Desperate times require Desperate Measures…
Romans 10:13 says,
“For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
The Salvation that Jesus purchased for us on Calvary’s Cross also includes our healing from all infirmities.
There are 16 names of God given in the Old Testament, including:
EL, ELOAH [el, el-oh-ah]: God “mighty, strong, prominent” (Nehemiah 9:17; Psalm 139:19) – etymologically, El appears to mean “power” and “might” (Genesis 31:29).
El is associated with other qualities, such as integrity (Numbers 23:19), jealousy (Deuteronomy 5:9), and compassion (Nehemiah 9:31), but the root idea of “might” remains.
ELOHIM [el-oh-heem]: God “Creator, Mighty and Strong” (Genesis 17:7; Jeremiah 31:33) – the plural form of Eloah, which accommodates the doctrine of the Trinity.
From the Bible’s first sentence, the superlative nature of God’s power is evident as God (Elohim) speaks the world into existence (Genesis 1:1).
EL SHADDAI [el-shah-dahy]: “God Almighty,” “The Mighty One of Jacob” (Genesis 49:24; Psalm 132:2,5) – speaks to God’s ultimate power over all.
ADONAI [ˌædɒˈnaɪ; ah-daw-nahy]: “Lord” (Genesis 15:2; Judges 6:15) – used in place of YHWH, which was thought by the Jews to be too sacred to be uttered by sinful men. In the Old Testament, YHWH is more often used in God’s dealings with His people, while Adonai is used more when He deals with the Gentiles.
YHWH / YAHWEH / JEHOVAH [yah-way / ji-hoh-veh]: “LORD” (Deuteronomy 6:4; Daniel 9:14) – strictly speaking, the only proper name for God.
Translated in English Bibles “LORD” (all capitals) to distinguish it from Adonai, “Lord.”
The revelation of the name is given to Moses “I Am who I Am” (Exodus 3:14).
This name specifies an immediacy, a presence.
Yahweh is present, accessible, near to those who call on Him for deliverance (Psalm 107:13), forgiveness (Psalm 25:11) and guidance (Psalm 31:3).
YAHWEH-JIREH [yah-way-ji-reh]: “The Lord Will Provide” (Genesis 22:14) – the name memorialized by Abraham when God provided the ram to be sacrificed in place of Isaac.
The one name that I want to focus on here is —
YAHWEH-RAPHA [yah-way-raw-faw]: “The Lord Who Heals and makes Whole” (Exodus 15:26) – meaning: “I am Jehovah who heals you” both in body and soul.
In body, by preserving from and curing diseases, and in soul, by pardoning iniquities.
Why did the woman with the issue of blood think that by touching the Hem of Jesus’ garment she would be healed?
There are various passages in the Bible that refer to incidents whereby people who touched the “Hem” of Jesus’ garments were instantly healed.
Some of these accounts are found in the following chapters:
Matthew 9:20-22 “And suddenly, a woman who had flow of blood for twelve years came from behind and touched the hem of His garment.
For she said to herself, “If only I may touch His garment, I shall be made well.”
But Jesus turned around, and when He saw her He said, “Be of good cheer, daughter; your faith has made you well.” And that woman was made well from that hour.”
and
Matthew 14:36 “and begged Him that they might only touch the hem of His garment. And as many as touched it were made perfectly well.”
The word “hem” means “fringe, tassel, or the border of a garment”.
It says in Numbers 15:38-39 “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 the LORD 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.”
The word used is “Tzitzit” and it speaks of a “tassel.”
The mantle of the time was a long rectangular cloth that draped down over the body. It had four corners at the bottom.
The Israelites were to attach tassels to the four corners of their garments and hem the garment in blue.
Over time this style had changed and instead of the four corners, the cloth became more rounded at the bottom.
Due to no longer having the four corners, the Israelites developed something called the “Tallit”.
All orthodox Jews of the day wore a Tallit.
When the woman with the issue of blood touched the hem of His garment she would have touched one of the tassels.
The “tallit” also served as a prayer shawl, which a person would read an inscription that is embroidered into the garment.
He was to kiss the first word of the inscription, kiss the last word of the inscription and then place the shawl over his head for a moment of reflection.
When in deep prayer, the head would be wrapped in the “tallit” to shut off the worshiper from the world. and many commentators have suggested that this is what Jesus spoke of when He said to enter into your closet for prayer in Matthew 6:6 “But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut the door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.”
Let’s begin by looking at some old testament references of the hem of the garment for a quick background of its symbolism.
1. Old Testament references to the hem/tallit:
David cut off Saul’s garment:
1 Samuel 24 1-22, verse 4 says “Then the men of David said to him, “This is the day which the LORD said to you, ‘Behold, I will deliver your enemy into your hand, that you may do to him as it seems good to you.’
“And David arose and secretly cut off a corner of Saul’s robe.”
When David spared Saul’s life, he took away evidence in showing Saul that he had the power to kill him but he did not.
The act of cutting off the hem of Saul’s robe was of a great significance.
