There are times we all mess up and wish we could get a redo. A word we’ve spoken that we wish we could unsay. A decision we’ve made where we wish we could yell “Mulligan” and take a second shot. We wish an undo button existed.
That’s one of the reasons that I like reading about the Nazarite Vow and how God allowed for starting over – getting a redo!
The Old Testament book of Numbers gives information about the Nazarite Vow. Typically, the Nazarite Vow was a voluntary vow that a person took for a limited amount of time. During the vow, the person could not drink wine and could not be in the presence of anything dead. After the vow was completed, the person was again able to drink wine and take part in funerals.
But what if you had made a Nazarite vow, and you ended up accidentally encountering something dead before you completed the vow? What if you were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, and that caused your important vow to be broken unintentionally. What a waste! But maybe God gave a chance for a redo?
Numbers 6:9 indicates that if a person in your presence suddenly died, which would unintentionally break your Nazarite vow, that you were then to shave off your hair and start over. This new beginning allowed you another opportunity to fulfill the vow you had made to the Lord.
While we don’t still take Nazarite vows, the reason I point this out is that I am so glad God gives us the chance to start over – to get that redo! (In fact, with God we get multiple redos!)
Warren Wiersbe says it this way
“Believers today need to realize that no failure need be permanent!”
And Pastor Alexander Whyte from the 1800s said:
“The victorious Christian life is a series of new beginnings.”
I’m so glad that our failures are not permanent and that God gives us new beginnings. Here’s a prayer for all of us who are grateful for redos today:
“Thank you Jesus for the chance to start over, for the truth that no failure needs to be permanent, and that each day with You is a new beginning!”
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Let’s start by thinking about unintentional sin. Sins that I committed that I didn’t mean to, and maybe didn’t even know about. Does God care? Well in that somewhat difficult third book of the Bible – Leviticus – we discover that God gives instructions on this issue. In Leviticus 4:2, God says, “When anyone sins unintentionally…”
