"Wholly to the Lord (Numbers 6)", Will DuVal | 2/9/25
Numbers 6 | 2/9/25 | Will DuVal
But I’ve got a QUESTION for you, to kick us off this morning: “What do you LOVE?” What immediately comes to mind?
For me, FAMILY is at the top of the list. I LOVE my family. We were all sick this past Thursday - stayed home from work and school - and even feeling YUCKY, I got to spend all day long with them, which I NEVER do; it was actually quite lovely.
I love PREACHING. Not only because I love God’s WORD… and God’s PEOPLE… and the privilege of FEEDING God’s word TO God people… but if I’m honest, I love the RESPECT that comes with preaching… I love the INFLUENCE that comes with preaching.
I LOVE Chick-fil-A. If Chick-fil-A announced tomorrow that they were shutting down, I’m not sure I’d want to go on living in a world without Chick-fil-A. If they shut down in St. Louis, I’d MOVE; I’m sorry, but I don’t think I love Y’ALL enough to STAY!
I LOVE hot coffee in the morning and cold beer in the evening.
I love YouTube. I love the Memphis Grizzlies. I love my son Elijah’s HAIR.
The list goes on and on, as I’m sure YOURS could too. And we SHOULD love and celebrate these things; the Bible says that “Every good gift… - and there really are SO many; more than we could even COUNT or remember to be THANKFUL for; and they are ALL - from above… from the Father” (Jas 1:17).
But the very simple question for you and me this morning is: “Do we love the GIVER as much as we love the GIFTS?”
Now, if you read Numbers ch6 this week like you were SUPPOSED to, you might be a little confused, like: “What does any of this have to do with the Nazirite vow?” Because that’s Numbers SIX, which we’ll read together in just a moment. We’ve already been introduced back in ch3 to the priests, and the Levites, whom God called to be “specially appointed” unto himself - “They shall be mine”, he declared (3:13). But this morning in ch6, we discover that God actually invited every Israelite to be exclusively His - I considered titling this sermon “The Priesthood of ALL Believers” - because God welcomed EVERYONE to be consecrated, wholly devoted to him - by voluntarily taking “the vow of a Nazirite, to separate himself unto the Lord” (6:2). The English word Nazirite (not to be confused with the word “Nazarene”, like JESUS was, “from the town of Nazareth”; rather, NAZI-RITE) transliterates the Hebrew nazir, meaning “set apart.” (Wenham)
But as we’ll see, being “set apart” or “separated” UNTO the Lord, means you are ALSO therefore separated FROM the WORLD. And the THINGS of the world. Not ALL of which are BAD; SOME of which, in fact, are very GOOD! Chick-fil-A, coffee, YouTube - wonderful things! And for a Nazirite, it was wine, haircuts, & family - all great things.
But GOD wants to know: “Where do I fall on the list?” Do you love ME enough to voluntarily ABSTAIN from some of those other things you love - even for a short period of time”; the Nazirite vow typically lasted anywhere from one to three months - “Would you SACRIFICE them… to be wholly devoted to ME?”, to GOD.
We sing songs like “Christ is Enough” for me; “nothing in this world could ever satisfy… everything I need is in you, Jesus” - IS it? REALLY?
Songs like “Jesus is Better” - “More than all riches, Jesus is better” “More than anycomfort, Jesus is better” - but IS he?
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God is inviting us this morning to search our hearts, lay down our IDOLS - Tim Keller pointed out that an “idol” is when a GOOD thing (family, money, preaching) becomes your ULTIMATE thing - what’s the thing for YOU, that most threatens - and frankly, most often USURPS - GOD’S rightful place, on the throne of your heart? And are you willing to lay it down - SACRIFICE it - to be “wholly devoted to the Lord”?
I invite you to stand…(SCRIPTURE: Num 6)
“And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When either a man or a woman makes a special vow, the vow of a Nazirite, to separate himself to the Lord, 3 he shall separate himself from wine and strong drink. He shall drink no vinegar made from wine or strong drink and shall not drink any juice of grapes or eat grapes, fresh or dried. 4 All the days of his separation he shall eat nothing that is produced by the grapevine, not even the seeds or the skins.
5 “All the days of his vow of separation, no razor shall touch his head. Until the time is completed for which he separates himself to the Lord, he shall be holy. He shall let the locks of hair of his head grow long.
