A Vow of Holy Strangeness
Introduction: The Call to Be Peculiar
We live in an age that worships at the altar of normalcy. The highest aspiration for many modern Christians is to be well-adjusted, respectable, and fundamentally indistinguishable from their unbelieving neighbors, apart from a few private religious opinions and a slightly cleaner vocabulary. The world sets the cultural temperature, and we dutifully adjust our thermostat to be, at most, a few degrees different. We want to be liked. We want to fit in. We want to avoid being thought of as strange.
Into this lukewarm bath of cultural accommodation, the Nazirite vow crashes like a bucket of ice water. This is a text about radical, voluntary, visible separation. It is a detailed instruction manual for being peculiar. It describes a man or woman so overwhelmed by the grace and majesty of God that they willingly undertake a period of extraordinary devotion that marks them out as different in the most unavoidable ways. They will not drink what others drink. They will not look how others look. And they will not go where others go.
The Nazirite vow is not a command for every Israelite, and it is not a direct command for us today. But it is a paradigm. It is a picture of a heart aflame with love for God. It establishes a principle that runs right through the New Testament: that we are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, a peculiar people (1 Peter 2:9). The Nazirite vow, then, is not some dusty, irrelevant artifact of the ceremonial law. It is a case study in the grammar of holiness. It teaches us what it means to be set apart, not just positionally, but practically, passionately, and publicly.
The Text
Again Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, "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 as a Nazirite to Yahweh, he shall abstain as a Nazirite 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. All the days of his Nazirite vow he shall not eat anything that is produced by the grape vine, from the seeds even to the skin. 'All the days of his vow as a Nazirite no razor shall pass over his head. He shall be holy until the days are fulfilled for which he dedicated himself as a Nazirite to Yahweh; he shall let the locks of hair on his head grow long. 'All the days of his dedication as a Nazirite to Yahweh he shall not go near to a dead person. He shall not defile himself for his father or for his mother, for his brother or for his sister, when they die, because the Nazirite vow to his God is on his head. All the days of his Nazirite vow he is holy to Yahweh. 'But if a man dies very suddenly beside him and he defiles the head of hair during his Nazirite vow, then he shall shave his head on the day when he becomes clean; he shall shave it on the seventh day. Then on the eighth day he shall bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons to the priest, to the doorway of the tent of meeting. And the priest shall offer one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering and make atonement for him concerning his sin because of the dead person. And that same day he shall set apart his head as holy, and shall dedicate to Yahweh the days of his Nazirite vow and shall bring a male lamb a year old for a guilt offering; but the former days will be void because his Nazirite vow was defiled. 'Now this is the law of the Nazirite when the days of his Nazirite vow are fulfilled: he shall bring the offering to the doorway of the tent of meeting. And he shall bring his offering near to Yahweh: one male lamb a year old without blemish for a burnt offering and one ewe-lamb a year old without blemish for a sin offering and one ram without blemish for a peace offering, and a basket of unleavened cakes of fine flour mixed with oil and unleavened wafers spread with oil, along with their grain offering and their drink offering. Then the priest shall bring them near before Yahweh and shall offer his sin offering and his burnt offering. He shall also offer with the ram a sacrifice of peace offerings to Yahweh, together with the basket of unleavened cakes; the priest shall likewise offer its grain offering and its drink offering. The Nazirite shall then shave the head of hair for his Nazirite vow at the doorway of the tent of meeting and take the hair of his head of his Nazirite vow and put it on the fire which is under the sacrifice of peace offerings. And the priest shall take the ram’s shoulder when it has been boiled, and one unleavened cake 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 Nazirite vow. Then the priest shall wave them for a wave offering before Yahweh. It is holy for the priest, together with the breast offered by waving and the thigh offered by raising up; and afterward the Nazirite may drink wine.' "This is the law of the Nazirite who vows his offering to Yahweh according to his Nazirite vow, in addition to what else he can afford; according to his vow which he takes, so he shall do according to the law of his Nazirite vow."
(Numbers 6:1-21 LSB)
A Voluntary Separation (vv. 1-2)
The first thing to notice is that this is a voluntary act.
"When a man or woman makes a special vow, the vow of a Nazirite, to dedicate himself as a Nazirite to Yahweh..." (Numbers 6:2)
This is not a baseline requirement for covenant faithfulness. This is a free-will offering of a life. God does not command this of everyone, but He makes provision for those whose hearts are stirred to this level of devotion. And notice, it is for a "man or woman." From the beginning, God made a way for both sexes to express the highest forms of religious zeal. This is not about station or gender; it is about the heart.
The word Nazirite comes from the Hebrew word "nazar," which means to separate or to consecrate. This is the key. The Nazirite is one who is separated from certain things in order to be separated to God. All holiness involves this dual motion: separation from and separation to. This vow is a temporary, intensified, and public demonstration of the holiness to which all of God's people are called.
The Three Prohibitions: A World Renounced (vv. 3-8)
The vow is defined by three central prohibitions, each representing a separation from a key aspect of ordinary life.
