“And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When either man or woman shall separate themselves to vow a vow of a Nazarite, to separate themselves unto the LORD: He shall separate himself from wine and strong drink, and shall drink no vinegar of wine, or vinegar of strong drink, neither shall he drink any liquor of grapes, nor eat moist grapes, or dried. All the days of his separation shall he eat nothing that is made of the vine tree, from the kernels even to the husk. All the days of the vow of his separation there shall no razor come upon his head: until the days be fulfilled, in the which he separateth himself unto the LORD, he shall be holy, and shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow. All the days that he separateth himself unto the LORD he shall come at no dead body. He shall not make himself unclean for his father, or for his mother, for his brother, or for his sister, when they die: because the consecration of his God is upon his head. All the days of his separation he is holy unto the LORD.
“And if any man die very suddenly by him, and he hath defiled the head of his consecration; then he shall shave his head in the day of his cleansing, on the seventh day shall he shave it. And on the eighth day he shall bring two turtles, or two young pigeons, to the priest, to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation: And the priest shall offer the one for a sin offering, and the other for a burnt offering, and make an atonement for him, for that he sinned by the dead, and shall hallow his head that same day. And he shall consecrate unto the LORD the days of his separation, and shall bring a lamb of the first year for a trespass offering: but the days that were before shall be lost, because his separation was defiled” (Num. 6:1-12).
“And she (the mother of Samuel) vowed a vow, and said, O LORD of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget thine handmaid, but wilt give unto thine handmaid a man child, then I will give him unto the LORD all the days of his life, and there shall no razor come upon his head” (1 Sam. 1:11). This means the man child will be a Nazarite. Let us also read verse 28. “Therefore also I have lent him to the LORD; as long as he liveth he shall be lent to the LORD.”
“For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb” (Luke 1:15, lit.). According to this verse, John the Baptist was also a Nazarite.
In the two books of Exodus and Leviticus the Lord ordained and appointed many kinds of persons. Then in the beginning of the book of Numbers, the Lord told Moses how to coordinate all these different persons into one army to fight the battle. In chapter six, while He was telling Moses how to coordinate these persons, He gave him something as a kind of supplement. The Lord had appointed and ordained only the house of Aaron of the tribe of Levi as the priests. The rest of the Levites who served in the tabernacle were not the priests.
But suppose the house of Aaron would not be faithful to the Lord and would even forsake Him. What would the Lord do? This thought may be strange to us, but not to the Bible. We all know that Abraham was chosen of God when man failed God after creation. Out of Abraham came the people of Israel, with whom God intended to make a kingdom of priests. We must remember that a priest is one who opens himself to the Lord that the Lord may be mingled with him. The Lord is his content, and he is the Lord’s expression—this is a priest. God’s intention was to make the whole nation of Israel a kingdom of priests; however, through Israel’s failure, the Lord chose the Levites as a tribe of priests to replace a nation of priests in Israel. But not all the tribe of Levi were chosen by the Lord. Only those of the house of Aaron were to be the priests.
Could you believe that the house of Aaron would never fall? The house of Aaron eventually came to the point of being fully and utterly fallen at the time of Eli’s sons.
However, the Lord foresaw the situation. Besides His ordination of the house of Aaron as priests, in the sixth chapter of Numbers, He made a supplement. This supplement means “in case of.” In case of failure on the part of the house of Aaron, the Lord opened a side door as an emergency provision. In case the front door is damaged, there is a side door. Therefore, we have the regulation of the Nazarite.
The regulation of the Nazarite is not limited to certain persons, for anyone can become a Nazarite. Regardless of whether you are a Levite, a member of the house of Aaron, a man or a woman, the side door is open. Even the sisters need not worry that the priests in the Old Testament were all men. The side door is open to both men and women. During normal times only the main entrance is needed, but when things are abnormal, the side door is necessary. The principle of the regulation for the Nazarite is that the door is wide open for everybody. No one is prohibited.