May 23, 2026 - Numbers 6 & Psalm 112

We read Numbers 6 and Psalm 112, then connect the Nazirite vow and Aaron’s blessing to a steady, fearless life that delights in God’s commands even when bad news hits. The fear of the Lord is the common denominator for both delighting in God's commandments and those taking the Nazarite vow as God's people seek to be a people set apart. 

For more information about Compass Bible Church South Valley, visit compassbiblesv.org. Keep reading. Keep growing. God’s Word is a lamp to your feet, and a light to your path. 

Transcript

Welcome And Today’s Date

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to the Lamp and Light Bible Reading Plan, where we are seeking to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength with God's word lighting the way. I'm Josiah Smith, joined by Tyler Sanborn. Today is Saturday, May 23rd, 2026.

Numbers 6 Read Aloud

SPEAKER_00 0:25

Listen intently to God's written word. Number six. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When either a man or woman makes a special vow, the vow of a Nazarite to separate himself to the Lord, he shall separate himself from wine and strong drink. He shall drink no vinegar made from wine or strong drink, and shall not drink any juice of grapes or eat grapes, fresh or dried. All the days of his separation he shall eat nothing that is produced by the grapevine, not even the seeds or the skins. All the days of his vow of separation, no razor shall touch his head. Until the time is completed for which he separates himself to the Lord, he shall be holy. He shall let the locks of his hair head grow long. All the days that he separates himself to the Lord, he shall not go near a dead body, not even for his father or for his mother, for brother or sister. If they die, shall he make himself unclean, because his separation to God is on his head. All the days of his separation he is holy to the Lord. And if any man dies very suddenly beside him, and he defiles his consecrated head, then he shall shave his head on the day of his cleansing. On the seventh day he shall shave it. On the eighth day he shall bring two turtle doves, or two pigeons to the priest to the entrance of the tent of meeting. And the priest shall offer one for a sin offering, and the other for a burnt offering, and make atonement for him, because he sinned by reason of the dead body. And he shall consecrate his head that same day, and separate himself to the Lord for the days of his separation, and bring a male lamb a year old for a guilt offering. But the previous period shall be void, because his separation was defiled. And this is the law for the Nazarite. When the time of his separation has been completed, he shall be brought to the entrance of the tent of meeting, and he shall bring his gift to the Lord, one male lamb a year old, without blemish for a burnt offering, and one ew lamb a year old without blemish as a sin offering, and one ram without blemish as a peace offering, and a basket of unleavened bread, loaves of fine flour mixed with oil, and unleavened wafers smeared with oil, and their grain offering and their drink offerings. And the priest shall bring them before the Lord and offer his sin offering and his burnt offering, and he shall offer the ram as a sacrifice of peace offering to the Lord with a basket of unleavened bread. The priest shall also offer its grain offering and its drink offering, and the Nazarite shall shave his consecrated head at the entrance of the tent of meeting, and shall take their hair from his consecrated head, and put it on the fire that is under the sacrifice of the peace offering. And the priest shall take the shoulder of the ram, when it is boiled, and one unleavened loaf out of the basket, and one unleavened wafer, and shall put them on the hands of the Nazarite, after he has shaved the hair of his consecration, and the priest shall wave them for a wave offering before the Lord. They are a holy portion for the priest, together with the breast that is waved, and the thigh that is contributed, and after that the Nazarite may drink wine. This is the law of the Nazarite. But if he vows an offering to the Lord above his Nazarite vow, as he can afford, in exact accordance with the vow that he takes, then he shall do in addition to the law of the Nazarite.

The Aaronic Blessing Proclaimed

SPEAKER_00 3:33

The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, Thus you shall bless the people of Israel. You shall say to them, The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them.

