to give the other person a reason to not trust them.

Lesson:

Confront the issue

The whole point of having a ritual like this was to make provision for something to be done.

We have a big problem confronting people. It’s hard.

(Eph 4:14–15 NKJV) —14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ—

Lesson

Truth before God

It wasn’t done lightly. The whole intricate ceremony was to bring home to the woman just how important it was that she tells the truth.

A New Testament example of the importance of speaking the truth before the Lord.

(Ac 5:3–4 NKJV) —3 But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of the land for yourself? 4 While it remained, was it not your own? And after it was sold, was it not in your own control? Why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God.”

Make sure that all parties know that God is squarely in the middle of it.

That’s the whole purpose of the elaborate ritual. Getting it clear that God is watching, that God knows, and that God will take care of it.

Lesson

Drop it

Let God take care of it.

(Ro 12:19 NKJV) —19 Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord.

Pray and trust it into God’s hands.

Even if the other person is lying when they say they have not done anything wrong, they won’t be able to lie before God. God will take care of it.

If you love them, you’ll give them the benefit of the doubt.

(1 Co 13:7 NKJV) —7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Marriage has to be built on trust.

But you have to give trust a chance, you have to give them a chance to show you they’re telling the truth.

If you really trust God with it, then you can rest, knowing that if they aren’t telling the truth, they are going to have to face God, not you.

Overcoming jealousy

Sometimes we place all the blame on the person who is jealous. They may deserve some blame, but many times the other person is contributing to the problem, whether consciously or not.

Lesson

Cultivate trust

Perhaps the person has been hurt either by you or by another person in the past.

Jealousy is their safety mechanism to protect them from getting hurt again.

The problem is that it is often unjustified.

What can you do?

You need to look at your life, your actions, your relationships with other people, and see if you are doing anything that can contribute to a lack of trust.

Example: Be careful that you aren’t cultivating close relationships with members of the opposite sex. Be careful that you don’t spend time alone with another member of the opposite sex.

Taking proper precautions not only can build up your spouse’s trust in you, but it can safeguard you from falling into temptation yourself. Nobody’s above falling into sin.

Be open with your spouse, don’t hide things from them. If someone at the office of the opposite sex gives you a birthday card, make sure your spouse sees it.

This is one of the qualities of the “virtuous woman”

(Pr 31:10–12 NKJV) —10 Who can find a virtuous wife? For her worth is far above rubies. 11 The heart of her husband safely trusts her; So he will have no lack of gain. 12 She does him good and not evil All the days of her life.

There does have to be a reasonableness about all this. Obviously a man isn’t going to be able to avoid any contact with women, or vice versa.

Lesson

Growing your treasure

Sometimes the person who is jealous just doesn’t feel like they have what it’s going to take to keep you all to themselves, so they begin to figure that they’ve probably already lost you to someone else.

What can you do?

If you see this in your spouse, even though they are primarily responsible to learn to find their own self worth in Jesus, there is still something that you can do.

Make it your project to build up the other person, let them know over and over just how much you love them, and just how beautiful and wonderful they really are to you.

Listen to the words that come out of your mouth.

So often the little communication we have with each other is negative. We are sure to tell the other person what is wrong, what needs to be changed.

Wouldn’t it be great if we spent more time telling the other person how much we appreciated them and the things they do for us, than telling them what they did wrong?

(Eph 4:29–32 NKJV) —29 Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. 32 And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.

Don’t assume that your spouse has no problem knowing that you love them. Work at developing habits of encouragement.

Numbers 6

6:1-8 The Nazirite Vow

: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,

:2 Nazirite – nazir – one consecrated, devoted, dedicated

It’s an idea very similar to the word “holy”, which means “set apart for a specific use”.

Forms of this and related words are found 23 times in Numbers 6.

Joseph is called nazir, because he was set apart or distinguished among his brothers.

(Ge 49:26 NKJV) —26 The blessings of your father Have excelled the blessings of my ancestors, Up to the utmost bound of the everlasting hills. They shall be on the head of Joseph, And on the crown of the head of him who was separate from his brothers.

