#35 Haftarah Naso - Parallels about the Nazir Vow

[Music] you [Music] good morning in shabbat shalom we'd like to welcome each of you here as well as those who are watching through Facebook live as well as on YouTube and we consider everyone who is studying Torah with us a part of the Assembly of called out believers and our eternal family so we send greetings and love and blessings to all who are viewing and this morning we have a special teaching from Harshad not so now--so means take and we're gonna parallel it with the haftorah in the profits from jerem from judges 13 about the story of samson because in the parish ah not so in number 6 we see the instructions given for the first time about taking a Nazarite vow in the hebrew it's a nazir a person who takes a vow to dedicate themselves for a period of time to out and i and we see this instruction paralleled in the haftorah in judges 13 where Samson's parents are told that he will be in that zere and there are certain prescription and requirements for nasir that in Samson's case and in some of the others we will look at they had to apply from their birth if they were taking a lifetime foul now in Judaism the minimum vow that a person could dedicate themselves to really be set apart for yah for a period of time was thirty days that would be your minimum nazir and this would be like you would see in acts where Paul would be travelling and he might take a period of time to be an example to those who he's ministering to and show them what it means to be dedicated to the Lord afterwards a person would shave their head showing that that period of their vow had ended and they would bring a sacrifice to the temple now in Judaism you don't see a lot of people taking nazir vows today why because there's no temple to bring an offering they want to fully follow the prescription of the letter of the law if you will but it doesn't mean that we can't not apply the principles of the Nazarite vow because all of us have dedicated our lives to ad and I amen at one point or another you decided to pull away from the world and pull away from yourself and say I know God's plans are right for me cause Torah is an instruction of love and it restores blessings and health and wealth back to my life and I choose to live for him and when you took that vow it wasn't just for 30 days it wasn't because it was convenient for a period of time or because your friends or family were doing it when you took that commitment it was like Samson it was a lifetime dedication to the Lord and that's what nazir means it literally means one who is dedicated similar to sanctification which means set apart we are set apart for the glory of God we are dedicated and consecrated to him so we're going to look at some of the people in history who were Nazir's as well as the Torah prescription for an se air and then apply it to our own lives today the Torah portion covers numbers 4 verse 21 through 7 verse 89 but the prescription for the nazir vow is what we're mainly going to focus on so that is found in chapter 6 verses 1 through 21 now inseparable mid bar 613 it says this is the law of the Nazarite when the days of his Nazarite vow are fulfilled he shall bring himself to the door of the oh hell moet the oh hell is tenth moet you know what the modes are that's a very common word in Hebrew which means they appointed he has more deem which are his appointed times the oh hell no ed is his appointed place this is where he chose to dwell in the midst of the children of Israel and that's the Hebrew name for the tent of meeting the law of the Nazir in parsha naso describes how one should behave while taking this vow the Nazir is a person who takes a vow to separate himself from material pleasures then Azir may not drink wine or cut his hair or even eat anything that comes from a grave behnazir is also prohibited in defilement through contact with a dead body you know when at Passover time we put all leaven out of our house the principle is because of its fermentation it's like pride that puffeth up something fermentation in grapes does the same thing so this is a similar principle with the bread but it's doing without the the fermentation which comes actually from something decaying it's actually going to from its perfect state the way God created it to a state of decay so when you drink something fermented you're drinking it in that process of rotting or dying so we look at different aspects of how God when we're set apart for him desires for us to have life and have it as Yeshua said more abundantly and all of the principles are about life and it's starting to move away from death principles of death now in the past certain things that associated with death were okay whether it's a dead taking care of a dead body or eating a dead animal but from the beginning it was not so grapes were perfect the diet for man was every green thing every fruit bearing seed after its kind and every herb bearing seed after his kind why because this absorbed the light of the Sun and it was food for light beans and so there's this principle as you dedicate yourself similarly not to eat anything that is decayed and this is why you shoe it would not take that vinegar which was like balsamic vinegar if you will it came from a grape and it was fermented even to dull his pain on the cross you see him rejecting that so all of these things that are prohibited in the nazarova want you to think about the principle why does God ask us to abstain from these things it's not because he's arbitrary and it's not because he likes to create rules and restrictions it's because he's leading us from death in sin to life and life more abundantly and we have to start meditating on these principles and then applying them and living them out so an as ear could not eat grapes during the time of his vow or anything from a grape and you couldn't come in contact with a dead body and the purpose of this removal from material Affairs is to encourage greater devotion to the Lord and to Torah the Torah does not specify the period for which a person has to commit oneself to being a nazir but as we mentioned the minimum would be 30 days and the maximum would be a lifetime in practice the period of time is discretionary a person might vow to be a nazir for a year or for a number of years however 30 days is the minimum period for which a period may vow to be for which a person may fail to be an se-r if a person vows to be a Nessy heir and does not specify the period for which he and the vowel will be enforced then it's automatically 30 days it's the minimum because the Lord never wants to overburden somebody beyond what they can handle so in numbers chapter 6 verse one