Numbers 15:37 - Meaning and Application

Now that the law had just made provision for pardoning sins done in ignorance and weakness, it also gives a way to help prevent such sins. The people were told to make fringes on the edges of their garments. These were to be reminders of their duty, so they would not sin because they forgot God’s commands.

The sign was a fringe of thread, silk, or wool, or even the edge of the garment itself left hanging loose at the bottom, with a blue cord tied at the top to keep it in place (Numbers 15:38). Since the Jews were a special people, this also marked them off from their neighbors in their clothing, just as their food laws marked them off. Small signs like this taught them not to follow the nations in greater matters. They also showed, wherever they went, that they were not ashamed of God or his law.

Our Savior lived under the law, so he also wore these fringes. That is why we read about the hem, or border, of his garment (Matthew 9:20). The Pharisees, religious leaders among the Jews, made their fringes longer so people would think they were more holy and devout than others. The phylacteries were something different, since those were their own invention, while the fringes were a command from God. Even today, Jews wear them and say when putting them on, “Blessed is he who has made us his own and commanded us to wear fringes.”

The purpose of this command was to remind them that they belonged to God in a special way. The fringes were not given just to decorate their clothes, but to stir up their minds by reminding them of God’s will (2 Peter 3:1). When they looked at the fringe, they were to remember the commandments. Many people look at ornaments to feed their pride, but this one was meant to wake up their conscience and call them to duty. In that way, their religion would stay before them all the time, carried with them wherever they went, just as they carried their clothes.

If they were tempted to sin, the fringe was to warn them not to break God’s commandments. If they forgot to do a duty at the right time, it was to remind them. Though this command is not required of us, it still teaches us to keep the commandments of the Lord our God always in mind, to store them in our memory, and to apply them to each situation as needed. It was especially meant to keep them from idolatry, that is, from following their own desires and what their eyes wanted in worship.

Still, the lesson reaches further than idolatry. It applies to the whole life of obedience, because nothing is more against God’s honor, or our own true good, than to walk by our own heart and our own eyes. The heart’s imagination is evil, and so is the desire of the eyes.

After repeating some ceremonial commands, the chapter ends with that great and basic law of religion: “Be holy to your God,” cleansed from sin and truly devoted to his service. It also repeats the great reason behind all the commandments: “I am the Lord your God.” If we believed that more firmly, and thought about it more often and more seriously, we would feel bound by duty, by our own good, and by gratitude to keep all his commandments.