SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/4/2021 8:23 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2 “Jesus
Was Touchable and Impartial”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
9:20-22
Message of the verses: “20 And a woman who
had been suffering from a hemorrhage for twelve years, came up behind Him and
touched the fringe of His cloak; 21 for she was saying to herself, "If I
only touch His garment, I will get well." 22 But Jesus turning and seeing her
said, "Daughter, take courage; your faith has made you well." At once
the woman was made well.”
This
morning I want to begin by talking about the part of the robe that Jesus wore
which the woman had touched. It is
according to biblical requirements that Jewish men were to “make for themselves
tassels on the corners of their garments,” they are to “put on the tassel of
each corner a cord of blue.” These
quotes are from Numbers 15:38 and also Deuteronomy 22:12). MacArthur states “The threads of the tassels
and cords were woven in a pattern that represented faithfulness and loyalty to
the Word of God and holiness to the Lord.
Wherever a Jew went, those tassels reminded him and testified before the
world that he belonged to the people of God.
Consistent with their typical hypocrisy and pretension, the Pharisees
lengthened ‘the tassels of their garments’ in order to call attention to their
religious devotion (Matt. 23:5). In much
later times, persecuted Jews in Europe wore the tassels on their undergarments
for the very opposite reason—to avoid identification and possible arrest. Modified forms of the tassel are still sewn
on the prayer shawls of orthodox Jews today.”
I
think that now we get the picture of exactly what this woman grasp hold of. This woman came up behind Jesus and touched
the fringe of His cloak. MacArthur adds
that the phrase “She was saying to herself’ is more precisely rendered, ‘She
kept saying to herself If I only touch His garment, I shall get well.’ The
single thought on her mind was to get close enough to Jesus just to ‘touch His
garment.’”
MacArthur
tells the following story: “When the
godly Sir James Simpson lay dying, a friend said to him, ‘Well, James, soon you
will be able to rest on the bosom of Jesus.’
In typical humility he replied, ‘I don’t know that I can quite do that,
but I do think I can take hold of His garment.’”
I
can only imagine the embarrassment and the shame that this woman had and so all
she wanted to do was to come into the crowd that was following Jesus and reach
down and touch His garment and be healed, but that is not what happened as we
know, especially from the other gospel accounts. She did come in and touch His garment, but
Jesus knew when this happened despite the fact that there were many, many
people following Jesus. Once the woman
touched His garment she was instantly healed, she was cleansed of her
defilement.
We
read “Jesus turning and seeing her said, ‘Daughter, take courage; your faith
has made you well.” MacArthur details
more about this healing by saying “Luke tells us that she was healed before
Jesus spoke. As soon as she touched His
cloak, ‘immediately the flow of her blood dried up; and she felt in her body
that she was healed of her affliction’ (Mark 5:29). Before Jesus Himself knew of her specifically
(cf. Luke 8:46), she was healed. He
became aware of the miraculous occurrence only when He realized that power had
gone out of Him (Luke 8:46). His words
of assurance, ‘your faith has made you will,’ simply confirmed what had already
happened. Jesus did not care that her
touching even His clothing would make Him ceremonially unclean in the eyes of
fellow Jews. He was touchable even by the untouchable.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: In a similar way that we will see this woman
was not only physically healed but spiritually healed that same thing happened
to me, and I believe it also happened to a man from the Bible study that I have
been leading for the last few months. I do
believe that the Spirit of God caused him to ask some penetrating questions
last night, the last night of our study until the fall. I know that he was hungry for the Word and I
believe that the Lord satisfied that hunger last night.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust the Lord that He saved this new friend
of mine last night.
6/4/2021 9:21 AM
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