And this is the law of the Nazarite on the day when the days of his consecration are fulfilled he shall be brought to the entrance of the tent of meeting.
A Nazarite lived set apart to the LORD for a fixed length of time. This closing part of the law turns to the day that time runs out — so why does Scripture call this, and only this, the law of the Nazarite?
Readers often expect a summary line like this at the start of a chapter, not two-thirds of the way through.
At first sight we may be surprised to find the words, "this is the law of the Nazarite", at this point and not at the beginning or end of the chapter. Verse 21 repeats this phrase. These words frame this third section, so to speak. This period could be long — "all the days of his separation" (Num. 6:4). So the actual law of the Nazarite is restricted to the commands about its final day. The whole period, in which the Nazarite lived consecrated to the LORD, reached its climax on that last day. Everything pointed towards it.
The section just before this one dealt with a vow broken by sudden defilement. What follows here changes the subject entirely.
In the third section of the chapter we come to the beautiful subject of the fulfilment of the vow. It stands in a certain contrast to the second part that has just been discussed. The key words here are no longer failure and interruption, but rather fulfilment and joy: "And afterwards the Nazarite may drink wine" (Num. 6:20).
If everything in the vow pointed to a final day, then separation was never an end in itself.
A believer's life is directed towards a goal. "All the days" (cf. v. 4) of our life here on earth, all that we can be here in devotion to the Lord, finds its climax and motivation in the great finale. Then the Lord will "transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body" (Phil. 3:21). Then will come true what we read in 1 John 3:2: "We shall see him as he is". This goal is what the Nazarite had in view "all the days of his separation". "And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure" (1 John 3:3).
The verse does not say the Nazarite comes. It says he is brought — and earlier in the chapter, at the same door, something different happened.
Once again we see the Nazarite at the entrance of the tent of meeting (cf. v. 10), the place of God's presence. There is, however, a difference. Verse 10 says he should bring something to the entrance of the tent of meeting: two turtle-doves or two young pigeons. Here he himself is brought.
What happens to the Nazarite here is a picture of something still ahead.
One day this will be the case with all believers. They will be brought into the presence of God, not to be occupied with defilement or sin, but to savour eternal joy. Believers who pass through death are at once "with Christ", where it is "far better" (Phil. 1:23).
Because the vow has an end, self-denial is not the believer's permanent state.
Separateness may take different forms: Israel in responsibility, the church now, the Christian by grace, or Christ Himself, the only One who was absolutely and perfectly separate. So I understand that all these applications end in joy and glory. Keeping watch in self-denial will not always be required. There is a day coming when the Nazarite drinks wine — a time of gladness and ease; and thanks be to God for the hope of it!
One Nazarite has already reached this day.
The Lord Jesus lived as a Nazarite for God "all the days" without any interruption. Then came the moment when the days of His consecration here on earth were "fulfilled". Moses and Elijah "spoke of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem" (Luke 9:31).
In His case the picture is not just matched but outgrown.
He was not only brought to the tent of meeting, but entered into the sanctuary. It was a better sanctuary than that of Old Testament times ("greater and more perfect"). He had not only lived in consecration to God, but had died, "securing an eternal redemption".
Since the vow ran for a set time, when does the believer's time run out?
The Nazarite vow was set for a certain length of time. When it was completed, the person was to come with an offering to the tabernacle door. For the believer today, his Nazariteship is not completed until the end of his history on earth, whether through death or the Lord's coming.
Meanwhile the hands that arrive full are shaped by what fills them now.
When the days of his separation were fulfilled, the Nazarite was brought to the door of the tent of meeting. His hands were filled with offerings for his God. If we walk day by day in close communion with our Lord and in separation from all that is not of Himself, this will be the result.
- Fulfilled — the law itself covers only the final day; every day of separation was aimed at that climax.
- Ours — for the believer the vow runs to the end of his life on earth, whether by death or the Lord's coming.
- Brought — earlier he brought birds to the door; now he himself is brought. That is what awaits every believer.
- Surpassed — Christ kept the days without a break. He went beyond the picture: not to the door only, but into the sanctuary, securing an eternal redemption.
- Ending — a day is coming when the Nazarite drinks wine; watching in self-denial stops, and every form of separation ends in joy and glory.
