The Scarlet Thread

Theme of a Scarlet Thread

Theological Theme

Theologians have on many occasions referred to the scarlet thread that runs throughout scripture. For any Christian that has even a rudimentary understanding of scripture I don't think it requires much imagination to understand what these theologians are speaking of. Scarlet, from strictly a symbolic standpoint pictures blood.

Adam & Eve

From the very beginning Adam and Eve in the garden were found naked in the shame of their sin and what they gonna do? God sacrificed animals so that Adam and Eve could have their shame covered. From what we read of the patriarchs Abraham Isaac and Jacob long before prescribe sacrifices were ever a thing for Israel, we find blood sacrifices being made to God.

Job

We read of sacrifice in the what is considered to be the oldest written book of the Bible, Job. Joe who may have been a contemporary too the patriarchs seem to have gone above and beyond

Job 1:5 KJV 1900

5 And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all: for Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually.

A blood sacrifice was made continually buy job not just for his own sins but in case his sons may have sent. That is pretty serious.

The Temple

And of course we come to the continual sacrifices that were made in the tabernacle and then ultimately the temple. That is what we have been spending a lot of time studying on our Sunday mornings. This picture that God gave to Israel through the tabernacle and the furniture and the sacrifices and the priests.

There is a collection of Jewish oral traditions known as the Mishnah. It holds enough weight in the Jewish religion that it is nicknamed the Oral Torah. In it, it was said that there was so much blood as a result of the sacrifices — that the priests were wading in blood up to their knees. It has been claimed that in one day 1.2 million lambs were slaughtered, it’s amazing that they didn’t go extinct for was many of them were killed!

The Cross

And of course we come to the cross. Today is Easter and we are celebrating the resurrection of Christ. Before we could have the resurrection we had to have the sacrifice. Again that Scarlet thread works its way through redemptive history ultimately to arrive at Calvary. The blood of the perfect man, God and very God become flash.

A Bloody Religion

Christianity is a bloody religion. If you think about it we sing songs that out of context seem gruesome. Are you washed in the blood? There is a fountain, filled with blood? And There is Power in the Blood?

And it is because of this truth that we touched on last week. Lev 17:11

Leviticus 17:11 KJV 1900

11 For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.

Sin is Serious

Christianity is a religion that takes sin very seriously because we worship a god that takes sin very seriously. We understand that the penalty for sin, the penalty for humanities rebellion against an all mighty God is death. It takes death to satisfy sin. And the death we are talking about is eternal.

Pictures

We have been discussing the them symbology, the pictures that we are given by God in the sacrificial system. We even went to far as to say that Christ’s death on the cross was both very real and very literal but also pointed to a heavenly reality, an atoning sacrifice made in the heavenly temple that is so great that it is far beyond human comprehension.

Death as a Picture

But, if I can step it back to something more immediate in our understanding. The death that we see in this world, human death, is also just a picture. Death is awful. There is no greater heartache than to face the reality death. There is no thought more chilling, then for us to consider our own mortality. But, physical death is just a picture — physical death, as supremely bad as that is in our ability to grasp the world, is only a shadow of true death. Spiritual Death. Eternal Death. The wages of sin isn’t a final breath in this world, the wages of sin written about in Romans 6:23 is an endless tragedy that like the cross is far beyond our human comprehension.

This Mornings Message

Our message this morning is concerned with this scarlet thread. In fact that is the name of our message. The Scarlet Thread.

Let’s Pray

Literal Scarlet Thread

We are ultimately more concerned with the figurative scarlet thread found woven throughout scripture. But there are quite a few mentions of literal scarlet thread in our Bibles.

In Genesis 38:38 is our first mention of the word scarlet, and the first instance of a scarlet thread being used. We aren’t going to go into the whole, terrible account, but Judah fathered twin boys by his daughter-in-law Tamar. What I want to look at is what it says of the birth of these boys in v28

Genesis 38:28 KJV 1900

28 And it came to pass, when she travailed, that the one put out his hand: and the midwife took and bound upon his hand a scarlet thread, saying, This came out first.

