Day 27

Daily Reading: Luke 8:40-48

This passage has so much to say about believing God. Hebrews 11:1 instructs us that faith is two-fold: 1) the evidence of what God has already done in our lives and 2) the firm belief that God will do what He has promised.

This woman we find in Luke chapter 8 believed God.

There is an obscure passage in the OT, found in Malachi chapter 4 that mentions when Messiah comes, there will be healing in His wings. The word 'wings' however, has some other translations. The Hebrew word is kanaph. Kanaph could reference wings of bird, or the borders of a garmet like a prayer shawl that Rabbi's wore. At the edge of the kanaph, were some tassels, called tzitzit (seet-ZEE). These tassels had incredible significance. They had 5 knots representing the 5 books of the Torah. They had 4 spaces between the knots representing the Holy, Unpronouncable name of God, YHWH. Jews would grab there Tzitzit during times of temptation to tangibly remind them that 'God's way is the best way.'

This woman who had been bleeding for years, believed God. She believed that when Messiah come, there would be healing in his kanaph, and she believed Jesus was this promised Messiah.

So she left her house because she knew Messiah was coming. In her sick, weakened condition this could not have been easy. She fought her way through the crowds to where she knew Jesus was going to be. When she hears him coming so pushes and leans and gets through the crowd and the disciples just enough to grab the... edge of his garmet.

And the moment she touches the Tzitzit, she is healed.

The prayer shawl of the Messiah did not heal her. Her trust that God will do what He was promised healed her. Look what Jesus says in verse 48.

May we believe what we already know, and see God perform miracles in our lives today.

courage!
-davey