Psalm 112 Read Aloud

SPEAKER_01 3:56

Psalm one twelve. Praise the Lord. Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in his commandments, his offspring will be mighty in the land, the generation of the upright will be blessed. Wealth and riches are in his house, and his righteousness endures forever. Light dawns in the darkness for the upright. He is gracious, merciful, and righteous. It is well with the man who deals generously and lends, who conducts his affairs with justice, for the righteous will never be moved, he will be remembered forever. He is not afraid of bad news. His heart is firm, trusting in the Lord, his heart is steady, he will not be afraid, until he looks in triumph on his adversaries. He has distributed freely, he has given to the poor, his righteousness endures forever, his horn is exalted in honor. The wicked man sees it and is angry, he gnashes his teeth and melts away. The desire of the wicked will perish.

Why The Nazirite Vow Matters

SPEAKER_00 5:05

Number six details the instructions concerning the Nazarite vow. Now, the Nazarite vow was the highest form of devotion to the Lord, second only to the priest. So the priest and the tribe of Levi, if you remember the ordering and the instructions of where they were to be in relation to the tabernacle and the encampment, they were surrounding, they were the closest to the actual tabernacle. Tabernacle in the center, the tribe of Levi surrounds the tabernacle. And then from there, you've got the other tribes with Judah at the head in uh the north, or I believe it's the east actually. Um, but Judah stands at the head. So the Nazarite vow is again that the second highest devotion, because of course the tribe of Levi is fully devoted to the Lord. So much so that they actually don't have land allotments, uh, they don't have work or compensation outside of their priestly responsibilities. Uh, and so they're the highest form of devotion ultimately to the Lord. That's why even they're kind of compared to the firstborn of Egypt, as God makes that comparison uh of the firstborn of Egypt and says that the tribe of Levi shall be sort of like the firstborn, uh, in that sort of analogous kind of way. Uh, but the Nazarite vow was a sort of free will offering, if you were, uh, to sense, uh to really communicate, I guess, a type of devotion. So even in verse two, speak to the people of Israel and say to them, when either a man or a woman, so this wasn't just men, of course, in the in the priestly roles, that was a role reserved for men, but this vow and this devotion could either be a man or a woman. And when they make a special vow, the vow of the Nazarite, to separate himself to the Lord. So that was kind of the purpose. It was to show a sense of greater devotion. It was a sense of wanting to, again, out of just the abundance of the heart, this wasn't commanded. This wasn't something that was required of Israel. But someone that wanted to express a deeper level of devotion to the Lord could make this vow. And what came with this vow was a set, honestly, of higher expectations. So you can see sort of a parallel here to the qualifications for the office of elder in the New Testament in a different way, of course. Uh, but the office of elder comes with it qualifications, requirements, and a sense of a higher standard. That's why James even says, not many of you should be teachers because you'll be judged with with greater strictness, with greater harshness. And so we can see some parallels there between the Nazareth vow and you know, let's say the the office of elder, bishop, overseer that we see in the New Testament. Uh, but they weren't supposed to drink wine or strong drink. Uh, so again, the implication here is that wine and strong drink or alcoholic beverages of some some variety were were not forbidden for the people of Israel, but they were forbidden for those who took this vow. There was a higher level of expectation, and they were not uh to drink wine or strong drink. In fact, they weren't really to do anything with grapes. It says not the seeds, uh, none of it, right? No raisins. No, it says no no juice of grapes or eat grapes, fresh or dried, right? I don't even like raisins, so I wouldn't have a problem with that. Neither do I if I was a Nazarite, I'd be happy. Um, but even this, all the days of his separation, he shall eat nothing that is produced by the grapevine, not even the seeds or the skins. So there was this sense of that this full devotion to the Lord required even a furthering, a distancing from something that could potentially lead to drunkenness. I mean, that's the that's the idea, right? Is why grapes? Why wine? Why strong drink? Well, because those things, obviously, while in and of themselves aren't sinful and they weren't forbidden for the people of Israel, they nevertheless were they kind of left the door open for the sin of drunkenness, which is forbidden. And so someone who had this greater devotion to the Lord was expected to be far away from that, to be above reproach, if you will, to put it in New Testament terms. Uh, and even, of course, the the what they were supposed to do with their hair, not using a razor, uh, how they were supposed to even interact with dead things or dead bodies. Um, and so there's some parallels to this. One of the reasons why it's important to understand the Nazirite vow is because we see other people in the Bible that have taken a Nazirite

Nazirite Examples And Samson’s Failure

SPEAKER_00 9:30

vow. Tell us about those people. Who are who are those people, Tyler, that take this vow?