will read the prescription originally given to mo say for the children of Israel when they take this vow and I have written down for you on your screen the passage with a few Hebrew words placed in there to introduce you to mark Hebrew but in the parenthesis I have the English meaning so if you don't understand I will also explain what it means Hashem just means the name instead of using God's name in vain and regular common language because everything that's holy is set apart from that which is common we just refer to the Holy One of Israel as Hashem and Hashem spoke to Moses saying speak unto the B'nai Israel these are the children of Israel and say to them when either an itch or an ISA shall separate themselves issues a man he SH as a woman so this means this vow can be taken by a woman like mini-tour omits vote a lot of times you only see men taking on this prescription for themselves like the TEFL lean or zine seat in Israel you'll see mostly men doing these things but it's interesting that God for soft uses the same exact word that he uses for wearing tzitzit and for all of these other things he says speak unto B'nai Israel Bonet means children in general men and women alike and then he specifies just so there's no misunderstanding even a woman can take this vow whenever they choose to take this vow of a Nazirite themselves to Hashem he or she shall separate themselves from yawn yawn is wine fermented wine and Shahar fermented drink and shall drink no hummus this is the vinegar of yah an of the grape or whole mess of Shahar anything fermented of that's like strong drink neither shall he drink any grape juice nor moist grapes or dried raisins coli a meme of his Nazir all of them that vow as an as ear shall eat nothing that is made of the vine Geffen Heian from the seeds even to the grape skins Kohei ameen of the nadir of his Nazir there shall be no razor upon his head until how you mean be fulfilled until the days be fulfilled a Yom is a day so when you're saying ha which is the young theme is plural so the days that you've prescribed for your vow until it's fulfilled the time in which he has separated himself from the world and from others to Hashem he shall be Kadosh holy and during that holy period he shall let the locks of his hair grow just like Jeff looking so good with his locks getting longer Cole hi ma of his separation until Hashem he shall go not near the fish met mode is word for death and the fish is a soul so literally insane and remember animals even have an affair it's interesting but mainly this prescription was for human death you were to not bury your family members you were not supposed to touch a corpse so even though it's seen a fish met in general this means trying to stay away from all death as much as possible but especially humans bodies he shall not make himself Tom may this means unclean for his off whose an off we get to word Abba from off so this means even if his father dies don't make yourself unclean even to bury your father or for his mmm we say Iman and ABBA Nina's mother for his mock we say Aki my brother this is a brother or for his opcode when they die because the Nazaire Aloha the consecration to his God is upon his head kolya may of his Nazir he is Kadosh for the whole time of his separation he is holy to the Lord and if any man died suddenly even right beside him and he has made - may the head of his Nazir all sudden a person has a heart attack beside him the guy didn't intend to touch a dead body but let's say accidentally it's basically saying that he's become unclean during the time of his consecration then the Nezzer of I was over if he makes himself unclean during that period he has to go and publicly shave his head yes Michael anyone who's taken a vow from all 12 tribes correct and some of them might congregate together in a place and it might become known for the nez ears in its place like Nazaret the place for the nez ear which is interesting because this is where you show us been most of his young days right so there was no prophets that were prophesied to come from Nazarene but there were prophets that were prophesied to come from Bethlehem so they just didn't expect that this person would come with such power and anointing of the Lord from this place and if any man it says died suddenly by him and he hath made - may the head of his Naseer then he shall shave his head in the day the yom of his horrid on the day Hacha VIII shall he shave it and on the day he shall bring two doves or two young pigeons to the Kohen the priests to the entrance of the old helm oh ed the tent of meeting and the cohen shall offer the one for a hot tot in off cinema which is a sin-offering head is the grill word for sin and the other for an old law which is a burnt offering and make kaepora a covering for him because he's sinned by the nafech from the dead body and she'll make Kadosh his head that same day so to make it holy again Kadosh and he shall consecrate unto Hashem the days of his Nazir and shall bring a lamb of the first year for enough sharm and the sharm is the trespass offering so you're seeing all five of these different kinds of offering being implemented in the process of being cleansed after his vow was broken yes Daniel [Music] you know exactly now what's interesting in the case of Samson is you see that he touched the jawbone of a donkey but he slew how many men of the Philistines thousands but it says also that the Spirit of the Lord came on him to do this so in Samson's case we could see areas that seemed like he broke them as your vow but nowhere does it say he drank anything from grapes even though he was a part of some feasts it doesn't say specifically that he drank and then these dead bodies were always touched when the Spirit of the Lord came on him much like what's gonna happen in the age of mashiac when he comes down and it says bloods gonna splatter on his white garments the Spirit of the Lord is upon him and he's protecting God's people so he is a type and he's doing this in the spirit of the Lord and then what's the third prohibition while you've taken as your vow remember what it is you shall not shave your hair so Samson didn't shave his own head you're not supposed to shave your own head while you're taking this vow he was foolish enough to trust a woman with the secret of his strength and she had a Philistine come and cut his hair but that doesn't mean he broke his vow so this is really interesting to look closer at the story of Samson which we'll do in a little bit that's right he lost his spiritual strength yes so what's interesting is that Samson it is said through our oral tradition was not the big muscular man that you think in your mind