6 “All the days that he separates himself to the Lord he shall not go near a dead body. 7 Not even for his father or for his mother, for brother or sister, if they die, shall he make himself unclean, because his separation to God is on his head. 8 All the days of his separation he is holy to the Lord.
9 “And if any man 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. 10 On the eighth day he shall bring two turtledoves or two pigeons to the priest to the entrance of the tent of meeting, 11 and the priest shall offer one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering, and make atonement for him, because he sinned by reason of the dead body. And he shall consecrate his head that same day 12 and separate himself to the Lord for the days of his separation and bring a male lamb a year old for a guilt offering. But the previous period shall be void, because his separation was defiled.
13 “And this is the law for the Nazirite, when the time of his separation has been completed: he shall be brought to the entrance of the tent of meeting, 14 and he shall bring his gift to the Lord, one male lamb a year old without blemish for a burnt offering, and one ewe lamb a year old without blemish as a sin offering, and one ram without blemish as a peace offering, 15 and a basket of unleavened bread, loaves of fine flour mixed with oil, and unleavened wafers smeared with oil, and their grain offering and their drink offerings. 16 And the priest shall bring them before the Lord and offer his sin offering and his burnt offering, 17 and he shall offer the ram as a sacrifice of peace offering to the Lord, with the basket of unleavened bread. The priest shall offer also its grain offering and its drink offering. 18 And the Nazirite shall shave his consecrated head at the entrance of the tent of meeting and shall take the hair from his consecrated head and put it on the fire that is under the sacrifice of the peace offering. 19 And the priest shall take the shoulder of the ram, when it is boiled, and one unleavened loaf out of the basket and one unleavened wafer, and shall put them on the hands of the Nazirite, after he has shaved the hair of his consecration, 20 and the priest shall wave them for a wave offering before the Lord. They are a holy portion for the priest, together with the breast that is waved and the thigh that is contributed. And after that the Nazirite may drink wine.
21 “This is the law of the Nazirite. But if he vows an offering to the Lord above his Nazirite vow, as he can afford, in exact accordance with the vow that he takes, then he shall do in addition to the law of the Nazirite.”
22 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 23 “Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, Thus you shall bless the people of Israel: you shall say to them,
24 The Lord bless you and keep you;
25 the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
26 the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.27 “So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them.””
[This is the word of God…]
There are FIVE THINGS - at LEAST 5; I think there are actually MORE than that IMPLIED here - but 5 things explicitly that God calls his people - ISRAEL in the OT, and US today, the CHURCH - 5 things he calls us to occasionally but voluntarily SACRIFICE for the sake of greater FOCUS, attention, priority… FELLOWSHIP with God.
#1- And the FIRST, is PLEASURE. God wants us to love Him MORE than we love PLEASURE. (vv1-4)
That was the first requirement of the Nazirite: “he shall separate himself from wine and strong drink”. Now I started to say, “we’ve gotta love God more than PARTYING”, but God actually raises the bar higher than THAT here, doesn’t he? Not just WINE; no grapes of ANY kind - not in JUICE form, globe form, raisin form… NOTHING. Why??
Commentator Iain Duguid explains (78): “It wasn’t simply a matter of avoiding the intoxicating effects of [wine]… to do without [ALL] grape products was a vivid commitment to turn away from life’s normal pleasures.” The grape was a symbol - not only in Israel, but in ALL of the ancient world - of JOY, merriment… PLEASURE.
Now, is God ANTI-pleasure, ANTI-joy? Of COURSE not! Psalm 16:11 declares that “in [God’s] presence there is fullness of joy;
at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”
But that’s just the THING - God wants us to find our ULTIMATE joy, our CONSUMMATE pleasure… in HIM. NOT in the fleeting, finite, fractional pleasures of this world; every pleasure HERE is just an APPETIZER intended to arouse our appetites for the ETERNAL joy that lies in STORE for us, in the world to COME.
So Christianity is NOT asceticism - praise God!; asceticism is the OPPOSITE of hedonism; hedonism says “the purpose of life is to MAXIMIZE pleasure”; asceticism says, “the goal is to RENOUNCE pleasure, so as to achieve some HIGHER, more enlightened, spiritual plane of existence” - Christianity is NEITHER of those things. We don’t live to maximize OR to minimize worldly pleasure, cuz we don’t live for worldly pleasure AT ALL; we live for GOD!
