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CHRIST OUR ‘SCARLET WORM’ OR ‘CRIMSON GRUB’

Posted by Julie Edensor on 1 April 2015

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CHRIST OUR ‘SCARLET WORM’ OR ‘CRIMSON GRUB’
– is this a description of One who would give His blood for the world?

Psalm 22  is known as ‘The Psalm of Sobs’ it depicts Christ’s death on the Cross and in verse 6 Christ describes Himself as a ‘worm’ ... “But I am a WORM, and not a man, a reproach of men, and despised by the people.”

The Hebrew word used here for ‘worm’ is ‘tolaath’ (Strong’s 8438) in Hebrew meaning  ‘crimson grub’ this word is often found with (Strong’s 8144) ‘shaniy’ meaning ‘crimson’.

Usually in the Bible, the Hebrew word for a worm is ‘rimmah’, which means a maggot – but the Hebrew word Jesus used here for worm, is ‘TOLA’ATH’, which means ‘Crimson worm’ or ‘Scarlet worm’. Both scarlet and crimson are the colours of blood – deep red.
 
The Crimson worm ‘coccus ilicis’ is a very special worm that looks more like a grub than a worm. When it is time for the female or mother Crimson worm to have babies (which she does only one time in her life), she finds the trunk of a tree, a wooden fencepost or a stick. She then attaches her body to that wood and makes a hard crimson shell.  She is so strongly and permanently stuck to the wood that the shell can never be removed without tearing her body completely apart and killing her.
 
The Crimson worm then lays her eggs under her body and the protective shell. When the baby worms (or larvae) hatch, they stay under the shell. Not only does the mother’s body give protection for her babies, but it also provides them with food – the babies feed on the LIVING body of the mother!
 
After just a few days, when the young worms grow to the point that they are able to take care of themselves, the mother dies. As the mother Crimson worm dies, she oozes a crimson or scarlet red dye which not only stains the wood she is attached to, but also her young children. They are coloured scarlet red for the rest of their lives.
 
After THREE days, the dead mother Crimson worm’s body loses its crimson colour and turns into a white wax which falls to the ground like snow. So what did Jesus mean by saying “I am a worm”? There are a lot of ideas what Jesus might have meant, but nobody really knows for sure. However, it is very interesting that, just like the Crimson worm, Jesus sacrificed or gave up his life on a tree so that his children might be washed with his crimson blood and their sins cleaned white as snow. He died for us, that we might live through him!
 
“Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” Isaiah 1:18
 
CrimThe end of Psalm 22 declares “Posterity will serve Him; it will be told of the Lord to the coming generation. They will come and will declare His righteousness to a people who will be born, that He has performed it.” (Psalm 22 v 30/31) – the Hebrew word carries the meaning of ‘He has FINISHED it’ - “When Jesus therefore had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished! And He bowed His head, and gave up His spirit.” (John 19 v 30).

I join you today and everyday in thanking our Father in Heaven that He sent His only Son our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to die on the Tree to cover us with HIS CRIMSON BLOOD!

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