his anointing was from the Lord and his strength was supernatural and so this came about as long as he observed then Azir vow and this is what we're gonna look at for ourselves as we apply some of the principles of the nazir in a little bit it says he shall offer his sacrifices his Corbyn to Hashem one he Lamb of the first year Tamim which means pure without blemish for enola offering and one ewe lamb of the first year Tamia pure for a ha ha a sin offering and one Ram Tamim pure without blemish for a shelamim frame which is a peace offering and a basket of matzah also they don't have any fermentation from that yeast case of fine flour mixed with Shimon and wafers of matzah meishu team which means anointed with this olive oil a lot of times had frankincense in it and their Minko offering the grain offering and their ney sucking their drink offerings so here's all the different kinds of offerings that were brought to the temple that the nazir had to offer when the time of his vow was ended or when it was broken and the Kohen shall bring them before Hashem and she'll offer his patate sin-offering and his Ola burnt offering and he shall offer the RAM as a zavasta a meme a sacrifice of peace to hashem with the basket of matzah the cohen shall offer also his Minka offering and his Nisa drink offering and then a0 shall shave the head his own head and we see this mentioned in acts 21 as well as acts 18 at the entrance of the tent of meeting the oh hell no ed and she'll take the hair of the head of his Nazir and then he puts it in the fire as a part of the sacrifice so even his hair was used as a part which is under the save Akash shelamim so you would take that peace offering that's burning and put the hair underneath it and it would go up in smoke before the Lord and the Cohen shall take the boiled shoulder of the RAM and one challah matzah a loaf of matzah out of the basket and one unleavened wafer and she'll put them upon the hands of the Nazir after the hair of his consecration is shaven and the Kohen shall wave them for a wave offering before Hashem this is kodesh holy for the colon with the breasts of the wave offering and the thigh of the terumah offering so here's the sixth type of offering that rumah was the offering that the priests could eat it came from the thigh of the animal so he would offer it to the Lord but then the Lord kind of gave it back to him so that he could use it for his own sustenance it was called the true 'mobile IFTA DUP offering it's kind of like saying this is for you father and thank you for letting me partake in this offering as well and after that the nez ear made drink yawn if he's not taking the vow anymore he can then drink the grape juice this is the turok-han Azir toraat means instruction just like torah for the nez ear who has vowed and all of his Corbyn unto hashem for his nazir separation in addition to whatever else his hand shall afford according to the nadir the vow which he had vowed so he must do after the Torah of the nazir so this is the instruction for a person who has taken this vow and as we mentioned there's some people that take it for a short period of time and others who are anointed with this separation as holy to the Lord dedicated to him for a whole lifetime so we see it has five features its voluntary which God always gives the freedom of choice he never forces someone to dedicate themselves to him it can be done by a man or a woman it has a specific time frame it has specific requirements and restrictions and at its conclusion a sacrifice is offered in the Hebrew Bible Ana's ear is one who voluntarily took a vow which we just read prescribed in number 6 1 through 21 a Nazarite comes from the Hebrew word Nazir meaning consecrated or separated so these people in Nazareth had separated themselves out people who desired to be dead totally dedicated to the Lord and so they became known as Nazareth and as we mentioned this vowel requires the person to abstain from alcohol from grapes from cutting the hair and from not becoming ritually impure by contact with death this week's haftorah in judges 13 we're gonna read verses 2 through 25 describes the birth of Samson as a lifetime Naza in an appropriate hop torah for this week's reading because it discusses all of these laws of the Nazareth so verse 2 says there was a certain man of Zorah he was from the tribe of Dan and Dan means judge now we're talking about the period of judges before there was ever a king in Israel and Samson is the twelfth judge over Israel well Manoah is his father and his wife is barren she has not been able to have any children and what you're gonna find is a lot of people that have been either miraculously born have taken this Nazarite vow their mothers have been barren and the angel of the Lord appears to the woman and says to her behold now you are barren and you have borne no children but you shall conceive and give birth to a son this is very similar to Gabriel coming and sharing with Mary that she was going to have a son now therefore be careful not to drink wine or strong drink yayan nor eat anything unclean for behold you shall conceive and give birth to a son and no razor shall come upon his head for the boy shall be a Nazarite to God from the womb and he shall begin to deliver Israel from the hands of the Philistines so here's another correlation with Joshua not only is there gonna be a miracle for him to be born an angel prophesized that he's gonna be born in advance and then he's told that he will be a savior or a deliverer for Israel in the days of the judges and specifically Samson's time period it was the Philistines who were oppressing Israel now every time Israel would enter into holiness with yah God would give them a type of deliver a righteous judge who would then in the oppression of whatever marauding group was attacking them at the time it might be the amorite it might be the Hittites it might be the Philistines and they would have a period of peace under this righteous judge and then when Israel would start to go wayward again the protection the blanket of protection would be lost and all sudden they would get afflicted again and they would cry out for a new judge and so this is the process that's happening here they have gone little wayward and the Philistines have been allowed to oppress them because that's how God works to help us realize that cause and effect of our sins then the woman came and told her husband saying honey a man if God came to me today and his appearance was like the appearance of an angel of God he was awesome and I did not ask him where he came from nor did he tell me so before we go on I'm just gonna pause the story right there because there's