This vow of the Nazirite was one where a person would specifically consecrate themselves to God, for God’s own special use, whatever that may be and for however long it may be.

The Mishnah has a book called Nazir, and puts the minimum term at thirty days.

: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.

Conditions of the Nazirite Vow

1. No wine (:3-4)

“he shall separate (nazar) himself from wine...”

The Hebrew word is nazar, to be dedicated, to be a Nazirite.

The Nazirite was supposed to stay so far away from wine that they weren’t even allowed to eat raisins!

Why not wine?

a. Impaired judgment.

It keeps you from thinking straight. It makes it easier to give into temptations.

After Nadab and Abihu were killed for running into God’s presence in an unacceptable way, God had a word for their dad, Aaron –

(Le 10:9–11 NKJV) —9 “Do not drink wine or intoxicating drink, you, nor your sons with you, when you go into the tabernacle of meeting, lest you die. It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations, 10 that you may distinguish between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean, 11 and that you may teach the children of Israel all the statutes which the Lord has spoken to them by the hand of Moses.”

If you partake of alcohol, it becomes harder and harder to tell the difference between right and wrong in your life, to make a distinction between what is holy and what isn’t.

As some of you know, drinking can get you into trouble.

Illustration

A woman and a man are involved in a car accident, it’s a bad one. Both of their cars are totally demolished but amazingly neither of them is hurt. After they crawl out of their cars, the woman says, “So you’re a man; that’s interesting. I’m a woman. Wow, just look at our cars! There’s nothing left, but fortunately we are unhurt. This must be a sign from God that we should meet and be friends and live together in peace for the rest of our days.” Flattered, the man replied, “Oh yes, I agree with you completely! This must be a sign from God!” The woman continued, “And look at this, here’s another miracle. My car is completely demolished but this bottle of wine didn’t break. Surely God wants us to drink this wine and celebrate our good fortune. Then she hands the bottle to the man. The man nods his head in agreement, opens it and drinks half the bottle and then hands it back to the woman. The woman takes the bottle, immediately puts the cap back on, and hands it back to the man. The man asks, “Aren’t you having any?” The woman replies, “No. I think I’ll just wait for the police...”

Moral of the story: Women are clever. Don’t mess with them.

Also:  Being a Nazirite isn’t all bad…

b. A bad fake.

(Eph 5:18 NLT) —18 Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit,

Alcohol can calm a person down. It reduces tensions. It makes some people feel better.

These are all things the Holy Spirit wants to do for you, and much, much more. The Holy Spirit is the real thing, alcohol is just the cheap fake.

If you bought your wife a diamond ring, do you want the diamond to be real or fake? If you are sick, do you want to go to a real doctor, or a fake one?

2. No haircuts (:5)

It seems to me that this would be an outward sign to those around you that you were a man with a mission. You were on special assignment from God.

It would probably go like this: Someone notices you have extremely long hair, and they ask you, “Hey bub, what’s with the long hair?” You would respond, “I’m on a mission from God.”

The hair would be a witness to those around you, letting them know

3. No dead bodies (:6)

Dead bodies made you “unclean”.

The Nazirite’s life was supposed to be all about being “clean”.

The level of “cleanness” was the same as the High Priest:

(Le 21:11 NKJV) —11 nor shall he go near any dead body, nor defile himself for his father or his mother;

Famous Nazirites

Samson

(Jdg 13:5 NKJV) —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.”

Probably the most famous (or infamous) of the Nazirites.

He was a good example of how not to be a Nazirite.

The secret of Samson’s strength wasn’t in his hair; it was in his dedication to God.

Samuel

(1 Sa 1:11 NKJV) —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 Nazirite his entire life.

John the Baptist

(Lk 1:15a NKJV) —15 For he will be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink…

It would seem that John was a life long Nazirite.

Jesus - ???

(Mt 2:23 NKJV) —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.”

Is a “Nazarene” the same as a “Nazirite”?