And he shall present his offering to Jehovah, one yearling he-lamb without blemish for a burnt-offering, and one yearling ewe-lamb without blemish for a sin-offering, and one ram without blemish for a peace-offering;
This verse ends the Nazarite's vow — a set time of living wholly separated to God. That life closes not with a party for the vow kept, but with blood — and with a sin offering that seems, at first, unnecessary.
Each animal here points to one event. One writer ties the whole list to the moment Christ finished His course:
There came a time when Christ, the true Nazarite, had fulfilled the days of His separation. That was when "the hour had come for Him to depart out of this world to the Father" (John 13:1). For Him it was the time of "offering Himself without blemish to God" (Heb. 9:14). All the offerings of the Nazarite had their fulfilment in the great work of the cross: the he-lamb for a burnt offering, the ewe-lamb for a sin offering, and the ram without blemish for peace offerings.
The first animal is for God before it is for us.
"One male lamb a year old without blemish for a burnt offering." Man had failed here completely. God sent His Son to take up everything for Him in perfection, and this was first of all a provision for God Himself. "God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering" (Gen. 22:8). Think deeply about all that the Lord Jesus means to God His Father. Think how completely He has glorified Him in His life and in His death. If we do, our hearts will be greatly enlarged.
The first lamb is male, the second female. Commentators read that difference in two ways. One looks at which way each offering faces:
Where it was a question of the Lord's work for God — the Godward side — the animal had to be male, as in the burnt offering (Lev. 1:3). Where it concerns our own condition — the side that looks at us — the animal was female, as in the sin offering of an individual (Lev. 4:28). For the peace offering, which speaks of our fellowship with God, either a male or a female was acceptable (Lev. 3:1). So here, for the sin offering, a ewe-lamb had to be brought, since it concerns us and the sins that we have committed.
The other reads the female animal as a picture of submission:
In this case the lamb offered was to be a female, and this stresses the aspect of subjection. The Lord Jesus, as Man, was subject to His God and Father in all things, even though His obedience brought Him unfathomable suffering. He became "obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross" (Phil. 2:8).
One writer reads the age and condition of both lambs as a statement about Christ's whole life on earth.
Both the burnt offering and the sin offering took a one-year-old lamb without blemish. This emphasises that there was no failure and nothing out of place in the Lord (Luke 23:41). His whole life here on earth tested and proved this. The "one year" shows that period of time.
The third animal is a ram, not a lamb. That links it to the setting apart of priests:
The ram was brought because this was a question of special dedication to God. It was the same at the consecration of the priests: there too a ram of consecration had to be offered up.
The peace offering also gives the worshipper a share:
One thing the peace offering speaks of is thanksgiving (Lev. 7:12). We give thanks to God for all that Christ is and has done for Him and for us. We share God's thoughts and delight in His Son, and in doing so we eat the same peace offering that God eats.
This verse names the burnt offering first, yet the sin offering came first. Priests were set apart in the same order:
Here God's order is instructive. The ram of consecration is what we might have put first, yet it really comes last. This is because as sinful creatures they could not be consecrated to God's service without a sin offering, which met what they were. They needed the burnt offering too, which foreshadowed the voluntary surrender to death of Him who was made sin for His people. So here, at the setting apart of the Levites, and at the completion of the Nazarite's vow, the sin offering came before the burnt offering.
The end of the vow also points forward:
This marvellous "law" leads us on to something future. The full result of Christ's perfect work will then appear. As the Messiah of Israel, at the close of His Nazarite separation, He will taste true joy in His beloved people and in this earth. The time will then have come for the Nazarite to drink wine.
- Fulfilment. All three animals point to one place: the cross. There Christ offered Himself without blemish to God.
- For God. The male lamb of the burnt offering is God's own provision for Himself — the Son taking up perfectly what man had failed in.
- For us. The ewe lamb faces what we are. Commentators differ: the female marks either our condition or the Lord's subjection.
- With God. The ram, the animal of consecration, becomes a peace offering — an offering God and the worshipper eat together.
- In God's order. The list names the burnt offering first, but the sin offering came first. No one is set apart for God's service without a sacrifice that meets what he is.
and a basket with unleavened bread, cakes of fine flour mingled with oil, and unleavened wafers anointed with oil, and their oblation, and their drink-offerings.
When a Nazarite's days of separation ended, he came to the entrance of the tent of meeting with offerings, and verse 15 lists the basket that came with them. Commentators read that basket as a picture of the life of Christ — so the vow closes with a memorial not of the man's faithfulness, but of Someone else's.
The vow ran for a set time. One writer follows that closing point through to the believer today.
