Theological Commentary: Click Here
Today we get
to read about the Nazarite vow. Here we
have the case of a person who makes a vow to the Lord to serve Him. The vow wasn’t necessarily for one’s whole
life; it was usually for a period of time.
This was usually from a person who wanted to commit himself or herself
specifically to the work of the Lord for a time in their life.
What always
strikes me about this time is the level of commitment required. Even if a person’s immediate family dies,
their vow to God is more important than burying their own family! That’s dedication right there.
I’m left
wondering how many people in the time of Moses took this vow. We aren’t told of many people in the Bible
who did. Even more deeply, the two in
the Old Testament about whom we are told didn’t enter under their own
choice. Both Samson and Samuel’s mothers
entered them into the Nazarite vow because they were barren and promised that
if God would give them a child they would dedicate the child to the Lord. In the New Testament, it may be that Paul had
taken the Nazarite vow before heading to Jerusalem and then eventually to Rome.
The truth
is, however, that we aren’t told of many people in the Bible who take the
vow. Amos the prophet condemns his
contemporaries because they do not respect the vow. I’m not entirely sure what this means. Do we take from this that most human beings either
do not have the courage or the need to devote themselves to God in a very
strict sense? If this is simply a case
of authors not writing about the vow, why did the authors themselves find it so
unimportant?
What can we
take from this? First of all, God does
want us to draw close to Him. He would
not provide the means if He did not desire it.
Second, we need to take our relationship with God seriously. There is no relationship that we can have
that is more meaningful than our relationship with God. Third, if we make a promise with God, then we
need to keep it.
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