Movement Four: Tassels

I'm an accountant, so today we start in what should be my "favorite" book in the Bible.

Numbers 15: 38 – 40

What did God have the people do? – Tassels on clothing
Why? – Visual Reminder
What types of visual reminders can we use to daily remind us that God is with us?

The ancient rabbis knew the power of visual reminders. The tassel they used was most likely a shawl type piece of clothing.

1 Samuel 24:4

What did David do? – Cut off Saul’s tassel
Why did David do this? – He visual made a statement; Saul not longer remembered God.

Malachi 4:2
What will this person talked about in Malachi do? – Have healing in his wings
Who is Malachi talking about? – Jesus, the Sun of righteousness.

The word for “wings” is kanaf, which is the same word used in Numbers for the “edge of the garment.” People in Jesus day knew the Torah and abided by it, so Jesus would have word one of these garments because he was a Torah-observant Jewish rabbi.

Luke 8: 43 – 38
Why did the woman touch His clothes? – She believed the prophecy in Malachi.
What does Jesus say to the woman? – Go in peace.

The word Jesus would have used in Hebrew is shalom. Shalom is one of those words that do not have a direct translation to English. It means more than simply peace. Many of us understand peace to be the absence of conflict. Shalom is far more than absence of conflict; it’s the presence of the goodness of God, the presence of wholeness and completeness.

So when Jesus tells the woman to go in peace, He is place the blessing of God on all of her, not just her physical body. Jesus blesses her with God’s presence on her entire body. This is because for Jesus, salvation is holistic in nature; for Jesus, being saved or reconciled to God involves far more than saving our physical bodies or our souls. God’s desire is for us to live in harmony with Him, body, soul, spirit, mind, emotions, and every inch of our being.

For Jesus, salvation is far more than a transaction; humans are guilty with sin and Jesus died for those sins. Salvation is more comprehensive – it is a way of life. To be saved is to enter a totally new way of living in harmony with God. Salvation is living more and more in harmony with God; a process that will go on forever.

From the legal-transaction perspective, the point of the cross becomes what has been done for us. Yes, there is the once-and-for-all work of Jesus dying on the cross. No more has to be offered or sacrificed. Jesus’ death perfectly satisfies God. Let’s alter the phrase. Instead of saying that the point of the cross if what is done for us; let’s say the work of the cross in us. There is an ongoing need to return to the cross to be reminded of our dependence on God. There is healing we need from the cross every single day, which leads to forgiveness.

The point of the cross is not forgiveness. Forgiveness leads to something much bigger: restoration. God wants to make us into the people we were originally created to be. Jesus constantly teaches us to become the kind of people who are generous, loving, and compassionate. The goal isn’t not to sin. Our purpose is to increase the shalom of this world. It’s not about what you don’t do. The point is to become more and more the kind of people God has had in mind since we have been created.

John 5:24 – At what point do we pass into eternal life and avoid condemnation? - The moment of belief

Jesus is not the ticket to heaven. We already cross from death to life at belief. Jesus' message was to teach us how to live today. We need a God for now, we need healing now, and we need help now. Salvation is now.

Ephesians 1:10 – What did Paul say here? – All things restored through Christ.

Salvation is the entire universe being brought back to harmony with its Creator. Yes, we can invite Jesus into our hearts, but salvation does not stop there. We are able to join a movement to restore all creation. This is God’s desire. He told us to spread the good news to all nations, to the ends of the earth. God wants all peoples restored to Him. This is what Jesus accomplishes on the cross. Restoration. It’s one thing to be saved and to believe in Jesus. It’s quite another thing to be restored.

Salvation is for all parts of us. Some of us have massive areas in our lives that have been unaffected by salvation. Jesus wants to restore and heal these parts of our soul.

Here’s an example from my life. When I was in high school, I was short and unpopular. I thought I will make good grades to go to college, where I will finally get taller and be able to do something with my life. During college, I did get taller, but my aspirations changed. I thought once I get out and get a job, I will be able to make money and be able to make the world a better place. Well, I got out of college and got a job, but then I thought that once I had a family, things would start to fall into place. Well, further down the marriage life, I thought if I really applied myself to the job and made more money, I’d be able to provide better for my wife and provide an education opportunity like I had for baby S. I had issues. Every time I reached a milestone, those issues just got bigger. My issue was success. I thought I just had to try harder or get further down life’s road and then things would happen. I grew up in the American dream, where anything is possible if we push for it hard enough.

John 3:30

What two people are being mentioned by John the Baptist? John and Jesus
What must we do? We must decrease, and He must increase

I was doing things and making plans for "noble kingdom" activity, but I realized that God could be doing noble things using me right here. Right now. Today. This hit me like a ton of bricks landing on my foot. Ouch, but I'm not knocked out. I realized that I had been pushing to succeed, and was trying to do everything for God, instead of letting God work through me. I realized that I don't have to live like this. The Word of God combined with the Spirit, along with other Godly wisdom, opened my eyes and convicted me of my own uselessness, but also made me aware of how much potential I have for God’s use, right now. These issues we have surrounding our souls and our identities will not go away, no matter how much we succeed. They actually become bigger. These issues must be hunted down, identified and dealt with.

We often live under the illusion that when we reach our goals or complete our mission that the issues inside will disappear. Success doesn’t fix anything; we have the same problems, only now, more stress and more problems and more pressure.

There are reasons why we do things. Its often the result of something that is the result of something that is the result of something. We need to go deep into why we do things; we have to be willing to drag it up and give it to Jesus for cleansing.

Jesus wants to heal our souls, to give us the shalom of God, and so we have to stop. We have to slow down. We have to sit still and listen to the Spirit of God. It’s hard to listen to Him while we are bustling around and doing things where we miss out on what God is trying to tell us. We need to heed God’s word and take a Sabbath, and let Jesus heal our souls.