Números 15

Números 15

Meyer - Our Daily Homily - Numbers 15:38 A cord of blue. (R.V.) Throughout their generations the Israelites were bidden to wear it. It is the symbol of depth, of love, of Heaven. The azure sky, the glacier-rift, the deep lake, the far horizon, the eye of the hopeful, buoyant, tender nature — all tell the same story of deep and constant love, which mirrors below God’s heaven of love above. Therefore to wear this cord of blue was to be kept in mind of the eternal and unseen. No outward symbol is needed by us. The very best, after awhile, becomes time and commonplace. We get so accustomed to it that it ceases to stir our thoughts. But if we will entrust ourselves to the Holy Spirit, He will teach us all things, and keep us always in mind. He is the blessed Remembrancer, whose mission is to bring Christ to our thought and keep Him there, the prominent object of our soul’s vision. The object of this cord of blue was to restrain the people from going about “after their own heart and their own eyes.” We need to be kept from the same, that we may walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. In our resolutions, our energies, our acts of consecration, our Christian activities, we are all too apt to go at the dictates of our heart and eyes. May God forgive us! It has been the source of our perpetual failure and defeat. There is a more excellent way. Let us ask the Holy Spirit to keep the blue cord of the Christ — memory ever before our gaze, that we may become utterly absorbed in his beauty and glory, in doing his will, and in executing his commands. Let us seek to be bound to our Master, who is Love, by that same cord, that we may never for a moment forget the demands of the unseen and eternal. Just as the tassels in ancient Jewish worship served as visual aids, so the cross is a powerful reminder of the work of Christ for Christians today. However, what was an obvious symbol of Christianity a century or two ago is no longer so obvious. The cross has become little more than a popular shape for a pendant worn by Christians and non-Christians alike. It is gilded with gold or studded with diamonds to make it beautiful. But actually, there isn’t anything beautiful about the cross; it was used as an instrument of torture, suffering and death. But it is wondrous. To the Christian who knows what Jesus accomplished on it, the cross is a symbol that conveys wonder — wonder that God should love us. Wonder that Jesus would die for us. Wonder that the cross spanned a gulf that separated us from our Creator. Like the tassels the Lord commanded the people of Israel to attach to their clothing, the cross serves as a reminder each time we see one. When we see a cross, we recall that Jesus tells us to take up our cross daily in order to keep our eyes focused on him. What does that mean for us today? Only as we make the Lord the object of our personal worship can we fully celebrate the benefits he made available to us on that “cross of wonder.” We see many crosses around us — in window panes, in the lower case t, through building profiles, perched atop church steeples. Let these remind us of the cross of Christ, the focus of God’s love and forgiveness so wondrously displayed through his Son. PRAYER Remind me, Father, of … H A