We are to look for them in communion with God nnd following Christ. Our joy is In the Holy Ghost. "Is any merry, let him sing Psalms." 2. The umlwrn head. The Nazarite was not hie own. Not even the least thing about his person was at his own disposal. He was not allowed to ca.st nway even a thing so easily and painlessly separated as the hair, seemingly of so little consequence, and so quickly growing again. U was just because the hair seemed so little a thing that leaving it unshorn . was so fit for a sign (Matt. v. 36; x. 30). So when we become Christ's we becomo hie altogether. We must be faithful in that which is least. .All of life is for him, though there are many things that, hastily considered, look as little important as the short light hairs clipped from the head. The unshorn head also made a manifest difference in the ttight of men. Abstaining from the vine was only known at the s 1ciul board ; the unshorn head revea!ed the N azarite to every one he met. It wa.~ an unostentatioue challenge and rebuke to the more easy-going multitude. God had accepted the Nazarite, and stamped his acceptance by this simple, impressive regula- tion. 3. The avoidance of the dead. Death was uncleanness (eh. v. 2). The Naze.rite as a consecrated one dare not touch the dead. "Separated for God, in whose presence death and corruption can have no pince, the Nazarite must ever be found in the habitations and society of the living." Not even dead kindred may the Nazarite- man or woman-touch. What a striking reminder in ver. 7 of the requirements of Christ I (Luke xviii. 29, 30). Ho that would please God and rise to higher attain- ments in Divine things must subordinate all human kinship to higher claims. Christ divides the family against itself, and makes a man's foes those of his own household. The nearest kindred may be an obstacle to the regenerate, as still dead in treepneses and sine. "Let the dead bury their dead." A N azarite in the observance of hie vow was ever on the watch against all occasion of uncleanness, for the very least defile- ment compelled a fresh et.art from the beginning. II. REGULATIONS FOR THE RETURN TO ORDINARY LIFE. Thie was to be done in a public, deliberate, and 111cred way. Precisely ordained offerings had to be made before the Nazarite again put razor to hie head or wine to his lips. These offerings doubtless had relation both to the period just expired and the freer life to be presently resumed. There was thanksgiving for the vow successfully observed, atonement for the sin that nevertheless had mingled in it, and something to express his purposes for the future. The freer life wns still to find him a N azarite in heart. To be nearer God for a time and then go nway to a distance, to taste the pleasures of holiness for a season and then go back to pollution, such conduct would hnve made the vow a mockery nnd abomination. We must all be Nazarite in spirit, opposed to the world as resolutely as was the Baptist, but not, like him, fleeing to the wildernesa. Our guide and e::tample is Jesus himself, the holiast of all Nazarites, who kept himself unspotted even at the table of the glutton and wine-bibber. His prayer for us is not that we should be taken out of the world, but kept from the evil.-Y.
EXPOSITION. Tl!E l'RrESTLY DENEDI0TION (vers. 22-27). of blessing was delivered to Aaron himself Ver. 22. -The Lord spake unto llloses. through Moses, as the "person11l" represent- It is a m11ttor of mere conjecture at what ative of the Lord, the mediator of the o!J point of time this command was given. As covenant. ·o voµo,; .. o,arayiic .. ,v xupi it concerned the p1~ests and their daily µi,riro11 (Gal. iii. 19). Our Lord is both the ministration, it would be natural to suppose ?rioses (Acts iii. 22) and the A11ron (Heh. vi. that it was given at the time when the taber- 20) - o µ.1-rirri~ and o apxripulc - of this nacle service was set up, i. e. at the precise dispeneation. point fixed by the first verse of the following Ver. 23.-0n this wise ye ■hall bleH. c;hapter. That the command was given to In Levit. ix. 22 it is recorded that Aaron Moses, and to Moses alone, and that after blessed the people, first by himself from the the consecration of Aaron to the high priest- brazen altar of sacrifice, and afterwards in hood, serves to bring out into cleal' relief the conjunction with Moses, when they came out relative position of the two. Aaron and his of the tabernacle; and that he might so sons alone, as the" official" representatives of bless tho people is mentioned as one object the Lord, could bless in his name and put of his consecration (Deut. xxi. 5 ; and cf. l ,hia n11me upon the people; but the formula Chron. xxiii. 13). Blessing in or with tho, J:: 2 THE DOOK OF NUMBERS. [CH. VI. 22-27.
Jl&me of the Supreme Being was an important mi 10; Ps. :r:n:iv. 16); his face turned upon rart of a.II primitive religion, as appears from man in love and mercy is life and salvation the case of Melchizedec and Abraha.m, of (Ps. .uvii. l ; :r:liv. 3). It is to tho soul of Isaac l!nd his sons, of JBcob and Pha.raoh. man what the bleaae<l sun of heaven is to And this aet of blessing was far from beini; a. his body. And be rraoio111 unto thee. mere expression of good will, or from betng 'E>.ujc,a, c,1, Septuagint. Be kind and bene• a simple prayer; for" without a.ll contradic- ficent to thee : the elfect in and on the soul tion the less is blessed of the grester" (Heb. of the clear shining upon it of the face of vii. 7), i. e. the blessing must be given by one God. who stands nearer to God to one who smnds Ver. 26.-The Lord lift up h1I oollllte. less nea.r. The name of God could not be Jl&llCe upon thee. 'R,rapa, • • To '11"p6c,w,rov used in blessing sa.ve by one who had some aitroii l,ri c,f, Septuagint. Thia clause seems right to such use of it, whether as prophet, to repeat the la.st in a somewhat stronger as ~est, or a.s patriarch. For that name in fonn, as implying more personal and indi- which the blessing was given was not in. vidual attention from the Lord. Bis face <Operative, but was mighty with untold shines upon all that love him, u the sun spiritua.l efficacy where rightly used as the shines wherever no clouds intervene ; but name of blessinu, To Aaron &nd to his SOM his face is lifted up to that soul for which he wa.s now confided this use of the Divine name, that &ll Israel might know &nd might has a more specie.I regard. ~\t 0 ~~ tti?~ 1