King Solomon learned this the hard way. He recounts for us in the book of Ecclesiastes how “I said in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy yourself.” (And he DID, Solomon had more WEALTH and more WIVES… more CONCUBINES… than ANYONE! And yet, what did he CONCLUDE from all of his hedonistic pursuit of pleasure?”) But behold, this was vanity.” (2:1)
So then Solomon tried swinging the pendulum in the OPPOSITE direction, and he RENOUNCED pleasure for the sake of WISDOM, righteousness, justice, honor… only to find that THEY left him feeling “empty” too.
And it took Solomon 12 chapters of searching - but who am I to judge; it took ME 27 years of searching - to finally conclude: “The end of the matter; all has been heard. FEAR GOD… THAT is “the whole of man”, or “the whole POINT of life” (Ecc 12:13; my translation).
So we must keep pleasure in its proper PLACE: it is a good gift from an even BETTER God, intended to REMIND us of Him, the GIVER, in whom we find our ULTIMATE joy.
Every gift is a GLIMPSE - that perfect, hot shower you look forward to at the end of every cold, winter day, ought to cause you to look even FURTHER forward, to the shower of JOY that awaits you at God’s right hand… that glass of wine, that Cookies ‘n Cream milkshake, SEX with your spouse - ALL of it is just a GLIMPSE, of the JOY that God has in STORE for those destined for HIM.
And what we learn from the example of the Nazirites here is that occasionally, it is GOOD for us to temporarily but voluntarily ABSTAIN from one or more of these worldly pleasures in order to pursue spiritual pleasure in the LORD. We call this “FASTING”. God called Nazirites to “FAST” from all grape products. Jesus calls us to fast; in Matthew 6, he says, “When you fast, do [it THIS way]” (v16); not “IF” you fast, but “WHEN”. And “WHAT” - WHAT is God calling us to fast FROM?
Most often in the Bible, it’s FOOD. You abstain from EATING for a certain period of time. But we also see Jesus, for instance, forgoing SLEEP; the night before he called the 12 disciples, Luke says, “all night long [Jesus] continued in prayer to God” (6:12). In 1 Corinthians 7:5, the apostle Paul suggests that married couples will at times want to fast from SEX “for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer”.
And whether it’s FOOD or DRINK, SLEEP or SEX, the practice of fasting offers us spiritual benefits in both a POSITIVE sense and in a NEGATIVE, or an “addition by subtraction”, negation, deprivation sense. Here’s what I mean: positively, whenever you FAST from something, you open up a HOLE in your schedule, and in your HEART, of the same size as your commitment and attachment to the thing you’re ABSTAINING from. So, for instance, if I said, “God, you know I love YOUTUBE. But for the next WEEK, I’m going to fast from YouTube, in order to prioritize YOU instead.” – I spend HOURS each week on YouTube; I’d probably free up… 7+ hours a week - that’s a SIZABLE HOLE! Imagine if I said, “I’m gonna devote that time to YOU this week instead, God” - spend that time in WORSHIP, and PRAYER, and SCRIPTURE instead; imagine what an IMPACT that would make, an extra hour a DAY with God.
But then there’s the negative - deprivation - side of it as well. If every time I had the URGE to click on and watch, “Ooh, I think the Grizzlies played the SUNS tonight…”, if I stopped and used that instead as an introspective, self-evaluative opportunity and asked myself: “Do I want GOD as much as I wanna watch that game?” And then it drives me to PRAYER, to ASK him to make it so.
Or you’re fasting from FOOD for the day, and lunchtime rolls around, and every time your TUMMY starts growling you start praying: “God, help me hunger for YOU this much…”
One of our members came in to see me a few months ago and confessed an “unhealthy dependence on alcohol”; “I don’t know that I’m an alcoholic,” she said, “but I know that at the end of a really long day, the first thing I reach for is the BOTTLE, and I WANT it to be… the BIBLE.” “So,” she said, “I’m giving it up. And it’s gonna be REALLY HARD for me. But I am trusting God that it’s gonna be really GOOD for me. And that Christ really IS enough. That Jesus IS better.”
God might be calling someone ELSE to that this morning too. To give up alcohol, social media, the news, an unhelpful relationship. I told you: the Nazirite vow was usually temporary - the apostle PAUL appears to have taken it at least TWICE, in Acts ch18 and then again in ch21 - but then we encounter OTHERS in Scripture for whom it was a LIFELONG vow - the prophet SAMUEL, probably John the Baptist. And for certain PEOPLE, there are certain PLEASURES, for which temporary abstinence is just not sufficient.
