A Separated People--Separation Described (Num. 6:1-8)

12/10/2008 10:16 AM

SPIRITUAL DIARY

My Worship Time           Focus:  “A separated people” Separation described

Bible Reading & Meditation                        Reference: Numbers 6:1-8

          Message of the verses:  “1 ¶ Again the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘When a man or woman makes a special vow, the vow of a Nazirite, to dedicate himself to the LORD, 3  he shall abstain from wine and strong drink; he shall drink no vinegar, whether made from wine or strong drink, nor shall he drink any grape juice nor eat fresh or dried grapes.  4  ‘All the days of his separation he shall not eat anything that is produced by the grape vine, from the seeds even to the skin.  5  ‘All the days of his vow of separation no razor shall pass over his head. He shall be holy until the days are fulfilled for which he separated himself to the LORD; he shall let the locks of hair on his head grow long.  6  ‘All the days of his separation to the LORD he shall not go near to a dead person.  7  ‘He shall not make himself unclean for his father or for his mother, for his brother or for his sister, when they die, because his separation to God is on his head.  8 ‘All the days of his separation he is holy to the LORD.”

            In this SD I am moving to a new section in the book of Numbers and also in Dr. Wiersbe’s book.  This is the second of four divisions in this chapter in Dr. Wiersbe’s book and the topic is “Nazirites.”  I suppose that the two most famous Nazirites in the Bible are Samson and John the baptizer, but the fact is that Jesus Christ was not a Nazirite, but was from Nazareth and was called a Nazarene.  Matthew 2:23 speaks of Jesus being called a Nazarene:  “23  and came and lived in a city called Nazareth. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophets: "He shall be called a Nazarene.’”  The thing about this verse is that Dr. Wiersbe says that there is no verse in the OT that says this.  Another thing that I did not know about Nazirites is that a woman could take the vow to be a Nazirite. 

            The Nazirite vow was a vow that would make a person separated to the Lord, and it could be for a certain length of time.  The regulations of the vow are seen in the verses above and consist of letting one’s hair grow by not cutting it at all, staying away from anything made from a grape and also hard liquor, and never to touch a dead body, even a close relative.  It can be pointed out that Samson did not keep these vows of being a Nazirite.  This vow is also spoken of in Acts 21:23-27 and that has to do with Paul right before he was arrested at Jerusalem, though he was not the one who took the vow. 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I think that the closest that I have ever come to doing something like that of which a Nazirite does was when I fasted for a week right after I retired in 1999.  What I am talking about is that I was separated from a lot of people, for I stayed alone but did see some people from time to time, but I did dedicated this time to the Lord and spent most of my time reading and praying and getting close to the Lord.  The most important of all of this is setting up a time when a person can get closer to the Lord and not have all of the distractions around them keep a person from getting that time with the Lord that is needed. 

My Steps of Faith for Today:

1. Give myself to the Lord for service and worship and to have my mind renewed.
2. Continue to work on my memory verses.
3. Trust the Lord to guide my path today.
4. Learn contentment.  (An ongoing process)
5. Put on my spiritual armor.

Memory verses for the week:                                  Romans 6:1-11

1. What shall we say then?  Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?
2. May it never be!  How shall we who died to sin still live in it?
3. Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?
4. Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we to might walk in newness of life.
5. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection,
6. knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves of sin,
7. for he who has died is freed from sin.
8. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,
9. knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.
10. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.
11. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

12/10/2008 11:57 AM