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The fifth part is a double tithe, two tenths. Thus there is a double recognition of sin
against God and against man, even as the whole law is summed up as love to God and
neighbour.
A very special form of trespass follows: "If any man's wife go aside, and commit a
trespass against him" (Numb. 5: 12). The reason why adultery was so severely dealt with
in Israel includes the following:--
(1) It typified the apostacy of the nation from the covenant made with the Lord, the
figure of marriage and its terms being used throughout their history to set forth their
close attachment to the Lord.
(2) In a nation whose laws of inheritance were of so exacting a nature, adultery and
illegitimacy introduce vexing and disturbing elements.
(3) True marriage had in view "a seed of God" (Mal. 2: 15); adultery gave place to the
devil.
Spiritual adultery makes blessing and service hopelessly impossible: "The woman
shall be a curse among her people" (Numb. 5: 27). Defilement and trespass, treated
separately in verses 2-8, are seen to be but two parts of one whole, for in verse 12 the
defilement of the woman is said to be a trespass against her husband.
There now follows the positive side of the lesson: the real, personal, voluntary
separation from all defilement, both natural and moral, unto the Lord, the separation of
the Nazarite. The word Nazarite is simply the Hebrew word nazir, which is translated:
"him that was separated from" in Gen. 49: 26, and Deut. 33: 16. In Numb. 6:
nezer is translated "separation" eleven times, and "consecration" twice. A most
important secondary meaning of nezer is "crown". It is so translated eleven times in the
A.V. We give hereunder those found in the law. When we read these passages it is quite
easy to see how the same word that is translated "separated" and "consecrated",
and which gives us the word "Nazarite", can also mean a "crown":--
"Thou shalt put the mitre upon his head, and put the holy crown upon the mitre"
(Exod. 29: 6).
"And they made the plate of the holy crown of pure gold, and wrote upon it a writing,
like to the engraving of a signet, HOLINESS TO THE LORD" (Exod. 29: 30).
"Upon the mitre, even upon his forefront, did he put the golden plate, the holy crown"
(Lev. 8: 9).
"He that is high priest among his brethren, upon whose head the anointing oil was
poured . . . . . shall not go in to any dead body, nor defile himself for his father, or his
mother: neither shall he go out of the sanctuary, nor profane the sanctuary of his God;
for the crown of the anointing oil of his God is upon him" (Lev. 21: 10-12).
In some measure the Nazarite was separated to God even as was the high priest
himself. The nezer (crown) was not limited to the high priest; it was also used of kings,
e.g., II Sam. 1: 10; II Kings 11: 12, for they also were the Lord's anointed. Samson, too,
the judge and deliverer of Israel, was a Nazarite (Judges 13: 5), and all point forward to
the true Nazarite of God, the Lord Jesus, Who was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate
from sinners (Heb. 7: 26), and Who for our sakes sanctified Himself (John 17: 19).