Wine is GOOD - it “gladdens the heart”, Psalm 104 says; but we’re not to be “SLAVES to it”, Titus 2:3 warns, and for that reason, wine is NOT good… for EVERYONE.
Sex is GOOD - “rejoice in the wife of your youth,” Proverbs 5 encourages us; “Let her breasts fill you… with delight; be intoxicated in her love” (vv18-19) - but JESUS is BETTER. So Paul says, “I wish that all were as I myself am”... as JESUS was: SINGLE. So you could ALL be exclusively, un-distractedly, whole-heartedly DEVOTED to the LORD.
Ask yourself this morning, brother, sister: “Is there a PLEASURE in YOUR life, that instead of giving you a GLIMPSE into the joy that is yours in the Lord, has begun to actually ECLIPSE that joy?” Is there an APPETIZER that YOU have made into the MAIN COURSE? And if SO, is it possible that God is calling you this morning to give it UP - maybe temporarily; maybe for GOOD - for the sake of the main course… for HIM.
Jesus warned: Don’t be like the seed that fell among the THORNS; “they are those who hear [the gospel], but as they go on their way [through life] they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life.” (Lk 8:14)
Don’t let the pleasures of THIS life keep you from those in the life to COME.
#2- God calls us to love Him more than CONTROL. (5)
I’m gonna warn you: there’s an idol for EVERYONE here in Numbers 6, to surrender. Maybe God didn’t get ya with “PLEASURE” in vv1-4; you’re an ascetic. Very austere; super self-disciplined. Guess what: that means he’s DEFINITELY gonna get ya now with this SECOND idol: CONTROL. How do you feel about HAIRCUTS, Mr. Spartan, Mrs. Puritan. Pretty big FAN, I bet? I bet you make sure every single hair is perfectly in place before YOU step outta the house, don’t you? Well how does God’s SECOND stipulation for the Nazirites sit with you, then: “no razor shall touch his head… He shall let the locks of hair of his head grow long”.
See, I try and tell Polly - THIS is why I only shave once a week, on Sundays, and why I NEVER trim my nose and ear hairs - I’m just THAT HOLY! Wholly devoted to God; the time I WOULD have spent shaving, I spend PRAYING instead… (or on YouTube).
But for SOME of you, this one’s the TOUGHY. Commentator Dennis Cole (NAC: Numbers) points out: “The word nazir (from which we get Nazirite) is also used of ‘untended’ or “untrimmed” vines during the time of the sabbatical year” You may remember that from our study of Leviticus last year, in ch25, and the whole POINT of letting your vines go “untended” in the Sabbatical year was to be reminded that you are not SOVEREIGN. That you can PLANT and WATER all you WANT, but ultimately it is the LORD who gives the growth (1 Cor 3:6). And he can DO it, and he STILL does it, even IN the Sabbatical year, without ANY help from you WHATSOEVER!
Duguid notes (78): “Because the hair is a living part of the body, it was a natural symbol for the life of a person. To let your hair grow without human restriction [then] represented giving your life over completely to God’s CONTROL. It was a vivid symbol of giving GOD the reins of your life.”
And God is SO gracious - I bet even when you REFUSE to take the Nazirite vow, and put down the razor, Mr. Spartan, Mrs. Puritan - I bet God in his mercy, STILL gives you “bad hair days” every once in awhile, doesn’t he, just to REMIND you who’s really in control. That no matter HOW hard you brush, HOW long you curl… there are just some things out of your control.
How about YOU? Have you given God the reins of YOUR life? Do you TRUST Him enough? Or is the thought of Jesus actually taking the wheel enough to give you a PANIC attack? What scares you MORE: Jesus in the driver seat… or NO JESUS. Because make no mistake, friend: those are the options. Jesus said, “I don’t RIDE shotgun; if I’M in the car, I’m DRIVING.”
““If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.” (Lk 9:23-24)
Whoever would TAKE control of his life will LOSE it; but whoever would SURRENDER control to ME - “lose your life for JESUS’ sake!” and you’ll be SAVED.
