Red Red
For those astute scholars, our title will send your mind correctly back to the First Adam, that is the Adam and Eve, Adam, that is. Now the Hebrew name for Adam is translated fairly accurately as “Red Red Mud,” or “Red Red Man,” Strong’s 120 is “Ruddy” which we call red-brown, and as Adam was made from “the Dust of the ground,” we can be fairly sure that it was a type of red clay soil, hence the “Red Man.”
If we play this theme and we jump to Isaiah 1:18 “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.” Here scarlet and red are interconnected; but now we get to the text in question.
Psalm 22:6 “But I [am] a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people.” Here King David points out that Messiah Jesus Christ (Messiah ben Yoseph) will be humble like a worm. One preacher put it this way, tread on a worm and it bleed’s, rolls over and dies; but tread on a snake and it rears up, bites you in the leg and kills you.
Quote: The Hebrew word here for the worm is tow-lah which is a specific worm found in the Middle East: coccus ilicis, the crimson grub. Pregnant crimson worms attach their bodies to the trunk of oak trees and cover themselves with a hard protective shell in order to secure their eggs from hungry predators. The mother never leaves the tree again; and as she dies, red coloured fluid oozes from her body and stains both her body and the wood of the tree. In ancient times the dried, hardened bodies of these worms were scraped from the tree and ground into powder, because they provided valuable red pigment for the cloth-dying industry. To this day, we still use something similar for red colouring: you might want to check the ingredients on any food you purchase that has been coloured red. If the ingredients include cochineal or carmine, well that’s derived from the body of a South American insect.
The mother crimson worm gives her life-on a tree, no less-so that her children may live. The red essence she produces was used to dye or stain many things, and often, when you see the word scarlet in the Bible, it is a reference to the dye that came from this worm. From Jesus before Jesus by Shawn Boonstra P105-6
This certainly puts a totally different angle or concept onto the “Calvary Tree” which was stained with the crimson flow that became our new life. Revelation 7:14 “And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” It is illogical that a crimson dye can make cloth pure white, but this is a “Spiritual Concept,” where the shedding of blood is the remission for sin {Heb 9:22} or the removal of the crimson stain of sin, by a Red/Scarlet ingredient, one therefore becomes sinless and pure white, all because of the Tree called Calvary, where a death occurred, a fluid leaked out from a dying Saviour, that has given us life everlasting.
Quote: “You have confessed your sins, and in heart put them away. You have resolved to give yourself to God. Now go to Him, and ask that He will wash away your sins and give you a new heart. Then believe that He does this because He has promised. This is the lesson which Jesus taught while He was on earth, that the gift which God promises us, we must believe we do receive, and it is ours. Jesus healed the people of their diseases when they had faith in His power; He helped them in the things which they could see, thus inspiring them with confidence in Him concerning things which they could not see—leading them to believe in His power to forgive sins. . . .” {CSA 30}
“Thus Christ, in His own spotless righteousness, after shedding His precious blood, enters into the holy place to cleanse the sanctuary. And there the crimson current is brought into the service of reconciling God to man. Some may look upon this slaying of the Red Heifer as a meaningless ceremony, but it was done by the command of God and bears a deep significance that has not lost its application to the present time. . . . The blood of Christ is efficacious, but it needs to be applied continually. . . . If it was necessary in ancient times for the unclean to be purified by the blood of sprinkling, how essential for those living in the perils of the last days, and exposed to the temptations of Satan, to have the blood of Christ applied to their hearts daily.” {FLB 200}
That pierced side whence flowed the crimson stream that reconciled man to God,—there is the Saviour’s glory, there “the hiding of his power.” “Mighty to save,” through the sacrifice of redemption, he was therefore strong to execute justice upon them that despised God’s mercy. And the tokens of his humiliation are his highest honour; through the eternal ages the wounds of Calvary will show forth his praise, and declare his power.” {GC88 674}
So we have yet another concept of saving, protection and a new birth, just like the mother Crimson Worm (Jesus), who made protection for her children (Holy Spirit) and then gave her life so that the children may live (Jesus – Calvary), so what is your response “Dear Reader” to this amazing free gift, let us be regularly washing our robes and making them white in the crimson flood.
