It was the number that they walk when they made a covenant, they would walk a figure eight to signify that every day before now is now gone and all the newness has come. So you had the word of God, you had the name of God, you had the ways of God, you had the grace of God. You had everything attached to you. Also when they tied it properly - I don't know if you can see this but there are eight strands that come off, four on each side and on each side it's three white strands and one blue strand, three white strands and one blue strand. So you have three and one, so you have the nature of God, three in one and it was on both sides, so what they said was is that on both sides of eternity God is still the same. He doesn't change - so they had the word of God, they had the name of God, they had the ways of God, they had the grace of God, they had the nature of God all attached to them, and they would wrap their hands in these tassels. Why? So that they would remember God.
They would remember that God's way brought me from darkness to light. God's way brought me from slavery to freedom. God's way brought me from Egypt to Israel. God's way brought me from slavery to the Promised Land. God's way is the best way for our life; that as gracious as God is and forgiving as He is, you could do anything and get forgiven with a sacrifice. Like I mean they'd just bring a sacrifice and the forgiveness of God has never really been the issue; it's the best life, that God's way is the best way for our life. That way - and they would wrap their hands in it to remind themself. Why would they wrap their hands in it? Because they would do that because we're tactile beings and it's very easy when you're going through your every day life for something to stress you out in a moment, and all of a sudden you abandon everything you believe.
Am I the only one that's ever done that, where in a moment - like do you believe [doctorally, 00.10.21] do you believe that it's proper to be self controlled over your anger? Of course. Has it moved to yoke yet? Hopefully to a certain - but even if it's moved to yoke, if someone presses the right button, am I the only one that's ever abandoned everything I believe and just blew up? So they would have these tassels to help keep them from doing that, so any time before they sinned with their hands, specifically sexual sin, what did they have to do? They had to unwrap God. They had to unwrap God and so in other words it's not that they didn't have God, it's just they chose to step away from His tassels. There are all kinds of imagery to that so you've got tallit, you've got kanaf. The word kanaf is the word corners, so they had to sew tassels on the corner of their garment. The word [tzitziyot 00.11.23] is the word tassels, so you had tallit, kanaf - now the word kanaf meant corners, borders, hem or over time it started to mean wings. It started to mean wings.
The reason is is because when they would bless people they would - let me just show you real quick, when they would bless people how kanaf started to mean wings. [Unclear 00.12.02] you see how that started to mean wings, so there was all kinds of this cool imagery around this. Like under the shadow of His wings, it means under the word of God, the name of God, the ways of God, the grace of God and the nature of God. Has anybody ever heard of going into your prayer closet? This is what they do. They would place themself underneath the authority of the name of God, the word of God, the ways of God, the grace of God and the nature of God. Remember there was this one place where Saul was chasing a guy named David. He was chasing - he was trying to kill him, and it says that Saul went in to use the toilet. He went in to use the bathroom. The actual Hebrew there is he went in to cover his feet - which is disgusting. I guess you'll get that in a second [laughter] so he goes in to cover his feet, and it says that David sneaks up behind him and he cuts off the corner of his garment.