devotional post # 2315

Numbers 15:37-41

Num 15:37 Yahveh said to Moses,
Num 15:38 “Speak to the people of Israel, and tell them to make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and to put a cord of blue on the tassel of each corner.
Num 15:39 And it will be a tassel for you to look at and remember all the commandments of Yahveh, to do them, not to follow after your own heart and your own eyes, which you are inclined to prostitute yourselves for.
Num 15:40 So you will remember and do all my commandments, and be holy to your God.
Num 15:41 I am Yahveh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God: I am Yahveh your God.”

distinctive loyalty

In between two stories of rebellion, this instruction about tassels appears. In Jesus’ day, the people assumed that his tassels had power to heal them (Matthew 9:20; 14:26). But apparently the tradition was initiated in order to remind the Israelites that they were to be distinctively loyal to Yahveh.

The blue cords represented the sky, although not part of the original prescription) the tassels came to have four strings, each representing a letter in Yahveh’s name (YHVH). The spaces around the tassels came to be associated with the five books of Moses.

LORD, make us –as a people– distinctive in our loyalty to you.