Since the Nazarite vow was set for a certain length of time, when this was completed the person was to come with an offering to the tabernacle door. For the believer today, his Nazariteship is not completed until the end of his history on earth, whether through death or the Lord's coming.
One writer takes the terms one at a time and reads them as a portrait of Christ's perfect life.
No leaven: there was no evil in Him. Mixed with oil: according to Luke 1:35 He was conceived by the Holy Spirit. Anointed with oil: according to Acts 10:38 He was anointed with the Holy Spirit. Fine flour: there were no irregularities in His life. In the power of the Holy Spirit He had lived a life that was perfection and well-pleasing to God.
The verse adds "their grain offering" to the basket. The same writer links that phrase to a rule found elsewhere in Numbers.
We read in Numbers 15:4, 6, 9 that offerings by fire had to be accompanied by grain offerings. This fact shows that Christ's sacrifice would not have been possible without His perfect life on earth. The two belonged together.
The basket did not come on its own. It went up with the burnt offering and the peace offering.
The grain offering offered with the burnt and peace offerings surely tells us this: the offering up of Christ on the cross carried with it the sweet savour of all that He was for God's pleasure in His life of devotion and perfection. And the drink offerings tell us that God had His joy in His Son at all times, whether in life or in death.
The drink offering was wine. One writer weighs the wine and the sweet savour together, and asks whose joy they speak of.
These two items (the wine and the sweet savour) make it clear what the drink offering is about. It is a matter of God's joy over the finished work of His Son, and not so much ours. Drink offerings always seem to stand at the end. That is, they come when something has been fully accomplished, and above all when God had achieved His end with the soul in question.
The Nazarite could drink wine again once his vow ended. One writer carries that detail forward to a coming day.
This marvellous "law" leads us on to something future, when the full result of Christ's perfect work will appear. Then He, as the Messiah of Israel, will at the close of His Nazarite separation taste true joy in His beloved people, and in this earth. The time will then have come for the Nazarite to drink wine. He is apart from the nation, and apart from this world, in the power of true Nazariteship. As He said to His disciples on that memorable night, "I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom" (Matthew 26:29).
One writer looks ahead to the day believers see the Lord face to face.
The basket of unleavened bread, cakes of fine flour mixed with oil and unleavened wafers anointed with oil bring the fresh remembrance of the whole life of the Lord Jesus on earth in true humanity, devoted to the will of God. This will mean more to us then when we see Him face to face than it has ever meant before.
- Finished: The vow ends, and verse 15 belongs to that close. For the believer, the separation runs to the end of life on earth.
- Flour: Fine flour with no leaven speaks of a life with no evil and no flaw in it. The offering describes Christ, not the man who brings it.
- Oil: Mixed with oil and anointed with oil mark two works of the Spirit. He was conceived by the Spirit, then anointed by Him for service.
- Together: The grain offering goes with the burnt and peace offerings. The sacrifice of Christ and the perfect life behind it belong to each other.
- Joy: The drink offering stands last of all. It speaks of God's joy in His Son over a finished work, and points on to the day the true Nazarite drinks the wine new.
And the priest shall present them before Jehovah, and shall offer his sin-offering and his burnt-offering
A Nazarite had vowed to live set apart for God for a set time, and here his days are over. He brings his animals and bread to the entrance of the tent of meeting, and the priest takes over — but why, after all that faithfulness, does a sin offering still come first?
He arrives having kept his promise — but the promise is not what makes him acceptable.
As the Nazarite's course ended, he came to the door of the tent of meeting to offer various offerings to God. He found acceptance with God in the value of those offerings, not in the vows he had performed.
Take the sacrifices away and the whole arrangement collapses.
Without sacrifices Nazariteship would be nothing at all. There can be no blessing without the sacrifice of Christ, so this consecration had to include them. The consecration was acceptable because of the value of what the sacrifices represented. The two went together.
Verse 14 lists the burnt offering ahead of the sin offering. Verse 16 reverses it: the priest offers the sin offering first, then the burnt offering. That order is deliberate, and it changes with the occasion.
