A prophetic worm

When Jesus was nearing His death on the cross, He uttered these words:

Matth 27: 46  About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).

He was quoting directly from the first verse of Ps 22, validating the fact that it is a prophetic Psalm describing the agony that He had to endure there. What He experienced then was so dark and complex and extreme, it must have been beyond any emotional comprehension for someone who had already suffered the physical and mental torture that He had had to go through. For not only did He have to experience the withdrawal of His Father’s loving presence, but He also had to face God’s wrath being poured out on Him as He took our sin upon Himself.

In our quoted verse above, David refers to a worm. The word used is “tola”, or scarlet worm, and it is from these worms that the scarlet dye that they used to colour the Temple curtains, was made. We can easily see the symbolism of the sacrifices and spilled blood that was necessary for the Israelites to meet with their God here.

But there is much more. The lifecycle of the tola worm hides an incredible story – the story of our redemption! When the mature worm is ready to give birth, it climbs a tree, attaches itself to the bark and makes a cocoon for itself. After the baby worms hatch, they start feeding on the living mother for three days. The mother then dies, turns into a waxy white shell which falls to the ground, leaving a scarlet stain on the tree.

As David prophetically calls himself that particular worm, we can see Jesus being nailed to the wood; giving up His life so that we may be born again; dying in our place so that we can be seen as whiter than snow – sinless – before Abba; and His blood leaving a scarlet stain on the cross.

We can but stand in awe of the way in which God built the prophetic signs of His plan of redemption into nature itself!

Pearls to ponder:

We need to learn how to see and not just look; how to listen and not just hear. It is only then that these incredible pearls will be revealed to us. God sustains life on earth through a finely tuned interconnected set of complex systems. Choose an activity that will expose you to them, e.g. take a walk; visit the zoo; read a travel or nature magazine; do a Google image search for something basic like flower or mountain; look up intricate maths formulas that are inherent in nature. And fall down in worship before Elohim, our great Creator God that invites us to call Him Father!