No. The word “Nazarene” has two possible means:

1. An inhabitant of Nazareth.

2. A word based on the Hebrew word for “branch” (netzer), and the possible prophecy that Matthew is referring to is:

(Is 11:1 NKJV) —1 There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, And a Branch shall grow out of his roots.

Jesus was not known for being one who abstained from wine.

At the wedding at Cana, He turned water into wine (John 2)

(Lk 7:33–34 NKJV) —33 For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon.’ 34 The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look, a glutton and a winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’

I don’t think Jesus was a Nazirite.

Paul

(Ac 18:18 NKJV) —18 So Paul still remained a good while. Then he took leave of the brethren and sailed for Syria, and Priscilla and Aquila were with him. He had his hair cut off at Cenchrea, for he had taken a vow.

This sounds like Paul had placed himself under a Nazirite vow. It doesn’t seem to be a lifelong vow, but a temporary one.

6:9-12 Broken Nazirite Vows

: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.

Sometimes it wasn’t possible for a person to keep their promise to God.

If someone dies while sitting in church next to you, you are suddenly faced with the fact that your vow has been broken.

If that happens, then you have to cut your hair, bring an offering to the Lord, and start over.

In other words, all the days that you kept your vow go down the drain. You have to start over.

It reminds me of the AA “chips”.  If you’ve been sober for 1 year and 11 months, lose your sobriety, then wait a month, you aren’t supposed to get a 2 year chip until you start over again.

6:13-21 The Nazirite Gift

The more I look at this Nazirite thing, the more I am convinced that the goal is to get to this point – to make a presentation to God.

When the time of your “vow” has ended, you come to God at the Tabernacle loaded down with sacrifices…

: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.

The thing that sets this ritual apart is the burning of the hair.

The hair is the thing that represents all the time that this person has been serving God.

Scientists can now tell a lot about you by looking at your hair.

They can even pinpoint where you’ve been by analyzing the proteins in your hair.

When people live in different parts of the world, they absorb the nutrients and minerals that are unique to that part of the world.

Your hair is like a roadmap of where you’ve been.

When the Nazirite present his hair to the Lord, it’s like saying to God, “Here’s where I’ve been, here’s what I’ve done, here’s how I’ve served You.”

: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.”

Lesson:

How far can I get from sin?

God was so concerned about these Nazirites staying away from alcohol, that He even asked them not to eat or drink any grape products at all.

I think the idea is to promote total abstinence, without leaving any room for questioning just where you can draw the line.

Someone might say, “Well could it be okay if I just have a sip of a “low-alcohol” drink?

How far can I go?

Make it simple, just eliminate all grape products.

I believe the whole point is learning to become usable to God.

The Scripture does not specifically prohibit alcohol altogether for every person.

But there seems to be a pattern for those who wish to be used by God.

The priests were to abstain from alcohol.

The Nazirite was to abstain from alcohol.

(2 Ti 2:20–21 NKJV) —20 But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honor and some for dishonor. 21 Therefore if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work.

Lesson

My life as a gift

I see the offering of the hair on the altar as a way of presenting all the things that had been done during that vow to the Lord.

One of the commentaries I was reading (K & D) referred to the hair as the “crown” of the Nazirite.

I see a parallel picture happening in the worship of heaven:

(Re 4:9–11 NKJV) —9 Whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, who lives forever and ever, 10 the twenty-four elders fall down before Him who sits on the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying: 11 “You are worthy, O Lord, To receive glory and honor and power; For You created all things, And by Your will they exist and were created.”

Your life and how well you live it are probably the greatest gift you can give to the Lord.

A well-lived life has impact on those around you.