Here God's order is instructive. What we might have put first, the ram of consecration, comes last. As sinful creatures, they needed a sin offering, which met what they were. They also needed the burnt offering, which foreshadowed the voluntary surrender to death of Him who was made sin for His people. Without both they could not be consecrated to God's service. So the sin offering took precedence over the burnt offering on this and on other occasions: the setting apart of the Levites for their work, the completion of the Nazarite's vow, the eighth day of the leper's cleansing, and the day of atonement. On the chief festivals this order was reversed. Where man is the prominent figure, the sin offering generally takes the prominent place. Where the point is God's favour to man — what God is to him — the sin offering can come second. But the sin offering on any of these occasions was not enough without the burnt offering as well.
Sin blocks worship until it is taken away.
In Leviticus the offerings themselves come in one order: the burnt offering, meal offering and peace offering first, and then the sin offering. In application the order changes. When the individual worshipper is in view, he presented his sin offering first, then his burnt offering. He could not worship while sin was against him. He had to approach by the power of what took it away.
The two offerings look in different directions.
As in verse 11 we again meet here the burnt offering and the sin offering. They point to the two basic aspects of the Lord's work at the cross: His work for God (burnt offering) and His work for us (sin offering). However, there is no longer any question of the turtledoves or young pigeons, but of a lamb in each case.
The Nazarite brings; the priest offers. That split carries a double lesson.
The priest then offered the sacrifices that the Nazarite had brought to the tent of meeting. Does this not remind us that, on the one hand, our Lord "offered himself" to God? We read: "Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God" (Heb. 9:14). And on the other hand it reminds us that our spiritual sacrifices of worship are "acceptable to God". They are acceptable not through any grandness of our own thoughts, our choice of words or our eloquence, but "through Jesus Christ": "to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ" (1 Pet. 2:5).
The closing day of the vow points forward to one moment.
Numbers 6:13 speaks of the time "when the time of his separation has been completed" — older translations read, "when the days of his separation are fulfilled." There came the time when Christ, the true Nazarite, had fulfilled the days of His separation. It was the time when "his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father" (John 13:1). For Him it was the time of "offering himself without blemish to God" (Heb. 9:14). All the offerings of the Nazarite had their fulfilment in the great work of the cross: the he-lamb for a burnt offering, the ewe-lamb for a sin offering, and the ram "without blemish as a peace offering."
- Brought. The Nazarite carries his offerings to the tent of meeting. He presents sacrifice, not a record of days kept.
- Offered. He does not lay them on the altar himself. The priest presents them before the LORD — a picture of worship made acceptable through Christ.
- Sin first. When the worshipper himself is in view, the sin offering comes before the burnt offering, because no one can worship while sin still stands against him.
- Both needed. The sin offering meets what we are; the burnt offering shows Christ's work Godward. Neither is enough alone.
- Fulfilled. Every offering here finds its meaning at the cross. There the true Nazarite offered Himself without blemish to God.
and he shall offer the ram, a sacrifice of peace-offering to Jehovah, with the basket of unleavened bread; the priest shall offer also his oblation and his drink-offering.
This verse closes the vow of the Nazarite — a person set apart to the LORD for a fixed time. Why should a season of strict separation end with an offering of fellowship and joy?
The Nazarite's vow was never meant to last for life.
Again, Nazariteship is never supposed to be permanent, but an institution for the wilderness. It comes in by the way on earth, and is peculiar to Numbers.
Leslie Grant applies that limit to the believer.
The Nazarite vow was set for a certain length of time. When that time was over, the person had to come with an offering to the door of the tabernacle. For the believer today, his Nazariteship is not finished until the end of his history on earth, whether through death or the Lord's coming.
The verse names a ram. The same animal marked the setting apart of the priests.
In the Nazarite we have special consecration, separation to the Lord… Once the sin offering and the burnt offering had been properly offered up, he presented his peace offering, a ram, with the basket of unleavened bread. The ram was brought because this was a question of special dedication to God. It was the same at the consecration of the priests, where the ram of consecration was commanded to be offered up.
Here nobody is making peace. The blood has already made it, and a shared meal follows.
Look at what the peace offering pictures. The moment the blood was shed, God and the worshipper could feed together in happy, peaceful fellowship. Nothing more was needed. The blood established peace, and on that ground the fellowship went on. A single doubt about whether peace has been established must be the death-blow to fellowship.
The cakes and wafers in the basket are made to an exact recipe.
The meal offering points to the perfect life of our Lord, the true Nazarite. No leaven: there was no evil in Him. Mingled with oil: according to Luke 1:35 He was conceived by the Holy Spirit. Anointed with oil: according to Acts 10:38 anointed with the Holy Spirit. Fine flour: there were no irregularities in His life… We read in Numbers 15:4, 6, 9 that offerings by fire had to come with meal offerings. This shows that Christ's sacrifice would not have been possible without His perfect life on earth. The two belonged together.