#3a- Verses 6-8 expose TWO potential idols [so just add a blank or save some room in your bulletin], but the FIRST is FAMILY. God calls us to love Him more than FAMILY. (6-8)
By now you may have picked up on some of the similarities here between the restrictions for a Nazirite, and those for a PRIEST. Duguid points out (78-79): “Each of the areas of commitment - alcohol, hair, and corpse contact - were also regulated for the priests of Israel, though in a less extreme way. The priests too were required to abstain from alcohol, but only while they were on DUTY (Lev 10:9)... The priests ALSO had to be careful with their hair (Lev 21:5 commands “They shall not make bald patches on their heads, nor shave off the edges of their beards” – but they weren’t forbidden from ALL shaving)... The Nazirite was a kind of temporary lay priest,” but with more STRINGENT rules.
And that’s especially true with regard to this corpse prohibition. Because back in Leviticus 21, God had told the priests not to “make themselves unclean for the dead… EXCEPT for his closest relatives, his mother, his father, his son or daughter, his brother or virgin sister” (vv2-3). But here in Numbers SIX, the LEVITES are forbidden even from THAT - “Not even for his father or mother, for brother or sister, if they die, shall he make himself unclean” (v7).
Why? God wants to know: “Do you love me more than family?” Jesus asked that same question of two otherwise, “would-be” followers in Luke 9: “To [one Jesus] said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” 60 And Jesus said to him, “Leave [him; let’s go.]” 61 Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” 62 Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”” (vv59-62)
There’s a lotta WORK to be done; so either come PLOW with me, or DON’T… but don’t COME and then look BACK; you gotta PICK: Me, Jesus, or your family? Who’s more important to you?
Later in Luke 14, Jesus put it even more BLUNTLY: “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.” (v26)
Can I be blunt with you: I’m not sure I’M a disciple… by that metric. Does my love for GOD make my love for Polly… for Ellery… for Elijah, Bo… for MYSELF look like HATRED, by comparison? Maybe some of y’all are more SPIRITUAL than me, or maybe I just love my family more than YOU do, but MOST days, I’m not sure I meet Jesus’ criteria for a DISCIPLE.
And we’ve gotta be HONEST enough this morning to call that what it is: it’s IDOLATRY. Family or God? If you even have to THINK before ANSWERING, your family - like MINE - has become an IDOL. A good thing you’ve made into the ULTIMATE thing. And we’ve gotta call idolatry what IT is as well: it’s SIN. It’s actually the number ONE sin on God’s “top ten” list: “You shall have no other gods before me.” (Ex 20:3) A “god” is just your “ULTIMATE thing”. Anything that comes “BEFORE” the REAL God in your heart, your list of “loves”. And that’s the very ESSENCE of sin: saying “NO” to God, and “YES” to something else.
Which brings us to God’s SECOND test here in vv6-8: “Do you love me more than IMPURITY. (6-8)
We saw last week in ch5 with all the laws about leprosy and discharges and dead bodies and ALL these different forms of ritual impurity: it was all supposed to be a symbolic reminder to Israel of their deeper, more pernicious SPIRITUAL impurity. And the same is true HERE, in ch6. The Nazirite is supposed to “SEPARATE himself” unto the Lord; that’s what the word “HOLY” (“H-O-”) means: “SET APART”. So too does God call US, today, to be “holy as I am holy”. To FORSAKE sin and FOLLOW Christ.
But how often do we fall SHORT of that calling? When it comes to honoring OUR Nazirite vows, to love God more than pleasure, control, family, SIN… how many of us look far LESS like Samuel or John the Baptist, and a whole lot more like SAMSON! You remember him, from the book of Judges? Probably the most FAMOUS of the lifelong “Nazirites”, if he can even be considered one. Because as Duguid notes (79-80):
“The very first episode recorded in Samson’s adult life relates his desire to marry a Philistine woman. Far from keeping himself separate from the uncircumcised enemies of the Lord, Samson wanted to climb in bed with one. On his way to marry her, Samson turned aside to see a lion’s corpse where bees had made their nest. As a Nazirite, he should have stayed well clear of [it], but Samson was motivated more by his appetite than by his calling… When he arrived at the home of his future in-laws, Samson celebrated a feast there. The Hebrew word for feast, mishteh, comes from the verb “to drink”, and I doubt very much that Samson was there as the designated driver… Finally, he revealed to Delilah the source of his strength, and she shaved his head, thereby breaking his third Nazirite vow. Instead of being a mirror to Israel of who she OUGHT to be, a people distinct from the surrounding nations and consecrated to the Lord, Samson was a model depicting who she REALLY was: a people untrue in every respect to her calling to be holy.”
