Almost Cut My Hair

Numbers 6:1-21

So, if you're an Israelite youth who's clamoring for a little more law in your life- the Nazirite vow might be for you. Apparently this is a vow to help you go above and beyond the requirements of the typical child of God. It seems that this vow could be taken by either a man or a woman.

After taking this vow, there are several things that must be avoided:

No wine. In fact no vinegar made from wine. In fact no grape juice. Or grapes. Or raisins. Nothing from the grapevine- not even seeds or skins.

No cutting hair.

No going near a dead body. Not even if someone in your immediate family dies.

If someone dies in your presence- and defiles your hair (I guess this happens by just being in the presence of a dead body? Maybe contact with the body and your hair which would be kind of weird anyhow?) you've got to shave it on the day of your cleansing (apparently the seventh day). On the eighth day the Nazarite is to bring two doves or pigeons to the priest. One is a sin offering, the other a burnt offering- the burnt offering seems to be to make up for being near the corpse.

Following the period of separation- not sure how long that period is- the rules change. He brings a bunch of things for the priest to sacrifice- a one year old male lamb, a one year old ewe lamb, a ram, grain offerings, drink offerings, a basket of yeast-free bread, and cakes and wafers with oil.

The bread and the ram are a fellowship offering. At the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, the Nazirite is to shave off his hair and burn it in the fire beneath this fellowship offering. The priest makes a wave offering using a boiled shoulder of the ram, a wafer and a cake. The priest gets to keep much of the meat as well as the waved cake and wafer.

After this, the Nazirite can start drinking wine again. This is all offered in addition to anything else the Nazirite can afford.

This whole concept puzzles me. As best I can tell, this vow is totally voluntary. Who could look at the burdens of the law and think- you know what, I'd like a little more law in my life? It seems a bit like an attempt to show God how great you are.

God, not only can I not steal, lie, covet- etc... but look what else I can do. Pardon me while I flip my hair.

And I have this same hangup. Instead of accepting grace- I try to make things a little harder for myself. It isn't enough that I'm sorry for my sin, that I've prayed about it, that I've tried to stop committing it- I try to punish myself more. It's like I'm saying, God, look how sorry I am. Let me show you why you should forgive me, because deep down, I'm not convinced that you already have.

So let me impress you with all I've done to make up for the wrong I've committed. If I wasn't truly sorry, I wouldn't have gone through this much effort. Get the grace ready, because I'm about to check off the box that will release the grace lever and send it pouring down on me.

And the end result might be best summed up by John Prine, "Jesus Christ died for nothing, I suppose."

Maybe the Nazirites had noble reasons for taking this extra vow. My struggle is to keep cutting my hair, and truly believing that His grace is enough- no extra credit needed.