God commanded the people of Israel to make tassels on their garments.
Why do you suppose He did this?
WHY GOD INSTRUCTED US TO MAKE TASSELS
Let’s read the instructions that he gave us before we think more about these interesting tassels on the fringe of God’s people’s garments:
The LORD said to Moses, “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘Throughout the generations to come you are to make tassels on the corners of your garments, with a blue cord on each tassel. You will have these tassels to look at and so you will remember all the commands of the LORD, that you may obey them and not prostitute yourselves by chasing after the lusts of your own hearts and eyes. Then you will remember to obey all my commands and will be consecrated to your God. I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt to be your God. I am the LORD your God.’” (Numbers 15:37-41)
WHY USE THE TASSELS?
At the end of these instructions Our Father says to His people; “I AM the Lord your God.”
He is our Father, He is our friend and He is our Creator; but most of all and above everything else He is our God.
What do you do for your God?
You worship Him of course.
Over and over again we hear God shout down to us; “I AM YOUR GOD.”
Are we listening?
He didn’t say “I’m your magic genie that you give your wish list to every chance you get.” No; that isn’t what God is for.
WHO IS GOD AND HOW SHOULD WE RELATE TO HIM?
Just exactly what IS God for anyway?
Have you ever considered this question?
God is there to be worshiped and adored above all other things, places, events and people.
NOTHING should be higher on your list than God and whatever God desires from you.
GOD ABHORS IDOLATRY
I caught myself during the time off for the holidays simply looking at my grandchildren and adoring them with a passion.
That isn’t wrong of course, that is a natural instinct God built into every grandparent; but it COULD be wrong if I put adoring my grandchildren above worshiping God.
Once I’ve worshiped and adored God with all of my heart, thanked Him for his blessings and committed myself to keeping His will; then I was and am free to love and adore my grandchildren with a godly love, a love that will help them to also love and adore God as they grow and mature.
GOD HATES MATERIALISTIC WAYS
Also a huge part of this past holiday season was spent enjoying the beauty of our home.
I cherish having our houses all decorated and lovingly cared for during every passing season. It is naturally a part of my personality to love the festive way we come to gather around our table and spend family time with one another.
This is all well and good and very pleasing to God; but it is because He is at the center and the hub of all our gatherings. It isn’t all out of balance. He is the reason we love and share love in our home.
If God were not the center; the things I cherished would become sinful for me.
With God and God’s ways involved, they remain special and have honor under His leading and guidance.
GOD IS TO BE HONORED ABOVE ALL ELSE
God is for honoring above all else.
He is for worship above all else.
God is always the reason for all of life; and every season of the year should always evolve around Him and Him alone.
We love because God first loved us.
It is that simple.
Yet; it is that complicated.
GOD FIRST; EVERYTHING ELSE AFTER GOD
If you do not have the proper love for God in your heart; any other loves that you try to manifest will not be the same.
God’s love makes all our other love more powerful, more beautiful and more cherished. He completes us in every way.
He knows this and that is why He has chosen to give us His best ways to live. Years ago I began calling the ten commandments God’s Best Ways to Live; because that is exactly what they are.
HUMANS GET OUT OF BALANCE WITHOUT GOD’S LAW
God also knows our human tendencies.
He understands that we get side-tracked and that we forget what is most important.
By the commandments He gave to Moses; God has given us a way to always remember how to treat Him.
When we keep the commandments we keep the adoration of God in our hearts and it goes out into the world and heals all the brokenness that the enemy of God has manifest.
God wanted to help us to remember. He knew it would especially be hard for those Israelites living out there in that wilderness in that time in which they had to learn the right ways to live and learn how to begin to enter the Promised Land and how to live God’s way.
THE TASSELS HELP US REMEMBER
So God commanded them to wear tassels on their garments.
They were to be reminders that would help them remember God’s ways and keep them on the right track in their daily lives.
These tassels were called tzitzit.
Tzitzit is a Hebrew word that means “fringes” and it refers to the tassels on the corners of the prayer shawls of the Hebrews. Back in the ancient times all garments were of one cloth and the tzitzit was attached to the four corners of the garments.
