Lamentations 4:7

THE NAZARITES

‘Her Nazarites were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk.’

Lamentations 4:7

I. The Ideal.—The wealth of a great people consists not so much in its material possessions, but in its children; and happy is the land whose sons can be described in these terms. The Naraite bound himself by a solemn vow, either for life or for a prescribed period, to abstain from the juice of the vine, from contact with death, and from all uncleanness. The unshorn locks and strength of a Samson, the beneficent ministry of a Samuel, the austere purity of James, the leader of the church at Jerusalem, give us three different view points of the Nazarite.

II. Our Lord.—There is always a fancination in the conception of one whose heart is pure as snow, and his life white as milk; and what was set forth in outward type in the Old Testament is presented as a possibility in the New. The Lord Jesus alone has perfectly realised the ideal.

III. Ourselves.—“Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.” “They have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” “The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin.” The only clue to the attainment of this ideal is to give yourself wholly to God, to ask Him to form Christ in you by the Holy Spirit, and daily to meet temptation in His strength and purity. It may not be possible in such a world to be innocent, but you may be pure as flame and chaste as snow.

Illustration

‘Calvin supposes that their red colour was a mark and evidence of God’s favour, as in the cases of the Hebrew children recorded in Daniel. “We know that the Nazarites abstained from wine and strong drink: hence abstinence might have lessened somewhat of their ruddiness. For he who is accustomed to drink wine, if he abstains for a time, is apt to grow pale; he will then lose almost all his colour, at least, he will not be so ruddy; nor will there appear in his face and in his members so much vigour as when he took his ordinary support. Jeremiah, in short, teaches us that the blessing of God was conspicuous in the Nazarites, for He wonderfully supported them while they were for a time abstinents.” This necessity of appealing to a possible miracle may itself create a doubt, if Nazarites are here referred to at all. That in such a corrupt state of society as existed, at that period of their history, among the Jews, there were many who assumed the vows of the Nazarite, is doubtful. There is no allusion to the existence even of Nazarites among the people at this time, in either the prophetical or historical books.’