Jewish Articles

  

Healing in His Wings

From the Teaching Series by Pastor Larry Huch

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To the Jewish people, the tallit, or prayer shawl, is a garment that is woven into their everyday life, from morning and evening prayers, to the Sabbath, and on each of the holidays.  In Numbers 15:37-41, God commanded Moses to “Speak to the children of Israel and bid them to affix fringes to the corners of their garments…that you may look upon them and remember all the commandments of the Lord.”

The tallit is the arbor confrut, or the four wings.  As Jews wrapped themselves in the tallit, they did so, as they still do today, with a blessing,   "Baruch  Attah  Adonai  Eloheinu  Melech  Ha'olam  asher  kidshanu  bemitzvotav  vetzivanu  lehit'atef  betzitzit".   The  blessing  is  translated  as “Blessed  art  thou,  O  Lord  our  God,  King  of  the  universe,  who  hast hallowed us by  thy  commandments,  and  commanded  us  to  wrap  ourselves  in   fringes.     The  Talmud  teaches  that  when you  wear  a  tallit,  you  covered  by  God.  The  tallit  was  a  reminder  that  each  Jew  who  wore  one  was   connected   to   the  eternal  and  ever-present, promises of God in the Torah.

           As an observant Jew, Jesus wore a tallit.  What kind of tallit he wore is uncertain.  He may have worn the tallit gadol, a large garment that sometimes reaches to the ankle with fringes of blue and white at the ends.  Or He might have chosen to wear the tallit katan, a smaller garment. I believe that he was wearing the katan, or smaller because Jesus often rebuked the hypocrities for making their tallits too long.  Either way, Jesus was observing the commandment of God and knew that He, by wearing the tallit, was covered in all the  promises of the Torah.

In Matthew, Chapter 5, a woman who had been bleeding for twelve years came to Jesus.  She had spent all she had and was not better.  In fact, she was worse.  On the day that she reached out to touch the hem of Jesus’ tallit, she was risking everything.  Because of her constant bleeding, she was considered by the Law as being unclean. She could have been cast out, or even worse, stoned.  But she was desperate to receive all that the Torah and God had promised her.  She had come to Jesus because she believed that He was the Messiah that Malachi had prophesied about when He said, “He will come with healing in His wings.” 

The woman reached out to touch the hem of His garment.   The word hem, means a tassel of twisted wool.  God had commanded in Deuteronomy Chapter 22, verse 1 that His people should make tassels on the four corners of the hem, or the border, of their garments to cover themselves, and to remind themselves of God’s promises.  These tassels represented the 613 commandments of God and His promise to protect, lead, guide and teach His people.

Each corner of the prayer shawl that Jesus, as a Jewish man and Rabbi, was wearing was called wings.  In the English translation of the Bible the word is border.  But in Hebrew the word is translated wings, or the place where the power of the promises of God is attached.  So when Jesus put on His talllit, his prayer shawl, He put on the four wings connected to the power and the promises of God.

When the woman reached out to touch the hem, the border, the wings of Jesus’ talllit, she knew that her healing would come.  She was grabbing hold of all the 613 promises of God.  She was reaching out for the Word of God that would make her totally whole.  And Jesus, the Messiah, the prophesied one, who would bring healing in His wings, was the Word come alive to her.  He turned the logos of the Word, into rhema, and she was made whole. 

Reach out today to the one with healing in His wings.  He is the logos that is waiting to become rhema for you today. This is your day to receive your healing and a new beginning.

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