a few correlations that we can look at in this principle of the nazir now here's the word for Nazir you've got a noon Zion node and race and from those of you that have taken my Hebrew class you know that Hebrew is a pictorial language as well as a phonetic language and a numerical language in the kamat RIA and each letter has a meaning all its own so who can tell me what the noon means life yeah the payment he brewer looks like a little seed so you could have the principle of life and we read about that even in the prescription for the Nazi R first thing is you should not touch a corpse don't make yourself unclean embrace everything that has to do with life not anything that's fermented or decaying or dying the Zion is actually a cutting tool the Zion and the paleo-hebrew looked like an axe then we could correlate this with not cutting your hair so we should say don't cut and of course tor tells us not to cut our skin also pagans used to cut their skin there's something inherent with life in our hair everything that God has created us is perfect and sometimes we forget them the reason for it we think oh that's useless it doesn't matter just like our tonsils let's just get those tonsils out of there they don't really do anything for you but God's created everything with a purpose when I was in India I learned from certain so-called holy men over there that their hair the reason why they let grow it long is because they feel almost like antennas it's connecting them with Hashem duck there's a certain sensitivity there's a certain connection in the spiritual realm like you can feel closer or more intuitive with longer hair so it's interesting maybe that has something to do with it as you're trying to get closer to the Lord the yo'd the yo'd is the word for yan yan is like Yoda is the letter that becomes why in the Hebrew so Yan why a why I an is wine and we know that it's not supposed to be no lion no wine and then race is the head of a holy person when you're holy unto the Lord you're looked at like a priest or a prince and so this is the princely person the will just say holy because you're acting almost like a prince you become a leader as a nezzie er princely person so you have all of these little principles of the nez ear hidden even within the word which is amazing and there's other people in Scripture that you might not realize were called Nazir because we're reading in the English and the English never translated this the first place in the Torah that we see is in Bereshit chapter 49 in regards to Yaakov blessing for his son Yosef interesting because Yosef son gets the first form blessing and so there's a long blessing longer than almost any of the other sons for Yosef and in verse 26 of Genesis 49 it says Yaakov speaking the blessings of your father he's speaking about himself have surpassed the blessings of my ancestors so he's saying God has blessed me so abundantly son even more than Abraham and Isaac I feel so grateful so blessed up to the utmost bound of the everlasting heels now I'm passing them on to you may they be on the head of Joseph my son and on the crown of the head this Rosh of the one who is not 0 it says but that doesn't get translated in English it just says on the crown of the head of the one who is dedicated or distinguished or set apart we didn't realize until we read it in Hebrew that Yosef was a type of one of the first examples of a Nazir among his brothers so here I put it in Hebrew for you and you can see Joseph's name Yosef starts with the yo'd Yosef Laocoon and then not zero here's the exact word right here ah King amongst his brothers so Yosef is Ana's here now it makes sense because Yosef mother was barren it's kind of like he was the first miraculous birth through a Barren womb and he was blessed with wisdom and became a great leader and he had the gift of prophecy he dreamed dreams that told the future so notice these principles that are starting to take place with a prophet and a leader and one who is set apart to God and God blesses another example that you might not have realized is samuel the prophet samuel was a lifetime Naseer remember his mother Hannah was barren and what did she promise the Lord if you just give me a son I will dedicate him I will not see him to you and that's the literal verbage he was dedicated from his youth when she dropped him off at the temple and he learned under the tutelage of the prophet and priest eli samuel the great prophet and leader of the Jewish people was Anna's right from birth his mother Hana had not initially been blessed with children and prayed with all her heart at the tabernacle at this time the tabernacle was in Shiloh for those of you that have traveled there with me you can see the outline of where the tabernacle once stood in Shiloh Israel to this day and it stood there for 369 years and so she came to the tabernacle and at this time Eli was the high priest and she prayed at the door so fervently that Eli when he heard her he thought woman are you drunk what's going on here you know she's just pouring her heart out to the Lord and she said if you will give your bonds woman your servant a man child I shall give him dedicate him to out an eye all the days of his life and no razor shall come upon his head she knew what she was saying she wasn't just using loose verbage she's saying I'm gonna make him an as ear for a lifetime he's gonna be totally dedicated to you and one of the prescriptions is not cutting your head so she even cludes this in a her prayer to let God know that she understands the depth of what she is vowing this is a serious vow and we all have to realize when we dedicate our lives to the Lord it's a serious thing it's not just because it's convenient or because we don't want to lose out on eternal life you know the tests really come when you dedicate yourself to the Lord and then also in you're tempted to work on Shabbat or you're tempted in some other way and old dedication that you made that old vow comes back to mind and you're like I know I shouldn't do it but then the self up creeps in and you say but and you justify it right or hopefully not hopefully you're on this side and you say no I'm gonna stand for her no matter how inconvenient it is or how much money I seem to lose at the time I'm going to live by faith in Munna and Munna is faithfulness not just believing in God but keeping that vow keeping that yourself dedicated so Samuel went on to lead the people of Israel very faithfully one of the greatest prophets and he acted as a priest and prophet and judge over Israel for the rest of his life appointing King Saul and then King David to be the first Kings over Israel another person in the scriptures