If anyone has ever heard me say that Jesus was not a “NAZARITE,” I was wrong! I thought that I knew all about “Nazarite’s” I knew that they were dedicated to God and that they could not shave their heads (during their dedication period) or drink wine or any strong drink (liquor). Also they couldn’t eat of the vine, or touch a dead body. For years I would get upset every time someone flashed a picture of Jesus with long hair (in front of me) because the Bible says that long hair on a man is a dishonor: “Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him?” 1 Corinthians 11:14. [Like Samson and John the Baptist] Jesus was definitely announced before He was conceived; He was set apart to save (not just Israel, but)  the world entire. He never touched a dead body (remember Lazarus)! And He didn’t [drink] any wine while He was here on earth the first time (even though He changed water into it). He was consecrated to His Father and that is the most outstanding characteristic of a NAZARITE.

There are several things that I didn’t know: first of all, I did not understand that Samson was a [special kind of ] NAZARITE (and so was John the Baptist). Samson was CHOSEN by God (he didn’t make the decision on his own). Samson was not the kind of Nazarite that we see in Numbers chapter 6, where any of the children of Israel could have taken a vow of consecration (the Nazarite vow) to God, at any time and for as long as they chose to be consecrated. Being a Nazarite is comparable to us fasting for a day or a week or a month, and it also parallels our choosing to accept Christ Jesus to be our Savior, as John 3:16 (and many other verses) states. The Nazarite vow, set apart those who chose to take it, because there was a visible change in their appearance (they let their hair grow long because that was one of the stipulations of the vow), but unless they went around saying ‘I’m being a Nazarite for a while,’ they were spectacles (unless observers looked at them and realized that they had made [the vow] to God).  It’s not hard to understand how Jesus was able to say: ‘follow Me’ and men would go wherever He led them. No doubt His hair said to them: I’m consecrated to God; I’m someone special.    

Samson didn’t have a choice (unlike those who took the vow) in the matter, he was a NAZARITE even in his mother's womb (see: Judges 13), Apparently he didn’t like the idea of God deciding what he could and could not do, so he did everything in his power to rebel. You see, Samson wasn’t like those who took the Nazarite vow, they could start and stop whenever they felt like it, but! Samson was chosen by God. In verse five of Judges 13, the angel of the LORD said: “For, lo, thou shalt conceive, and bear a son; and no razor shall come on his head: for the child shall be a Nazarite unto God from the womb: and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines.” Judge 13: 5 (Samson judged Israel for twenty years.)

In the end, God’s will was done even though Samson displeased HIM every chance he got, until the very day he died. John the Baptist freely accepted his task, and (of course) our Savior Christ Jesus was God the Son in the flesh. God selects a few, and many of us volunteer (like the Nazarites), but, whether or not we consecrate ourselves or God sets us apart we have the same goal and that is to please the LORD.

Samuel was not in the class of "NAZARITES" that Samson, John the Baptist and JESUS were in...Samuel's mother dedicated him, she vowed: "And she vowed a vow, and said, O LORD of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget thine handmaid, but wilt give unto thine handmaid a man child, then I will give him unto the LORD all the days of his life, and there shall no rasor come upon his head." 1 Samuel 1:11

Dr. McGee says that Christians can't consecrate themselves. The word: consecrate means: to associate with the sacred. If Dr. McGee is correct (and he is, 99.9% of the time): it appears to me that we can only be "consecrated" through JESUS not by anything that we do or don't do. Exodus 32:29 "For Moses had said, Consecrate yourselves today to the LORD, even every man upon his son, and upon his brother; that he may bestow upon you a blessing this day."