From Lion to worm...

He has roared like a lion; now He says, “I am a worm.” It is because He has reached the very lowest place,

“He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not” Isaiah 53:3.

~ J. Vernon McGee

Lower Still - My Epic (Lyric Video)

Look, he's covered in dirt The blood of his mother has mixed with the Earth And she's just a child who's throbbing in pain From the terror of birth by the light of a cave

Now they've laid that small baby Where creatures come eat Like a meal for the swine who have no clue that he Is still holding together the world that they see They don't know just how low he has to go Lower still

Look now he's kneeling he's washin' their feet Though they're all filthy fishermen, traitors and theives Now he's pouring his heart out and they're fallin' asleep But he has to go lower still

There is greater love to show Hands to the plow Further down now Blood must flow

All these steps are personal All his shame is ransom Oh do you see, do you see just how low, he has come Do you see it now? No one takes from him What he freely gives away

Beat in his face Tear the skin off his back Lower still, lower still Strip off his clothes Make him crawl through the streets Lower still, lower still Hang him like meat On a criminal's tree Lower still, lower still Bury his corpse in the Earth Like a seed, like a seed, like a seed Lower still, lower still

Lower still, lower still...

The Earth explodes She cannot hold him! And all therein is placed beneath Him And death itself no longer reigns It cannot keep the ones he gave himself to save And as the universe shatters the darkness disolves He alone will be honored We will bathe in his splendor As all heads bow lower still All heads bow lower still

Psalm 22 parallels will blow your mind! The Messiah's suffering and reign prophesied by David. | One For Israel

The ONE to do it!

The blood of the sacrificial lamb, the Messiah, is what sets us free. It is interesting to note that the word blood (dahm) shares the same root for the word red (aw-dehm), which ultimately came out of the Hebrew word for humankind (aw-dahm/‘Adam’). Yeshua, through the shedding of blood, was the crimson worm who would remove our scarlet sin so that all that would be left was pure white. We needed redemption and Yeshua was the one to do it. ~ Sarah Fisher

"We should speak of what Christ has done. That last verse from Psalm 22 tells us that this message will never get old! It says that each generation to come will speak to the next and tell of what the Lord has performed - that He has done it! It is finished! And you and I get that privilege of sharing that message as well. A message of the Son of God, who became a lamb, and the lamb, a worm... so that we, who are worms, could take our place in the family as sons of God. It is an eternal message that never gets old."

Gordon Wilton

Psalm 22: Prophecy Explained | Evidence Unseen

A pertinent question and a hidden answer in the Book of Job

Bildad asks probably the most important question anyone can ask; “How can a man be just (clean, righteous) before God.” He says how can it happen? “Man is a maggot, and the son of man, that worm!” [Job 25:4-6].

I don't think he knew that the answer to his question was in his very words!

He rightfully points out that man is a worm (or maggot). Fair enough! He is right. And then he says and the son of man, that scarlet worm! I can almost see God nodding saying…

"Yes, exactly Bildad. That is how I am going to do it. You ask how man, an unclean maggot, can be righteous and clean before Me and rightfully so for that is the most critical question a man can ask. My Son, my precious Son, will become the Son of Man. And the Son of man will become this very crimson worm you speak of, giving His life so that you and others may be washed clean. That is how I will do it and that is the only way a man can be just before Me.'

~ Gordon Wilton

“WORM THEOLOGY”

“WORM THEOLOGY,” is used to describe the dehumanizing effect that sin has on us.

“Worm theology” is not the whole story of the human race. It’s not where our story starts [Genesis 1, 2], and it’s not where it will end [Revelation 21, 22]. But it is part of our story, and, its currently ‘the’ part of our story [Genesis 3‒Revelation 20].

“Worm theology” therefore, offers a more expansive understanding of what it means to be a human made in the image of God, this side of the Fall, and this side of Judgment Day.

In an age obsessed with self-esteem and loving yourself, “worm theology” says it’s precisely by looking hard at ourselves in the mirror and taking seriously what sin has done to worms like us, that we’ll understand who we are and will be able to accept the truth of what God has done for weak, and disfigured people. What they cannot do for themselves, that is: save, redeem, justify, sanctify, and bring into glory.

After all, the damage sin has done to the human race, and that the ‘Grace of God’ needs to fix, really is very serious.

Only Christ Jesus himself, the perfect human being and true God, can redeem these deposed kings and queens from their exile.

~ All Nations Church Ilford

Psalm 22 - A Prophecy of the Crucifixion and Victory | Calvary Chapel Ontario

Only His blood, my friend, can rub out that dark, deep spot in your life!

Lady Macbeth, sleepwalking that night, went up and down rubbing her hands, insane with the guilt of murder. She says, “All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.” And she was right; they could not. She seemed to be continually washing her hands as she rubbed them together, and she cried, “Out damned spot! out, I say!” (Macbeth, Act V, Scene 1).

My friend, there is only one thing that will take the spot of sin out of your life, that is the blood of Christ. The blood of the Lord Jesus, God’s Son, cleanses from all sin. Only His blood. ~ J. Vernon McGee

In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace. [Ephesians 1:7]

Who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. [Philippians 2:6-7]

How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? [Hebrews 9:14]

Knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, 19 but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. [1 Peter 1:18]

To Him who loves us, and released us from our sins by His blood. [Revelation 1:5b ]

And they sang a new song, saying, "Worthy art Thou to take the book, and to break its seals; for Thou wast slain, and didst purchase for God with Thy blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. [Revelation 5:9 ]

CRIMSON AND SCARLET:

This color scarlet was early known (Genesis 38:28). It is also mentioned in various other connections (Joshua 2:18; 2 Samuel 1:24; Lamentations 4:5; Nahum 2:3).

These colors figured largely in the symbolisms of the Tabernacle furnishing, and priestly vestments and functions, As types and shadows of the atonement. Scarlet (tola) was used for the ten Tabernacle curtains (Exodus 26:1), the veil separating the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies (Exodus 26:31), the screen covering the one entryway into the Tabernacle (Exodus 26:36 - Christ said "I am the door" John 10:9, cp John 14:6), the garments of the high priest and his ephod (Exodus 28:5-6, 8), a breast-piece of judgment (covered with twelve stones symbolizing the twelve tribes, with a pouch for the Urim and Thummim, over Aaron's heart before the LORD continually - Exodus 28:29).

A scarlet robe was in mockery placed on our Lord (Matthew 27:28; Luke 23:11). "Sins as scarlet" ( Isaiah 1:18 ), i.e., as scarlet robes "glaring and habitual”.

Scarlet and crimson were the firmest of dyes, and thus not easily washed out.

~ Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature

Little Red Worm

There is a little red worm which seems to be nothing else but blood when it is crushed. It seems all gone except a blood-stain. And the Savior, in the deep humiliation of His spirit, compares Himself to that little red worm. How true it is that ‘He made Himself of no reputation’ for our sakes! He emptied Himself of all His Glory, and if there is any glory natural to manhood, He emptied Himself even of that! Not only the glories of His Godhead, but also the honors of His Manhood He laid aside that it might be seen that ‘though He was rich, yet for our sakes He became poor.

~ Charles H. Spurgeon

Psalm 22 - The Servant of God Forsaken, Rescued, and Triumphant | David Guzik

"The glorious garments of our salvation are the garments that have been procured as a result of His death and His suffering."

H.A. Ironside