SPEAKER_01 9:34

A few that come to mind are John the Baptist, uh Samuel, and uh maybe the most famous um in the scriptures is Samson, um that one of the judges, and uh these these three were committed uh by their parents to uh to the Lord in this in this vow, the the Nazarite vow. So uh there are uh a handful of individuals that uh that are setting themselves apart uh or their parents are setting them apart for devotion to the Lord and service to the Lord in this way, um, who who are not uh of the tribe of of Levi.

SPEAKER_00 10:14

Yeah, and so there's some connections there. I mean, even Samson, you you know, like he basically violates all of the all of the stipulations here in Numbers chapter six. He touches dead things, he cuts his hair or Delilah the body. The jawbone, right? Yeah, yeah. He he he basically every every like I think there's drunkenness involved there, drinking of wine. Um Delilah. So for point for point, right? Like he he does what is wicked in the sight of God, even though he's taken this uh Nazarite vow. Now there's some there's some connection to the vow here in number six, to the vows that are talked about in Leviticus 27, the final chapter of Leviticus. So make sure you you you make those connections that both of them, both the vows in Leviticus 27, were primarily financial. They were they were uh you know monetary in nature, uh, or there was property involved. And this has to do with the actually the person themselves. Uh so a person devotes themselves fully to the Lord in service to the Lord. Um, and there was again a higher level of expectation uh that they were to follow and abide by. And so we see that here in Numbers 6.

What God’s Blessing Communicates

SPEAKER_00 11:21

And then, of course, we we end the chapter with Aaron's blessing. Uh the Lord speak to Moses, saying, Speak to Aaron and to his sons, uh, saying, Thus you shall bless the people of Israel. You shall say to them, The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. This is the favor of the Lord. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them. So this is just another blessing that God is sort of pronouncing on the people of Israel, and specifically even to the sons of Aaron, uh, who again are consecrated to the Lord in their priestly duties, who are fully reliant on the Lord for even their food, their livelihood, their housing, all of that. And so this is a blessing for them specifically as well, and representative of the nation as a whole, of the Lord's favor, his divine intervention, his divine care on their behalf. And so we see all of that here in Numbers chapter six.

Delighting In God’s Commands

SPEAKER_01 12:19

Yeah, we as we talk about blessings, Pastor Josiah, we can we can think about the the Beatitudes, we could think about often many psalms that that begin with blessed, blessed is the man who fears the Lord. And uh and for that we we praise the Lord. There is great joy and honor that comes from obedience and and having a right mind and aligning our lives to follow after and glorify the Lord. And the way that we do that as New Testament believers, we we have God's commands in full. We have the full canon of scripture. And I just I have to ask you, PJ, what was the last meal that you truly delighted in? Can you think of it? Yeah, what was one that maybe not the last one, but a meal that that just delighted you? Maybe you were on a vacation, or maybe someone treated you.

SPEAKER_00 13:22

I mean, the one that comes to my mind that's pro perhaps the most recent is just going to Yoitomo and eating sushi. My my wife and I love sushi. So that that was we we did that not too long ago, and uh we have plans to hopefully do that again with some friends, and yeah, it delights my heart. Is sushi.

