The Tabernacle system was YHWH dwelling in the midst of Israel so that His life-giving relationship with them became the heartbeat of the camp. The axis mundi of the camp of Israel involved shedding the skin of decay through access to the Fountain of Life, thereby donning new garments of righteousness that their names be written in the census Book of Life. By arranging Israel’s camp, YHWH created sacred spaces that He filled with holy images of Himself. The camp’s three-tiered layout mirrored the Tabernacle’s boundaries:  the holy of holies, the sacred place, and the courtyard. Uncleanness was dealt with outside the camp (Num. 5:1-4), and no foreigner could enter the camp except through the eastern tribe of Judah. Like the Garden of Eden, He provided His people with bread from heaven, His Word, and living water flowing from His heart, His Spirit, instructing them to discern between good and evil, the boundary between life and death.

After covenanting with King YHWH at Mount Sinai (Exo. 19-24), Israel rebelled five times, from the golden calf incident to Israel’s refusal to enter the Land, preventing the fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant. YHWH sentenced that generation to wander in the wilderness until all those twenty years and older died. To encourage them to continue their sojourn through the wilderness deprivations, He gave the people seven commands¹ to keep in the Land that pointed to the rich life of worship promised to the new generation through the renewal of their Nazirite-like consecration to Him, symbolic of their willingness to endure hardship in the wilderness to draw near Him (Num. 6; 15).

1. A burnt offering of a lamb with its grain, oil, and wine
2. A burnt offering of a ram with its grain, oil, and wine
3. A burnt offering of a young bull with its grain, oil, and wine
4. The firstfruits wave offering of their harvests
5. Atonement offering for the community’s unintentional sin
6. Atonement offering for individual unintentional sin
7. Judgment for anyone despising YHWH’s word, tied to a Sabbath-breaking case

The first involved three burnt-offering edicts, with lavish grain, oil, and wine available only in the Land at the fulfillment of their vow. (Israel had no wine or leavened bread during their wilderness journey, Deu. 29:5-6) The burnt offering symbolized a community’s or an individual’s wholehearted relationship to YHWH, whether Israelite or stranger. A fourth command reminded the people to always honor YHWH with the first portion of the harvest by presenting a wave offering to Him before eating from the harvest. (When the first is dedicated as holy to YHWH, the rest of the harvest is also holy, Rom. 11:16.) The next two commands explain atonement offerings for unintentional sin committed by the community or an individual. The seventh, exemplified by a Sabbath-breaking case, was the expulsion by stoning from the covenant promises of an Israelite or foreigner whose high-handed, defiant act desecrated YHWH. Sabbath holiness was the sign of YHWH’s covenant to dwell with Israel in the Land, the telos of all creation. To pollute the Sabbath outrightly rejected YHWH’s rescue of Israel out of Egypt, refusing to enter the Land and lusting to return to Egyptian bondage. Spurning YHWH’s salvation, the half-Egyptian lacked a trusting awe of YHWH’s commands and crossed the boundary into death. From YHWH’s seven-command platform, He issued a decree to help them remember that He called them to be a kingdom of priests, a holy nation with the Sabbath as their destination, their inheritance in the Land where He would live and rule through them. This blog focuses on YHWH’s tassel command in Numbers 15:37-41.

Again, YHWH spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the children of Israel: Tell them to make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and to put a blue thread in the tassels of the corners. And you shall have the tassel, that you may look upon it and remember all the commandments of YHWH and do them, and that you may not follow the harlotry to which your own heart and your own eyes are inclined, and that you may remember and do all My commandments, and be holy for your God. I am YHWH your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your Elohim: I am YHWH your Elohim” (Num. 15:37-41, NKJV).

Studying this mandate reveals its brilliance. Each Israelite was to make for themselves cords of blue thread on the four corners (wings)² of their garment, like the cherubim’s four wings that carried YHWH’s throne according to His will. To prevent another failure to enter the Land, each Israelite became as intimate with YHWH as the cherubim, having YHWH’s will enthroned in their minds, directing their every movement. By the blue tasseled boundary of their covering, they each became symbolically tied to the high priest, like the blue cords (tzitzit, צִיצִת) attached to the gold blossom (tzitz) diadem of his turban, inscribed with “Holy unto YHWH,” and the jeweled (segullah) breastplate bearing the tribes’ orientation over his heart. Like the cherubim of the heavenly hosts, an Israelite’s every action and word must be fixed in the Tabernacle’s law of holiness. When the thousands of Israelites in their respective tribes remembered their heavenly calling, they formed a community structured after the pattern of YHWH’s celestial city, wisely discerning the behavioral boundary between life and death (Num. 1-6). Thus, being aligned individually within a holy community gave them greater power over evil influences.

