My wife runs colder than me so it’s not uncommon for her to make use of my jacket. She’ll throw it over her shoulders or on her lap. I imagine you’ve done something similar, but it might put a lump in your throat if you read Deuteronomy 22:5.
“A woman shall not wear a man’s garment, nor shall a man put on a woman’s cloak, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the LORD your God.” Under the old covenant that would be an abomination to God (gulp).
It’s regulations like these that bring out the haters. The rules seem so outlandish that they are ripe for ridicule. In the same chapter God outlawed what we call “companion planting” today. In other words, God prohibited the planting of any crop other than vines on land devoted to vineyards. Another one was the prohibition of wearing clothing that had wool and linen mixed together. That means that many of today’s comfiest clothes would have been offensive to God!
Under what circumstances could these things be sinful? What was God thinking? How could you be expected to defend a God that would demand these kinds of things at any point in history? The answer is that we serve a gracious God that gives His people physical ways to demonstrate divine principles. The point He was making was that His people, while living in the world in very normal day-to-day ways, were not to be identified with it. To use biblical language, “For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come” (Heb. 13:14).
In his book City of God Augustine wrote, “Two cities have been formed by two loves: the earthly by the love of self, even to the contempt of God; the heavenly by the love of God, even to the contempt of self. The former, in a word, glories in itself, the latter in the Lord.”
We know this is the principle in Deuteronomy 22 because of another obligation it sets out—the prohibition against plowing a field with a donkey and an ox together. Paul leveraged this language to demonstrate a principle of purity that forbids Christians from being mixed up with the world.
Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? (2 Cor. 6:14–15)
God gave the Israelites visual aids to remind them that their time in this world must not be marked by a love for it. Yes, we must wear clothes that are made in it. Yes, we must eat food that is grown in it. Yes, we must work in it. But no, we must not be identified as lovers of it!
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. (1 Jn. 2:15–17)
This is further illustrated when God added yet one more law that served as a visual reminder. This law, however, was antithetical to the rest. After listing prohibitions, He gave them a positive command to “make tassels on the four corners of the cloak you wear.” They were instructed to attach these to their clothing in a way that they and everyone else could see them. They would swing about, conspicuously drawing attention to themselves, as God’s people went about their daily lives,. For what purpose? It is revealed in Numbers 15.
“Speak to the people of Israel, and tell them to make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and to put a cord of blue on the tassel of each corner. And it shall be a tassel for you to look at and remember all the commandments of the LORD, to do them, not to follow after your own heart and your own eyes, which you are inclined to whore after. So you shall remember and do all my commandments, and be holy to your God. I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God: I am the LORD your God.” (Nu. 15:38–41)
The tassels were waving about to remind God’s people they were to keep all His commandments while living in a rebellious world. Indeed, we serve a gracious God that gives His people physical ways to demonstrate divine principles! Take time to identify some “tassels” in your life. What are things you see regularly that would serve as excellent reminders that you are called to keep yourself from mixing with a world with which you do not match?