The wine comes last in the verse. That position carries meaning.
These two items — the wine and the pleasing aroma — make it clear that the drink offering is about God's joy over the finished work of His Son, and not so much ours. Notice that drink offerings always seem to stand at the end. That is, they come when something has been fully accomplished, and especially when God had reached His goal with the soul in question.
The Nazarite brings the offerings, but the priest presents them.
Does this not remind us that, on the one hand, our Lord "offered himself" to God? We read: "who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God" (Heb. 9:14). On the other hand, we are also reminded that our spiritual sacrifices of worship are acceptable to God. They are acceptable not through any grandeur of our own thoughts, our choice of words or our rhetoric, but through Jesus Christ: "to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ" (1 Pet. 2:5).
The ceremony also looks ahead. The Nazarite had given up wine, and at the end of his days he could drink it again.
This marvellous "law" leads us on to something future. Then the full result of Christ's perfect work will appear. Then He, as the Messiah of Israel, at the close of His Nazarite separation, will taste true joy in His beloved people and in this earth. The time will then have come for the Nazarite to drink wine… as He said to His disciples on that memorable night, "I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom." Matthew 26:29.
- Temporary — the vow belongs to the wilderness and has a fixed end. For the believer, that end is death or the Lord's coming.
- Ram — the animal of consecration, used when the priests were set apart. It marks special dedication to God.
- Fellowship — nobody makes peace here. The blood made it, and on that ground God and the worshipper share a meal.
- Bread — no leaven, oil, and fine flour. This is the perfect life of Christ, without which the sacrifice could not have been made.
- Wine — poured out only when the work is finished. It is God's joy in His Son. It waits for the day the true Nazarite drinks it new in His Father's kingdom.
And the Nazarite shall shave the head of his consecration at the entrance to the tent of meeting, and shall take the hair of the head of his consecration, and put it on the fire which is under the sacrifice of the peace-offering.
A Nazirite was a person under a special vow to God, and his uncut hair was the public sign of it. Now the vow is over, so why cut off that sign — and why does God command the hair to burn under the peace offering?
Earlier in the chapter a Nazirite who was defiled also had to shave his head. But the wording there is not the same, and the difference matters.
Here is a first hint of the difference. In the cleansing process the Nazirite shaved the "head". Here it is "the head of his consecration." Verse 9 does say that "the head of his consecration" was defiled. But for the act of shaving it mentions only the "head", with nothing added. In other words, what he had forfeited or defiled was the consecration itself. It is all the more striking that in our verse the phrase "the head of his consecration" is used twice. This shows that leaving out the words "his consecration" the second time in verse 9 is deliberate, not just a way to avoid repetition. How precise is the Word of God!
One shaving marks a loss. This one marks a finish.
What did the long hair stand for while it grew?
The Nazirite was then to shave his head (v.18), showing that the days of his subjection in humiliation were at an end. Today our subjection to God (pictured in the long hair) means constant humiliation and self-denial in a hostile setting. But the hair was burned under the peace offering. The reminder of our days of humiliation will go up in fire to the Lord. He will not forget this, and our bodies of humiliation will be changed to be like the Lord's body of glory (Phil. 3:21).
Nothing else in the sacrificial law works quite like this.
The Nazirite's hair, grown through the period of his consecration, can now be laid on the altar. This was unique among the law's commands about offerings. A real part of the human body goes on the altar, and not just as a picture, as in Romans 12:2. The hair is not itself a sacrifice. Yet it lies on the altar, in the fire underneath the actual offering.
But why under that offering in particular?
The smell of the burning hair now mingles with the sweet aroma of the peace offering, and God permits it. He even orders it! The peace offering will be before us for all eternity. It reminds us of what Christ accomplished to open the way for eternal fellowship with the Father and the Son. God now tells the Nazirite to lay his hair on the fire under the peace offering. By this He points out, so to speak, that all that believers have been for God during their lives should combine and mingle with the sweet aroma of the peace offering. It should rise to Him in eternity. What a thought this is!
So where does a life of separation finally lead?