SPEAKER_01 13:41

Some seafood, uh, some different sauces. Um, yeah, no, the delighting, I just to give us a frame of mind, a high think of a high degree or an extreme pleasure, joy, or satisfaction. Uh that's that is uh what we can use to describe and define uh to delight. And you might think of I mean, that's a delightful person. You might encounter someone, you might have made a new friend, or you might have met someone in the community, you don't know them, they they're a stranger to you, but they're delightful. This this is a person that uh that is joyful to bring that to be around. They provide um just a comfort or pleasure to be around, and there's uh they're attractive in some way. Their personality, the way they speak, what they speak of is pleasing. But as we look at this word, the one who fears the Lord, this person is the one who delights, that finds great satisfaction, extreme pleasure, joy uh in God's commands. And that's how our our psalm begins this morning, and and the the list of things that come after this it are so encouraging. Um this person is is not gonna be moved. This person is not gonna be afraid when bad news comes. This person is gonna have a level head. Um these are things that we should be striving after. We want to be people that are a great light uh in darkness. We want to be a great um a great person that points to the Lord with the way that we speak, with the way that we are interacting, um, the way that we choose to behave in our lives. Why? Um because we want to honor the Lord, we want to praise him and bring honor to his name.

Fear Of The Lord And Steady Courage

SPEAKER_00 15:37

Well, I want you to notice too the the connection you mentioned it when you were first starting talking about Psalm 112, is the fear of the Lord. That's how Psalm 111 ends, verse 10. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and those who practice it have good understanding. And then in Psalm 112, verse 1 praise the Lord, blesses the man who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in his commandment. Now, Proverbs 1. Uh, what does that say? The the the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Fools despise wisdom and instruction. So the fear of the Lord is a huge theme throughout the Old Testament, and fear is this sort of reverential, right understanding of who God is that leads you to worship him and leads you to really understand yourself in light of him and respond appropriately. I mean, that's kind of what fear is. So it's not necessarily uh just this anxiety or this uncertainty as to if whether or not God's gonna harm you or something like that. No, it's it's this reverence, it's this respect, it's a right understanding of who he is, his holiness, and then a response, a right response of a life of worship. And so that's Psalm 112, verse 1 blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in his commandment, and it's that person whose offspring will be mighty in the land, right? The generation of the upright will be blessed, wealth and riches are in his house, and his righteousness endures forever. And I even love in verse 6 and 7 for the righteous will never be moved, he will be remembered forever. He's not afraid of bad news, his heart is firm, trusting in the Lord. This reminded me of uh Proverbs 31, where talking about the the the woman, uh the the woman you know that is fearing the Lord. It says she laughs at the days to come. She has this confidence, she has a confidence in the future, not because she has all of her plans put together, right? So we want to keep James in mind. You know, I'm gonna go to such and such a town and all that kinds of stuff, if the Lord wills, uh, but because she she knows who holds the future. That's the idea. She laughs at the days to come. He is not afraid of bad news. His heart is firm, trusting in the Lord. His heart is steady, he will not be afraid until he looks in triumph on his adversaries. And so that's the kind of person that I desire to be. And that's the kind of people that I desire our church to be made up of. Those who fear the Lord, those who are never going to be moved, those who are not afraid of bad news, because our hearts are firm, trusting in the Lord, and because our hearts are steady, we will not be afraid. We will recognize that Christ is in control. He sits on the throne, that he rules with the scepter of uprightness, that his throne endures forever. All the things that we've seen in Hebrews chapter one, and even in Hebrews chapter three, that we just began studying this past Sunday and will continue to this coming Sunday, is to remember that the warnings really of Israel, as we'll continue to read about in numbers, of their disobedience and their rebellion ultimately against God that led them to not experience the rest that God promised, which was in that context, the land of Canaan. And so we we want to be people that are not afraid, that are not moved. Uh, we are not afraid of bad news because we're firmly trusting in the Lord. Even there, Proverbs 3, 5 and 6. Trust, uh, lean not on your own understanding, right? But but in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your path straight. And so that's the kind of church I desire us to be. Those are the kind of people that I would love for our church to be made up of. And that's someone that I desire to be as well. The righteous person who fears the Lord, who is not afraid, and even the women of our church, they laugh at the days to come because they fear the Lord, and that is worthy to be praised, as it says in Proverbs 31.

Closing Encouragement And Next Steps

SPEAKER_00 19:25

Well, thank you so much for joining us today on the Lamp and Light Bible Reading Podcast. For more information about Compass Bible Church South Valley, visit compass Bible SV.org. Keep reading, keep growing. God's word is a lamp to your feet and a light to your path.