What Was Paul's Vow

·         What was Paul's vow in Acts 18:18?
"And Paul after this tarried there yet a good while, and then took his leave of the brethren, and sailed thence into Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila; having shorn his head in Cenchrea: for he had a vow."

This is a very good question because that vow is very important to how Christianity was spread and influenced and how we got several books in the New Testament. Nevertheless, let’s start with the basics first. The vow that Paul is talking about is a Nazarite vow. We know this by the verse where it says that Paul had shorn his head. If you look at the requirements for ending a Nazarite vow, they had to shave their head and the hair was burned as a sacrifice unto the Lord. Please read below:

Numbers 6:13-21

King James Version (KJV)

 ¹³And this is the law of the Nazarite, when the days of his separation are fulfilled, he shall be brought unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation:

 ¹⁴And he shall offer his offering unto the LORD, one he lamb of the first year without blemish for a burnt offering, and one ewe lamb of the first year without blemish for a sin offering, and one ram without blemish for peace offerings,

 ¹⁵And a basket of unleavened bread, cakes of fine flour mingled with oil, and wafers of unleavened bread anointed with oil, and their meat offering, and their drink offerings.

 ¹⁶And the priest shall bring them before the LORD, and shall offer his sin offering, and his burnt offering:

 ¹⁷And he shall offer the ram for a sacrifice of peace offerings unto the LORD, with the basket of unleavened bread: the priest shall offer also his meat offering, and his drink offering.

 ¹⁸And the Nazarite shall shave the head of his separation at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and shall take the hair of the head of his separation, and put it in the fire which is under the sacrifice of the peace offerings.

 ¹⁹And the priest shall take the sodden shoulder of the ram, and one unleavened cake out of the basket, and one unleavened wafer, and shall put them upon the hands of the Nazarite, after the hair of his separation is shaven:

 ²⁰And the priest shall wave them for a wave offering before the LORD: this is holy for the priest, with the wave breast and heave shoulder: and after that, the Nazarite may drink wine.

 ²¹This is the law of the Nazarite who hath vowed, and of his offering unto the LORD for his separation, beside that that his hand shall get: according to the vow which he vowed, so he must do after the law of his separation.

You see a Nazarite had to do some very specific things to be a Nazarite. Please see below:

Numbers 6:2-8

King James Version (KJV)

 ²Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When either man or woman shall separate themselves to vow a vow of a Nazarite, to separate themselves unto the LORD:

 ³He shall separate himself from wine and strong drink, and shall drink no vinegar of wine, or vinegar of strong drink, neither shall he drink any liquor of grapes, nor eat moist grapes, or dried.

 ⁴All the days of his separation shall he eat nothing that is made of the vine tree, from the kernels even to the husk.

 ⁵All the days of the vow of his separation there shall no razor come upon his head: until the days be fulfilled, in the which he separateth himself unto the LORD, he shall be holy, and shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow.

 ⁶All the days that he separateth himself unto the LORD he shall come at no dead body.

 ⁷He 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.

 ⁸All the days of his separation he is holy unto the LORD

Because of their vow, the Nazarite was whole unto God or they were to be doing the Lord’s work. The most famous Nazarite is Samson. In addition, because his hair was cut he no longer was a Nazarite; the Lord left him, and he lost his strength of the Lord. Please read the story in Judges 13-16.

 

Now that we have some background, we can see why Paul’s vow is so important. Paul needed to go back to Jerusalem to fulfill his vow of Nazarite; look again at Numbers 6:21”: according to the vow which he vowed, so he must do after the law of his separation” So Paul must return to Jerusalem and the temple to fulfill his vow. However, Paul is warned several times not to got Jerusalem.

Acts 20:22-23

King James Version (KJV)

 ²²And now, behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there:

 ²³Save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me.

Acts 21:4
And finding disciples, we tarried there seven days: who said to Paul through the Spirit, that he should not go up to Jerusalem.

Acts 21:10-12

King James Version (KJV)

 ¹⁰And as we tarried there many days, there came down from Judaea a certain prophet, named Agabus.

