I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Numbers 5-6.

Every time I read the regulations for the vow of the Nazirite I feel like there is something left out.  That something is why you would take the vow.  Having read the regulations every year for 8 years now, plus seeing how it was applied on occasion throughout the Old Testament, I have realized that someone would take this vow as a sign of dedication to God.  Usually, they would be dedicating some act, or period of time, in their life to God.  For example, the men the Apostle Paul accompanied to the Temple to fulfill their vow when he was arrested had almost certainly taken a vow of the Nazirite.  And the men who vowed to kill kill him had also probably taken the vow of the Nazirite.  I feel that we have lost something as a society that we no longer dedicate ourselves to God, either for certain periods of time or for an entire lifetime.  There are still those who do so, but they are less common, and even those, for the most part, seem to have less of an understanding of the solemnity of it than those of the past.  I am sure that there exist some who take such vows with the appropriate solemnity, but as a society we have lost the fear of God which normally brings it about.