Num 6:3 | KingComments | STEP | If anyone wants to be completely dedicated, God gives His precepts, His standards. Whoever makes the Nazirite vow separates 1. from the vine – that speaks of joy, 2. from his rights as a man – which is expressed in his long hair and 3. from what has to do with death. Here it is not just a separation from what defiles, but also from what is best in nature, from what God has given in it. Wine is the picture of the joy of the earth. Wine cheers God and men ( ; ). Thus we also read of a drink offering of wine, which speaks of the joy that God has found in the offering of His Son. Wine speaks of what God has given in nature. The Nazirite voluntarily renounces it. Nature is not condemned, that would be wrong for the Christian. Everything that God has created “is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with gratitude; for it is sanctified by means of the word of God and prayer” ( ). But there is a way that is higher, and God gives to him who wants to go that way, both the conditions and the strength for it. The Christian is not dead to nature. It is precisely in letters in which the Christian position is most emphasized (the letter to the Ephesians and the letter to the Colossians), that the obligations of earthly relations are most extensively discussed. The Lord Jesus is now in heaven, separated from everything on earth, even from the natural relationship He had with His disciples on earth. In view of this, He has said that He will not drink any more of the fruit of the vine. He will drink of it again when He returns to establish the kingdom where His disciples will reign with Him ( ). He will not always be Nazirite. He will say: “Eat, friends; drink and imbibe deeply, O lovers” ( ).

‏ Numbers 6:3

Abstain from Eating and Drinking from the Vine

If anyone wants to be completely dedicated, God gives His precepts, His standards. Whoever makes the Nazirite vow separates

1. from the vine – that speaks of joy,

2. from his rights as a man – which is expressed in his long hair and

3. from what has to do with death.

Here it is not just a separation from what defiles, but also from what is best in nature, from what God has given in it.

Wine is the picture of the joy of the earth. Wine cheers God and men (Jdg 9:13; Psa 104:15). Thus we also read of a drink offering of wine, which speaks of the joy that God has found in the offering of His Son. Wine speaks of what God has given in nature. The Nazirite voluntarily renounces it. Nature is not condemned, that would be wrong for the Christian. Everything that God has created “is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with gratitude; for it is sanctified by means of the word of God and prayer” (1Tim 4:4-5). But there is a way that is higher, and God gives to him who wants to go that way, both the conditions and the strength for it.

The Christian is not dead to nature. It is precisely in letters in which the Christian position is most emphasized (the letter to the Ephesians and the letter to the Colossians), that the obligations of earthly relations are most extensively discussed.

The Lord Jesus is now in heaven, separated from everything on earth, even from the natural relationship He had with His disciples on earth. In view of this, He has said that He will not drink any more of the fruit of the vine. He will drink of it again when He returns to establish the kingdom where His disciples will reign with Him (Mt 26:29). He will not always be Nazirite. He will say: “Eat, friends; drink and imbibe deeply, O lovers” (Song 5:1b).