who was Anna's ear was Jochen on the immerser John the Baptist now what's interesting is his mother also was barren you know it's funny when I read the scriptures I start to see like Jeff and I was talking about the other day little things popping out and you start to overlay them on one another and you say you know what there's a principle here fathers trying to teach us something different and I think the issue about these amazing men and Nazir's coming from a barren woman is that when you cannot do something in your own power and God does it for you how can you do anything but say father this is all because of you you don't take any credit for yourself you totally recognize that this is a supernatural blessing from Elohim and these women also when you can't do something in your own power it really humbles you and you cry out to the Lord your heart yearns for the father - to make up the lack in one's life and so this lack God allows it a woman to be barren why because it ends up instilling a great humility in them you see Sarah was barren she was one of the most humble of all the women Rivka was barren for a period of time and she had to pray with her husband in the tent it is said for a long period of time this bonded them together while it humbled them so that by the time that jacob and esau were born they've realized this was a gift from god and then of jacob's two wives or four wives if you accountants open villa raquel was barren and Yosef comes through her and he's the nez ear and now we're looking 2000 years ago at Jochen on and Elizabeth was barren she was not having any children and they were old in age like Abraham and Sarah were so this way all the credit goes to the Lord and when they have a child they totally dedicated to him because it's from him that this child came in Luke 1 13 through 15 an angel comes very similar to what happened to Samuels parents and announces the birth of Jochen on John the Baptist and foretells that he shall be great in the sight of the Lord and shall drink neither yon wine nor strong drink and shall be filled with the ruach ha'qodesh even from his mother's womb he would be filled with the spirits of 19 in other words he was dedicated to be a nazir from birth the implication being that John continued to take this vow throughout his life now back to our haftorah about samson now you can see a little parallel there just from the first few verses where it talks about Samson's mother being barren and these other Nazz years throughout history coming from barren women but he said to me she's telling her husband about this angel who's prophesied she'd have a son behold you shall conceive and give birth to a son and now you shall not drink wine or strong drink nor eat any unclean thing so if these people who are supposed to be holy to the Lord lose that holiness in that connection and that power and blessing through eating anything unclean do you think that you want to eat anything unclean even if you're not in Azir do you think that if something abstaining from something draws you closer to the Lord why would you want to bring that into your bodies and separate yourself from hearing the spirit's voice he says that he shall not eat anything unclean for the boy shall be a Nazarite to God from the womb to the day of his death then manoa entreated the Lord and said oh the Lord please let the man of God whom you have sent come to us again that he might teach us what to do for the boy who is to be born God listened to the voice of manoa and the angel of God came again to the woman and as she was sitting in the field but manoa her husband was not with her so the woman ran quickly and told her husband behold the man who came the other day has appeared again to me then manoa arose and followed his wife and when he came to the man he said to him are you the man who spoke to the woman and the angel said I am interesting Manoah said now when your words come to pass what shall be the boys mode of life and his vocation so the angel of the Lord said to Manoa let the woman pay attention to all that I have said so first they have to be instructed even the parents who are gonna raise up a godly child have to follow instruction today we find that instruction in Torah this family was from the tribe of Dan Dan means judge so their son when the father's asking what will it be his vocation he's going to be a judge because God's already instituted that through his tribal lineage verse 14 says she should not eat anything that comes from the vine or drinks trunk drink even while she's pregnant with him nor he any unclean thing let her observe all that I have commanded and this is a prescription for us we must do just like Moses all that the Lord has commanded and just like Samson's parents may we do all that the LORD commanded to receive the blessing that God intends for us then Manoah said to the angel of the lord please let us detain you so that we might prepare for our you a young goat the angel of the Lord said to manoa though you detain me I will not eat your food but if you prepare for an offering then offer it to the Lord very similar to revelation whenever there's an angel that somebody is paying homage to or bowing down to or making an offering to all servants of the Lord say don't do it for me if you're gonna do it do it for the Lord and we should have that same spirit - if somebody says hey great job Baruch Hashem let's Hashem the Holy One of Israel it's not me who did it anything good in me it's constantly acknowledging and giving all things to the Lord from whence they came this says that in verse 16 he would not partake of this burnt offering but wanted manoa to give it to the Lord Manoah said in verse 17 to the angel what is your name and we did a whole nother study on this very enigmatic question what is your name so that when your words come to pass we may honor you but the angel of the Lord said to him why do you ask my name similar to the angel that Yaakov wrestled with what's your name why do you ask my name and then he changed his name the angel of the Lord said why do you ask my name scene it is wonderful he just gives him a little hint very interesting so Mennella took the young goat with the grain offering and offered it on the rock to the Lord and he performed wonders while Manoah and his wife looked on I wonder what those wonders were for it came about when the flame went up from the altar toward heaven that the angel of the Lord all of a sudden went up in the flame of fire from the altar back to heaven when Manoah and his wife saw this they fell on their faces to the ground now the angel of the Lord did not appear to manoa or his wife again so there's nine months now and