Latest / Teachings On This Day On FerventWord / On May 12, 2021: Numbers 6 Special Times Of Devotion To God
Transcript
- You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2021. Well, Numbers chapter 6 is a really interesting passage for a lot of reasons. One of the reasons is, I would suggest it's the closest biblical teaching that we have, which would relate to our times of fasting today. You know, it's something that is considered a spiritual discipline, right? And something that is considered good to do for Christians from time to time to devote a certain time for fasting. And sometimes it takes different forms. Either it's a complete abstinence of food for a short period of time, or maybe it's a like a restraining from a particular kind of food or a thing like that. And there's different types of fasting that people have talked about and considered and encouraged and perhaps you've engaged with over time. And as you think about that, as you, you know, walk through the scriptures, there's, you know, various different passages that we could relate that to and consider that in regards to that. But Numbers chapter 6 really is the closest thing to that whole concept. And And so it speaks to us about some times of not necessarily fasting, but those special times of dedication or devotion to God. And so I've titled the message this evening, Special Times of Devotion to God. And I would encourage you to consider this as we look at this chapter tonight, that maybe the Lord has a special time of devotion for you. That is, He wants to stir up and maybe encourage you to set aside, to designate a certain period of time or certain periods of time, maybe not necessarily a whole block of time, but maybe, you know, a portion of the day or a portion of the week that that the Lord wants you to reserve for Him in some special way and for some special purpose. Maybe in your life, there needs to be some of these special times of devotion to God. As we dive into this chapter, it's kind of a continuation from last Wednesday. And it's interesting how God often works that out and woes us. Weaves, weaves, that's the word. Weaves these things together, even as we go from week to week, even though we're jumping, you know, different chapters in between. The Lord's continuing the train of thought. Last week in chapter 27 of Leviticus, we talked about being dedicated to the Lord. And it was looking at the different types of vows. And you might remember those types of dedications that we saw there. There was the dedication of people. whether it was self or servants or children. Then there was the dedication of animals and then also the opportunity to dedicate property and make a vow regarding a property that you own. And so the vow concerning people is very related to what we're looking at here in Numbers chapter six, only it's not making a vow on behalf of someone else. It's directly personal. The Nazarite vow is me making a vow unto the Lord God For myself. And this Nazarite vow, the word Nazarite, it's a transliteration of the Hebrew word. Literally, the word means to set apart or to dedicate. It's very closely related to the word holy, which also means to be set apart. And so it's this idea of becoming a dedicated person or someone who is set apart for the Lord in this special season and for this special time. And so you'll notice throughout the passage, it's translated the separation over and over and over again. It's that word that is referred to as the Nazarite. Verse 8 says, all the days of his separation, he shall be holy to the Lord. And so there is this designated time period of separation, of devotion, of holiness unto the Lord. Now, the Nazarite vow is something that we see fulfilled by various people throughout the scriptures. One of the most famous Nazarites in the scriptures was Samson. And his Nazarite vow was unique because, well, the Lord made the vow for him before he was born. The Lord told his parents, this is the way that he is to live. And it was the walking in accordance with the Nazarite vow. And so it was unique in that way, but it was also unique in that it was his whole life. As you can see from this passage here in number six, typically it's not a whole life type of vow. It's a designated portion of time. And then at the end of that time, then life goes kind of back to normal afterwards. But for Samson, it was different. His whole life was to be lived as a Nazarite. Now, along with that, in Judges chapter 13, you also see it seems that Samson's mom was called by the Lord to make a Nazarite vow. That is, while she was pregnant with Samson, that she was not to drink wine or similar drink or eat anything unclean. To not become ceremonially unclean is the instruction that the Lord gave her, which is part of the Nazarite vow. And so it's possible that the Lord called her to make that vow. And again, I would encourage you to consider that this evening, that there are things that perhaps the Lord wants to call you to. Well, then we have the example of Samuel as well. Samuel was probably a Nazarite his whole life. From 1 Samuel 1, verse 11, we see, again, the vow of dedication by Samuel's mom. And so, again, unique. It was not a vow that Samuel signed up for because he was too young, but he was given over to the Lord. And it looks like from the passage, he lived out the life of a Nazarite. Another possible Nazarite for life was John the Baptist. In Luke chapter 1 verse 15, it talks about him not drinking any wine or strong drink. And so from his mother's womb, he was to be set apart in a certain way. All the different elements of the Nazarite vow are not specifically applied to John the Baptist, but from the context, it seems like he probably lived his life as a Nazarite. What's interesting about this is that you might immediately put Jesus into the midst of it, but it doesn't seem like actually Jesus lived under a Nazarite vow for his whole lifetime. I mean, obviously he was devoted to the Father and committed to the Father and consecrated to the Father and all of that, but not under these specific regulations that are provided here in the Nazarite vow. But we do also see the Apostle Paul a couple of times in Acts chapter 18 and Acts chapter 21, participating in a vow unto the Lord. And it seems like it's a Nazarite vow that he is committing there. As you read through those chapters, you can see it involved the hair being cut off and the ceremony that is applied for certain periods of time. And so Acts chapter 18 and Acts chapter 21 give us the account of the Apostle Paul and his Nazarite vows. And I think all of those are important to consider as we think about what the Lord has for us and the