Renting Clothes

[Carl Miller]

I have this ponderance rattling inside my head, so I thought I would drop it here and see what came of it.

The topic is renting clothes, not like for a wedding when you are a groomsman and need a tux, but like in Old Testament times when you were grief stricken and needed an outlet for that gut wrenching reaction to hearing of the death of someone close.

In the book of Genesis when Jacob learned of his favorite son’s death he “rent his clothes”.

          Ge:37:33: And he knew it, and said,

                    It is my son's coat; an

                    evil beast hath devoured him;

                    Joseph is without doubt rent in pieces.

          Ge:37:34: And Jacob rent his clothes,

                    and put sackcloth upon his loins,

                    and mourned for his son many days.

Joseph was a son long awaited by Jacob. Fourteen years of labor to earn his wife Rachel and then after years of her infertility Joseph was born. So great was Jacob’s joy that he loved Joseph more than his other children. Upon hearing of Joseph’s death Jacob was devastated, tore his clothes and went into mourning.

Let’s fast forward a few millenniums, another Son long awaited and anticipated by his Father hangs on a cross. About mid-afternoon after days of suffering to fulfill His Father’s will, utters the words “it is finished” and dies.

          M't:27:51: And, behold, the veil of the temple

                     was rent in twain from the top

                     to the bottom; and the earth did quake,

                     and the rocks rent;

The veil to the Holy of Holies, the Heart of God to Israel, The only piece of clothing God wore was ripped top to bottom to show God’s grief at the death of His Son and with that death we are cleansed and given access to the Father.