Purge Me With Hyssop

I want to do something a little different here today. It's going to be a little bit more of a Bible study. Two weeks ago, it was kind of a heavy topic. It was difficult for me to get through, but Psalm 22, I'm glad, is there. And it's good for us at this season of the year, especially to look at it and read the words prophetically that David wrote a thousand years in advance about the words and the actions, the thoughts, the feelings of Jesus as He was hanging from the cross.

But it seems like I've been drawn to go look in different areas of the Psalms here this year as we're moving toward the Passover. And amazingly, it will be here before we know it. And the other day, I was reading from Psalm 51, and we'll go there a little later. There's one word that David used that is used 12 times in the Bible, and I'd like to end up going to all of those 12 places with you. I think it's instructive for us. David cried out, asking God to purge me with hyssop. Now, that's spelled H-Y-S-S-O-P, and that's the word we're going to focus on. But earlier in that Psalm, he had asked God to wash me thoroughly. And we have a lot of places in the Bible where he uses a concept either of the shedding of blood or washing with water as far as the purification from sin, the cleansing from sin. And David used both of those analogies. There are places in the Bible we have, oh, Nahum and the Syrian was told, go and wash him the Jordan seven times, and then he was purified of the leprosy. We have in the New Testament Passover, we have the foot washing where the wash basin's a little water is used, and we're symbolically playing out. Actually, a lot of statements by what we do, but part of it is that showing demonstrating a willingness to wash clean our brother or sister in the body. And that person represents the entire body to us.

We had in the Old Covenant system a number of washings that were involved, but baptism, of course, in the New Testament, and there were types of baptism in the Old, but that is a washing with a covering of sin with water. But I'd like to focus a bit more on David's cry, purge me with hyssop. And the challenge that we have, at least in part, is that there are a number of plants called hyssop, and it's a challenge to know precisely which one it is referring to. Now, there is a family, and from what I have read, it's of the mint family, which surprised me.

But the way the leaves are, the leaves on opposite sides of the stem, the fact that there's an oil, that there's generally an aroma that comes if you pinch leaves or the stalk. There are certain things in common with plants that sometimes are called hyssop. And some translations, even, they identify it with, is it marjoram? Is that the spice?

Or the... I'm not saying it anywhere close to right. Marjoram? Magoram? Close enough. I'll show you a sample in a little bit, and hopefully I can slip these spices back into the home stock before they're missed. Anyhow. But we should first consider hyssop, what we even know about it, as far as what it is. And as we follow it a little later, the thread of the use of this Word through the Bible, it's always connected with purification rites or forgiveness from sin.

And I'm going to say for the first time it appears in the Bible, and the last time that it was written in the Bible chronologically. And that will tie together Exodus and the Gospel of John. There is a use of hyssop later in Hebrews, but Hebrews was written 20 or 30 years prior to John's Gospel. So the last time the Word was used by an inspired author in the Bible is John. And the way John uses it, it ties together the events of the Old Testament Passover with what Christ went through as He was hanging on the cross that day.

Now, hyssop in the biblical era, and actually if we go back 100 years, there are a lot of medicines, a lot of products that man has today that they obviously didn't have. They come in little prescription bottles. But there also was a lot of knowledge that, sadly, I think as society moves further and further away from the farm and from the country in general, there is knowledge that is in danger of being lost.

As far as knowing, well, you know, this root is good for this, this herb for that, use this, do this, make a poultice out of thus and such. And a lot of that knowledge is just disappearing because we're far away from the land more and more as time goes on. But hyssop is described as being an herb of the mint family that has value as far as cleansing and as far as flavoring and also medicinal properties. And there were a number of plants that fall in the category of hyssop that are found from the area of Egypt, the desert, and through Palestine, the Holy Land.

And so it could be a number of them if you want to. I looked at Smith's Bible dictionary yesterday, and they had about three pages in a very small print debating exactly precisely which plant was it. And I think what I got out of it is we're not really sure. So I'll leave that to people with more time on their hands to discuss. When we get to the places where we find hyssop in the Old Testament, it comes from the Hebrew word ezobe.

Some suggest that it actually means holy herb, and it's considered to represent purifying a person's mind and body. It certainly has many benefits as far as cleansing and purging. Now, one reference I found, this is from aromatherapy, Valerie Cooksley, and she mentions that the use of hyssop is anti-inflammatory. It is antioxidant, antiparasitic, antiseptic, and antiviral. Sounds pretty good. A lot of good qualities. She also wrote that hyssop has been used for easing colds and coughs and fever.

It has been used as a decongestant. She writes that it has been used to raise low blood pressure, so I don't need it. My blood pressure seldom... I've never had it what I would call low because I watch news. And that keeps it up above what it ought to be. She said it will open the respiratory system, and it will strengthen and tone the nervous system. It has been used as a sedative. It is good for quieting anxiety, for clearing the mind. So, a lot of wonderful uses. I went to a Bible dictionary. This is Easton's Bible dictionary. I'm just breaking in on a little bit of what is written here.

