CHASING OUR TAILS

Today I am going to talk about our Creator’s design that He has in place to help keep us from chasing our tails.

His Torah is set up to help keep us focused on learning His will and not on all of the hustle and the bustle of life.

Daniel was told that many would run to and fro and that knowledge would increase and then the end would come.

This is what has happened.

Just look at man today with all of their technology and how people’s lives are so busy in the modern world.

Whether it is with their personal lives and their busy schedules with their children or their recreational activities or with their jobs and keeping up with the Jones’s, people are just running to and fro.

How does this fit into why we were created?

It does not.

King Solomon was given incredible wisdom and the book of Ecclesiastes records him squandering his life away in the pursuit of fame and fortune.

He pursued more education and more wealth. He chased after more women and more pleasure. You name it and his soul desired it.

Then at the end of it all, he concluded to his son;

Eccl 12:12-14

12 Hence by these things, my son, be admonished: there is no end to the making of many books and much study wearies the flesh.

13 So hear the conclusion of the entire reason that we have life: FEAR ELOHIYM AND HEDGE ABOUT HIS COMMANDMENTS: BECAUSE THIS IS THE ENTIRETY OR THE WHOLE OF MAN.

14 Because Elohiym WILL BRING EVERY “DEED” INTO JUDGMENT, with everything that is concealed, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.

Does this scare you? Do you fear having every thought that you have ever had being accounted for?

It should. Yehshua said;

Matt 12:36-37

36 But I say to you, that "every idle word" that men shall speak, THEY SHALL GIVE ACCOUNT THEREOF in the Day of Judgment,

37 because by your “words” you will be rendered innocent, and by your words (Logos) you will be condemned.

We should fear not being found in our Creator’s will and fear not being found learning and living His character but most do not.

Today I am going to talk about some of His commandments that He gave us on a physical plain that were given to us to help be a constant reminder to us to stay on His narrow path.

They are given so that we will constantly be reminded that we are being set apart to Him and to be on guard against anything that would defile us and cause Him to remove His presence from us.

Recently, I have been speaking often of His commandment that is being given at this time for those who will return to Him to cover their heads.

Covering their heads was just a way of life for ancient Israel as a sign of being under His covering and under the covering of His protective wings.

Of course even living all of the commandments on a physical plain will not separate us unto Him by themselves; we can live them in vain by not living why they were given.

Israel of old is proof of this.

But they are to be reminders to us and they do carry symbolic reasons along with them.

Today covering our heads is also meant to symbolize coming under the covering of His Son’s blood as well as being under His protective wings.

I have talked about how covering your heads on a physical plain without turning from your ways to His path is nothing more than covering your head in hypocrisy so I am not going to go into all of that today.

The same goes with all of the commandments that I am going to talk about today.

Obeying Him on a physical plain by itself will mean nothing by itself; you have to sign the contract through genuine repentance in order to make the obedience real in His eyes so that He will pour out His favor on us.

The next commandment that I will speak of today is that we are to wear braided twining’s or tassels of cerulean blue on the 4 corners of our garments and on our outer coverings.

We are to do this as a constant reminder of His commandments.

This is recorded in Numbers 15:38 and Deuteronomy 22:12.

They are not to be flashy in order to be esteemed of by men.

This is what Yehshua meant when He said;

Matt 23:5

5 But all their works they do to be beheld of by men: THEY MAKE BROAD THEIR PHYLACTERIES, AND ENLARGE THE "TASSLES" OF THEIR GARMENTS

It is very important to notice that Yehshua is not condemning them for wearing them; He is condemning them for making a show of them.

He wore these tassels on His garments.

We read this in;

Matt 9:20

20 And, behold, a woman, which was diseased with an issue of blood for twelve years came behind Him and touched the TASSELS of His ROBE (#2440):

Don’t believe me, look up the word.

And again in;

Matt 14:36

36 And they besought Him that they might only touch the TASSELS of His ROBE (#2440): and as many as touched them were made perfectly whole.

Yes, He wore a robe as well, this was customary.

The King James translates this word as garments in these two verses.

Here is another place that the same word is used twice in two back to back verses to prove that it is referring to a robe;

Matt 21:7-8

7 And brought the ass and the colt, and put their CLOTHES (#2240) on him, and they set Him thereon.

8 And a very great multitude spread their GARMENTS (#2240) in the way; and others cut down branches from the trees, and spread them in the way.

