Bully’s Blog

The Nazirite Vow

(Article requested by Drew J.)

This vow in Numbers 6 follows the “inspection of jealousy” in Numbers 5. Mark Horne observed that, just as the woman in Numbers 5 was to be inspected for harlotry with her hair untamed, so the Nazirite (whether male or female) was not to cut his or her hair. A Nazirite is a human picture of the church as a warrior bride. Hair is glory. Hair is the cloud of angels (and now, saints) surrounding the throne of God.

“Therefore the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels.” (1 Cor. 11:10)

A woman is the glory of her man. A woman’s hair is a symbol of submission, but also a symbol of her own “cloud of angels” - her godly offspring (See Ezekiel 5 for the children of Israel symbolised as the prophet’s hair, Micah 1:16, Matthew 10:30 and also my comments on Nehemiah and his hair-pulling). In battle, a Nazirite was like a blazing torch (the Ark-chariot/Adam) and smoking firepot (the smoke clouds of the incense altar/Eve army), parting his enemies like the pillar of God.

The hair is her “crop”, the twelve stars around her head (Rev. 12), and the question constantly posed to Israel concerns her role as God’s mediatorial Land. Is her crop one of thorns and thistles, or is it godly grain? This is also the question in Numbers 5, and the Lord put Israel to this exact test after the idolatry with the golden calf. The “harlots” were slain with the Levitical sword.

Christ, as Israel, bore her curse when He wore the crown of thorns. He was being judged in the place of the idolatrous bride. His nakedness was exposed, just as Israel’s nakedness was exposed for her harlotries in Ezekiel. But He was also a warrior-bride.

Christ vowed not to drink wine. On the cross, He refused the vinegar until His holy war was over. (The structure of both passages is interesting. Jesus makes His vow at “Firstfruits” in the first passage, and drinks the wine at “Trumpets”, after His presentation as the Eve-army before God.)

Firstfruits is Moses receiving the Law on Sinai. Trumpets is Moses repeating the Law in Deuteronomy. In between these steps is Pentecost, which is the people of God as stars in the wilderness, tested, inspected under the Law of God. That was the cross. A Nazirite’s vow to abstain from any product made from grapes is related to the wilderness. Although the spies brought back a huge haul of grapes (a promise of kingdom wine), Israel was not ready. In the wilderness, the Table of Showbread drink offerings were “strong drink” or beer, until they entered into Canaan, and possessed vineyards they did not grow. Adam faced the same test, with the two trees in the garden representing bread (the staff of life) and wine (kingly, judicial wisdom). Adam broke his Nazirite vow and failed at holy war. Jesus refused the kingdom wine until the serpent was defeated. (Note that Zechariah shows the coming of Jesus as breaking Judah’s possession of these two staffs).

Under the Old Covenant, the priests never drank the wine, not even in Ezekiel’s temple (which proves it was an Old Covenant temple made of people - the Restoration covenant). It was not until Christ came and fought the ultimate holy war that the saints could drink wine in the presence of God. But even they would have to fight a holy war in a wilderness, carried, as Israel, by eagle’s wings (Rev. 12:14).

“Then they said to Him, “Why do the disciples of John fast often and make prayers, and likewise those of the Pharisees, but Yours eat and drink?” And He said to them, “Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them; then they will fast in those days.”

The Nazirite vow temporarily rendered someone a priest for the purpose of holy war. Remember that the priests carried the Levitical sword, like the cherubim guarding the garden. As temporary priests, contact with a corpse broke the vow.

Paul took the Nazirite vow because his missionary journey was holy war. It was acceptable because the Temple was still standing, and the Old Covenant “scroll” was still open until AD70. Paul’s missions fulfilled the Restoration Covenant scroll (opened in Zechariah) and eventually brought about its end. Jezebel drank the Numbers 5 cup and was cursed with eternal miscarriage.

In his book on Judges, James Jordan observes that Samson, Obed and Samuel were contemporaries. We miss this fact because we assume that their separate narratives do not overlap. Obed was the new head of gold, the kingly line resurrected through the inclusion of Gentiles (Ruth). Samson and Samuel, as Nazirites from birth, were the cherubim, one in the north, one in the south, fighting the Philistines to build a new Tabernacle, the Tabernacle of David.

A Nazirite’s hair was cut when his/her vow was complete. Symbolically, he offers his head, his military glory, to his king. We see this in Revelation, where the Old Covenant ministers, the angels of the Lord, have completed their holy war, and they cast their crowns before the throne. At His ascension, Jesus takes over the battle, and passes the job onto the New Covenant warriors, the apostles, who, by the end of the book, have replaced the angelic warriors in heaven’s holy place. The heavenly government is now a human one.

John, as the last Old Covenant Nazirite, also had his consecrated head presented to the king.

Revelation shows true and false Nazirites in battle. The false ones are the Judaisers, fighting the true gospel. They have hair as women, breastplates of iron (the authority of the Roman state), and crowns of gold. Like Adam, they will be kings now. The true Nazirites are virgins, and their breastplates are made of Tabernacle (worship), the gold of the Ark, the hyacinth smoke of the incense altar, and the sulphur of the laver, which for the wicked is a lake of fire (like the Red Sea). This is the armour of God.

Finally, as the ultimate Nazirite, the Christ will remove His own golden crown, His glorious work: His white hair, the governing elder-saints; the 12 stars around His head, the children of God—and present us as precious plunder before the Father.

“…Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.”  (1 Corinthians 15:24-25)