the woman is growing with child and manu and knew that this that he was the angel of the lord so manoa said to his wife we will surely die for we have seen God but his wife said to him if the Lord had desired to kill us he would have not accepted our burnt offering and grain offering from our hands nor would he have shown us all these things nor would he have let us hear things like this at this time then the woman gave birth to a son and she named him Samson and the child grew up and the Lord blessed him and this passage reminded me of Yeshua when it says and the lad grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men it's the same correlation there and we're gonna draw a little correlation with Yeshua and the possibility that maybe even though scripture doesn't talk about it had that lifetime Naseer vow upon himself this is maybe another rest of the story glimpse at Yeshua and why he did certain things the way he did them and the Spirit of the Lord began to stir him in Minaya Dan between zorah and eshtaol and this is where the haftorah ends at the end of chapter 13 now the story of Samson goes on about his life in chapter 14 and 15 but our Hoth tour parallel about is just enough to teach us something more about the Nazareth ow the haftorah about Samson being in Azir states that this child the angel instructed was to be a lifetime nazir the angel further informed the woman that her son will save the Jewish people from their oppressors and this is the way you schewe is he's come or Messiah who will come to deliver God's people from their oppressors in the last days the haftorah ends with the birth of Samson saying that the lad grew and God blessed him another correlation with Yeshua so the question arises did Joshua inácio Bao he was a prophet and leader like Samuel and Joseph and John all of these were prophets and leaders and they all came from childless mothers just like Mary and like Samson and Angel predicted his birth and he was known as dedicated to the Lord throughout his whole lifetime and he was prophesied in advance as a son who would save Israel and it's recorded that he grew in wisdom and stature and that God blessed him so amazing correlations with Yeshua furthermore there's no proof of him ever breaking a nazia vowel so if we saw that he was touching dead bodies or cutting his hair if there was any scripture that he was drinking fermented wine then we could have a definitive proof that no he couldn't have been an Ezio during that period because he he did not if we had a text that said and what he did or what he didn't do so let's look at some of these three areas of prohibitions for an SEO the first is that they cannot partake of any alcohol fermented from grapes now we know one of his first miracles is turning water into wine but wine in the Hebrew has two different terminologies one the way God created it it's just the crushed grape which is the best and it's not fermented the other is when it starts to decay and it becomes sparkly in the glass actually the Tanakh tells us don't look at it and don't be prone to drinking it when it sparkles in the glass because that's showing those little bubbles of fermentation so first of all you sure didn't drink the wine from grapes but he created it out of the water which is interesting so its source was not even grape so whatever heavenly wine this was that he was drinking it came from water and he is the living water which is beautiful to think about and then of course we have another example at the Passover one might ask well what about at the Passover but notice it never talks about him taking these cups the one cup that it does mention is says he gives it to the disciples and he says I will not partake of this until I partake of it with you in the kingdom so there's enough proof there or illusions that Yeshua was abstaining from these things from grapes no text talks about him cutting his hair and all the depictions of him show him with longer flowing hair how about becoming ritually impure teme with a corpse a dead body we know there's three accounts in the New Testament of yeshua raising the dead the first was the son young son of a woman from a place called nain in israel and do you remember the story I believe it's in Luke 7 somewhere around verse 11 onward you find this account of this woman who was a good righteous woman she lost her husband and you know God is a compassionate God a woman in those days she was taking care of either by her husband or by her sons and so her husband dies and then shortly thereafter her young son dies now we don't know what young means because even in the Torah it refers to Ishmael as a young lad and he's 18 years old at that time so most likely this boy was old enough to provide for his mother but then he dies so they're carrying his coffin through the town and Yeshua just comes he doesn't touch the dead body and what does he do he speaks to the course and he says young man arise and the boy arises and starts talking and then yoshua he's alive gives him back to his mother didn't touch the dead corpse how about another example there was a young lady who passed away and Yeshua was told to come to this town because she was sick before she died and he couldn't make it there in time and when he gets there once again he doesn't touch the dead body but he speaks to it young woman arise and she arises and the town is amazed at this miracle that God has wrought through Yeshua and then of course we have the most famous example of Yeshua raising the dead to life in Nazareth and once again he didn't get there in time to save Lazarus from death I think he knew what he was doing he was allowing this time to take place to build peoples and munna their faith so that when he raised them they knew that God was working through him and they said why didn't you come sooner and they've already wrapped him in the burial wraps and put him in the Sepulcher in the cave where they would bury him and Yeshua doesn't go in and touch the dead body he stands outside and he calls to Lazarus Lazarus come forth once again speaking to the dead body but not defiling himself so many times people without thinking will just quickly say yeah but Yeshua did this Yeshua did that and not realizing there are certain reasons why he was holding himself back from touching now Elisha laid his whole body on the young dead boy that Elijah raised and Elisha had raised young man after he died - you sure didn't operate the same way that Elijah and Elijah did he spoke to the body yes Jeff so in your examples it is really we have to be very careful about how we read scripture mm-hmm and understand what it says because the woman that had the bleeding 12 years has