The twisted blue³ thread cord reminded each Israelite to keep their eyes on all YHWH’s commands and do them, bending their will to God’s will, a memory device to reverse humanity’s “seeing with their eyes” and taking to themselves. It acted to avert a repeated failure of the ten spies and Israel’s refusal to enter the Land, their “whoring,” doing what was good in their searching eyes and the deceitful inclination of their own hearts (Num. 13-14; 5:11-21). Following YHWH’s rule, each Israelite became tied/yoked to Him through the high priest, taming their wills under His shepherd’s staff. The royal blue color marked them as belonging solely to YHWH, holy bearers of His nobility and authority. Its visual reminder encouraged them in their renewed Nazarite-like dedication to complete their priestly vocation vow and to receive its abundant blessings in the Land.

In the Ancient Near East, touching or grabbing a man’s tassel, his mark of God’s integrity and power, was “a formal act of petition.”⁴  Zechariah foretold of an age when citizens from other nations would grasp hold of a Hebrew’s garment “wing,” saying, “Let us go with you because we have heard that God is with you” (Zec. 8:23). A woman with a twelve-year flow of blood touched the “wing” or tassel of Yeshua’s garment and was healed (Luke 8:44). “Wherever He entered villages, cities, or country, the sick implored Him that they might just touch the tassel of His cloak, and as many as touched His wings were saved” (Mark 6:56). When all humans see Yeshua’s glory (see Blog 125), our High Priest comes wearing the turban of salvation and breastplate of righteousness to punish the wicked and vindicate the righteous, arising with healing in His wings (Psa. 104; Isa. 59:17; 60:1-3; Mal. 4:2).

Takeaway:
When YHWH’s judgment for Israel’s grievous failure to enter the Land led to thirty-eight years of death in the wilderness, He encouraged them with seven commands to keep in the Land (the Sabbath’s fulfillment) and gave them a memory aid to assure them of their success. The tassels served as visual reminders to each Israelite that they must become wholly devoted to Him in worshipful obedience, connected to His holy mind and heart through His high priest, and transformed by the wisdom and skill of His Torah, gaining a profound understanding of the boundary separating life from death. Since YHWH delivered Israel from Egypt and was Israel’s only enthroned God, the blue on their wings saved (healed) them, symbolizing their earthly connection to His will and their role as a light to the nations. In keeping the Feast of Tabernacles today, we must see (understand) the camp’s sacred, blue-tasseled boundary of separation between good and evil and experience its intimate relationship to our High Priest’s authority so that we do not refuse to inherit His Kingdom.

Fun Factors:
Numbers 15’s 511 words (7 × 73) total 137,883, (2³ × 5³)(4² + 11²) + 883, 883 is the 153^rd prime number and the same value as “a Feast seven days” (Num. 28:17, 29:12). The numeric language tells of YHWH’s complete and perfect (7) wisdom (73) of His holy existence (5³) in His Feasts (2³), providing atonements (137) to all nations, restoring by the Spirit of God (153, 3² + 12²).

The five tassel verses of Numbers 15:37-41 of 69 words (3 × 23) total 22047, 3 × 7349, 3(25² + 82²), numerically symbolizing living (3 × 23) in YHWH’s sure wisdom (73) of completing us (49, 7²) in perfect holiness (25²) to tabernacle with Him (82, 41 × 2), the power of His Word (22) and work (47).

Numbers 15:38, YHWH’s instructions to put tassels on the four edges of their garment border, has 73 letters in 19 words totaling 6335, 5 × 7 × 181, the sum of seven triangular numbers T₃₉ + … + T₄₅; 6 + 3 + 3 + 5 = 17; 6 × 3 × 3 × 7 = 270; 6335’s prime factor sum, 5 + 7 + 181 = 193, 12² + 7².

The 23 letters of “and they will put on the tassels of the wings a thread of blue” equal 2727, the numeric mnemonic code for YHWH’s throne in the Holy of Holies, 3³ × 101; 101 is the 26^th prime and the 12^th Pythagorean prime; 2727 = 27(1² + 10²), the power of a holy YHWH dwelling with His people.