But isn’t that US, Church? How long would I have to follow you around on Monday morning before I witnessed you choosing PLEASURE over GOD? CONTROL over God? Choosing SIN?!
So what do we DO? What are Samson-esque, FAILED Nazirites like us supposed to do? vv9-12 TELL us now: we REPENT!
We’ve gotta love God, FOURTH, more than our PRIDE. (9-12)
Two things of note here: for starters, v9 ought to FREE us of the delusion that our ability to FULFILL our vows to God is even ultimately up to US! Because what if you had taken this vow and then “if any man dies very suddenly beside” you, what happened? V11: you brought “a sin offering” and the priest “made atonement for [you], because [you] sinned”.
God cautions, “You better not start puffing your chests out about how holy you are, because you can be on day 89 of your 90 day vow, and I might just decide to let your neighbor, your spouse, your DONKEY that you’re riding on have a HEART attack and now you’re inadvertently touching a dead corpse and guess what: you’re STILL “defiled”!” This is yet another reminder that “You’re not SOVEREIGN; GOD is.” So you better not get too SELF-reliant.
But secondly on the PRIDE thing: can you imagine BEING that Israelite, on Day 89, unintentionally being “defiled” when someone just CROAKS on you, and God says, “HEY; rules are rules.” And not only that; he says, “you “SINNED by reason of the dead body”; now let’s see some turtledoves for a SIN offering… Oh, and while you’re AT it, how about a LAMB for your GUILT offering as well…”
I’ll be honest: it doesn’t make a lot of SENSE to me.
It didn’t make a lot of sense, to Adam & Eve in the Garden of Eden, that they weren’t allowed to eat from this one tree (“Why NOT?!”). It may not make sense to us, later in chapter 20, when Moses gets understandably ANGRY with the Israelites after their umpteenth instance of REBELLION, and IN his anger Moses hits a ROCK, and for THAT, God says, “Now you’re banned from the PROMISED Land, Moses.”
A LOT of God’s ways don’t make SENSE to us. But God declares, “My ways are NOT your ways; For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways” (Isa 55:8-9). And God doesn’t ASK us to make SENSE, but to make CONFESSION. To lay down our PRIDE, and acknowledge: “God, I DON’T understand, but I’m gonna trust that YOU KNOW BEST.”
To some of you, it may not make SENSE that God cares who you SLEEP with… that God cares as much about an unborn child as he does you or me… that just ONE TINY SIN is SEVERE enough, EGREGIOUS enough in GOD’S eyes, to deserve ETERNAL judgment in HELL.
But you’ve gotta decide this morning: Whose ways are HIGHER: MINE, or GOD’S? And if GOD says, “That’s SIN”, even when you DON’T understand, will you HUMBLE yourself, lay down your PRIDE, and REPENT; BRING that sin offering, that guilt offering, and say, “God, MORE than understanding, I know I need FORGIVENESS!”
Listen: Until saving FAITH becomes more URGENT to you than saving FACE, you will remain estranged from God. Some of you sitting here this morning are like defiled NAZIRITES on Day 89 of 90, thinking to yourself, “God, I tried to take a vow to devote my life to you… and THIS is how you repay me?!” I read my Bible and pray every day. I’ve attended church every Sunday for the last 50 years. I TITHE, I lead SMALL group, I even volunteer in the toddler TWOs room, and you KNOW the pastor’s demon-possessed SON is in there…
“I have tried to commit my LIFE to you, and yet here you are, in Numbers 6:11, saying “It’s not GOOD enough”; calling me a “SINNER”?!” What GIVES!”
Can I just ENCOURAGE you: the gospel is BETTER than that, friend. It’s BETTER than you committing YOUR life to God; the gospel is that while you were YET a sinner, God’s son JESUS CHRIST committed HIS life to YOU.
We needed a BETTER NAZIRITE. One who didn’t just avoid wine, but DRANK the full cup of God’s wrath to the very last dreg, so we’d never HAVE to. One who was in TOTAL control over the entire UNIVERSE, yet laid aside his power, and humbled himself, and prayed, “Not MY will, but YOURS be done, Father.” We needed a Nazirite who wouldn’t just AVOID death to stay clean, but One who would SUCCUMB to death, but then CONQUER death, so he could make US clean permanently!