Kermes Worm

If you were to read this passage in the Septuigent, the greek translation of the Old Testament that was translated 2-300 years before the birth of Christ. Where you come to this word scarlet you would find the Greek word kokkinos. This word comes from Quercus coccifera, more comonly known as the Kermes Oak. See there was a berry on that oak that could be picked, ground into a powder and then mixed with water as a very strong red dye. The only catch was that the berry wasn’t really a berry, it was a parasitic insect. To add to the confusion, It was thought in ancient times that this insect was a worm at the time the didn’t think it had legs, because when it attached itself to the tree it’s legs were dissolved. — I know this is gross and it’s about bugs, but it will be important later.

This worm/bug relationship is behind what we read in Isaiah 1:18

Isaiah 1:18 KJV 1900

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 word crimson in Hebrew, found in Isaiah 1:18 is תּוֹלָע (tô·lā') and it literally means a worm or a maggot, but that bug had become so synonymous with red dye, that the language of both the Hebrews and the Greeks reflected this.

A Sign of Affluence

What is amazing is that having a wool garment dyed with this bug was seen as a sign affluence. Remember the Proverbs 31 woman? The chapter in Proverbs that describes a virtuous woman? Well, it says of her:

Prov 31:21 says of this woman

Proverbs 31:21 KJV 1900

21 She is not afraid of the snow for her household: For all her household are clothed with scarlet.

It’s not the color here that is important, it’s that the Proverbs 31 woman has labored and faithfully earned so that her household are clothed in high quality clothing. Scarlet dyed clothing was a sign of affluence and you could be sure that the garments dyed so would keep her family warm.

Symbolism

It is remarkable how often we see this scarlet dye throughout the bible, and it is equally remarkable the symbolism associated with it.

Tabernacle Curtains

Scarlet is one of the colors sewn into the tabernacle curtains.

Exodus 26:1 KJV 1900

1 Moreover thou shalt make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twined linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet: with cherubims of cunning work shalt thou make them.

High Priest’s Garment

Scarlet was part of the High priests garment, we find this in Exodus 28:6

Exodus 28:6 KJV 1900

6 And they shall make the ephod of gold, of blue, and of purple, of scarlet, and fine twined linen, with cunning work.

In then in v8 and v15 we find other high priestly garments using this scarlet thread.

Jesus’ Robes

Then we find something a little controversial in the New Testament

In Matthew 27:28 we read

Matthew 27:28 KJV 1900

28 And they stripped him, and put on him a scarlet robe.

but the seemingly same account in John reads:

John 19:2 KJV 1900

2 And the soldiers platted a crown of thorns, and put it on his head, and they put on him a purple robe,

So Matthew says scarlet and John says purple, Mark by the way agrees with John. To compound that Luke 23:11 says

Luke 23:11 KJV 1900

11 And Herod with his men of war set him at nought, and mocked him, and arrayed him in a gorgeous robe, and sent him again to Pilate.

The word gorgeous here is λαμπρός (lampros) in the Greek. It means bright or shinning. Typically this is used to describing cloth that is extremely white.

So four gospel writers and three different color robes. You could kind-of dismiss the purple and crimson as being a shade of color like maroon, somewhere between red and purple, but what is look talking about?

AIG Answer

Don’t get me wrong, I think it could be just that. A maroon colored robe that was so incredibly pristine that Luke described it as gorgeous, but Troy Lacey with Answers in Genesis write something very interesting about this, he wrote:

When Jesus returned to Pilate’s jurisdiction, the soldiers stripped him of his white robe (if it hadn’t already been removed by Herod) and the rest of his clothes in order to scourge him. Before scourging Jesus, the soldiers mocked him in front of the whole garrison (Matthew 27:27).

After the scourging left his flesh in shreds, the soldiers put a scarlet robe on him (Matthew 27:28). The scarlet robe ... was likely a cloak worn by the Roman governors, generals, and other distinguished officers of the Roman army … This red robe may have been placed on Jesus as a mockery of Christ’s physical weakness after such beating and abuse.

Then it appears that some of the soldiers had a sadistic idea come to them. They decided to make a crown out of thorns. One of the soldiers likely was present when Pilate asked Jesus if he was the King of the Jews, which Jesus answered affirmatively (Matthew 27:11–12). What would you clothe a king in? A purple robe, the color of royalty, and a crown.

But even in these robes we see the gospel and the reality of Christ pictured.

First Christ is clothed in a white robe, signifying the perfect innocence of the Messiah.

Next christ is clothed in red, representing the sin that was laid upon him on the cross.

And Finally our Lord is clothed in Purple to represent his royalty, being King of Kings and Lord or Lords, seated at the right hand of God the Father.