application of these things to us, because it's not just, you know, the Samson's of the Old Testament, but it is something that perhaps God wants to work in us as New Testament Christians, that that there is still an opportunity to have these special times that are designated for the Lord, that there are certain times, certain things that God has established or called us to or perhaps stirred up within our hearts that we would be given over to him in some unique and special way. Pastor Warren Wiersbe puts it this way. Each Nazarite had a different goal in mind, but all of them wanted to glorify the Lord and obey his word. They didn't isolate themselves from society, but rather were witnesses to others of the importance of total devotion to the Lord. Their vow was for a specified period and a specified purpose. I like that he points out here that they didn't isolate themselves from society. They It wasn't that, you know, they made this Nazarite vow and then they went in and lived the life, you know, of a monk in a cave somewhere, you know, or a monastery and closed up. But no, but they were out and living their life, but they had this special designation upon their life and special way to go about their life. "during this period of time." And so there would be different things that the people had in mind and that people had on their heart as they wanted to connect with God and walk with God and worship God and be obedient to God. they would have different goals and they would have different purposes and different time periods that they would get to choose because the Nazarite vow is a voluntary thing. And so it would be, you know, just some personal thing that the Lord was working out within their heart in their relationship with him. And so interesting stuff for us to consider. Perhaps we There's a special time of devotion that God has put upon your heart or that God wants to stir up in your heart or that, you know, the Lord wants to work out between you. Perhaps you want to commit a special time of devotion to God. And so helpful insights for us here in Numbers chapter 6 for that. We're going to look at five points in regards to this Nazarite vow, these special times of devotion to God. The first point found here in verses 1 and 2, and that is that you can devote yourself to God. First and foremost, you need to understand this is something that you have the opportunity to do. You can devote yourself to God. Check out verse one and two. It says, then the Lord spoke to Moses saying, 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. He's gonna go on with the instructions. But first of all, I just wanna stop and point out God is opening up this vow, this special devotion and special status of holiness unto the Lord to anyone in Israel, man or woman throughout the nation of Israel is able to participate in this vow. We spent some time thinking about the priests. And in looking at the priests throughout the book of Leviticus, we saw how they were to live certain ways and they had stricter regulations applied to them. And, you know, there were many things that they got to have the privilege of being involved with, but it also came with extra responsibility. And so many things about them were really interesting in their relationship with the Lord and their opportunity to serve the Lord. But that only took place in the tribe of Levi, where you have the Levites, and then that special family descended from Aaron that were the priests. What about the rest of the tribes? What if you were from the tribe of Benjamin? You might sit back and think, well, what about me? I don't get to have my life be devoted to God in that way. I don't get to have those special intimate times with the Lord. I don't get to have, you know, those kinds of connections with the Lord because I'm not from the tribe of Levi. And so I can't be connected to the Lord in that way. And so God says, well, here, let me give you an opportunity. And as you read through the Nazarite vow, you'll notice the regulations attached to it are similar, not just to the priest's life, but really to the high priest's life. And so there was this special status that God allowed anyone to enter into where they would be able to be set apart unto the Lord like the high priest, similar to the high priest and have that kind of opportunity to engage with God in that way. And that's something important for us to consider. You know, sometimes there's misunderstandings about what we would call like full-time ministry. And sometimes Christians feel like, you know, other people can be devoted to God. And oh man, they have such cool opportunities because they're able to be devoted to God, not like me. You know, I have to have these responsibilities and take care of these other things. And I just, I'm not able to be devoted to God like those other people can, like that pastor can, or that missionary can, or that church staff member can. And that's really a misunderstanding of ministry. It's really a misunderstanding of devotion to God altogether. For several years now, I've been working this job, the place down the street, Urban Surfaces, and been doing that full-time. Before that, I was doing freelance work full-time, right? Prior to that, I was full-time on staff here at the church and able to be here, you know, the 40 hours a week or more that I now am required to spend elsewhere. And it would be tempting to kind of make a distinction between those in the idea of devotion to God. But here's the reality. If I'm doing it right... I'm just as devoted to God working at urban surfaces as when I was working here full-time. My activities changed, right? Some of the practical feet on the ground things changed, but the reality is I'm still called to be devoted to God in the same way and used by the Lord and seeking the Lord and being led by the Lord and filled with the Holy Spirit in the same way there as I am when I am here. All that to say, you can devote yourself to God. You don't have to have a full-time church job or ministry job. Your whole life is a full-time ministry opportunity if you want to have it. Again, Pastor Thomas Constable says, And so it doesn't take us out of society, this vow. And we don't have to be completely removed from our normal responsibilities to have this kind of special designation and devotion to God. We have the opportunity... living out our life to also be devoted to God in a unique and special and powerful way. And so everyone has the opportunity to be devoted to God. You can devote yourself to God. You can have a real and vibrant and special connection to God. And perhaps there is a season where A time of special devotion to God that God wants to