I find myself amazed as I put things together in the Bible. The Lord is constantly teaching me links that are significant to His Lordship and this page is dedicated to those findings. I hope it is a blessing to all that read because there is so much more to Jesus, than we know!
Links Between the Two Sides
When God created Adam, he also created Eve. In Genesis 2:21 it reads, “So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh.” Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.”
In the Hebrew, the word for ribs in vs. 21, is tsela which means “side” or “rib” (Strong’s Concordance, 2019).
In the crucifixion, we also see that Jesus had His side pierced. What happens next is amazing. In John 19:34 (NIV) it reads, “Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water.” Here is the amazing part, while Adam had his side pierced to have Eve brought forth by God, Adam was still “in the flesh” and he had not yet sinned. In Romans 8:3 (NIV) it reads, “For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh.” The Greek word for flesh (sarx) refers to the sinful state of human beings, often presented as a power in opposition to the Spirit. The greek, homoióma means, “that which is made like something (Strongs 3667, 2019). God had His son take on the likeness of “flesh of man” in order to ‘condemn sin in the flesh.’ The flesh is always at war with the Spirit of God, but thanks to God, He took care of it on the cross.
Links Between Two Trees
In the Garden of Eden, the tree that was forbidden to Adam and Eve was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (Gen. 2:9). It was through this tree that sin entered humanity. I believe that because it was an ingested form of food, this “sin” affected our DNA and corrupted it. It is interesting that in science we learn that every human contains a genome code (DNA) that has a considerable amount of information that makes that person unique. If “sin” was able to corrupt our genetic code, it would be suffice to say that this agrees with the perspective that human DNA is getting “weaker” throughout each generation from the creation of man. It is to my understanding of biology, that complex information cannot be added to the existent DNA genome, only retraction can occur. With this being said, God cursed the Earth as punishment for disobedience and He held both Adam and Eve accountable for sin (Gen. 3:17-19). My point is that when sin entered humanity, it was a tree that was encasing that sin. When Jesus died on the cross, Jesus was crucified on a piece of wood, wood comes from trees. The tree that Jesus died on was significant because sin was permanently dealt with and an end was brought to it, through Jesus. A tree was present before sin and a tree was present at the end of its curse, with the crucifixion.
Links Between the Curse
We read in (Gen. 3:17-18) the curse that God placed on the ground because of sin and disobedience to God. When Jesus was crucified, a crown of thorns was placed on his head. Not only was this crown a mockery because He said He was the King of Israel, but it also represented the curse of the Earth. Thorns are a significant representation of “the curse of the ground.” Jesus took that curse and as it was placed upon His head, those large thorns (which still exist in Israel) pierced his “flesh.” Jesus was redeeming that curse from the Earth and reclaiming the rights to the Earth, when He died on the cross. One day, when He returns, He will make all things new (Rev. 21:5). When Jesus reigns from Earth, we will see that curse removed (Isaiah 11:5-9) and (Rev. 21:1-7). So we can see how just as thorns come onto the Earth as a result of sin, Jesus does away with that curse by dealing with it on the cross.
Links Between Blood and Water
As a woman, this truth hit me very hard when I considered it, after having given birth to my own children. Blood and water seem to be present when a woman is giving birth to a child. The “water” breaks or has to be broken and because of the obvious stretching of the vaginal wall, blood also comes out during birth. But what does this mean, Biblically? Blood is a substance that is essential for life. According to God, blood is required to make atonement for life (Lev. 17:11). When Adam and Eve sinned, it says that God “covered” their shame and clothed them with skins from an animal. In Gen. 3:21 it reads, “The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.” Yes, God could have just made skin garments, but I think this was a foreshadow of the sacrifice of an innocent life that would cover the sin of humanity through Adam and Eve and was a foreshadow of Jesus dying to atone for sin. If God used the skins of an animal, I often wonder whether that animal was a lamb. The Bible does not tell us, but it is assumed that God Himself killed this innocent animal as a sacrifice and covered Adam and Eve’s shame with the skin of this animal. Getting back to my point, when Jesus died on the cross, the soldiers were ordered to make sure that Jesus was dead before they removed Him from the cross. In John 19:34 it reads, “Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water.” As a Christian, I was told of the physical significance of this, it was due to the stress placed on the heart and how all the severe torture lead Jesus to have heart failure. I was most blessed when I read, “This is the One who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ – not by water alone, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who testifies to this, because the Spirit is truth. For there are three that testify: The Spirit, the water and the blood- and these three are in agreement.” (I John 5:6-8).
“The blood and water that flowed out, signified those two great benefits which all believers partake of through Christ, justification and sanctification; blood for atonement, water for purification. They both flow from the pierced side of our Redeemer. To Christ crucified we owe merit for our justification, and Spirit and grace for our sanctification. Let this silence the fears of weak Christians, and encourage their hopes; there came both water and blood out of Jesus’ pierced side, both to justify and sanctify them.” (Matthew Henry Commentary, 2019).
The birth of Jesus has so much in and of itself, maybe I’ll write a book about it, but the fact is that Jesus is worthy because He was born of blood and water and died of blood and water, sanctifying us through His suffering and atonement for sin.
