On A Hyssop Branch

John Chapter 19 -29 "A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. 30 When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

Many of us have read these two small lines. However, do we really undrestand the spiritual signifigance of them? In Psalm 51, a contrite King David is praying for forgiveness when he utters, "Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow." - Psalm 51:7 What does that mean? First, and foremost it means that we are now covered by the blood of the Lamb. John knew when writing this the signifigance of mentiong hyssop in this line.

During the first passover, which is indeed a shadow of the crucifixion, God instructed His people(Israel) to smear the blood of an unblemished lamb over their door jambs. He instructed them to do this, so that when the angel of death flew over Egypt to kill the first born the angel would pass over the Israelites. "Take a bunch of hyssop leaves and dip it in the blood which is in the basin, and smear it on the two sides and top of the door-frame. Then, none of you is to go out the door of his house until morning." -Exodus 12:22

Did God or His angel need the blood on the door jamb to know who the Israelites were? Of course not. He was showing us that just as it is now, life then was sacred. The life blood of an innocent lamb was used to cover the people of Israel. Today, we are doing the same thing. We are covered by the blood of Jesus Christ, the perfect and unblemished eternal lamb who was made propitiation for us with the father.

There is another thing we can learn from these versus, and that is fulfillment. Wine with gall was used as a pain killer, or an anesthetic. Many believed that was what is going on, at the cross. Jesus refused it, which means he purposely went through the pain. He could have deadened the pain, but instead he bore our suffering in full.. The soldier was mocking Him (which fulfills another prophecy), but in the mocking of our Lord he also fulfilled another scripture. Psalm 69, 19-21 You know how I am scorned, disgraced and shamed; all my enemies are before you. Scorn has broken my heart and has left me helpless; I looked for sympathy, but there was none, for comforters, but I found none. They put gall in my food and gave me vinegar for my thirst.

Today let us remember that Jesus fulfilled over 400 scriptures in the New Testament alone. The odds that one man can fulfill that many scriptures is well under 1 in 8,749,002,899,132,047,697,490,008,908,470,485,461,412,677,723,572,849,745,703,082,425,639,811,996,797,503,692,894,052,708,092,215,296. think about that number for a minute. It's staggering. If Jesus had fulfilled 1 scripture, we could easily say well anyone can do that. But he fulfilled over 400 that we know of. John also says, Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written. John 21:25. Think about that as well. We don't know everything Jesus did. There is so much more that we just don't have a record of. He may very well, and probably did fulfill all prophecies about the Messiah. After all, we believe he is indeed that Messiah.

Let us worship and praise God, because we know there are more prophecies to be fulfilled at the second coming! Let us live in constant communion with the Father, with our lamps filled with oil that we may be found ready and waiting!

In Christ,
Brian