David had just robbed Saul of his status symbol, the fringe of his robe that identified him as king.
The hem of the garment at this point was also a decorative feature which made a statement about the status and importance of the wearer.
Jesus in-fact rebuked the Pharisees for enlarging their fringes in Matthew 23:5 “They make their phylacteries broad and enlarge the borders of their garments.”
They were trying to magnify their importance, whereas the original intent and the purpose of the fringe and tassels was lost.
It was meant as a reminder of all the commandments of the Lord and to do them (Number 15:39)
Saul rips tassel of Samuel’s garment:
In 1 Samuel 15, Samuel rebuked Saul for failing to kill all the Amalekites, their king, and their cattle, and when Samuel turned around to go, Saul reached out to stop him and in doing so ripped the tassel from Samuel’s garment.
Samuel used this as a picture of what God was going to do with the kingdom of Israel, that it would be ripped away from Saul.
Elijah’s mantle
When Elijah was taken up into Heaven, Elisha was given Elijah’s mantle. This could possibly be his tallit or outer garment.
and there are more references of the garment.
So now, let us look at the importance of the hem of Jesus’ garment and what we can learn as a believer in Christ.
The woman with the issue of blood
2. The significance of the Hem of Jesus’ garment – What we can learn from this as a believer?
From the above we can relate the garment from a believers point of view through the story of the woman with the issue of blood.
Let us look at the story of the woman with the issue of blood, who knowing that Jesus the Messiah was passing by.
This woman took every opportunity to make her way close enough, to touch just the hem of the garment of Jesus.
She came to Jesus in such a manner as to conceal herself so that no one would notice who she is.
So, why did she do this?
According to Leviticus 15:19,25,27 it says
v19 ″If a woman has a discharge, and the discharge from her body is blood, she shall be set apart seven days; and whoever touches her shall be unclean until evening.
v25 “‘If a woman has a discharge of blood for many days, other than at the time of her customary impurity, or if it runs beyond her usual time of impurity, all the days of her unclean discharge shall be as the days of her customary impurity. She shall be unclean.’”
v27 “Whoever touches those things shall be unclean; he shall wash his clothes and bathe in water, and be unclean until evening.”
According to the same account in the Gospel of Mark, she had an issue of blood for 12 years (Mark 5:25).
According to Leviticus 15:28 “‘But if she is cleansed of her discharge , then she shall count for herself seven days, and after that she shall be clean.”
By this law, she has been unclean for 12 years.
Can you imagine the implications of this?
She is not meant to touch anyone, not her husband (if she had one), nor children (if any) or family, or friends nor could she do any house work, or even prepare her family food.
She had to be isolated because of her impurity. It was as if she was a non-person — as good as dead.
But one day she hears that Jesus is coming to town, and she finds this the perfect opportunity for her healing.
She had tried every other option available and spent all she had but to no avail.
This was her last hope.
According to Matthew 9:21, she says “…”If only I may touch His garment, I shall be made well.””
What was it about the garment of the Lord that she had such faith, that if Jesus was really the Messiah that she would receive healing?
Remember that she could not reveal herself to anyone around her otherwise this would be seen as a serious crime.
Anything and anyone she touches would become unclean.
She is taking a big risk in the belief that there is healing at the hem of the garment of Jesus.
What did she know that gave her such assurance that if this is really the Messiah, that she would receive healing by touching His garment?
According to the prophecy in Malachi 4:2 it says “But to you who fear My name The Sun of Righteousness shall arise With healing in His wings’…”
The word “wings” used here is the same as the word “borders” seen in Numbers 15:38.
So the woman knew that if this is the Messiah, then surely if I can just get close enough to touch the hem or the borders of His garment, I can surely receive healing.
She was embracing the promise that the Messiah had healing in His wings.
She looked upon Jesus and believed that He was who He claimed to be.
When she had touched the hem of His garment, it was the same as touching Him.
She looked to Him by faith and when her faith touched His grace she was healed.
She came to the right person in the right manner and received what she was after.
This is the great faith she put in the scriptures as well as having enough faith to trust Jesus as the prophesied Messiah to come.
By her faith she was healed instantly. Jesus responds saying “your faith has made you well”.
This Woman’s Faith was evident by all the trouble and effort that she made to get to Him in order to touch His garment.
It’s important for us to know that without that effort she would not have been healed.
SELAH (let us pause and calmly think about these things)
Every detail of the Bible is there for a reason and many times it’s helpful for us to study the Word and look behind what we’re reading in order to find what Rhema mystery God is trying to show us.
This never happens by accident, we have to do our homework and study.
That’s why I love studying the Bible so much because it’s full of such gems, just waiting to be found.
So I’m saying all of that to say this,
Just as it was in the case with the woman with the issue of blood, what in the natural scene hopeless and impossible became possible when she touched Jesus with her faith.
So you know, I’m thinking about you always, praying and calling on Jehovah-Rapha (Yeshua – Jesus) to also heal and make you whole!
Love you forever!
Skip 🫶
SB SALT AND LIGHT MINISTRIES 