The eight strings and five knots are a physical representation of the Torah’s 613 mitzvahs. It works like this: Each letter in the Hebrew alphabet has a corresponding numerical value (this is called gematria.) The numerical values of the five letters that comprise the Hebrew word tzitzit add up to 600. Add the eight strings and the five knots of each tassel and the total comes to 613.
Have you heard of the old saying to tie a string around your finger to remember something? That probably originated from the use of the tzitzit to “remember” something. It reminds us to think of God at all times.
Many have wondered if the Catholic versions of praying the rosary is a spin off from the practice of praying with the tzitzit.
ANOTHER TIMELESS COMMANDMENT
The commandment to wear this tzitzit is for all ages.
It isn’t something just for the people on the day that God gave the commandment. Look in Numbers Chapter 37 and read these words:
“Speak to the Israelite people and instruct them to make for themselves fringes on the corners of their garments throughout the ages; let them attach a cord of blue to the fringe at the corner. That shall be your fringe; look at it and recall all the commandments of the LORD and observe them, so that you do not follow your heart and eyes in your lustful urge. Thus you shall be reminded to observe all My commandments and to be holy to your God.”
It is to be a reminder to all ages; and it seems that only the Jewish people today are still observing this custom.
Maybe we should re-examine this?
Perhaps some of us have hidden the commandments inside our hearts and our heart has become the spiritual tzitzit.
EVEN THE HEART NEEDS REMINDING
Even our heart often needs reminders.
Some people have chosen to wear their tzitzit inside their clothing.
You might never see that they are still observing God’s commandment, but they are. It is unnecessary to make a scene or a big show with your obedience. Just wear the reminders under your garments next to your hearts.
God’s commandments were and are of utmost importance.
A VERY SIGNIFICANT GARMENT
So; every garment was to contain these fringes, and each fringe was to have a blue string running through it. They were there to help one remember the commandments of God.
This is all interesting enough in itself; but the theory of the tzitzit and the prayer shawl gets even more interesting.
Almost every story in the Bible seems to relate to these fringes and this blue string running through them in some way.
These tassels and the way they relate to the stories of God help us to see and know how everything is connected under God’s commands.
You cannot touch one thing without touching another in some way.
ALL THINGS OF GOD ARE CONNECTED
In the scriptures of Ruth in Ruth 3:9 the woman named Ruth pulled the prayer shawl of Boaz over her as she lay at his feet on the threshing floor.
The Hebrew translations say she pulled his “wing” over her. This refers to the Hebraic tradition of the prayer shawl that contains the tzitzits.
A male bird will always spread open his wings to cover the female bird during courtship and/or reproduction.
In similar fashion; during a Jewish wedding a male groom will spread open his arms holding out his prayer shawl and then covering the female bride with it, like a male bird uses his wings.
They (the bride and groom) will be enclosed privately together under the prayer shawl. This signifies that he is now taking her into his care.
THEY ARE TOGETHER UNDER THE CHUPPAH
Today Jewish weddings use a chuppah which is a prayer shawl held up by four poles that covers the bride and the groom underneath its shelter.
This is always the symbol of a blood covenant; which is the same that God made with Abraham and His descendants.
When Ruth pulled the prayer shawl over her it was as if she were saying to Boaz; “you are my kinsman redeemer; we should be married.”
By spreading the prayer shawl over Ruth in response he was saying; “You are now under my care.”
We symbolically repeat this story when we believe in Jesus as our Savior.
He becomes our “Kinsman-Redeemer.”
We become a part of The Bride of Christ.
He seals us for protection by the gift of His redeeming blood and the power of The Holy Spirit. It is His covering over us.
WE LIVE ON THE THRESHING FLOOR
This threshing floor where Ruth and Boaz became committed to one another is the same one that King David had bought from Ornan years ago for fifty sheckels of silver.
David had erected an altar on that same spot and worshiped God there.
This place of David’s altar was also the same place where Abraham had committed to sacrifice his son named Isaac to God. It was there, in the very same spot as the threshing floor, that God provided Himself a lamb in the place of Isaac.
This also eventually became the spot where Solomon built a Temple for God.
Later it was the place where Christ was sacrificed on a cross for the sins of all of mankind.
