God Rending His Garments
February 12, 2007
Dear Friends,
Did you ever consider that there is no direct mention in the Scriptures of God grieving over the death of His son? How odd that the very emotion we would most associate with the loss of a child is almost entirely absent in the Scriptures. We have a couple of passages where grief is implied such as Amos 8:10. This stands in stark contrast to the other Godly emotions that are more readily apparent in Scripture such as love, anger and even pleasure (Is. 53:10).
In the following, we would suggest that God did grieve. In fact, He grieved greatly. Although it is not readily apparent, we would suggest that God’s grief was shown in the rending of the Temple veil when Jesus died.
When Jesus died, the first thing that happened was that the veil of the Temple was rent from top to bottom. The veil was rent from top to bottom because the Lord did it, not man. The writer to the Hebrews gives us a reason for this.
Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; and having an high priest over the house of God. (Heb. 10:19-21)
In other words, Jesus opened a new way for us to approach God by dying on the cross. While this is true, perhaps there is another significance of the veil tearing.
You will recall that there are many instances in the Scriptures where
people tear their clothes. Many times this act was a symbol of mourning
or grief. Here are some of the examples:
- Joseph Sold: And Reuben returned unto the pit; and, behold, Joseph was not in the pit; and he rent his clothes. (Gen 37:29)
- Benjamin Found with “Stolen” Money: Then they rent their clothes, and laded every man his ass, and returned to the city. (Gen 44:13).
- Eli, Hophni and Phineas Slain: And there ran a man of Benjamin out of the army, and came to Shiloh the same day with his clothes rent, and with earth upon his head. (1 Sam 4:12).
- When Absalom Appeared to Kill His Brothers: Then the king arose, and tare his garments, and lay on the earth; and all his servants stood by with their clothes rent. (2 Sam 13:31).
- When Assyria Attacks Jerusalem: Then came Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, that was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the recorder, to Hezekiah with their clothes rent, and told him the words of Rabshakeh. (Isa 36:22)
- When Paul is Confused with a Pagan Deity: Which when the apostles, Barnabas and Paul, heard of, they rent their clothes, and ran in among the people, crying out. (Acts 14:14).
What you may not know is that according to Jewish law, this was not a random tearing of the garments, but a specific tear of the clothes over the wearer’s heart called in Hebrew keriah meaning “cut.” (1) In this way, the tear in the garment is symbolic of a tear in the heart or as we might say in our modern vernacular, a “broken heart.” Even today, in some Jewish traditions, this “heart-rending” procedure is followed. According to one Jewish website, “Today, as part of the funeral ritual, the mourners are given a small black cloth attached by a pin to their clothing. This is then cut as the mourners say Abaruch dayan emet—blessed is the True Judge.”(2)
This idea behind this practice is Biblical as we learn from the prophet Joel when he says “rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God.” (Joel 2:13) As God told Israel so many times throughout the Bible, he wanted the true form of worship—in this case true sorrow for sin—and not merely the ritual.
The connection between the tearing of the garments in mourning and the veil in the temple come together when we read Isaiah 6:1 which says “In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.” The word “train” is the Hebrew word shuwl meaning a garment such as the priest’s robe or a skirt. Often it referred to the hem or very bottom of the priest’s robe. Since the only cloth item in the temple is the veil, the “robe” or “hem” that filled the temple would have to be the bottom of the metaphorical robe of God. The idea is that God’s robe spilled out of heaven and into the Temple as represented by the veil.
If our assessment is correct, the rending of the veil when Jesus died was highly significant. It was a visible expression of the grief of God over the death of His son. His heart was torn apart by the death of His son. He didn’t just rip a small spot over his heart, He ripped it all the way down past the hem.
May heed the Lord’s advice when we consider the great price that was paid for our redemption and the grief our Heavenly Father endured in giving us His only son – “rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God.”
Have a great week,
We would like to thank Trey Williams for bringing this lesson to our attention. He was taught this by his mother, Vicki Husted.
(1) from www.chabad.org
(2) www.tbsonline.org/ritualprayers_keriah.asp
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