The crimson worm

Psalm 22:6: But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people.

David’s penning of the twenty-second psalm was a prophecy of Jesus’ crucifixion on Calvary. Speaking in the first person, Jesus likened Himself to a worm, which in the Hebrew is “towla.” “Towla” refers to a very specific type of worm known as the scarlet or crimson worm that lives in the land of Israel. This worm is quite different to the worms found in the ground because it is actually an insect with little legs and a shell.

When the mother worm is ready to lay her eggs, she will climb up a tree and attach herself to it. Her shell will then turn into a hard red crimson shelter, and inside it she will lay her eggs and keep them under her body to protect them. When the baby worms have hatched, they feed on the body of the mother worm for three days; then when the mother worm is dead, she will ooze a bright crimson red fluid that stains the tree and covers the young worms underneath her, permanently staining them with its red colour and making them crimson worms for the rest of their lives.

After three days the young worms are ready to leave the shell of their now deceased mother who gave up her life so that she could birth a family. After her young have gone, her tail will pull up to her head and form a heart shape whilst she remains attached to the shell and to the tree. Although the crimson stain will remain on the tree, the body of the mother worm will change from a red colour into a snow-white waxy substance that looks like a little patch of wool on the side of the tree and which will disintegrate into falling flakes.

All of this reminds us of the words in 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. The crimson worm and its sacrificial death to birth a family is exactly what Jesus did for us on the cross when He died for our sin. He willingly went to Calvary’s tree and gave up His life so that we might be birthed and receive the life of His precious Holy Spirit. As the mother worm bled out a scarlet dye in the death she endured for her children, so Jesus poured out His blood for us on the cross. And as the baby worms became stained with the crimson dye that came from their mother whilst they fed upon her body, so we are washed from our sins and covered in Jesus’ own precious blood as we feed upon the unfailing body-Word of the Son of Man. And finally, as the crimson body of the deceased mother transformed into a snow-whiteness three days after her death, so also was Jesus transformed in His body when He rose to life on the third day, and we have been robed with His righteousness that is white as snow (Revelation 19:8).