Today, as we walk through the world; we are on a type of threshing floor, a place where we learn the proper worship of God. This is a shadow and type to teach us how to live out God’s best ways.
SHADOWS AND TYPES OF THE FRINGES
If you study the details of the above stories you will also find more shadows and types that relate to the fringes of the prayer shawl and the significance of how these people carried out the ways of God given to them in the commandments.
The fringes being placed in the four corners of the garments remind us that when we become children of God the corners of our hearts and lives must be extended.
Ezekiel 16:8 says: “Now when I passed by you, behold your time was the time of love; and I spread my skirt (garment) over you and covered your nakedness: yes, I swore unto you, and entered into covenant with you, and you became mine.”
This is God speaking to Israel.
It could also be God speaking to Mary at the Annunciation, or even God speaking to you and me as we became members of his family forever.
It is the symbol of the prayer shawl.
The seal of God over His people.
They are covered with the garment that represents his laws and his love for us.
GOD’S LOVE COVERS THE EARTH THROUGH HIS COMMANDMENTS
As God extends the corners of his robe to cover the four corners of the earth; we too must join in with this action.
We must not limit ourselves to our own little section of the earth.
God’s love is too strong and too big not to go out to cover every hill and valley and mountain.
We are to share His good news of salvation to all we meet until it literally “covers” all four corners of the earth.
THE FOUR CORNERS AND THE SEAL OF GOD
Understanding the hem of the garment is very significant in understanding the significance of the tzitzit.
The fringe on the bottom of a person’s garment in ancient times indicated their personality traits and their heritage.
It was like their seal of identity. Each hem was significant and unique and it told a story to the world.
The garment’s hem spoke symbolically of the story of their life. You could tell a lot about a person simply from observing the hem of the garment they wore.
When you cut off the hem of a person’s garment it was as if you cut off a part of them; or as if you took their strength or authority away.
DAVID AND SAUL AND THE HEM OF THE GARMENT
Remember the story of David when he hid in the cave and he cut the hem of Saul’s garment?
Though to most people the cutting of the garment was harmless; it was in fact an act of great significance both to Saul and to David.
It was as if David had taken away part of Saul’s personality and life.
David later regretted taking such an action; though at first he thought it was a clever idea.
To those who knew the symbolism; this was the first indication that David would be given all the authority of Saul as King.
PROPHETS, PRIESTS AND KINGS
We read of the priests of old wearing these garments with the fringes; and we even read of Jesus wearing such a garment.
Jesus used the fringes of the garment as he prayed for the daughter of Jarius when she came back to life. The scriptures say how he spread his garment over her.
When we experience the resurrection to come in the new life we will have in God’s Kingdom; it will be as if Jesus laid his garment over us. This will bring us new life for eternity!
THE END-TIMES SIGNIFICANCE
Several passages of The Revelation speak about the fact that the edges of the garments of Jesus when he returns to earth again will be dipped in blood.
This speaks of the saving power and the atonement of His blood.
It is our COVERING.
He will be wearing such a robe and riding a white horse when he returns as God/King/High Priest of Heaven.
THE BLUE THREAD
The prayer shawls of masters and special teachers called Rabbis contained a purple/blue thread running through them.
The ancient people believed that this purple/blue thread brought about the miracle of healing. This is why we read of the woman with the issue of blood reaching and touching the hem of the garment of Jesus. She wanted very much to be healed.
THE MANTLE
The prayer shawls of the prophets has often been called a “mantle.” Elisha left his prayer shawl or “mantle” as a sign that his life’s work was now complete and he had completed all of the assignments that God had given to him.
I have to think of Jesus leaving the grave cloth behind after the Resurrection; a piece of cloth with four corners; when his life’s work was complete and he had done each assignment that God had given him in order to save mankind.
THE TASSELS TELL THE STORIES
Almost every story of God’s people in the holy scriptures can be related back to God giving this commandment for His people to put tassels on their garments.
God was beginning a story that would bring the world to salvation and eventually eternal life in His Kingdom when He gave this commandment to Moses.
And those people were just like us.
They thought is was just another little nice and symbolic tradition that they could add to their list.
I suspect that they never completely understood the significance or used their prayer garments to their fullest and best ability.
If only they had; and if only we would.
But Jesus did!