I am so excited that the riches of God are inexhaustible. His Word tells us the most amazing things, if we have eyes to see. Today I am sharing an amazing truth about a WORM. A WORM!!! Maybe you’ve known this since you were five but I didn’t until my friend Maggie shared it with me. And it is so incredible I just had to share it. Spoiler alert - be prepared to be blown away!
On the cross, Jesus cries out the familiar words “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” at about the ninth hour (around 3 PM), which translates to “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34. Many of us know a little bit about this. He is quoting Psalm 22:1 and this is apparently the moment that all our sin is laid on Him. He becomes sin and God turns His face away because He cannot look on sin. Jesus has never been out of fellowship with His Father and the pain of that is unbearable. He who knew no sin literally became sin for you and for me and it was costly indeed. This, more than the excruciating physical pain, was what His soul dreaded when He was praying the night before. “Father, if it be Your Will, let this cup pass from me”.(Matthew 26:39) Profound. Sobering. Impactful.
But there is a deeper layer of meaning that I never knew until Maggie shared a video with me. And I have been excited ever since. Jesus is not only responding with intense grief to the broken fellowship with His Father, He is also pointing us to Psalm 22, which His followers then would have been familiar with. Those of us who follow Him today, maybe not so familiar.
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?
2 O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer,
and by night, but I find no rest.
3 Yet you are holy,
enthroned on the praises[a] of Israel.
4 In you our fathers trusted;
they trusted, and you delivered them.
5 To you they cried and were rescued;
in you they trusted and were not put to shame.
6 But I am a worm and not a man,
scorned by mankind and despised by the people.
7 All who see me mock me;
they make mouths at me; they wag their heads;
8 “He trusts in the Lord; let him deliver him;
let him rescue him, for he delights in him!”
9 Yet you are he who took me from the womb;
you made me trust you at my mother's breasts.
10 On you was I cast from my birth,
and from my mother's womb you have been my God.
11 Be not far from me,
for trouble is near,
and there is none to help.
12 Many bulls encompass me;
strong bulls of Bashan surround me;
13 they open wide their mouths at me,
like a ravening and roaring lion.
14 I am poured out like water,
and all my bones are out of joint;
my heart is like wax;
it is melted within my breast;
15 my strength is dried up like a potsherd,
and my tongue sticks to my jaws;
you lay me in the dust of death.
16 For dogs encompass me;
a company of evildoers encircles me;
they have pierced my hands and feet[b]—
17 I can count all my bones—
they stare and gloat over me;
18 they divide my garments among them,
and for my clothing they cast lots.
19 But you, O Lord, do not be far off!
O you my help, come quickly to my aid!
20 Deliver my soul from the sword,
my precious life from the power of the dog!
21 Save me from the mouth of the lion!
You have rescued[c] me from the horns of the wild oxen!
22 I will tell of your name to my brothers;
in the midst of the congregation I will praise you:
23 You who fear the Lord, praise him!
All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him,
and stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel!
24 For he has not despised or abhorred
the affliction of the afflicted,
and he has not hidden his face from him,
but has heard, when he cried to him.
25 From you comes my praise in the great congregation;
my vows I will perform before those who fear him.
26 The afflicted[d] shall eat and be satisfied;
those who seek him shall praise the Lord!
May your hearts live forever!
27 All the ends of the earth shall remember
and turn to the Lord,
and all the families of the nations
shall worship before you.
28 For kingship belongs to the Lord,
and he rules over the nations.
29 All the prosperous of the earth eat and worship;
before him shall bow all who go down to the dust,
even the one who could not keep himself alive.
30 Posterity shall serve him;
it shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation;
31 they shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn,
that he has done it.
This psalm is clearly prophetic of Jesus. Not only foreshadowing the words Jesus would cry out from the cross, not only the description of his death by crucifixion (vs. 14-18) , not only telling of the Ruling King for Eternity (vs. 25-31), but also the reason for today’s post.
The worm. Verse 6.
Turns out it is all about the work of redemption done on the Cross. AMAZING.
The Hebrew word here that we translate “worm” is not the normal run of the mill worm. That word is “rimmah” Instead, it is a word for a specific type of worm. “Towla” A specific worm of the Middle East. A worm that depicts sacrificial redemption.
Let me explain what I found when I investigated….
The “TOWLA” worm is usually called the Crimson or Scarlet Worm. The dead bodies of these worms were used to make a crimson or scarlet dye. This dye was used for the robes of the High Priest and the coverings of the Tabernacle. It is also believed that the remnants of these dead worms were used to make a shellac-type substance to preserve wood and some sources even say that this dye is today used medicinally for human heart regulation.
When the female crimson worm is ready to lay her eggs, which happens only once in her life, she climbs up a tree or fence and attaches herself to it. With her body attached to the wooden tree, a hard crimson shell forms. It is a shell so hard and so secured to the wood that it can only be removed by tearing apart the body, which would kill the worm.
The female worm lays her eggs under her body, under the protective shell. When the larvae hatch, they remain under the mother’s protective shell so the baby worms can feed on the living body of the mother worm for three days. After three days, the mother worm dies, and her body excretes a crimson or scarlet dye that stains the wood to which she is attached and her baby worms. The baby worms remain crimson-colored for their entire lives. Thereby, they are identified as crimson worms.
On the morning of the fourth day, the worm pulls the head and tail together and now in the shape of a heart on the tree but is no longer crimson. It is now a wax, which is white as snow. The snow white-wax looks like a little patch of wool on the side of the tree and begins to flake off and drop to the ground like snow. (Sources: Nazarene notes, people.smu.edu)
WOW.
Isaish 1:18 - Come now, let us reason together says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they are read like crimson (same word as the Towla worm), they shall be as wool.
I don’t know if many who read this Psalm in Old Testament days understood what it was prophesying - the cost of sin, the death details of a crucifixion, and the redemption story told by the Crimson worm. I don’t know if many of us today saw this richness either. But I do believe that when Jesus cried out from the cross, He was telling the story. He was pointing to the Truth of the redemption story. And He was drawing out attention to the very unique little critter He had fashioned from the beginning of time to tell us the Good News, to show us the Gospel..
AMAZING