Finally, when the Nazirite vow was fulfilled, all the sacrifices were offered. The hair of the head of his separation burned in the fire that consumed the sacrifice of the peace offerings. This is a picture of the full communion that results from the sacrifice of Christ. At the time God has fixed, the sacrifice of Christ will have its full and entire effect. Then the energising power of separation will merge into the communion that is the happy result of that sacrifice. The power of the Holy Spirit is now spent in great measure on holding back the desires of the flesh. We are thankful to know that it will then be wholly a power of joy in God.
Writers read the finished vow as a picture of the Lord Jesus completing His own separated path.
Do we not see here the day when the Lord Jesus finished His path of separation and entered into the joy of His Father's presence? The long hair that marked His path of shame is removed. Like the peace offering, it goes into the fire that consumed the offerings that were "a pleasing aroma to the LORD."
With the hair gone, what is left in his hands?
The Nazirite now stands before God not with the hair of his consecration, but with the peace offering. This speaks of the believer who knows that his joy rests on Christ's sacrifice and not on the degree of his own dedication.
- Finished, not forfeited. This shaving removes "the head of his consecration". It ends a completed vow, unlike the shaving of verse 9, which followed defilement.
- Sign removed. The long hair marked days of humiliation and subjection; cutting it says those days have reached their end.
- Devotion offered. Nowhere else in the law does a part of the body go on the altar — not as the sacrifice, but into the fire beneath it.
- Remembered forever. What believers have been for God rises to Him mingled with the sweet aroma of the peace offering.
- Separation absorbed into communion. The energy now spent on staying clear of evil will turn into pure joy in God. The hands hold Christ's offering, not one's own record.
And the priest shall take the boiled shoulder of the ram, and one unleavened cake out of the basket, and one unleavened wafer, and shall put them upon the hands of the Nazarite, after he hath shaven [the hair of] his consecration.
The Nazirite's vow has run its course, and the last act is done to him, not by him. The priest fills his hands with the boiled shoulder of the ram, a loaf and a wafer — but why the shoulder, boiled, and not the breast?
Older translations call it the "sodden shoulder." One reference work defines the word:
The past tense of seethe, to boil. Genesis 25:29; Exodus 12:9; Numbers 6:19.
One writer ties the boiled shoulder to Christ's death and to feeding on the word:
Christ's strength was shown in the place where He was crucified in weakness. It was His strength that held Him up in the hour when He bore judgment for us and glorified God about our sins. Does not the boiled shoulder tell us that this divine strength, made known in Christ's death, is available to us through the word of God? It is as we feed on the word that we feed on the strength of Christ, shown and made available for us on the cross.
The Hebrew word behind "shoulder" carries that sense of strength elsewhere in the Bible:
The word for shoulder is also translated, depending on the context, as "arm" or "leg" (in the sense of foreleg). Used figuratively, it speaks of "strength." In Job 22:8 and Ezekiel 22:6 it is translated "power." It occurs for the first time in the blessing of Joseph (Genesis 49:24). There, and in other passages such as Exodus 6:6, "with an outstretched arm," it is used in connection with strength. So the Nazirite can remember that his Lord has borne all the responsibility and finished the work in His own strength.
Two pieces of unleavened bread go with the shoulder. One commentator reads the whole handful together:
The wave shoulder speaks of Christ as the One who has perfectly borne our responsibility on the cross and is glorified in heaven. The waving speaks of that glory... The unleavened cake and wafer remind us of Christ in His sinless perfection of Manhood. He will keep that perfection in wonderful grace through eternity.
The order of the verse matters. The sign of his own dedication comes off first; then the priest fills his hands.
With verse 19 we return to the actual peace-offering. The priest was to take the ram's shoulder. He was to lay it on the Nazirite's hands, together with the meal-offering — a cake and a wafer, both unleavened. All this came after the man had shaved off the hair of his consecration. The Nazirite now stands before God, not with the hair of his consecration, but with the peace-offering. This speaks of the believer who knows that his joy rests on Christ's sacrifice and not on the degree of his own dedication.
In ordinary peace-offerings the priest heaved the shoulder; here he waves it. One writer explains why:
In the ordinary peace-offerings the shoulder was heaved with the cakes; here it was waved. This offering did not spring from a thankful heart rejoicing in its blessings. It was not the gift of a heart wanting to present something of its own to the Lord in recognition of His goodness. It was the public declaration that the time of special separation to God had ended, so the right shoulder, with the cakes, was waved before the Lord. The man had been wholly separated to God by his vow; now he was to pass out of that state which he had voluntarily entered. So everything was waved, not heaved, and the shoulder, which pictures service, was the portion commanded to be offered in this way.