"...he shall abstain as a Nazirite from wine and strong drink... no razor shall pass over his head... he shall not go near to a dead person." (Numbers 6:3, 5, 6)
First, the Nazirite abstains from the fruit of the vine. This is not because wine is evil. Scripture celebrates wine as a gift from God that "makes glad the heart of man" (Psalm 104:15). This is precisely the point. The Nazirite is giving up a good and legitimate earthly pleasure. He is fasting from a symbol of natural joy and celebration to declare that his ultimate joy is found in God alone. He is saying, "God is so good, so satisfying, that for a season I will set aside even His good gifts to focus entirely on Him, the Giver." It is a radical statement of where true satisfaction lies.
Second, the Nazirite lets his hair grow long. The uncut hair was the public sign, the banner of the vow. You could not hide being a Nazirite. It was a visible declaration to the entire community: "I am set apart for Yahweh." The long hair was a symbol of strength and vitality being submitted to God. For Samson, the most famous Nazirite, his hair was the emblem of his covenantal strength. When his hair was cut, the covenant was broken, and the Spirit departed. The hair itself was not magic; it was the sign of his consecration. For us, this is a picture of unashamed Christian identity. Our consecration to Christ should be visible. People should be able to tell by our lives that we belong to another king.
Third, the Nazirite must not go near a dead body. This is the highest standard of ceremonial purity, even stricter than that for the priests. He could not defile himself even for his own father or mother. Why? Because death is the ultimate fruit of sin and the curse. The Nazirite was to be a walking, living picture of a life wholly separated from sin and its consequences. He was to be a symbol of life, untainted by the corruption of the fall. This prohibition points forward with glaring intensity to the one true Nazirite, Jesus Christ, the Holy One of God who would not see corruption in the grave (Acts 2:27).
Defilement and Restoration (vv. 9-12)
The law graciously makes provision for accidental defilement. Life in a fallen world is messy. Someone could drop dead next to you.
"But if a man dies very suddenly beside him and he defiles the head of hair during his Nazirite vow... he shall shave his head... bring two turtledoves... And the priest shall offer one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering and make atonement for him..." (Numbers 6:9-11)
This interruption is taken with the utmost seriousness. The defilement requires a seven-day purification process, culminating in sacrifice. A sin offering is required because contact with death is a powerful reminder of our fallen state. A burnt offering is required to rededicate the whole person to God. A guilt offering is required for the trespass. And notice the stark consequence: "the former days will be void" (v. 12). All the progress made in the vow is wiped out. He has to start over.
This is a devastating picture of the nature of sin. It is not a small slip-up. It nullifies our best efforts. It shows us that our own attempts at holiness are fragile and easily shattered. We cannot maintain our own purity. This entire section screams our need for a better sacrifice and a better priest. It points us to the grace of God in Christ, where our failures do not void our standing before God, because our standing is based on Christ's perfect, uninterrupted vow of obedience.
The Vow Fulfilled (vv. 13-21)
When the days of the vow are complete, the Nazirite does not simply get a haircut and head to the local tavern. The end of the vow is as sacred as its beginning, marked by an elaborate series of offerings at the door of the tabernacle.
"The Nazirite shall then shave the head of hair for his Nazirite vow at the doorway of the tent of meeting and take the hair... and put it on the fire which is under the sacrifice of peace offerings." (Numbers 6:18)
He brings a burnt offering for total consecration, a sin offering for atonement, and a peace offering for fellowship with God. This is a complete picture of worship. But the climax is what he does with his hair. The long hair, the symbol of his strength and his vow, is shaved off and burned on the altar with the peace offering. This is a profound act of worship. He is giving the very substance of his vow back to God. He is saying, "The strength, the dedication, the glory represented by this hair does not belong to me. It all belongs to You. I offer it back to You in thanksgiving."
Only after this complete cycle of sacrifice and dedication is finished may the Nazirite drink wine again (v. 20). He re-enters ordinary life not by abandoning his holiness, but by having his ordinary life sanctified by this extraordinary period of devotion. The fast is over, and the feast can begin, but it is a feast now consecrated by the altar.
The True Nazirite
This entire chapter is a shadow, and the substance is Christ. Jesus is the true and perfect Nazirite. He was separated from the womb for God's purposes. He abstained from the ordinary joys of this world, saying, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me" (John 4:34). His life was a public banner of devotion to the Father. And He was perfectly separated from the corruption of sin and death, so much so that the grave could not hold Him.
His vow was to accomplish our salvation, and He did not let His head be "defiled." He completed His vow perfectly. On the cross, He offered Himself as the ultimate burnt, sin, and peace offering. His life, His strength, His glory, were all laid upon the altar. And because His vow was fulfilled, we who are in Him are now made holy to Yahweh.
What then is our application? We are not to take Nazirite vows. We are to be Nazirites. We are called to a life of separation. Our "long hair" is our joyful and public refusal to be conformed to this world. It is our love for the brethren, our submission to the Word, our pursuit of righteousness in a world that hates it. Our abstinence is from the intoxicating "wines" of this world: materialism, lust, pride, and bitterness. Our avoidance of "the dead" is our flight from the dead works of sin and our separation from a culture of death.
And when we are defiled, as we often are, we do not have to start over. The "former days" are not void. We run to the cross, where our High Priest has made a perfect and final atonement. The Christian life is a life of holy strangeness, made possible only by the perfect strangeness of the Son of God, who left heaven to live a consecrated life and die a cursed death, so that we might be called holy to the Lord.