stir up within you and for you. Again in verse 2, he says, The opportunity was for anybody. Anyone is able to, everyone is able to separate themselves to the Lord. And even in the workplace activities and those responsibilities at home and all of those things can still be done unto the Lord and done from a condition of being separated unto the Lord and have this opportunity to walk with God in this way. Vocation, that is workplace, right? If my workplace is the church, that's cool. I look forward to those days when that'll happen again. but that is not an indication of my opportunity to know the Lord better, to be closer to the Lord, to have a better relationship with the Lord. Pastor Damian Kyle recently was sharing about this in Numbers chapter six, and he was pointing out that calling and intimacy with God are two different things. Because you could have the priest who is designated for this role and to have, you know, this kind of separation and to be in this status continually. And yet at the same time, you could have the priest to be a carnal guy who has no concern for the things of the Lord, but that's his job. That's what he's, you know, paid to do essentially. That's what he has to do. And so he's going about and he's a carnal priest. Meanwhile, you can have a spiritual Benjamite, Benjaminite. Someone from the tribe of Benjamin that is just loving the Lord and closer to the Lord than this priest who has this great and awesome opportunity and responsibility, but isn't really pursuing the things of the Lord. And it's true for all of us. There are those who have jobs that seem spiritual, but jobs are just jobs. All of us, every one of us has the same opportunity to know God. to hear from the Lord, to discern his voice, to walk with him. You can devote yourself to God. Pastor J. Vernon McGee puts it this way, although the believer today doesn't take a Nazarite vow, there is the offer of a closer walk with the Lord. It is voluntary. You must want it. It is an act of devotion. And so this evening, I would ask you to consider, do you want it? Do you want that closer walk with the Lord? Is there perhaps the need for some designated period of purposefully drawing near to the Lord in your life, to develop your spiritual life, to develop and establish yourself and perhaps bring health and wholeness to your heart, to your mind, to your soul as you draw near to the Lord. You can devote yourself to God. You have the opportunity. It's there for you if you want to take advantage of it. The Nazarite vow is not required of anybody except for these special exceptions that we talked about. For us, the Lord invites us in. He opens the door of the Holy of Holies and he says, come on in, draw near. But the real question is, do you want to? Do you want to draw near to the Lord? Do you want to have this kind of relationship with God? Do you want to develop and grow in your pursuit of the things of God? Well, moving on to verses three through five, we get point number two this evening, talking about special times of devotion to God. We need to know that devotion to God requires saying no to good things. If you're going to devote yourself to God, if you're going to have a special time of devotion, you're going to have a designated time period or time of the day or certain days of the week, if you're going to have these kinds of things, you need to understand that it means you will be required to say no to things that are good in and of themselves. Check out verses 1 through 3. It says, "...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. All the days of his separation he shall eat nothing that is produced by the grapevine from seed to skin. 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 be grow. Here in these verses, we get the first two requirements of the Nazarite vow. Again, the vow itself is not required, but if you're going to make the vow, God says, okay, here is the requirements that go along with this vow. And so the first requirement, he says, there's to be no partaking of products of the vine. Verse three and four talk about all the different types. And then verse five, he says, no haircuts. No cutting your hair, no shaving your head for the period of the vow. Now in these two requirements, there's a lot that we could consider and perhaps much discussion that could be had because God doesn't spell out the reasons for these requirements. He doesn't specifically say, okay, no products of the vine for this reason, and spell out all of the details about that. He doesn't say, no razor shall touch your head, and then here's why. He doesn't give the explanation. He just gives the instruction, don't do this, and don't do that. And so there's been much speculation about over the years about, well, what is the reason behind this instruction? And it's interesting to speculate, and perhaps there's some insights that the Lord wants to give you as you think about and meditate on those things, but we cannot say exactly the Lord's purpose and meaning behind it in a way that applies to every person. It is the instruction that he gave without all of the explanation. So looking at the hair, first of all, in verse 5, all the days of the vow of his separation, no razor shall come upon his head. And so this is my life verse here from the Bible. No, I'm just kidding. The typical understanding of this aspect and this requirement is that it's a public declaration. customary for them, especially for the men, was for them to not grow their hair. Now this vow is available for men and women, so it's not necessarily, you know, just for men, but for them customarily, the men would not let their hair grow long. And so to let it grow long would be a public declaration of something, and particularly this vow is the general idea. And that's a possibility. Again, there's Some considerations with that, again, with the men and women being involved. Perhaps not always the case for them socially to understand that. We don't know all the details. The vine, considering the products of the vine, a lot of times when we're looking at this passage and considering it, there's an immediate jump to, you know, this is dealing with alcohol. It's not actually... About alcohol exclusively. I mean, alcohol is included in this, in the wine and the different types of drinks, right? But at the same time, in verse 4, he says, nothing that's produced by the grapevine, not the seeds or the skin. And so it's not, you know, anything of the vine, not just the fermented parts of the vine. God says you're just not to partake of anything that comes from the grapevine at all. And so as you look at these things, the thing that stood out to me as I was considering