Num 15:37 - 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, so you will remember all of the commands of the Lord your God; that you may obey them, and not prostitute yourself by going after the lust of your own hearts and eyes.
Introduction
If you turn your Bibles to Numbers 15; unless you've been raised in 1st Century Jewish household, because you'd have this memorised, but since we probably don't...
I can tell you that, to the yoke of all the rabbis, the number one evidence of somebody's salvation was that they were generous.
Remember when Zaccheus came out of the tree, and he said: I'll give half of what I have to the poor? That's all - he didn't say a sinner's prayer; he didn't confess all his sins. He just said: I'm going to get generous; and Jesus said: that's it – today, salvation's come to your house. Generosity was the key to everything really.
Greed was the key to everything not good. Jesus talked about hell 15 times; and all 15 of them were about greed.
He released somebody who was caught in the act of adultery – they actually caught her in the act. He let her go; but He said: there was a rich man that overlooked a poor man - and that guy went to hell.
There was a guy that had a talent, and he got so scared of losing it, that he hoarded it to himself, and he buried it. That guy was cast out in utter darkness; but the thief on the cross was let in.
You can't figure God out. God, but I know this: God honours generous people. He loves a cheerful giver.
Main Message
Numbers 15:37 – And 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, so you will remember all of the commands of the Lord your God; that you may obey them, and not prostitute yourself by going after the lust of your own hearts and eyes.
Then you will remember to obey all of My commands, and will be consecrated to the Lord your God; for I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt to be your God, for I am the Lord your God.
God is commanding the people to sew tassels on the corners of their garments. This is a Tallit, which to a First Century Hebrew person, and to these people, was symbolic of the presence of God.
It was a microcosm of the Holy Veil, which separated the Holy of Holies from the Holy Place.
If you read Exodus 34, it gives the dimensions of how they were supposed to do the curtain, and they had to sew these tassels on the corners. The word for ‘corners’ is ‘Kanaf’ - corners, border, hem, things like that.
It says: you should sew tassels on the corners of your garment. The word for ‘tassels’ is the word ‘Tsit Tsiyot’. You have to sew tsit tsiyot on the kanaf of your garment.
There are five knots in the tassel - one for each Book of the Torah: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.
There are also four spaces between the five knots: one for each letter in the Holy name Yahweh - Yud, He, Vav, He. It was just four letters that didn't even go together phonetically; so the Jews tried to work out how to even say that name, and they quit actually saying it. If they said it, they would cover their heads, because of the reverence of it. It's because God was speaking. This was God's way of life.
So they had five knots: one for each Book of the Torah; and four spaces between each knot: one for each letter of the Holy name Yahweh; so they were ‘tying to themselves’ the word of God, and the name of God.
It takes 613 loops to tie one of these, and there are exactly 613 commands in the Old Testament. So they had: the word of God; the name of God, and the ways of God tied to them.
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