Seeing Red

We see red throughout scripture. But the question we are to be asking ourselves — this morning — on Easter Sunday is if we see red anywhere else? When we think of the colors of Easter we think of pastels but the color of Easter is red. Scarlet. Is that for years that's the color that Easter eggs were dyed, that is the color that Greek Orthodox Churches still dye their eggs.

Do we see the cost of our sin, or we flagrant about it. Because what color did Isaiah write our sin was?

Isaiah 1:18 (KJV 1900)

....Though your sins be as scarlet...

....Though they be red like crimson....

What I implore of you this morning is that you see sin as red, you see sin as what it is...death.

But it’s important that you also see grace, but the color of grace is red as well, because grace comes at the cost of Christ’s blood. Your death, your spiritual eternal death becomes his death.

A Worm’s Sacrifice

There is something I didn’t fully explain about that Kermes worm. This worm has to die to be useful. Not just useful to man as a source of the color red — but here is the thing, that worm is found on trees and when they are found it is because that worm climbed upon that tree to die.

Let me read to you something I found in Henry Morris’ book Biblical Basis for Modern Science

When the female of the scarlet worm species was ready to give birth to her young, she would attach her body to the trunk of a tree, fixing herself so firmly and permanently that she would never leave again. The eggs deposited beneath her body were thus protected until the larvae were hatched and able to enter their own life cycle. As the mother died, the crimson fluid stained her body and the surrounding wood. From the dead bodies of such female scarlet worms, the commercial scarlet dyes of antiquity were extracted.

To say it more plainly: The scarlet worm attaches herself to a tree and by her blood her children have life.

Consider that when you read Psalm 22:6

Psalm 22:6 KJV 1900

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

The Gospel Everywhere

God has crafted existence so that we can find pictures of the gospel everywhere, in scripture and in nature. From the colors of the robes worn by Christ to the sacrifice of a little insect that gives it’s life to the noble cause of illustrating the blood of Christ shed for us upon a tree.

White as Snow

There are still more instances of this scarlet thread we find in the Bible. If time would allow we could speak of the sacrificial goat and scape goat where a scarlet thread was placed around the neck or the horn of the goat. We could look at the scarlet thread sacrificed with the birds when a leper presents himself clean to the high priest. And I could probably go on.

But I want to close with a different color. White. Consider Isaiah 1:18 with me, one final time.

Isaiah 1:18 KJV 1900

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.

I've always loved this passage because God says let us reason together. Cats are asking for blind faith or to submit two religious ritual on the basis of emotion alone. God wants you to reason with him. Engage the truth of the gospel with your mind. Test it, try it, and determine how it stands as truth.

God says reason with me on this, and your sins with your scarlet. Your sins which are death. I will make them here. White as snow.

Here's the thing about Easter and Good Friday. We think about Christ's death on Good Friday and resurrection on Easter Sunday. But there's a reason that he rose. Remember I said that human death is a picture for spiritual death. See, Christ when he went to the cross he bared upon himself all of the spiritual death that man had acquired and would acquire as history progresses.

You can just imagine it.

Day one Christ makes his way to the cross and looking upon the ledger of what is owed, the sins of humanity seem insurmountable.

Day two, Christ is in the grave. For anyone else their sins would be so over their head that eternity would pass and not even a dent would be made in restitution for a lifetime of rebellion against God. But something here is different.

On the third day, God the Father looks upon his Son, for whom all the sins of existence were placed. And he doesn’t see red, He see’s white! Though He had the sins of the world placed upon Him, He who resided in hell under the wrath of God, was viewed as innocent once again. — Justice demanded that he be raised again — There was no sin debt left to convict Him.

This morning I tell you that we don’t just serve a savior who died for our sins, but one that rose again. Romans 4:25 puts it this way

Romans 4:25 (KJV 1900)

25 Who (Christ) was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.

Christ won. He defeated death. Spiritual death, not just the picture.

Invitation

This morning it’s Christ who has taken on the debt of sin you owe. I ask this, Is He the Lord you serve?

We are going to close in prayer in just a moment. If you haven’t surrendered your life to following Jesus, I ask that you do it today. What are you waiting for? I’m going to have a moment of silence for reflection on this mornings message and then I am going to close in prayer. If you have any questions about the message, or if you wan to call upon Jesus to as your Lord please see me after. I would love to talk to you more about our Savior.

Let’s Pray