this is that in both cases, haircuts and products of the vine, God is requiring the Nazarite to abstain from things that are not necessarily sinful. God is saying, this isn't sin for you to get a haircut, but in this vow, you're going to restrict yourself more than just, you know, what is the thou shalt not. You're going to follow the instruction that I give and even if it's not obviously sinful. The partaking of the products of the vine, even the partaking of alcohol, is not necessarily sinful. Now, that's not an exhortation, you know, to go indulge. Drunkenness is always forbidden in the Scriptures. And there are plenty of people that, you know, should never be drinking at all. I'm not going to get into the whole alcohol discussion at this point. But overall, as you look at the Scriptures... The product of the vine and wine is referred to in a way of expressing goodness and joy and God's blessing. And so this isn't saying you shall make this vow and during this vow you shall not sin. That's not what's happening here. This is not a vow of sinlessness. This is a vow and God says, okay, now you're dedicating yourself to me. Now that means aside from the sin that you already abstained from because you want to follow me, now let's restrict your life a little bit more and take out things, even the things that are good and things that are considered blessings. But for this designated period, let's reduce your freedoms a bit so that you can be devoted to me in this unique and special way. Again, this is not a vow of sinlessness. Last week, as we talked about the vows, we saw the point that you cannot dedicate to God what already belongs to him. So you can't make a special dedication out of the tithe because the tithe already belongs to God. It's already his, so you can't dedicate it to the Lord. You just give it to him because that's his and he told you what to do with it. In a similar way, we're always commanded to separate ourselves from sin. So there's no like, all right, I'm going to designate this special period for the next two weeks. I'm just going to be really devoted to the Lord and I'm not going to sin like I usually do. No, well, if that's your approach, that's not this vow. Like there's some other things happening in your life and you need to address those. Hey, if there's sin going on in your life, don't try to vow yourself out of it. All right, I'm gonna make some promises. I'm gonna make some dedications and I'm gonna stop sinning, you know, for this time period. Like, no, that's not the way that it works. And sometimes we think that, well, if I could just rope myself into, you know, a legalistic system or a legalistic vow, then I'll be able to stop this sin forever. Listen, God never tells you if you're having trouble with sin, you know, make a vow to try to deal with it. That's not what this is for. And so this is a separate thing than that. It's not a vow of sinlessness. It's a vow of dedication to the Lord. And that's going to require a break in routine. That's going to require limiting some things that may be good and might be blessings from God. And yet at the same time, might be beneficial for you to exclude those things from your life, from your schedule for a while, in order to have this special time of devotion to God. And so here in these two things, God gives blessing. The Israelites here, some simple and clear ways to separate themselves to God. I mean, you could think about it. They're reminded every meal because they would have to kind of be careful. Is there any products of the vine in this dish? They would have to be careful, you know, if they go to have a meal or have a barbecue at someone's house, you know, like, okay, you know, what are the ingredients and what's included here? And so it would always be on the top of their mind. I'm in this special state of holiness unto the Lord, right? And so God here gives them some opportunities in these requirements to be reminded. As they look in the mirror, man, my hair is getting long. It's like going in my eyes. I don't know what that's like anymore, but you know, it's like I'm reminded. Oh yes, that's right. That's because I'm a Nazarite. I'm separated unto the Lord. Devotion to God requires saying no to good things. Now again, we're in the new covenant. It's a little bit different. Make it a Commitment to the Lord in this way doesn't necessarily involve these same requirements. In fact, the Nazarite vow is voluntary, so you could kind of make your own Nazarite vow and set your own terms that are appropriate for you. For us today, you know, we can be led by the Holy Spirit. And perhaps there are some things in our lives that God wants us to say no to for a season that would be really helpful and beneficial for us to devote ourselves to God. And again, that's why I started with, you know, there's those times of fasting that sometimes we engage in or others around us engage in. And so maybe you've heard of or you have it on your heart to do a social media fast or This is kind of the concept here. Social media, it's not necessarily sinful. Can be, for sure, but not necessarily. But perhaps there's a special time that the Lord is just kind of stirring up in you and he says, you know, why don't you take a break from all of that? For a time, for a period, perhaps you go back to it afterwards, perhaps it doesn't change for the rest of your life, but for this season, for this time period, why don't you set that aside and devote yourself to me in a special way? And so maybe there's a television fast that would be appropriate for you and beneficial for you. Maybe a fast from Starbucks or caffeine or a fast from sports or or fast from perhaps certain activities. Again, I'm not talking about sinful activities. That's a separate thing. But maybe there's some good activities in your life that you need to say no to so that you can be devoted to the Lord in this special way for this special time. I've shared this many times before, but you know, sometimes we say no to opportunities because Not necessarily intentionally, but we say no to opportunities because we're always saying yes to other opportunities. And so when an opportunity that comes that God intended for us, we're unavailable for it because we said yes to all the things that the Lord really didn't ask us to do, but we volunteered. We signed up. We said yes to all of them. And in doing so, we perhaps unintentionally said no to things that God had intended for us. We need to learn to say no. Say, you know what? I have this time and maybe it's a season. I have the next month or maybe it's a day of the week. I have Tuesdays. Maybe it's a time of the day. I have, you know, the three o'clock