We needed JESUS!
And praise God, we HAVE him. Or at least, you CAN. When saving faith becomes more important to you than saving face.
Jesus told a story about two men who walked into the Temple square. One was a Pharisee; a professionally righteous person. The other was a tax collector; a thieving traitor. The Pharisee prayed, “Thank you, God, that I’m not like HIM!”; the TAX collector prayed, “I’m SORRY, God, that I’m not like YOU!” That I am NOT holy; that I’ve fallen SHORT of your calling to CONSECRATE my life wholly unto you; that I’ve lived for MYSELF instead; for PLEASURE and POWER, CONTROL, SIN… “God, have MERCY on me, a SINNER!”
The tax collector laid down his pride, in a very PUBLIC setting, mind you - middle of the temple square, he tore his clothes, beat his breast; kind of like the NAZIRITES here, called to make their sin and guilt offerings at the tent of meeting, in the middle of camp. I wonder if anyone here this morning wants GOD enough, wants saving FAITH enough, to walk an aisle. We used to give ALTAR calls in church, invite you to come forward PUBLICLY and declare your need for Jesus. I wonder if anyone NEEDS him enough this morning to walk an aisle publicly. To lay down your pride, your desire to save face.
Jesus said, “The tax collector went home that day FORGIVEN.” Because the Pharisee, in his pride, was clinging to his own righteousness, but the tax collector, in humility, was clinging to JESUS!
What are YOU clinging to this morning?
FIFTH, to sort of sum it all up, God calls us to love Him more than ANYTHING. (13-21)
Look at the SMORGASBORD they’re called to give up in vv13-21: “one male lamb… one ewe lamb… one ram… a basket of unleavened bread of fine flour… and wafers smeared with oil, and a grain offering and a drink offering…” And the Nazirite shall shave his consecrated head… and take the hair… and put IT on the fire” - Duguid notes: “[this] symbolized his or her whole life being offered up to God.” Same with the “WAVE offering” in verse 20… verse 21 says, “as you can afford… so [you] shall do in ADDITION to the law of the Nazirite” - if you can afford MORE than the lambs and the rams and the bread and the hair… if you can afford to give up MORE than just the WINE and the RAZORS and your FAMILY…
Here’s the very simple question that Numbers 6 is confronting us with this morning, Church: “What WOULDN’T you give up… for God?” Is there ANYTHING you’re holding back, that is keeping you from enjoying the relationship with God that HE wants with you?
He is WORTH it. Your whole heart, mind, soul and strength. Your pleasure, control, family, pride… your SIN; Jesus is BETTER. He’s better than ANYTHING and EVERYTHING, and NOTHING we desire compares with HIM.
But here’s the MOST important truth to END with, come BACK to: the gospel is even BETTER than that. Not your sacrifice for God, your devotion to God… your LOVE for God, but HIS for YOU.
6) We love God because HE FIRST LOVED US. (22-27)
Many of you will know and love this benediction, the “Aaronic Blessing” we find here at the end of chapter 6. But maybe you never noticed the CONTEXT. Its placement here is not HAPPENSTANCE.
Does God say, “Consecrate your lives WHOLLY to me, and THEN I’ll bless you?”
It’s almost like God KNEW we’d be a bunch of SAMSONs who would take these vows - “God, you SAVED us! You rescued us from EGYPT; of COURSE we’re gonna love you now more than anything else…” - that was ME, after I first got saved; I didn’t think I’d ever sin again! That was ISRAEL, after God delivered them: “All that the Lord has spoken we will do” (Ex 19:8). Maybe that was YOU.
It’s EASY to MAKE vows. And even EASIER to BREAK them, isn’t it?
I think God KNEW we would need this REMINDER, by the end of chapter 6: that it’s not our commitment to HIM that most defines us, but HIS to US.
“The Lord bless you and keep you;
25 the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
26 the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.So am I putting [God’s] name upon YOU, his people, and here’s his PROMISE to you, Church: “I will bless them.”
Not because of your faithfulness, but in SPITE of your LACK of it! Because of CHRIST’S faithfulness toward you.
May God bless you, keep you, SMILE upon you, and give you PEACE. Amen. Let’s pray…