Friday, June 13, 2014

Being a Nazarite Was not Only not Getting a Haircut

I have heard from some of my friends that when they don’t want to get a haircut, and everyone at church says them to do it because it does not look good and they are not reflecting a good image they say: Why should I cut my hair? Samson never did it, neither Jesus Christ, then why would I do it? And the bishop’s answer or the person’s giving the advice answer is always: Samson and Jesus Christ were Nazarites, that is why they never cut their hair, are you a Nazarite? In that moment they even say they are! But do they really know what being a Nazarite was?
Being a Nazarite was not only not cutting their hair, they had to give their lives to the Lord, every day of their lives was dedicated to the Lord’s work and they had specific things to do while being Nazarites. A few of them were:
o   They had to Separate themelves from wine and strong drink
o   Not drink vinegar if wine or vinegar of strong drink
o   Not drink any liquor of grapes, nor eat moist grapes or dried
o   not eat things made of the vine tree
o   not razor their head
o   offer one he lamb and one ewe lamb of the first year without blemish for a sin offering
All of these things they had to do were commanded by God. So it was not easy to be a Nazarite. Some famous Nazarites of the scriptures were Samson, Samuel, John the Baptist and Jesus Christ.
In these latter days we are not asked to be Nazarites literally, but the Lord has commanded that we have to do everything he asks us to do while living in this Earth and in this time.
We are living different times, when the world is crazier than before and we have to be more alert than those who lived in the first days of the Earth. If we really want to follow God, and to be with him again we have to dedicate our lives to follow him, to do what He asks us to do and to always be willing to obey and accept his word through his prophets.
In Alma 5: 57 we read: “And now I say unto you, all you that are desirous to follow the voice of the good shepherd, come ye out from the wicked, and be ye separate, and touch not their unclean things; and behold, their names shall be blotted out, that the names of the wicked shall not be numbered among the names of the righteous, that the word of God may be fulfilled, which saith: The names of the wicked shall not be mingled with the names of my people;”


Let us all be separate from the wicked, and from those who seek the things of the world. If we want to live with God again, we have to fulfill his commandments. It is sometimes hard, or we might think we can’t, but the Lord has given us the scriptures, the conferences, a living Prophet, and manuals to guide us in our path towards living with him again.

References:
Numbers 6:2-6, 14, 18
 Judges 13:5, 24 
1 Samuel 1:11, 19-20, 28
Luke 1:13-15 
Bible Dictionary “Nazarite” (pg. 737)
Institute Student Manual commentary for Numbers 6:1-21, “What Was a Nazarite?” (pg. 199). 

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