to four o'clock hour. And this time is devoted to God. It's a separation unto God. It's for this purpose and it's not for anything else. And the Lord can put upon our hearts and lead us in these kinds of commitments to him that are helpful and beneficial in our relationship with him, in our walk with him. You know, sometimes we kind of resist religious rituals. I'll give the example of Lent, right? It's not something we typically practice as Protestants. And perhaps we have some negative perspectives about it. Maybe from our background, maybe from what we've seen around us, or maybe how we've heard others talk about it. But, you know, in and of itself, it's not unlike the Nazarite vow of Numbers chapter 6. Now, the purpose and intents behind it, of course, really matter. They're important. We need to understand it properly. But it's possible something like that could be really great for you and really a huge blessing in your life for you to give up something for 40 days. And devote yourself to the Lord in a special way during that time. Or maybe it's, again, a particular day or time of the week. Maybe you need to kind of make a Nazarite vow regarding church times. That you would kind of have a renewed commitment to, I need to be meeting with the Lord at church or online, but during church times, you know, I need to be participating in the services. If you want to hear me say no, no. Ask me to watch Star Wars with you on Sunday morning. I love Star Wars. I'd enjoy watching Star Wars with you. Be a great time. But not Sunday morning. No, that's consecrated. That's devoted. I've got an appointment with the Lord on that day, during that time. Sunday afternoon, you're on. Let's do it. Right? But no, that time is dedicated unto the Lord. And perhaps there needs to be that kind of renewed commitment in your heart that towards the service times like that. I remember, I've shared this before, but some of you are new, so I'll share it again. There was a time back when I was working at Paychex that I was really struggling in my devotional life to get up every day and read the Bible before I would go to work. It was really hard. Of course, I would always stay up late at night, so then that would make it hard to get up in the morning, right? I'd said yes to late night, and that made me say no to devotions in the morning, right? So I was always doing that trade-off and wrestling with that, and The Lord just stood up in my heart one day. I need to be committed to spend time with God every morning, no matter what. It was kind of scary because I was like, okay, Lord, that means if I wake up late and I spend time with you, then I'm going to be late to work. I wrestled with it a little bit and I realized that's the commitment I need to make. The Lord is more important than Now, if I end up going to work late every day, you know, obviously things are wrong, right? And it's not my work's problem. It's my heart with the Lord. And so the Lord put it on my heart in that way. And I committed to spend time with God every morning in his word before I went to work and Even when I woke up late, and if it meant I was late, if it meant I got in trouble, if it meant, you know, whatever, like I had to hold that commitment. And the Lord put that upon my heart and helped me to walk in that. And perhaps there's something like that. The Lord wants to work in you as well. Devotion to God requires saying no to good things. Maybe sleeping in is a good thing, but maybe you need to say no to it so that you can say yes to getting up and spending time with the Lord. Well, moving on to verses 6 through 8, we get the third point to consider this evening, and that is devotion to God must come before all else. When you have special times of devotion to God, it really does need to be devotion to God above all else. Check out verses 6 through 8. It says this, "...all the days that he separates himself to the Lord, he shall not go near a dead body." 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. All the days of his separation he shall be holy to the Lord. Here the Lord says this time of separation is to be a serious time of separation. And again, the requirements that are here are very similar to what we saw back in Leviticus chapter 21. So now we're going back two weeks ago. When I walked through that passage two weeks ago, I titled the message in Leviticus 21, God gets to tell me what to do. And the first point was that God gets to tell me how to grieve because we talked about God's regulations for the priests and whenever they have a death in the family or a death of someone close to them. And God gave them instructions on what was appropriate for them, corresponding with their role as priest. And then we saw that the high priest had even stricter requirements, similar to the Nazarite vow. The normal priest, who wasn't the high priest, they could break from their responsibilities as priest for a close family member who died. But the high priest was not allowed to. He was on duty. Same with the Nazarite. And again, understand that, you know, there could be perhaps some longing, you know, look of the role of the high priest and think, oh, wow, he is so great, you know, he gets to be, you know, so close to the Lord. And God says, look, you have the same exact opportunity, he says to all the children of Israel. Do you have the same opportunity? You can be devoted to me in the same way. You can have those same kind of encounters with God as the high priest. Yeah, that doesn't mean you get to do the high priest duties, but the high priest duties are not as glamorous as you might think, right? Just this week, Richard and I had to deal with some plumbing issues, right? It's not glamorous duties, you know, for serving here at the church that you'd be so excited to participate in. Like, you know, crawling under the sink and, you know, dealing with plumbing. Like that's, have you seen those memes, you know, like, what my wife thinks I do, what my friends think I do. You know, there's a pastor one that's kind of funny. It's like, you know, all the different things and golfing and, you know, all that. But then what I really do and it's, you know, working on a toilet. Like that ultimately, like that's really what it's like. That they're just real practical things that need to be done. And, you know, that's the role. But that's separate from every one of us has the opportunity to to be devoted to God and intimate with the Lord and have a special and real connection to God. And so the regulations here were the same as the regulations for the high priest because they had the same kind of opportunity to be close to God, to know God, to walk with God. Now