Week 7 Numbers 3-17
Numbers 6.
I checked a word book. The term Nazarite shows up for the first time here in Numbers 6:2. Other than the seven times it’s used in this chapter it only appears in two other places in the rest of the bible.
There’s nothing simple about this special vow – the other word used in the margin of my bible says the word is roughly equal to difficult.
So a difficult vow shows up right in the middle of a lot of other laws and regulations and ordinances that have been laid out for Israel. As I’m reading along through Exodus and Leviticus I’m not getting the impression that these hundreds of other laws are easy. They seem like a lot of not-so-easy laws.
Then this separation-to-the-Lord vow shows up, a commitment that’s more difficult than the others.
I’m surprised to see it’s a personal and voluntary vow. A man or a woman would decide to be fully and specially devoted to the Lord by adding it to all the others. An add-on vow.
Not a have-to-do-it legal minimum; it looks more like a want-to-do-an-above-and-beyond act of devotion to the Lord. I’m wondering about a man or woman who would decide to do more than this law code asks for.