Reading
SAA Notes
The Nazirite vow brought certain obligations and responsibilities. John the Baptist lived as a Nazirite. Paul was most probably paying for the offerings of a number of Jewish Christians who had taken the Nazirite vow, when he was arrested in the temple. The Aaronic blessing is still sung at baptisms.
SJA Notes
* In You, O Lord our God, we put our trust. Do not let us be put to shame.
“All the days of his separation he is holy to the LORD.”
The Nazarite vow was a serious thing. Serious enough that even the death of your parents was not enough to break it.
The vow was to be separate to the Lord.
There are two relatively well-known people who lived as Nazarites.
The first is Samson. A great warrior, from some perspectives a real man’s man. Someone of great towering physical strength, and utter moral ineptitude.
The Nazarite vow did not make Samson a better person.
Samson did not live separate to the Lord. He chose to live in and of the world, consuming what it had to offer.
The other is John the Baptist, a man from the desert who ate honey and locusts.
John was the cousin of Jesus, and he leapt in the womb in the presence of his King!
John was a man who lived separate to the Lord. He took the Nazarite vows seriously.
But then we come to Jesus, as we should. Jesus lived separate to the Lord and yet drank wine and went in next to dead people.
The power of Jesus’ life was such that death could not and did not defile Him and His living separate to the Lord.
Today’s passage is enough entry into God’s word that through Jesus we see a deeper picture of what it means to be separate, singular, for the Lord.
One God. One King. One Father.
* Dear God Above,
Please write Your word on our hearts today, that we might be refined a little more toward You, toward Jesus.
Amen.