again, the vows here are voluntary. And yet at the same time, they're serious. Notice in verse seven, he says, "'Because the separation to God is on his head.'" Even if a close family member dies, you are not to be part of that process. Now, understanding their culture a little bit, typically in the Jewish culture, they would bury the person on the same day that they died. And so it would be a fast process. And so you're in the middle of a Nazarite vow, like you're not able to be part of it. You missed that whole thing. God says, it's serious. Your separation is on your head. It's attached to you. It's attached to your life. You have made a vow to God. It's a serious thing. You need to hold fast to your commitment before the Lord. Devotion to God must come before all else. Now, Jesus expressed similar things in just the idea of being his disciple, right? In Luke 9, verse 23, if anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me. The dying to self, denying self, to follow Jesus, like that's just a requirement to be a disciple, let alone a special designated time unto the Lord. Like that's what it takes to walk with the Lord. That's what the Lord calls us to continually. Even Matthew chapter 10 verse 37, he who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. And he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. That doesn't mean we're to despise one another or have bad relationships or anything like that. But the reminder that the Lord must always come first. And what he asks of us and what he instructs us in and what he calls us to always has to be our highest priority. Our highest allegiance is to the Lord. Again, verse 8, all the days of his separation, he shall be holy to the Lord. Completely dedicated, devoted to the Lord so that we obey him no matter what. We hold fast to him. We follow him no matter what, before everything else, more important than any other person in our life. Now, typically, you know, I'm just speaking generally here, God's will for your life is to have good relationships with your father and mother and son and daughter, right? Like, he's not saying all of those ties have to be severed completely. No, what God has for you is, you know, good relationships and love in those relationships and great things in them. But when it comes in tension with what God is instructing, what God has said, then, well, like Peter said, we must obey God rather than men. We must be faithful and obedient to God. So devotion must come before all else. Devotion to God must come before all else. Well, continuing on in verses 9 through 12, we get the fourth thing to consider in this special time of devotion to God. Broken devotions should be restarted. God here builds into the law of the Nazarite the case where what if something happens, the vow is broken. Check out verses 9 through 12. It says, 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. Then on the eighth day he shall bring two turtle doves or two young pigeons to the priest to the door of the tabernacle of meeting. 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. Verse 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. Here God addresses the issue, what if the vow is broken accidentally? So part of the requirements, well, again, the requirement was no products of the vine, no razor on the head, and no contact with dead bodies to become ceremonially unclean. So he gives the case, well, what if it wasn't intentional, but the guy who was just sitting right next to me happened to keel over and die right next to me? There was nothing I could do. I didn't walk into that situation. It just happened upon me. And so God is now addressing this case of a vow broken accidentally. Now, perhaps it's interesting to consider. What about vows that are broken intentionally? Oh, but God, I was really craving some grapes. God doesn't address that here. And so I'm not going to address it. You can just wrestle with it. But what about vows broken accidentally? We understand from this passage here, an accident still brings defilement. In verse 9, if anyone dies very suddenly beside him and he defiles his consecrated head, his vow is broken, he is defiled, he is ceremonially unclean when he is committed to be ceremonially clean, even if the incident was an accident. Now the normal... process for anybody, not just, not the Nazarites only, right? Not those who had this vow only, but it was a normal seven-day separation for someone who had been in contact with a dead body. And so what God is prescribing here is that normal seven days of separation. So he shall shave his head on the day of his cleansing. That was the seventh day. On the seventh day, he shall shave it. And so the Nazarite then, so he's in the Two weeks into this vow, he comes in contact with a dead body. So now he has to take seven days that are not part of the vow, but just separation for uncleanness for being in contact with the body. And then he would come back on that seventh day and shave his head, remove all the defilement, remove all the hair that was there. And then he would have to offer some offerings. In verse 10 and 11, it talks about the sin offerings that must be offered. In verse 12, the trespass offering that must be offered. Verse 11, right in the middle of the verse, it says, because he sinned in regard to the corpse. And this is really important for us to understand. Accidental sin is still sin. A lot of times we, you know, might excuse our sin because it was accidental, right? I didn't mean to. I didn't plan on that. I didn't intend to. I didn't, you know, pursue that. But at the same time, we need to understand that whether or not we pursued it, sin is sin, whether it is accidental or not. And so this person sinned. The idea of sin is missing the mark, right? They made the vow to be ceremonially clean and separate from the dead for this designated period of time, and they missed the mark. They didn't fulfill that vow. It wasn't necessarily their fault, but it's still sin. It's still defilement. So what do they do? God says, here's what you do. You take the normal seven days of separation. You come back, shave everything, start fresh, offer your sacrifices to start clean. You have a clean slate now. The sin is forgiven. And now start your vow over. Again, verse 12, he shall consecrate to the Lord the days of his separation. So at the beginning of the vow, there'd be a declaration. As you make your vow before the Lord there at the tabernacle, you'd say, okay, I'm going to have this vow for a month. Jewish tradition tells us that typical Nazarite vows were for a month period. They could be for different time periods, but typically it was for a month. Okay, I'm