spent everything she had and they say well he she touched him she touched his CC that's right from the him like Armand she listened and read the rest of my issue has said he said your faith has healed you amen it was so as she reached out in faith she was instantly healed before she even touched the CC and he's not made teme remember the long garments you know they would be like a long rectangle with a hole in the center similar to a poncho actually the Israelites that in 1492 came to Central America and to South America they were wearing these long prayer shawls called tefillin and these prayer shawls had Zizi they had elokim around them tassels and then the four corners of your poncho that's where the poncho comes from would have had these blue threads she touched one of those he was low to the ground at that time and just like Jeff says it doesn't make him unpure because she touched it it's not touching the flesh and her faith is what healed her amen so in acts 1818 it's reported also that took a Nazarite vow and after the time of its completion he cut off his hair and then he came back to Jerusalem and offered certain offerings at the temple so that he would be fulfilling the prescription in accordance with the Torah portion the sow it is also recorded that in other sources we know the book of James was written by Yeshua's brother and I love the book of James if you talk about a guy who really spells out faith that works righteousness through obedience it's your shoe's brother yahoo now of course isn't that her name was not James it was Yaakov but that got changed in Europe by King James actually and who was doing the 1611 version of the Bible and wanted a book named after himself but Yaakov it is said was a Nazarite as well that is much of his life as possible he tried to live that Nazarite vow and it is said and recorded that he performed this Nazarite vow with rigorous exactness you can see by the way he writes that he's kind of a perfectionist he know he's gonna he's gonna try to live out this as fully as possible and all the practices enjoined by that rule of life until his death so if you see it in the Torah and you see it in the prophets and in the judges period and you see it in our great leaders and you see it in Yeshua and you see it in his apostles there must be some principles associated with the Nazeri or valve that even if we're not taking a vow and being able to fulfill it to its exact prescription because there's no temple today we can still apply the principles to our lives and I think they would be beneficial so it's just things for everyone to think about because I'm not ever one person to say you need to do this or stop doing this I show you from the Scriptures the principle and then it's your freedom of choice whether you want to receive the blessings by applying it to your life so in closing let's just look at some of the principles that we can apply in our day today the first one is when a person would take this vow whether it was a thirty day Naseer vow or whether it was a lifetime vow they would make a public proclamation by going through a mikvah with witnesses now it's interesting that Yochanan was known for this and helping other people do it and he did this for you schewe as well this is what has become known as baptism but in the ancient mindset it's not just a one-time thing it's something whenever you become unclean you redo and so a mikvah cleansing is very important for us we want to be cleansed and last Shavuot just last week we all went through a mikvah down in the Columbia River which was awesome and we had many new people getting mikvah for the first time which was awesome and so this is a serious commitment this means you're dedicating your life to Hashem and this is why when somebody asked to go through the mikvah we asked them do you realize the depth of wow you are making because the worst thing is to break about to the Lord it would be better Yeshua says if you had never made a vow in the first place than to take a vow and break it so think about this in your lives as far as your dedication and your vow that you've made to the Lord the second is commitment to keep your oath now that you've dedicated oneself you really have to be committed to be totally dedicated to God a couple years ago my youngest son Eliyahu asked daddy can I go through the mikveh and I said are you old enough to understand the full implications of this vow that you're taking it's not just temporary you're dedicating your whole life to God and he said yes dad I want to do this I want to take this dedication and then we know that we all have sincere hearts when we take this dedication but what happens when we're tempted with something that opposes Torah which is God's instruction for us as his covenant people in Elijah's case it was this last week well actually earlier this year he'd started playing baseball but I told him there's gonna come a time just like me when I was young and I used to play soccer that the games they might start being midweek but as you start winning games your team gets up to these championships and they'll start scheduling these games on Shabbat so it's better if you don't even start playing we can play together if you want to play baseball but if you do choose to join the team know that at some point they're gonna ask you to play on Shabbat and you're gonna have to stand for your conviction so his team this year was blessed Elijah is a great sportsman and they won all their games and they became the champions at the end of the year and guess what happened today is his championship game chokes me out because of the dedication he struggled with it he said dad I love baseball my team's counting on me to win these games and yeah I think he honored me by asking me you know to advise him sometimes when were weak we need to come to a brother or sister and say I need help I'm weak in this area and he wanted to really play and yet he's here today because she's hotter he the Sabbath and his vow now leads us to self-control because if we haven't denied the flesh we're not going to be able to control ourselves whether it's diet or whether it's breaking Shabbat or whether it's defiling ourselves in other areas as we get older we have to learn to abstain from unhealthy practices and unclean things and these are all areas that we can apply to our lives on different levels focus is a big part of the Naza Val what was Samson's problem if he kept it as your vow why did he fail so bad in other areas because his focus was not on the spiritual but on the physical and the physical was really attractive to him especially those Philistine ladies they look so pretty with all their danglies and