I believe a list of the top 5 living creatures in the world that we would not want to be, the worm would be one of those creatures. Most people, especially women, think they are disgusting. However, Jesus referred to himself as a worm. Many think that the worm that he identified himself with was the Crimson Worm. I thought the following article was very interesting:
Psalm 22 (sometimes called the Psalm of the Cross) is a great chapter of the Bible that tells about the suffering and death of Christ 1,000 years before he actually gave his life upon the cross. Verse 1 says, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? …” In the gospels of Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34, Jesus cried out the same words while hanging on the cross. This was the only time Jesus called God anything but Father. The reason was that taking our sin upon himself he had been separated from God. That’s what sin does, it separates us from God our Father. In verse 6 of Psalm 22, Jesus says something odd: “But I am a worm, and no man.” What did he mean by saying “I am a worm”?
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 colors of blood – deep red.
The Crimson worm 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, or a branch. 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 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 colored scarlet red for the rest of their lives.
After three days, the dead mother Crimson worm’s body loses its crimson color 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
Posted by Alpha Omega Institute on Nov 20, 2011 in Kid's Think & Believe Too!
Bro. John Paul, this may have been taken from a children's lesson from the AOI, but we adults need to hear MORE lessons just like this, Hebraic thought behind the words written. When we start trying to decipher what scripture says with today's cultural understanding, we destroy the Word of God, because we have not been taught to look at anything in scripture thru the Hebraic eyes that we should. When we look at scripture thru the lens of Hebrew thought, scripture takes on a whole new meaning. Just like this did, even if it was taken from a children's lesson. I LOVED it!! Teach us more!!! Thanks, patty
ReplyDeleteagree. We will miss some very wonderful meanings of scripture if we don’t understand fully the many of the words from the biblical languages. There is a book entitled The Book of Mysteries that Sherri and I have read that you may like. The author is Jonathan Cahn. He is a Messianic Jew. He has tremendous insight into the old languages. It is fiction, but very scripture based.
ReplyDeleteThanks for that info!! I will look into it. A year or so ago, I stuck my toe into the Hebrew alphabet and was amazed with just the tiny bit I learned. It is an eye opener. Is there a Bible with all the names of Yahweh and Yeshua and people in general, with all those Hebrew words left in, instead of the modern day translations? Probably making myself as clear as mud. hahaha I know what I want, but I don't know how to describe it to anyone. Like, in Hebrew, I believe Moses' name was Moshe. A lot of Hebrew thought and what God thinks has been lost in modern day translations. I believe in most modern day translations, going all the way back to KJV, Lord and God are the 2 words used to describe Yahweh. Maybe with different sized fonts in the spellings to be what makes the difference. There are so many words, with different meanings for who God really is and how He relates to us. "Big Man is the Sky" or "the Man upstairs" is NOT either of those descriptions, anywhere in the Bible, that I've ever seen. We don't have proper respect for who God really is.
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