Links Between Shame and Covering
In the garden of Eden, we see that “God covered their shame” and clothed them. Again, this was very symbolic of His pure love for humanity and how He would never allow sin to remain permanently in our lives because it separated us from God, spiritually. So as Adam and Eve were covered, Jesus’s shame was exposed. In John 19:23-24 it tells how Jesus was naked on the cross, His shame exposed to the world and every on looker that passed by. It is very symbolic of how Adam and Eve also had their shame exposed when they were kicked out of the garden. Although they were clothed physically, spiritually they were naked. Their shame brought on the punishment of being banished from paradise, permanently. But through Jesus atoning for our sins on the cross, we are welcomed back, spiritually and permanently for all that would acknowledge what God has done.
Link Between Punishment for Obedience and Disobedience
As we see Adam and Eve learned that disobedience to God brings forth punishment. I often find it interesting that although they understood they were being punished for disobedience, they never apologized or asked for forgiveness of their “sin.” As we look at Jesus on the cross, we see that Jesus took sin’s punishment onto His perfect body to redeem humanity from Hell and in turn, was showing His obedience to God. Jesus knew that His mission would be to come to take on the form of a human and take on the sin of the world. If Jesus had not been obedient, there would not have been any hope for humanity and we would just automatically go to Hell, after death. Through the obedience ofJesus, He received our punishment for sin, but it was only once. Once and for all. Jesus would be shamed, but later honored. Jesus would be mocked to later be praised and given the highest honor by God. Jesus wore a temporary crown of thorns to later receive a crown of gold! Jesus would be stripped naked of his robe, but would be gloried with a robe of righteousness, in His complete holiness. His body was marred beyond recognition, to only be glorified and resurrected later.
Links Between Hyssop Plant and Sin
Jesus had been beaten severely, had severe blood loss and was in excruciating pain (the cross is where we get the term from). At this point, Jesus was severely dehydrated and said in John 19:28, “I am thirsty.” Jesus was offered a drink two different times, while on the cross. Looking back at His birth, we remember that one of the gifts that was brought before Jesus was Myrrh. Myrrh was an odd gift, as the people of that time knew it was used for medicinal purposes, as a perfume, incense, for concealing the smell of a dead body and to dull pain. It is interesting to note that this tree, from which it is produced, will secrete a resin (myrhh) after it has been beaten repeatedly in order to bleed it from this gummy resin. In Mark 15:23, we read, “And they tried to give Hime wine mixed with myrhh; but he did not take it.” Why didn’t He? If Myrhh would only dull the pain that He was suffering, so it makes sense that Jesus would refuse it in order to take the full weight of this “cup to bear.” The Romans had mixed the myrrh with cheap vinegar wine. It was offered to help the sufferer endure the pain better, but Jesus refused. The second drink Jesus is offered, He drinks, just before His death. Why? It was to fulfill Psalm 69:21, “They gave me also gall for my meat;And in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.”
In Exodus 12:22, it reads, “Take a cluster of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin, and brush the top and the two side posts of the doorframe with some of the blood. None of you shall go out the door of his house until morning.” The hyssop plant was used to take on the innocent blood of a sacrificed lamb. It was placed above the door post and on each side, symbolic of the cross and how Jesus would die, in the future. The feast of the Passover was introduced as a means to escape the “destroyer”, which brought death. I love what it says, “For the LORD will pass through the land to strike down the Egyptians. But when he sees the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe, the LORD will pass over your home. He will not permit his death angel to enter your house and strike you down.” This “passing over” later became known as the Passover. It was a symbol to represent the form in which the Messiah would die. Unfortunately, many Jews today, still do not see the obvious correlation between the two. It was his last statement that all could view, the hyssop plant that was offered to Jesus was showing the Jews and the world that Jesus, Himself, was the Passover lamb whose blood had tainted the cross, redeeming the world of it’s sin and death would pass over Him. Absolutely, powerful! After that, He declared, “it is finished.” This was the Lord’s war cry to the powers of darkness. He went from being the sacrificial lamb – to the Lion roaring in victory!
Links Between the Worm and Jesus
Psalm 22 is a psalm that David wrote 1,000 years before the crucifixion of Jesus. It is a chapter that entails specific details about the death of Jesus on the cross. In Psalm 22:6 it reads, “But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by everyone, despised by the people.” This is an odd statement to make, while dying a gruesome death, right? Well, when we investigate it further, the word that Jesus used for “worm” is TOLA’ATH. This is translated as Crimson worm or scarlet worm. There is a worm that is found in the Middle East called a scarlet or crimson worm. The female only breeds once in her life, so she chooses a tree stump or a piece of wood and attaches herself to it. After that she forms a hard shell that acts like a protectant to herself and her babies that will follow. Her body then becomes food for her larvae. She literally sacrifices her flesh to give life to her babies! After the babies grow enough to sustain themselves, the Mother worm dies. As the Mother dies, she secretes a red dye that colors her children by completely covering them and dying them with her crimson red color. They remain that color for the rest of their lives. After three days, yes, three days, the Mother’s dead body turns white and appears to be like wax. It then detaches from the wood and falls to the ground like a snowflake. The evidence of her presence is in the crimson colored stain on that piece of wood.
When I discovered this passage and the link between Psalm 22:6 and the Crimson Worm that actually exists, I saw how beautifully the worm compliments what the Lord Jesus did on that cross for us. Like the worm, Jesus covers us with His Holy blood that is permanently on our soul for all of eternity, making us Holy in God’s eyes. Jesus and His Word (Bible) feeds us and sustains us spiritually and how amazing that after three days, Jesus was glorified into a new body, no longer tainted by His blood, but pure as snow. This link is absolutely awesome and one of my favorites.
Giving God The Glory 