#nazirite

Synopsis: The section starts by reiterating some rules from Leviticus. Examples include excluding people with skin diseases from the camp and a 20% fee added on to restitutions paid for wrongdoings. The passage then explained how priests could determine if a wife cheated on her husband by putting grain in her hands and making her drink holy water with dust from the tabernacle. If she was unfaithful, she would miscarry. A person could make a vow to be a Nazirite by promising to not drink, cut their hair, or be near dead bodies for the duration of their vow. After their period of dedication is over, they would sacrifice a year-old male lamb, a year-old ewe lamb, and a ram with grain and grain offerings. The Nazirite then shaves their head and burns it with the offerings. Moses consecrated the tabernacle. God had each of the tribes bring an offering for the altar. Each tribe brought a silver plate and a silver bowl filled with flour, a gold dish filled with incense, a bull, a ram, and a lamb for a burnt offering; a goat for a sin offering; and two oxen, five rams, five goats, and five lambs for a fellowship offering. The Levites were purified by being shaved and washed. They each sacrificed two bulls with a grain offering. The Levites took the place of the firstborn's as God's possession for bringing them out of Egypt. God made a provision where anyone who is ceremonially unclean or away during Passover can celebrate it a month later. A cloud covered the tent and looked like fire at night. The cloud guided the Israelites on their journey. If the cloud stayed, the Israelites stayed. Moses made two trumpets from silver to signal to the Israelites when the camps needed to set out. The Israelites finally left Mount Sinai on the twentieth day of the second month of the second year toward the Promised Land.

My take: Numbers is making a run for "Most Boring Book" against Leviticus. This is mostly more accounting stuff. Numbers 7 was just a paragraph of items that each tribe brought to the altar repeated 13 times. I'm not entirely clear on what a Nazirite is from the passage. It's a way to dedicate yourself to God. I don't know if it can be used to make atonement for sins or if it's just that some people felt compelled to dedicate their hair and livers to God for a period of time. I'm looking forward to the next few weeks as the narrative of the Old Testament continues after a long drought of boring minutiae.

Sanctification Through the Nazirite Vow

Numbers 6:1-27 6 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “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 Nazirite, to separate himself to the Lord, 3 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…

Nazarene Then And Now

The word ‘Nazarene’ is one of the 2 Mshikaye communities (Indo: anointed followers) of the Jews in the 1st century. In addition to the Nazarene, there is an Ebionite community who are equally convinced that Yeshua is the long-awaited Jewish Messiah. Both communities are believed to be fragments of the Qumran Essents who are the descendants of the original Imam Zadokit.

The Essenes chose to move…