Obviously they never put their clothes on the ass and they did not spread their inner garments or their clothes on the path either.

They put their outer garments or their robes on the ass and on the path.

Back to the fringes, they are a simple instruction to remind us of His commandments.

Why would this be a burden to any of you?

Would you be embarrassed to wear them?

Here is an example of what I wear.

It certainly does not need to be done in this exact way; this is just an example;

As you can see from the photo I simply put blue tassels on the sleeves and on hem of the robe and on the four corners of the head covering.

The head covering certainly does not need to be this design either.

As far as the boarder of blue on the robe and on the head covering, this is not something that is specifically commanded for everybody but it is just something that I was led to do.

The instructions came with the change of raiment that He led me to.

The same is the case with the belt that you see for the robe, it is a braided linen belt that is died with purple, blue and scarlet.

It is a reminder of His three tier plan.

The blue is symbolic of walking with Him in His Torah and the scarlet is symbolic of being cleansed by His Son’s blood and the purple is symbolic that we are becoming a holy and set apart people to Him.

Neither is specifically commanded for everybody but we all are commanded to be in training to become kings and priests to Him.

We are to be set apart from all that defiles us.

It is clear that Yehshua wore the tassels and it is clear that He wore an outer garment or a robe and precept upon precept, it is clear that He had His head covered as well.

He will certainly return with His robe on and His head covered, this is recorded.

And we are commanded to follow His example.

Here is a picture of the tassels that I have on my pant legs, and again, this is just an example.

I also have them on the ends of my shirt sleeves.

These commandments are beautiful in design if we live the spiritual intent of them and let them accomplish their purpose in us.

They are given to help us grow in His righteousness.

We are to reflect on why He gave them to us and they are a reminder that we are claiming to bear His name.

With that, we had better fear wearing them in vain by blaspheming His character that we claim to represent as we wear them.

This reverence and fear helps us become like Him.

If you fear not passing a class, you will study hard and show up for class so that you do well.

I will now move onto what those calling themselves Jewish today refer to as the tefillin.

Matt 23:5

5 But all their works they do to be beheld of by men: THEY MAKE BROAD THEIR “PHYLACTERIES” AND ENLARGE THE TASSLES OF THEIR GARMENTS

The phylacteries in this verse are referring to something on our foreheads and hands.

Obviously, as I said, Yehshua did not condemn them for wearing them but He did condemn them for how they wore them.

Today what the so-called Jewish people wear for their prayer services is exactly what Yehshua was referring to.

They wear these boxes on their foreheads with scriptures in them and then some fancy braided leather straps down their arms and then are tied around their hands. It is all for show.

The question is; is it a commandment to wear something on our foreheads and on our hands to remind us of His laws as well or not?

The tassels are clearly commanded but what about the tefillin?

Deut 6:8

8 And you shall bind them (speaking of the commandments) as a sign upon your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.

At first glance it would appear that they are commanded.

But as we look elsewhere, the words that Moses recorded here were used to mean that we are to keep them in the front of our thought always and that we must practice them in our everyday actions.

It is to be what we think and what we do.

The sign upon our hand means what we do or how we live and the frontlets between our eyes means that we are to always think on them and meditate on them.

They must be on the front of our thoughts, all of our thoughts.

We must bring every thought into subjection to His will and measure them against His measuring rod.

This is how we are made in His image.

You become what you think about.

This can be proven by turning to another recorded text of Moses;

Ex 13:15-16

15 And it came to pass, when Pharaoh would hardly let us go, that YEHWEH slew all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man and the firstborn of beast: I therefore sacrifice to YEHWEH all males that open the matrix; and I redeem all the firstborn of the children.

16 AND IT SHALL BE A “SIGN UPON YOUR HAND”, AND “FRONTLETS BETWEEN YOUR EYES”: because by the strength of YEHWEH’s hand He brought us forth out of Egypt.

Obviously we cannot sacrifice the first born of our livestock on our foreheads and on our hands.

It is to be in our thoughts and we are to practice what He spoke.

It is what we think and do that is commanded.

It is the exact same terminology used here as in Deuteronomy 6 and 11 except there is one word missing in this example and that is the word for “to bind.”