going to devote myself to the Lord for this month. But then in the middle of the month, the vow was broken. And so God says, you still owe me the month. Well, but I already put two weeks in. Can I get time served, you know, as part of that? God says, no, start over. Bring a male lamb in its first year as a trespass offering, but the former days shall be lost because his separation was defiled. The former days are gone. Those two weeks that you spent in that vow, those don't count now. You still owe me the month because that vow was broken. Again, vows are voluntary, but once you make them, God says, that's a serious thing. And we need to be faithful to those things that we commit to the Lord. So God says, you still owe me the month. The former days are lost. There is in the Mishnah, which is the record of Jewish traditions, an instance where Queen Helena was involved in a Nazarite vow that she had made unto the Lord for seven years. And she almost got to the end of the seven years and something happened and she was defiled. She was ceremonially unclean. And so she had to go back and start again to commit another seven years unto the Lord. Now, that's just Jewish tradition. That's not Bible, but it is in agreement with the instruction that the Lord gives here. Now, I really love this because here's what I read from this. The Lord doesn't say, okay, you broke your vow. You failed. Never try again. That's not what the Lord says. The Lord doesn't say, okay, you broke your vow. Now you're going to have to do double next time, you know, to make up for what you messed up. Here's what the Lord says. Just start over. Just start with a fresh slate, a clean slate. Just throw out the past and just let's start today and we can have this what was on your heart, what you intended, that special time with me, that special designated time for you and me to be together and walk together. Let's just start it over. We'll just, hey, mercies are new every morning, fresh, clean slate. Let's engage in this commitment, in this vow that you made. Old Presbyterian pastor Alexander White summed it up nicely. The victorious Christian life is a series of new beginnings. Not just flawlessness continually, right? Not without fail all the time, but just new beginnings. And we need to allow ourselves to embrace the grace of the Lord with new beginnings. Allow ourselves to embrace the grace of God that just get a fresh start. You don't have to, you know, try to compensate for all of those past things or how you failed or, you know, all the, like, just let's just start today. Walk with the Lord today in the way that he wants to walk with you and he's called you to. You live the Christian life. You go through a time period of being backslidden and then you kind of wake up and realize where you've been and how much you need the Lord and God says, just start over. Just start fresh today. You don't have to make up for or compensate for all the lost time. You don't have to agonize over where you could have been if you hadn't have gone that route. Let's just start fresh today. This is one of the reasons why I think it's appropriate sometimes for someone to be baptized who has previously been baptized. Because there's those times where it's just like, you know what? Theologically, I understand. Yes, I identified with Christ once. I wasn't unsaved even though I was backslidden, right? Even though I was living that way. And so I don't need to be baptized again. But at the same time, like, oh, there is this like new beginning that is needed in my life that I just need to start fresh, start over in the vow and the commitment that I made to the Lord. Another way this plays out for us, and I often encourage you guys as we're going through the Bible in three years or whatever reading plan you might be following, I always encourage people, just read today's reading, right? You missed yesterday, it's lost. Don't try to catch up. Don't try to go back and, you know, read all the parts you missed to get to today. Like, scratch all that. And that's really hard. It was really hard for me when I first wrestled with that. But I had to learn to embrace the grace that I can just start over. And starting over doesn't mean starting at the beginning of the chapter or the passage, but starting over with today, I'm going to spend time with God and His Word in the portion that's assigned today. I'm just going to walk with him today in the portion that God gives me. And listen, if four days a week, you know, is all that you have and you start over four days a week and you just read that day's reading, like that's great. Embrace the grace of God. Allow the Lord to do that in your life. Because so many times we get caught up in the legalism and we have to like this backlog of like, I got to read all these chapters to get caught up and I quit before I start because there's no way I can read this. You know, I got to do other stuff and we get discouraged and we beat ourselves up and we lecture ourselves and Satan jumps on it. Like there's all this stuff that's tied to things that, hey, you could just start fresh. Yeah, your devotions were broken. Your commitments, they failed. Don't try to go back and, you know, repay them. Just start today and do it again. And if it happens again tomorrow, well then just start the next day and do it again. Broken devotions. Have you made some commitments to the Lord that kind of fallen to the wayside? Those devotions have been broken. They should be restarted. Again, vows were voluntary. You don't have to vow, but when you vow, you should keep your vow. You should hold fast. Unless God releases you. And God has the right to do that. And he could say, you know what? Scratch that. You made that. I appreciate where your heart was, but that's not what I want for you. If God releases you, then great, you're released. But you should hold fast to the commitments that God gives you or that you've given to the Lord unless God changes the direction for you. Pastor J. Vernon McGee says, God does not require a vow. But when a vow is made, he expects it to be kept. And it is a serious matter if it is broken. He goes on to say, if I'm confident, there are a great many Christians who promise God things that they never made good. And that explains their sad spiritual plight today. And I don't know if that's perhaps someone who's hearing this now. But even if you're in a sad spiritual plight today, guess what? You can start over. And you don't got to make up for it. You don't got to pay double for it. You just start today today. And walk in that commitment that you made to the Lord. Walk in obedience to the things that God has set upon your