So now, in the present dispensation, we are told "the very hairs of your head are all numbered"--so minute is GOD'S care for His people, so watchful is He over all that affects them. It is beautiful to see the fond love of a young mother as she passes her fingers through the silken locks of her darling child--her treasure and her delight; _but she never counts those hairs_. He only, who is the source of mother-love, does that! And shall not _we_, who are not our own, but bought with a price, _gladly_ render to Him _all_ we are and have--every member of our body, every fibre of our being, every faculty of our mind, all our will-power, and all our love?
HOLINESS TO THE LORD: verses 6-8.
_"All the days that he separateth himself unto the LORD he shall come at no dead body. He shall not make himself unclean for his father, or for his mother, for his brother, or for his sister, when they die; because the consecration of his GOD is upon his head. All the days of his separation he is holy unto the LORD."_
Here we have a most solemn and important prohibition--to refrain from all uncleanness caused by contact with death. Death is the wages of sin: the consecrated one was alike to keep aloof from sin and from its consequences.
No requirement of GOD'S Word is more clear than the command to honour and obey our earthly parents; but even for his father or mother a Nazarite might not _defile_ himself: "he that loveth father or mother more than ME, is not worthy of ME."
But let no young Christian think lightly of the requirements of parents, when these do _not_ conflict with GOD'S written Word. Young Christians are sometimes distressed because their desire to preach the Gospel to the heathen has been opposed by parents: such should be encouraged to _thank_ GOD for the obstacle; and to seek by prayer its removal. When they have learnt to move man through GOD at home, they will be the better prepared to do the same thing in the mission-field. Where there is fitness for the work, the way will probably be made plain after a time of patient waiting.
These verses teach us that mere contact with death is defiling: how vain then is the imagination of the unconverted that by dead works--the best efforts of those who are themselves dead in trespasses and sins--they can render themselves acceptable to GOD! The good works of the unsaved may indeed benefit their fellow-creatures; but until life in CHRIST has been received, they cannot please GOD.
UNWITTING DEFILEMENT: verses 9-12.
_"If any man die very suddenly by him, and he hath defiled the head of his consecration; then he shall shave his head in the day of his cleansing, on the seventh day shall he shave it. And on the eighth day he shall bring two turtles, or two young pigeons, to the priest, to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation: and the priest shall offer the one for a sin-offering, and the other for a burnt-offering, and make an atonement for him, for that he sinned by the dead, and shall hallow his head that same day. And he shall consecrate unto the LORD the days of his separation, and shall bring a lamb of the first year for a trespass-offering: but the days that were before shall be lost, because his separation was defiled."_
A most important truth is here taught--that even unwitting contact with death might bring sin upon the Nazarite. Sometimes we are tempted to excuse ourselves, and to forget the absolute sinfulness of sin, apart altogether from the question of premeditation, or even of consciousness, _at the time_, on our part. The one who became defiled, _was defiled_, whether intentionally or not; GOD'S requirement was absolute, and where not fulfilled the vow was broken; the sin-offering had to be offered, and the service recommenced.