One of the many specific commands that God gave the ancient Hebrews when He was first shaping them into a unified nation, was the command about their clothing. They were to wear tassels attached to the hem of their robes for a very special reason: 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. . . to obey all my commands and will be consecrated to your God. (Numbers 15:37)

More than a thousand years after this instruction was given to Israel, Jesus of Nazareth was walking in a public area when a woman who had been bleeding for twelve years saw the blue cord on the tassels of his garment, and touched the fringe of his garment and immediately her flow of blood ceased. (Luke 8:43-44)

God had not promised healing from the tassels, but consecration and connection to Himself. For all those many years, His command had stayed buried in the minds of His people so that the very connection that God sought with His people would survive through generations. Jesus’ identity as His son would be recognized by the humblest of His people.

This incident in the New Testament is full of insight into Jesus’ character as well as the power of God’s earlier action in the creation of the unified nation to be His own people. In spite of the wandering away, the turning back; in spite of the times of faithlessness and of exile, the light of faith was never extinguished. Sometimes, the light was very small and hard to find, but it was never lost.

The woman who touched Jesus’ garment was afraid to be discovered, and Jesus’ response, “Who touched my clothes?” shows that the seed planted in the law of God bore fruit in the woman without Jesus even knowing her need. At last Jesus said, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go In peace, and be freed from your suffering.”( Mark 5:34)

For over a thousand years before God presented His son to the world, some souls in Israel retained a Spirit that would waken at the footsteps of Jesus. I believe it happens to us as well. The woman was healed for her lifetime. In the risen Christ we can be healed for eternity.

Love in Him,

Prue