Illustration

Joe Stowell writes about a discussion he had with some Russian Christians after the fall of the Iron Curtain:

“Soon after that happened, three leaders of the Russian church came to visit the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. As president of Moody at the time, I was privileged to give them a tour. While we walked, I asked them what events had led to the cessation of oppression and persecution against the church. They explained that their economy had been failing because alcoholism was rampant. People who didn’t believe in God had no purpose, and absenteeism from work—largely due to alcoholism—was wreaking havoc with the economy. They said that once when Gorbachev, who was then the Prime Minister, met with his cabinet, he asked, “Why is it that we persecute the Christians? They are the ones who are not alcoholics. They show up for work every day and give us a good day’s work. Why is it that we persecute people like this whom we desperately need?””

Sometimes we wonder if it’s really worth it. We wonder if it’s worth it to live a life of “self-denial” when everyone around us isn’t.

A righteous life impacts those around you.

A righteous life is a great present to give to God.

Lesson

Finish what I promise

The more I look at this Nazirite vow, the more it seems to me that the whole purpose of the vow was to present the “hair” to the Lord.

The hair represented all the time in which the Nazirite lived for God and did what God said.

If something interrupted the vow, like exposure to a dead body, then the vow was broken and those days lived as a Nazirite had lost their value. (vs. 12)

(Nu 6:12 NLT) —12 The days of their vow that were completed before their defilement no longer count. They must rededicate themselves to the Lord as a Nazirite for the full term of their vow, and each must bring a one-year-old male lamb for a guilt offering.

It doesn’t do any good to make the promise if you don’t finish what you promised.

(Mt 21:28–32 NKJV) —28 “But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, ‘Son, go, work today in my vineyard.’ 29 He answered and said, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he regretted it and went. 30 Then he came to the second and said likewise. And he answered and said, ‘I go, sir,’ but he did not go. 31 Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said to Him, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you that tax collectors and harlots enter the kingdom of God before you. 32 For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him; but tax collectors and harlots believed him; and when you saw it, you did not afterward relent and believe him.

6:22-27 Aaron’s Blessing

Part of the priest’s responsibilities was to bless God’s people.

We too are priests. We have a responsibility to learn how to “bless” others.

:22 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:

:23 “Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, ‘This is the way you shall bless the children of Israel. Say to them:

:24 “The Lord bless you and keep you;

:24 bless – barak – to bless, kneel

To bless - to give a happiness.

To call down “happiness” on someone, given by God.

:24 keep – shamar – to keep, guard

(Jud 24 NKJV) —24 Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, And to present you faultless Before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy,

:25 The Lord make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you;

To ask God to “smile” on them.

:25 gracious – chanan – to be gracious, show favor, pity

Grace is getting what we don’t deserve.

Grace is all about Jesus.

(Jn 1:14 NKJV) And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

:26 The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace.” ’

:26 countenance – paniym – face

Again, His face, smiling

:26 peace – shalowm – completeness, soundness, welfare, peace

What a great thing to ask for a person!

This combination of “grace” and “peace” reminds me of Paul’s letters, like:

(Ro 1:7b NKJV) …Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

If you check, you will find that EVERY one of Paul’s letters begins with this same formula: Grace and peace.

Some say that Paul was just following the custom of the day in letter writing.

I wonder if Paul wasn’t obeying this same formula in Numbers – blessing the people, asking God for grace and peace.

:27 “So they shall put My name on the children of Israel, and I will bless them.”

:27 My name –

It’s calling God’s presence down on them.

God responds to our blessing by blessing.

Lord – Yhwh – Yahweh, the name of God.

In every place in these verses, it’s the actual name of God that is used and translated “Lord”.

There are three lines to the blessing (vss. 24-26)

Three times the name of God (Yahweh) is used in the blessing.

It kind of reminds me of the Trinity.

I think it is appropriate to say that the name of God, Yahweh, applies to each person of the Godhead.

We certainly think of God the Father as “Yahweh”.

There are Scriptures that link Jesus as being “Yahweh”.

I think we could make the case that the Holy Spirit is also Yahweh.

Perhaps the name “Yahweh” is a name that applies to God, who is in three persons. One God, three persons.

Perhaps it would be possible to look at the blessing in this way:

May the Father bless you and guard you.

May Jesus smile on you and show you grace.

May the Holy Spirit smile on you and give you peace.