The Hebrew word that bind is translated from is “kaw-shar” and it means to tie or to mentally gird or even stronger.

Here is an example of its use;

1 Sam 18:1

18:1 and it came to pass, when he had made an end of speaking to Saul, that the soul of Jonathan “WAS KNIT” with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.

So obviously it does not mean that it has to be tied in a physical way.

Obviously he could not have “tied” his soul to David’s soul with some leather straps.

Another example of this was just a few verses earlier in Exodus 13:9 where Moses said that the Feast of Unleavened bread was to be a “SIGN ON OUR HAND AND A MEMORIAL BETWEEN OUR EYES.”

That being said though, Yehshua did not condemn them for having them, just for the way that they wore them.

They wore them broad to be seen as ultra-religious.

So if you want to wear something on your head to remind you of His commandments, He certainly did not condemn this, just don’t make it to be seen in a flaunting way.

THE MAIN THING THAT YOU HAD BETTER HAVE RIGHT ON THIS IS THAT HIS COMMANDMENTS ARE ALWAYS IN THE FRONT OF YOUR MIND AND THAT THEY ARE WHAT YOU LIVE OR WHAT YOU PRACTICE BECAUSE THIS IS THE COMMANDMENT.

Next, we are to post the commandments on our door posts and on our gates.

Deut 6:9

9 And you shall write them on the posts of your house, and on your gates.

Which ones? That is certainly up to you. He does not specify.

If you want to post the 10 commandments or the two that Yehshua said that they all hang from, this is up to you.

Personally I like the idea of the two that all of the commandments hang from.

What about beards for men?

Lev 19:27

27 You shall not compass the boarders of your heads; neither shall you destroy the boarders of your beard.

It is pretty clear that we are not to corrupt the boarders of our beard.

If you think that it is okay to trim your beard after reading this, this is certainly your choice.

If you do not fear Him enough to obey this and you want to translate it so that you can trim your beard, you probably won’t be obeying any of the rest of these commandments either.

I have learned that the beard is just another identifying mark that I am agreeing to obey Him and it is a surface identification that shows that others are not seeking to obey Him if they are trimming their beards, just as the tassels are if they are not wearing them.

Of course wearing tassels and having an untrimmed beard do not meant the person is in His will either, yet they are an introductory sign that they might be trying to be in His will.

What about the other part of this verse about compassing the boarders of our heads?

I read somewhere once that there is historical evidence that the pagans wore circular type haircuts, but I do not know for this sure.

What I do know for sure is the Jewish skull caps and the round coverings that the pagan Roman Catholic priests wear today sure look like they are wearing encompassing circles on the tops of their heads.

I would flee from such ideas for covering my head if I were you.

It is a mockery of His covering and this verse certainly points to the condemnation of such round caps.

These are just a few of the physical commandments that He has given us to help separate us and to help set apart our minds unto Him.

There are others like not painting our bodies, etc.

As far as the robes and the head coverings, precept upon precept points to that they are to be made out of white linen.

The new wardrobe that He clothed me with is white linen.

The white linen is symbolic of the purifying effect of His Son’s blood and the white robes that the saints will be given.

But the head coverings are also to help us keep our eyes single on being made white by His blood so that we will not take His blood for granted.

I will close today with some very important instructions from our Messiah;

Matt 6:33

33 Seek first (in priority) the kingdom of Elohiym and His righteousness; and all these things will be added to you.

It must be our number one focus above everything else.

And;

Matt 6:22-23

22 The light of the body is the eye: THEREFORE IF YOUR EYE IS SINGLE, your whole body will be full of light.

23 But if your eye is evil (NOT SINGLE), then your whole body will be full of darkness. Therefore if the light that is in you is darkness, then great is that darkness!

Notice the darkness is still a light; it is just that it is satan’s light.

Our eye must be focused on His kingdom and on obtaining His righteousness.

If a white robe and some blue tassels and a head covering and a beard are going to help me stay focused, I’m in.

And they do. His design works if we walk in it in spirit and in truth.

Plus, they are not suggestions anyway, they are commandments.

They are to be a way of life, just as are the rest of His Torah.

They were given to us to help keep us from chasing our tails.

They are the way, walk ye in them.