Touching The Hem Of His Garment

Because they were hanging on the four corners of your garment, in full view of everyone including yourself, they would be a constant reminder to walk according to God's Laws.

The Hebrew word we translate as Law, is “halacha”, and it literally means "walk." You see, following God's law is a daily walk, and to stay on His path of righteousness, we all need constant reminding.

Wearing these tassels, to a Jew, is about like you and I, as Christians, walking around wearing a huge Bible hanging on a rope around our necks. How would we behave in public, how would we speak to others, where would we go, if we had that Bible hanging there all the time? Would it matter? Would some things in your life; and some of the attitudes you show to people; and some of the things we say to others, change at all? I dare say that for most Christians, the Bible would be more of an embarrassment, showing to the world that we sometimes get pretty hypocritical. To be sure, our imperfections would be glaring for all to see.

God intended these tassels to be a constant reminder of His Word when he told the Israelites to wear them.

Today, because Jewish people wear western clothes, they keep this law by wearing a four-cornered garment as an undershirt. Even so, Orthodox Jews, and especially the Rabbi, bring the tassels out over their belt so that they can be seen by everyone.

We also find the “tzitziyot”, or tassels, on the corners of the various prayer shawls worn by the Jews as an outer garment, or covering when they pray.

We have one of those prayer shawls here, and I’d like to get Bro. Bruce to come up for a few minutes and help you to see how it’s worn and the purposes it fulfills.

(Now I’m not promoting the use of prayer shawls in the church, or even in your private prayer time. If you want to use one in private, that’s up to you. But we do not live under the Old Testament Law. We live under Grace, so our manner of prayer and customs are quite different. But the things we can learn from it, and how it’s used will be a blessing if we will hear what it teaches.)

When they pray, Jewish men will put these prayer shawls over their heads to shut out the world and be in the presence of God. All that I have seen are white, to represent the purity of heaven; the dwelling place of the Lord. They also have the color blue on them to represent the Holy Spirit. Gold is there to represent the diety of God.

Therefore, praying under the “tallit”, or prayer shawl, is covering yourself with the presence of God. All through the Bible, it can be seen that praying with this prayer shawl surrounding your head was like having your own personal prayer closet.

Some scholars say that this is what Jesus was referring to in Matthew 6:6, when He told us to get into our closet, apart from the people around, and pray in secret to the Lord.

Why did God tell the Jews to use blue thread throughout the making of the tassels and the prayer shawl? Blue had a very special meaning to the Jews in ancient times, because it was hard to come by, very expensive and represented the fact that there is only one God who dwell upon his throne in Heaven, and there is no other God but him.