"Speak unto the children of Israel, and bid them that they make them fringes in the borders of their garments throughout their generations, and that they put upon the fringe of the borders a ribband of blue:" Num. 15:38
In the old testament the children of Israel were instructed to do many things: sacrifice animals, write the commandments of God upon their door post, and even have days where they didn't say a single word except for the purpose of mourning. Yet, to me the blue fringe is one of the most beautiful instructions found in the pages of the Holy Bible. Paul wrote that these things were done as "a shadow of things to come" (Col. 2:17) and that "whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope." (Rom. 15:4) Therefore let us consider the command of the Lord God that we might find our comfort and hope.
God is a just God and his ways are far above our ways (Isa. 55:9), therefore, he gave us reasons for every commandment; most of which were "that ye may remember, and do all my commandments, and be holy unto your God" (Num. 15:40). You see "the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth;"(Gen. 8:21). We fight against the spirit and direction of God. We wrestle with our knowledge of good and evil, a knowledge that God has written on the tables of our hearts (Jer. 31:33). We continually devise ways to try and conveniently forget that God demands "that we should be holy and without blame before him in love" (Eph. 1:4). For this cause God ordained ways to help us remember, and as Paul so perfectly stated, be "without excuse" (Rom. 1:20). This was precisely the reason for the addition of a simple blue fringe.
"And it shall be unto you for a fringe, that ye may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of the LORD, and do them; and that ye seek not after your own heart and your own eyes, after which ye use to go a whoring: That ye may remember, and do all my commandments, and be holy unto your God." (Num. 15:39-40)
We might think that in our lives today we do not put blue fringes around our garments, but we do. You see, the fringe wasn't for color, or to make a drab piece of clothing brighter. God instructed this for the sole purpose that every time they took a step, every time they moved, they would see the blue and know that they were a separated people holy unto God. They were His and not their own. It was for a sparkling allegory that just as their clothes were different from the rest of the world's, so too were their bodies. The blue fringe continually reminded them not to seek their own ways but seek the ways of God. Today, our fringes come in many shapes, colors, and sizes. When someone comes to a godly woman and asks why she dresses the way she does, or perhaps when someone is at work and is questioned as to why they ask grace before they eat, or maybe when someone notices the look of "peace that passeth all understanding" (Phil. 4:7) . . . take note Christians, your fringe is showing. |
