Tassels and Monuments

We have so many laws in the U.S. that we often forget that some absurd things are still on the books. Just north of us in Pennsylvania, there is a law that requires you to stop every mile when driving through a rural part of the state so that you can send up a rocket signal. And if you happen to see a team of skittish horses coming near to the area where your car is located, you must hide your entire car inside of a bush. In Orlando, Florida, parking meters require the same fee for elephants as for cars.

Did anyone eat a piece of candy before church today? If so, it is a good thing we are not in Salem, West Virginia, where it is illegal to eat candy an hour and a half before church. In Hartford, Connecticut, it is illegal to educate your dog. No obedience school for fluffy. And in Michigan, women must get their husbands permission before altering their hairstyle.

We have some crazy laws here in Maryland as well. For example, it is still illegal to wear sleeveless tops unless you are a vagrant. Or maybe it’s wearing sleeveless tops that makes you a vagrant. In Baltimore, it is illegal to take a lion to the movies, however, nothing prohibits it outside of the city limits. It’s still illegal to wash your sink in Baltimore, and cursing is strictly prohibited inside city limits.

In Columbia, it is illegal to put up a clothesline, but you can hang wet clothes on your fence. It is also illegal to have an exposed antenna on your house, but a 25’ satellite dish is just fine. In Ocean City, you cannot eat food while in the water and men cannot walk shirtless on the boardwalk. And if you have weeds growing in your yard, you better hope they aren’t thistles, which are illegal to grow in your yard anywhere in Maryland.

It would be impossible to keep up with all of our laws. There are over 20,000 gun use and safety laws alone in the U.S. But God instructed His people to remember His laws.

Tassels Teach Truths

Throughout scripture God encourages us to remember His commands and to teach what we have been taught to the next generation. But God went even further then telling us to remember and to teach, He also instructed His people to create a sort of memory tool to give them something physical and tangible to help their memory.

The Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘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 all the commands of the Lord, that you may obey them and not prostitute yourselves by going after the lusts of your own hearts and eyes. Then you will remember to obey all my commands and will be consecrated to your God. I am the Lord your God, Who brought you out of Egypt to be your God. I am the Lord your God.’” Numbers 15:37-41

Today, other than as part of a graduation ceremony, tassels are used only as a decoration. But God wanted His people to use tassels as a tool to help them remember His commands. Moses and the Israelites created 613 laws from the 10 commandments of God. The priests would make tassels of 8 strings each tied with 5 knots to equal the 613 laws that they were to remember. These are still found on the tallit (prayer shawl).

The tassels are called tzitzit. Their strings and knots are a physical representation of the Torah's 613 laws. It works like this: Each letter in the Hebrew alphabet has a corresponding numerical value. The numerical values of the five letters that comprise the Hebrew word tzitzit add up to 600. Add the eight strings and five knots and the total is 613.

Thankfully, the commands of God can easily be summarized this way: love God and love others. These are the truths that we must hold to. If we follow these 2 commands, we will be fully devoted followers of Jesus, we will worship God, we will want to be right with God, we will care about our friends and enemies, we will help those who need help, we will tell others about Jesus.

We need things like tassels because we have a tendency to forget. We forget what it took for us to get from there to here. We forget the struggles, the battles, the difficulties, we had to endure. There is a second tool for remembering: monuments or pillars.

Monuments Mark Moments

God taught the Israelites the importance of remembering the many miraculous things that He had done for them. One thing that we see often throughout the Old Testament is the use of pillars or monuments that were built to remind those in the future of what God did in a certain time and place.

¹⁹ The people came up from the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and camped at Gilgal on the eastern limits of Jericho. ²⁰ Then Joshua set up in Gilgal the 12 stones they had taken from the Jordan, ²¹ and he said to the Israelites, “In the future, when your children ask their fathers, ‘What is the meaning of these stones?’ ²² you should tell your children, ‘Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’²³ For the Lord your God dried up the waters of the Jordan before you until you had crossed over, just as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea, which He dried up before us until we had crossed over. ²⁴ This is so that all the people of the earth may know that the Lord’s hand is mighty, and so that you may always fear the Lord your God.” (Joshua 4:19-24)

God wants us to look back, to remember what He has done so that we can tell others all that we have seen and heard. You see, our past prepares us for our future. That is why these stone pillars were put up in places throughout the Holy Land. They were there to mark moments that God brought them through, just as He did when they crossed the Jordan River and the Red Sea.

What are some of the moments that mark the work that God has done in your life? Tassels teach truths and monuments mark moments. These two things are ways that our past prepares us for our future.

Yes, the future is uncertain. It always is. God doesn’t generally reveal His plans to us in advance. He prefers for us to grow in faith by following Him into the unknown. By putting our faith and trust in Him. But God has given us everything that is needed for us to face the future head on. He has given us tools to help us remember: tassels to teach His truths and monuments to mark the moments that He brought us through in the past. These will help us move forward into a new year, into the unknown, into a new era as His church. Are you ready?