The priest does the waving, over food he is about to eat:
The offering priest had his portion, as well as his own part in the law of the Nazirite. He had to offer the sacrifices (vv. 16, 17) and to wave the wave offering before the Lord. Normally the breast was waved before the Lord. Here it is "the boiled shoulder" of the peace offering, with an unleavened cake and an unleavened wafer. What the priest is about to feed on is waved before God, for God finds pleasure in His priests feeding on the Christ who glorified Him in life and in death.
- Emptied — the hair of his consecration comes off first. Only then does the priest fill his hands, so nothing of his own vow is left in them.
- Filled — the priest lays the sacrifice there: a boiled shoulder and unleavened bread. The man did not earn it.
- Carried — the Hebrew word for shoulder also means arm and power. It says the Lord carried the whole responsibility and finished the work in His own strength.
- Fed — the boiled portion is ready to eat. The strength Christ showed at the cross reaches us as we feed on the word.
- Shared — the waving announces in public that the separation is over. The portion then feeds the priest, and God takes pleasure in that.
And the priest shall wave them as wave-offering before Jehovah; it is holy for the priest, with the breast of the wave-offering and with the shoulder of the heave-offering; and afterwards the Nazarite may drink wine.
The Nazarite's time of separation ends here, with the priest waving the offering before the Lord and taking his portion. Then comes the clause that reverses the vow: the man who touched nothing from the vine may drink wine again.
The priest waves the boiled shoulder and the cakes. In other peace offerings he lifted, or heaved, that shoulder instead, and one writer explains why.
In the ordinary peace offerings the shoulder was heaved with the cakes; here it was waved. The reason is this. This offering did not come from a thankful heart rejoicing in its blessings. It was not a gift of something of one's own, brought to the Lord in recognition of His goodness. It was the public declaration that the time of special separation to God had ended. His vow had set the man wholly apart for God; now he was to leave the state he had chosen to enter. So all was waved, not heaved, and the shoulder, which stands for service, was the portion God commanded to be offered.
The waved portion does not go back to the Nazarite. The verse calls it holy for the priest, and one writer hears God's own delight in what His priests eat.
The priest had his portion, and also his own part in the law of the Nazarite. Usually the priest waved the breast before the Lord. Here he waves the boiled shoulder of the peace offering, with an unleavened cake and an unleavened wafer. He waves before God the very food he is about to eat. God finds pleasure in His priests feeding on the Christ who glorified Him in life and in death.
The verse also names the breast that is waved. Another writer reads it as a picture of what moved Christ to give Himself:
The breast of the wave offering reminds us of "the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge" that led Him to bring this sacrifice. Whatever the Nazarite was able to do in his life was only possible through the love of Christ.
By this point the Nazarite has shaved off his hair, the visible sign of his vow. The priest puts the sacrifice in his hands instead.
The Nazarite now stands before God, not with the hair of his consecration, but with the peace offering. This speaks of the believer who knows that his joy rests on Christ's sacrifice and not on the degree of his own dedication.
The last clause sets a limit on the whole arrangement.
Nazariteship is never meant to be permanent. It is something for the wilderness. It comes in along the way on earth, and it is found only in Numbers.
Applied to the believer, that limit is the length of a life:
For us as believers the time of consecration covers our whole life. When we are with the Lord, watchfulness will no longer be necessary. Then there will be neither the inclination to defilement nor the occasion for it. When everything is ordered for God's honour, and the flesh is no longer in us, then even the Nazarite will "drink wine."
One writer hears Christ's own words at the last supper behind this closing line.
This marvellous law leads us on to something future. Then the full result of Christ's perfect work will appear. Then He, as the Messiah of Israel, will taste true joy in His beloved people and in this earth, at the close of His Nazarite separation. The time will then have come for the Nazarite to drink wine. He is apart from the nation and apart from this world, in the power of true Nazariteship. On that memorable night He said to His disciples: "I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom."
Another writer says what changes when the vow ends, and who tastes the joy first.
Right now the power of the Holy Spirit is spent, in great measure, in checking the desires of the flesh. One day it will be wholly a power of joy in God, and of fellowship with all that will surround us. Then the work of Christ will bring out its result. All the varied power of His sacrifice will be acknowledged. His people will enter into the fellowship of His joy. Wine will be taken with joy. Jesus Himself awaits that time. I believe this applies especially to His people here below, to the Jewish remnant in the last days. Something similar, however, awaits us, but in a still better way.