 ¹¹And when he was come unto us, he took Paul's girdle, and bound his own hands and feet, and said, Thus saith the Holy Ghost, So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this girdle, and shall deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.

 ¹²And when we heard these things, both we, and they of that place, besought him not to go up to Jerusalem.

Because of Paul’s vow, he went on to Jerusalem and was put in prison and the rest of the book of Acts is about this experience. However, God used this to help spread the Gospel. Because of Paul’s imprisonment, we got the books of Acts and Luke because Luke was a companion of Paul in prison. Most of Paul’s epistles were written while his was in prison. We would not have over half of the New Testament if Paul had not been put in prison. While in Rome, Paul also helped spread the Gospel. In the book of Acts, it talks about Paul teaching to all who would come hear him.

Acts 28:30-31

King James Version (KJV)

 ³⁰And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house, and received all that came in unto him,

 ³¹Preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man forbidding him.

Now you can see why this vow is so important. We would not have most of the New Testament if Paul had not been compelled to return to Jerusalem to complete his Nazarite Vow. Most likely, he would not have been imprisoned and would have made missionary journeys until he died instead of being forced to reach out to the gentiles through his letters.

Wonderful Illustration

The other day I was in the car listening to some preaching, I heard a wonderful illustration, and I have to share it with you.

There is a Shepherd and he brings his flock to a babbling brook. As some of you who have been with me for a long time and read my series of blogs on the good Shepherd remember, sheep are dumb and are very scared of noise. That is why in the 23 Psalm God says he will lead them by the still waters. A sheep will not drink out of or cross a babbling brook; a sheep will drink out of a muddy hoof print rather than going near good clean water in a babbling brook. The Shepherd knowing this finds a suckling lamb of a leading sheep. He picks it up, lays it on his shoulders, and carries it across the babbling brook. Well, before you know it, the momma sheep was crossing over the babbling brook. Then here comes daddy sheep. Then slowly all the other sheep follow the leader sheep across the babbling book.

One of the hardest things in Christianity is why God allows bad things to happen to His good people. Most people question why, if God is all knowing and all-powerful, why He allows or even causes these things to happen. The only true answer is we must trust God because He is good, that He is doing what is best for us. I also believe with time you can possibly see some of the reasons why God does what he does.

For example, in 1969, I was a young boy, and my mom had a baby, Belinda, and she only lived a few hours. This was very devastating to our little family. I only remember my Daddy crying two times in my life and that was one of them. I remember it being a very hard time because I did not understand and if I tried to ask questions, it made my mother cry. (Which I am sure my mother is doing right now. Sorry mom, please finish the article.) Now, forty years later, I think I have a glimpse of some of the God's reasoning.

First, my sister also had her first child die at birth. My sister was in Tenn. at the time and my parents were here in Houston, but they packed up and were there for my sister and because they had lost a child too, they were able to help my sister in a very special way, because they had been through it. Then our youngest son was born prematurely, and his lungs were not fully developed, just like Belinda. My parents came through then too. They helped with our other children and they were there for us in more ways than I can count. Because of my parent's experience they were able to help their children live through the same thing.

Then there is the above-mentioned illustration. I had never really seen it before until I heard the illustration. You see, the preacher was using that illustration to show why Jesus will take a small child sometimes. You see the Shepherd is Jesus, and the small lamb is a small child. Jesus takes the small lamb to lead the whole flock to him. This is what also happened in my parents' case. The loss of Belinda caused my parents to move closer to Jesus. As in the illustration, my mother moved first, I will have to admit she was one of the biggest influences in my early Christian life. Then my father, and just like the illustration of the sheep, I am sure that there was a lot of influence from my mother. Now over forty years later, most of you do not know this, but my mother is taking seminary courses. She is the co-leader of her church's women's Bible study and teaches all the time. My parents hold a Bible study group in their house every Thursday that my dad helps teach. My dad also helps teach his Sunday school class. You see, now over forty years later, they are working on the flock, just like the illustration shows. Just like Paul says

Romans 8:28

King James Version (KJV)

 28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

I now have a small glimpse of what God's plan was.