heart. Well, finally, the fifth thing, looking at verses 13 through 21, devotion is a gift to God. Devotion is a gift to God. Verse 13 through 15 first says this, now this is the law of the Nazarite. Verse 1. To finish your vow, here is a long list of things that you have to bring to the tabernacle to offer these four main offerings to the Lord. A burnt offering, a sin offering, a peace offering, a grain offering, along with the supplemental drink offerings that went along with them. The completion of this vow would be a significant expense. This was not something to be entered into lightly because at the end of the vow, it's going to cost you hundreds of dollars to finish it up, to offer these sacrifices to the Lord. Now you and I might think, Boy, I've just spent the last two months in devotion to God and just giving myself to the Lord in this great way. I'm going to come back to the tabernacle and God should give me all of these animals and give me all of these things and baskets of things and drinks of things. Now he owes me because I've been so devoted to him. And it's a very dangerous mindset to get into because it is not at all what commitments to the Lord are about. Listen, our commitments to the Lord are gifts to the Lord. But I'm giving you my time. I'm giving you the restricted liberties. I'm giving you these offerings. These are my gift to you, Lord. I'm not expecting something from you. And this is really important because a lot of times when people talk about fasting today, it's in the context of, well, I need to get God's will for my life. And so I'm going to fast so that I make God tell me what it is that I want to hear. Or I need this, or I need that, or I want God to do this, or I want God to accomplish that. And it's sometimes used as a kind of a negotiation with God, or like an arm wrestling with God. Like, I'm going to fast until you, you know, answer my prayer. And we need to be very careful with that. I'm not saying the Lord can't put that on your heart in that way and call you to that. Perhaps he would. But generally speaking... The idea of fasting, devotion, commitment unto the Lord, it's not a negotiation tactic to convince God to do what we want. No, it's a gift to God. It's to say to God, God, I just want to give this time to you. Not to get something, not to make my will happen on earth the same way I want it to happen in heaven. No, no, I'm surrendering to your will. I'm submitting myself to you. And maybe it comes at great expense to make this vow, to make this commitment. I mean, you can think about it like a retreat, right? Retreat sometimes can be a significant expense. And every time we have a retreat, especially if the price goes up, it's like, whoa, that's a significant expense. I don't know. It's like, hey, you know what? Special times of dedication and devotion to the Lord sometimes come with a significant expense. And you devote that weekend and you devote that time and it's for the Lord. It's worth the price. But we pay the Lord for that privilege, right? Like it's a privilege to know the Lord, to be in his presence, to have this relationship with the Lord. He doesn't owe us anything. No matter how much we've sacrificed, he doesn't owe us anything. It's to our benefit to be close to the Lord, to walk with the Lord in this way. And so he would come and offer these sacrifices and Skipping down a couple of verses, we see in verse 18, he would shave his head then. So he wasn't to shave the whole time, but then there would be a shaving. It would be part of that closing ceremony of the vow. And then the hair, everything he produced during that time, that devoted time, would be given over to the Lord. And that's a good way to think about it, I think. That's This is what it's about. I'm committing this time to the Lord and that whole time and whatever's produced from it, it's not for my benefit. It's not, you know, for my glory. It's not for me. It's just an offering to the Lord. It's for you, Lord. But then, verse 20, after that, the Nazarite may drink wine. After all of the formality is completed, then they would go back to normal. And that vow would be over. They completed it. And now they would be able to continue on. And perhaps there would be a different vow in the future, a different commitment, different things that the Lord would have for them. But for that season, that time would be completed and fulfilled. And then they would continue on as they were before. Still abstaining from sin. That's the given, that we're walking with the Lord and pursuing Him and not the things of this world. But it would come at great cost to be devoted to God in this way. And you can see that finally in verse 21. It says, You bring all these offerings to the Lord at the end of your vow. God says, great, what else you got? Whatever else your hand finds, Whatever else you're able to provide, throw it in there too. Offer that to God too. And then whatever was attached to the vow that you made. Again, there would be this declaration at the beginning. All right, I'm committing this time unto the Lord. It's for this purpose. And, you know, at the end of it, then I'm going to give to the Lord these things. The offerings were the required things, but the person vowing could add on anything that they wanted. and say, these are the things that I'm going to give to the Lord or ways that I'm going to serve to the Lord. And whatever else you produce, whatever else you find from that time, give it to the Lord. Devotion to God is a gift to God. It's your expression of commitment unto the Lord, your desire to know him and to walk with him. And so perhaps God has some special times of devotion for you. I want to invite Josh up to close this in a couple songs. And as he does, I would encourage you, let's just seek the Lord. And maybe the Lord wants to refresh in your mind and recall, you know, hey, there is this commitment that you already made that you haven't been, you know, following through with. And maybe the Lord says, it's time to restart that commitment. Or maybe the Lord wants to say, it's time to let that commitment go, but let's start something new. Maybe the Lord wants to stir up a special time of devotion to him. Again, fasting from, you know, a certain element of life, a certain aspect of life, certain things that maybe would just be really good for you to get a break from and to have some time with him. And so let's just allow the Lord to minister to us as we seek him, as we worship him. Let's offer ourselves to him and invite him to lead us in the commitments and the dedications and the devotions of that he desires for us because he knows what's best for us. Let's worship the Lord together.