The prayer shawls that Jews still wear today date back to instructions given 3,500 years ago. At the end of Numbers 15, God tells Moses that the Israelites should make tassels for the corners of their garments. Why would He want them to do this? God tells Moses that this will remind them of all the mitzvahs that He has given them. This Hebrew word, mitzvahs, is usually rendered as commandments in English translations; mitzvahs were specifically words of instruction so that the people of Israel would live in the way that God had designed them. The mitzvahs were given by the Creator for the benefit of the people He had created.
God told Moses that they were to wear the tassels on the corners of their garments “so that you may remember to do all My [mitzvahs] and be holy to your God.” (Numbers 15:40) Jewish tradition has evolved the garments with tassels on the corners to become shawls for prayer. The design of the tassels and knots symbolically represents the number, 613, the number of mitzvahs that God had given them.
Jewish children throughout the ages would see the tassels dance in the wind with the corners or fringes pulling this way then that. I think that children would find this amusing since the word translated, corners, is also the word translated, wings. They would see adults walking the streets and think of birds flying about their clothing.
Imagine these children hearing the words of Malachi who says “But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings; and you will go forth and frolic like calves from the stall.” (Malachi 4:2) For many of these children, the meaning would be clear: the Messiah, the Sun of Righteousness, would have a garment with corners and tassels that remind us of God’s holiness and God’s desire for us to live as we are designed to live, and those corners of His garment would bring healing.
One of those children grew to be a woman with a bleeding condition. She suffered from this condition for 12 years. She knew that there was healing in His wings and reached out to touch the corner of Jesus’ garment, an act that demonstrated that she recognized Jesus as the Messiah. She was instantly healed. (Matthew 9:20-22; Luke 8:43-48)
There were others. Matthew and Mark each tell us that people “implored Him [Jesus] that they might just touch the fringe of His cloak; and as many as touched it were cured.” (Matthew 9:20; also, Mark 6:56) These people also recognized that Jesus was the Messiah. They understood the tradition that God Himself had initiated, a tradition that is meant to remind people that God is holy and should be obeyed.
In 1739, Charles Wesley published the Christmas carol, Hark! the Herald Angels Sing. The third verse of that hymn includes the words
Hail the heavenly Prince of Peace!
Hail the Sun of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings,
Risen with healing in His wings.
As you sing this song this Christmas, remember the healing of those who identified with the holiness of a God who desires us to live the way He Himself has designed us. The Christ whose birth we remember also said, “He who has my commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.” (John 14:21)
May we all desire the holiness that God Himself desires for us.
(Bible references taken from NASB 1995 version).
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