- Sacrifice first. The vow ends with an offering waved before the Lord. That is the public sign that a season of separation is over.
- Then the priest's share. The waved shoulder stands for service. It is holy for the priest, and God takes pleasure in His priests feeding on Christ.
- Then empty hands filled. The Nazarite's hair is gone. What he holds is the peace offering. His joy rests on Christ's sacrifice, not on how well he kept his vow.
- Then a time limit. Nazariteship belongs to the wilderness. For the believer it lasts as long as this life, where watchfulness is still needed.
- Then the wine. Christ Himself waits to drink it new in His Father's kingdom, and His people enter that joy with Him.
This is the law of the Nazarite who hath vowed his offering to Jehovah for his consecration, beside what his hand is able to get; according to the vow which he vowed, so shall he do, according to the law of his consecration.
This verse closes the chapter's rules for the Nazirite. A Nazirite was a person who made a voluntary vow of separation to the Lord. One verse now holds two things together: the law fixes the offerings, yet the worshipper may bring more than the law asks — as much as he can afford.
The phrase "this is the law of the Nazirite" appears twice: at verse 13 and again here. It frames the section on completing the vow. One writer notes where that name sits, and where it does not.
It is interesting that, strictly speaking, only one section is called "the law of the Nazirite" (Num. 6:13, 21). It is the third section, the one that deals with fulfilling the vow. This may show that an interruption of the time of consecration is neither desirable nor necessary. And in the case of the true Nazirite, Christ, there was no interruption but only fulfilment.
The chapter never commanded this vow. It began with a person choosing to make one. The same freedom appears again in the closing verse, in the room left for extra offerings.
The offerings this section lays down should not stop the Nazirite from freely bringing more sacrifices: "besides what he can afford." Voluntary consecration was the starting point of the whole chapter: "When either a man or a woman makes a special vow…" (v. 2). At the time of fulfilment there is room to give something extra.
The verse sets two standards side by side. The offerings the law lists are the floor. A different measure governs whatever the Nazirite adds above them.
The measure is not what the law prescribed, but "what he can afford." God does not expect the Nazirite to give what he must, but to give as he is able to give.
The verse also binds: he must act in exact accordance with the vow he took. Nobody forced him to speak; but having spoken, he was held to his word.
The Israelites were not told to make vows. But if they made them of their own will, God said they must carry them out faithfully. People are always ready to boast of their strength, and are not aware of their own weakness. When Israel heard the law, they did not hesitate to say, "All that the LORD has spoken we will do." But sadly, they failed miserably.
That failure raises a question: what takes the place of the vow now? One writer answers with something inward rather than spoken:
This true inward purpose of heart is the New Testament answer to the Old Testament vow, but it will do far more than a vow ever could.
The vow is complete, and still the Nazirite comes with offerings. That detail decides where his standing rests at the end of his separation.
So, as the Nazirite's course ended, he came to the door of the tent of meeting to offer God the various offerings. He found acceptance with God in the value of those offerings — not in the vows he had performed. And as he stood there, his hands were full of the raised shoulder of the ram and the unleavened cakes of the grain offering. … The Christ in whom we are accepted fills us, and for eternity is to fill and occupy us alone.
Writers read the whole law of the Nazirite as pointing beyond Israel to Christ. His separation from earthly joy had a set term and an end in view.
This marvellous "law" leads us on to something future. Then the full result of Christ's perfect work will appear. Then He, as the Messiah of Israel, at the close of His Nazirite separation, will taste true joy in His beloved people and in this earth. The time will then have come for the Nazirite to drink wine. … He is apart from the nation, and apart from this world, in the power of true Nazirite separation. As He said to His disciples on that memorable night, "I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom" (Matthew 26:29).
The believer's separation also runs to a set end:
For the believer today, his Nazariteship is not completed until the end of his history on earth, whether through death or the Lord's coming.
- Voluntary — nobody had to take this vow. It began with a free choice, and it ends with room for gifts nobody commanded.
- Ability — above the fixed offerings the measure changes: not what he must give, but what he can give.
- Binding — God still held the man to a vow he made freely. The freedom lay in the making, not in the keeping.
- Accepted — at the close he stands before God in the worth of the offerings, not in the record of vows he has performed.
- Fulfilled — only Christ knew no interruption. At the end of His separation the true Nazirite drinks wine with His people, in His Father's kingdom.