Always given in the same order: blue, purple and scarlet.
Why did she touch the hem of His garment (Matthew 9:20)?
Diseased and suffering as she was, wouldn't it have been easier to touch His sleeve? What was significant about the border of Jesus' robe?
(Numbers 15:37-40) "Speak unto the children of Israel and bid them that they make fringes in the borders of their garments and upon the fringe a cord of blue." This command followed the stoning of a man who gathered firewood on the Sabbath day.
We can grieve the Lord by trying to assess the size of the sin instead of being prostrate before God's awful holiness.
We need to humbly recognize that Heaven is concerned with the daily details of earth.
The heavenly colour was to be a constant reminder to the individual that he belonged to God, that Heaven was involved in the affairs of earth and that the Lord's commandments were to be obeyed. The gracious character of God was to be, figuratively, the ornament of his dress and a witness to others.
Why did the sick woman not go to the Pharisees?
Did these religious leaders not have blue borders on their robes?
Yes; but for all the wrong reasons. They actually enlarged the blue band on their clothes (Matthew 23:5), not to direct attention to God but to attract notice to themselves, to receive praise from people, to gain a reputation and human applause.
The blue, alone, as the reminder of God and His holy law, was not enough and the significance of colours is shown in the veil of the temple (Exodus 36:35 and other verses). Always given in the same order: blue, purple and scarlet; the beauty of the blue, the depth of purple, the brilliancy of scarlet. The blue is pre-eminent and is always mentioned first. Blue is lovely, it attracts without dazzling the eye and is spread over the boundless expanse of the heavens. The dark clouds and the storms are passing and temporary but the blue remains.
Blue represents the gracious, holy character of the God of Love, displayed in the Lord Jesus.
Scarlet is the gorgeous colour belonging to the earth and its vivid tints are reflected in the flowers and produce of the soil. Scarlet typifies the human perfection of Jesus, Who exhibited the true dignity of man. But for us, our sins were as scarlet and we could have no relationship with all that was represented by the heavenly blue.
So God, in His mercy, formed a new colour by mingling the two. The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14). The Lord from Heaven came down and the blue was shaded off into its opposite, the scarlet. The intense scarlet is softened by imperceptible degrees into the blue. The purple is a new colour, formed by blending the two. It owes its peculiar beauty to both and its special character would be lost without the perfect proportion of both.
Jesus is both God and Man and He is the Bridge of Purple. He is the Lord, the Blue of Heaven, and He brought down the Blue. He is the Man, the Scarlet of earth, Christ Jesus, and when He ascended He became the Way which opened Paradise for the scarlet. Because, in Him, both Heaven and earth, blue and scarlet, now are blended, we on earth can have intimate relationship with the Sovereign God of Heaven. Jesus is the Purple, the Mediator between God and man.
Now we, as representatives of our ascended Saviour, are the purple to introduce to the people of the earth all that Heaven means.
Are my spiritual garments so clearly bordered with heavenly blue, that people in need will see Jesus in me? The order never changes: Blue, Purple and Scarlet; the Blue of God's gracious, loving provision; the Scarlet of needy humans gone desperately astray, and the Purple to bring them together.
HALLELUJAH, WHAT A SAVIOUR!
May we never be colour-blind.
With love & prayers,