colors and perfumes and he was like okay I know I'm supposed to be in that zere but and so he because focused in the physical realm we will lose sight and in that moment that we lose sight of God we drop our eyes from him we're gonna trip and we're gonna fall and so let's encourage one another and keep our eyes not on each other and all of our faults but on the father because it's through our spiritual insight that we can overcome the physical so Anna's ear needs to have focus and we need focus in our life and then we need to grow remember Samson's mother was instructed before she could instruct her son she had to be instructed what are we doing studying Torah every Shabbat unless we're going to apply to our lives and then share it with others we're going through this process of being instructed in the instruction of our Heavenly Father in the spiritual principles so that we don't just Plateau but we can grow it being spiritual beings once again we don't want to stay in this body this is not our true identity we want to grow in the spirit which is our true identity so we must operate in the spiritual around more and more and that only happens through instruction and righteousness and growth in Torah this is why it says the Sampson crew in wisdom Yeshua grew in wisdom and stature in the sight of God and men and this is my prayer for Eliyahu that you would grow in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men just like your older brother Enoch has and just like you sure did and like your sister Shekinah I'm so proud of you guys so may we all grow if we're all children of y'all and we're all in a process of learning and growing it's just wonderful that we can come together and no matter what our backgrounds or our ages we're encouraging each other in this growth and once you grow into the model that Torah has and molding you into which is the father's character of selfless love then you can operate as a servant leader when you can deny the flesh when you can have self-control when you can stay focused on the spiritual things you've proven you're a good steward of what the father's entrusted you and he says well done thou good and faithful servant let me give you more and he starts entrust me with more responsibilities and more wealth and all the blessings started being restored and you're elevated into a place of servant leadership and never forget that the true model of leadership just like all the good Nazir's is a servant leadership we're there to serve Israel to serve all God's people and so here we're starting to exemplify that model even amongst the Assembly serving one another and brotherly love and in kindness and all of us have different giftings and all of us have different assets and ways that we can bless one another and you know what's amazing in the kingdom of God when we're all giving no one is lacking anything all our needs are met and this is the way it wasn't the first century do you know it talks about the disciples after being imbued with the Holy Spirit on Shavuot and we just went through Shavuot last Sunday what immediately followed everybody gave everything they had it was like a pool let's pull together people let's be an eternal family and whatever the needs are we'll meet it out accordingly that way there wasn't some that were richer than others and there was this amazing equality but this principle can never be applied through government forcing you to give you know through taxation or through somebody else telling you that you need to give it has to be free will it has to be love and that's what happened through the spirits anointing in the first entry is that everybody was led to pull all their resources together and that was the catalyst provided the means for the truth to go out to all the lost sheep of Israel throughout Europe in the last 2,000 years all this knowledge of Yeshua has come about because of those resources that all those people gave together and said let's do this and let's do it big and then they went out all to different countries with those resources and the message of yeshua has just spread like wildfire ever since because of a few faithful let us be a few faithful in these last days as we're seeking to grow in wisdom and in torah as we're seeking to be a bride without spot or blemish ready to receive messiah when he comes there is still a work to be done we need to vindicate God and not the enemy's character of selfless love in our lives and we need to go out and build up this awakening house of Israel to prepare them for not just the last days but to be a bride without spot or blemish once again a kingdom of priests so this is a great example for us today and I hope all of you will join me and I'm proud of each one of you for your spiritual growth and it's such a joy to be together on this journey so with that let's stand and say the blessing over the haftorah because God has given us some rich food today praise to you at an I our God sovereign of the universe rock of all creation righteous one of all generations the faithful God whose word is deed whose every command is just and true for the Torah for the privilege of worship for the prophets and for this Shabbat that you add and I our God have given us for holiness and rest for honor and glory we thank and bless you may your name be blessed forever by every living being praise to you at an eye for the Sabbath and its holiness Abba Father we thank you so much for showing us this amazing model these principles of being a Naseer that we can apply to our lives today and we ask for your rocks anointing and empowerment to strengthen us to stay the course and to be wholly dedicated to you even as a kingdom of priests had on their miter on their turban of salvation the words holiness to the Lord may we be a holy people holy dedicated to you we love you and we thank you for this we thank you for bringing us together and we ask blessings upon the whole assembly not just here but around the world in every area of their life mentally physically spiritually emotionally in their relationships financially bless them father as they seek to be good stewards of what you've entrusted us with for this final work as we are in the final generation and we want your word to go to all the nations so we thank you for this father and we ask your blessing on the remainder of our fellowship and Shabbat and food that we're about to receive and your holy name we pray amen you

Channel: Assembly of Called-Out Believers

Views: 4,013

Rating: 4.9189191 out of 5

Keywords: Torah, Haftarah, Naso, Nazir, Samson, Numbers 6, Judges 13

Id: 4VwGnDIy9vU

Length: 65min 4sec (3904 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 15 2019