Read: Numbers 6:1-7:89; Mark 12:38-13:13; Psalm 49:1-20; Proverbs 10:27-28
The Nazarite vow was a voluntary setting apart of oneself to the Lord. Today, I would equate that with giving up social media for a month or going on a fast or setting apart more time out of your day to spend in prayer. Once you promise something to the Lord, he will hold you to it. If a person made a Nazarite vow and accidentally defiled that vow, he would have to start over.
The word Nazarite means an unpruned vine so the purpose of making the vow would be to develop discipline. The three requirements of a Nazarite vow were to abstain from anything that came from the grapevine, to have no razor used on his head and not to go near a dead body. The grapevine represents joy or pleasure. The hair represents rebellion and a dead body represents death and the unclean. So, the vow was to uncover all the hidden sin in a person’s life so they could face it and get rid of it. It was a time of cleansing.
God also had offerings that he required. Every tribe was required to give the same amount to the Lord when the altar was anointed. The altar represented the cross and silver was the price of redemption so everything they offered had to do with Jesus sacrifice on the cross.
In Mark, Jesus watched as the people brought their sacrifices into the temple treasury. He commented on the two copper coins of the poor widow. She had given more than all the rich people proportionally to what she owned. It all went back to the heart.
Jesus looks at our sacrifices and rewards us according to how much of our heart is in it. Everything we have is given to us by the Lord and our gifts show how much we believe that.
The disciples asked Jesus when the destruction of the temple would come. He gave them a long list of things that would happen before the end of the world. The stones of the temple represented the structures of this world. One day, they will all be destroyed.
Lord, may we learn from our Psalm today about the futility of life and the promise of eternity.
No comments:
Post a Comment