Again, the Hebrew, Esav. Or, if you look at Greek, it's a housopos, which obviously from the Greek and Latin is very similar. It's probably where we have our word hyssop. But Easton's Bible dictionary said it refers to a plant springing out of the wall. And that's a quote from the Days of Solomon. We'll look at that scripture here in a little while. Many congestures have been formed as to what this plant really was. Some contend that it was a species of marjoram, and that six species are found in Palestine.

Others state it was the caper plant, which was a plant also in Egypt, in the desert, and in Palestine. It was capable of producing a stem 3 to 4 feet in length. Alright, a little bit here from the Treasury of Scriptural Knowledge. Again, the word hyssop, the Hebrew, Esav. It is a plant of some of these words. I don't even know how to pronounce them. But let me skip part of that. The description, it has bushy stalks, small spear-shaped, close-fitting, and opposite leaves. It describes the flower. There are different colors of the flower. Some describe them as being from blue, and other ones to white with a tinge of red on the tips.

The leaves have an aromatic smell and a warm, pungent taste. It's detursive qualities. The detursive, like a detergent, will break down the surface tension for cleansing. The detursive, or was I cleansing? The medicinal qualities were probably the reason why it was so particularly recommended in Scripture. So, as the Treasury of Scriptural Knowledge suggests, to discover the true nature of the plant, we have been given in the Bible clues here and there.

It would be bushy. You would have liquid if you dip it in water or blood, as we'll see. It would have the liquid would tend to stick to the branch. Then it would grow in a wall, rocky place, and it would be aromatic.

It would be, number five, a purifier, and then it would need to grow from Egypt through the Promised Land. Now, David made a deliberate request that God would purge him with hyssop. Hyssop is an interesting choice as a cleansing agent. Again, it's been tied up with marjoram. I have from a secret source three jars, and this one says marjoram on it, and it has a very pleasant smell to it.

It's not as strong as these others, because as it goes on, it mentions that it is of the same family as oregano. Oregano, of course, has a very nice smell, a stronger smell. And then it's also related to thyme, D-H-Y-M-E. And that, too, has a pretty strong smell.

Again, pleasant. But let's go on, then. We need to move on here. Some translations will work. We have the word that is translated hyssop, though. They'll just make it marjoram. Well, let's notice how it's used in the Bible, what the context is.

I said 12 times the word is used. 10 in the Old Testament, and then 2 in the New.

And the first time that it was used in the Bible is connected with the last time that it was actually written. So we'll come back at the end to the time when it was first mentioned in Exodus, and the last time it was mentioned in the Gospel of John.

But let's start by looking at some of the ways, the context, where the word was used. Let's go first to Leviticus chapter 14.

And actually, we have, in Leviticus 14, five of the twelve uses of the word right here.

You may remember that Leviticus 13 and 14 have to do with the determination of, or rather, the diagnosis of what the King James, New King James calls leprosy.

You have other translations that will call it the plague.

Because as you go through this, some of the symptoms appear to be what we know as Hansen's disease today, and some seem to be different. So it's a little bit of a puzzle, is that actually the leprosy we think of when we think of, you know, back in the days when on the island of Molokai in Hawaii, there was a leper colony. Or there's one down in Carville, Louisiana.

So in Leviticus 13, we've got a lot of, you know, the procedure as far as the priests make the diagnosis. And if in doubt, quarantine, or if certain, quarantine. Put them out of the camp and let a week pass, then look at them again. And you may remember it would be in Numbers 12, when Miriam and Aaron were speaking against Moses. Miriam was smitten with leprosy, and then she was healed. But to fulfill what was given in the law, she was outside the camp for a week. And the camp of Israel stayed still. They did not move until Miriam was able to rejoin them, and then they moved. We had, well, I mentioned Naaman the Syrian earlier, so we have a number of situations there. But as we get to chapter 14, this is where we start seeing the word hyssop, because it talks about the ceremonial cleansing. A number of agents are mentioned together, and there probably is a lot more here than we even imagine. But in chapter 14, verse 2, this shall be the law of the leper for the day of his cleansing. He shall be brought to the priest, and the priest shall go out of the camp. Again, he was quarantined. If he was determined to be leprosy, he was put out. And the priest shall examine him, and indeed, if the leprosy is healed in the leper. So if it's determined that it is healed, you still have a certain right to go through for the full purification and restoration back to the camp of Israel.

Verse 4, now here's the first place we find the word hyssop. Then the priest shall command it to take for him who is to be cleansed two living and clean birds. So it's going to be a dove, a pigeon, it's going to be a clean bird. Cedar wood, and again, cedar wood. You know, if you split cedar, it's got the most wonderful smell. Very aromatic. Scarlet, now another place in referring to this, we'll talk about scarlet wool. So probably wool that then is dyed, but this is used to tie them together. And hyssop. So there's the first usage of azav, hyssop. And the priest shall command that one of the birds, we had two birds, one be killed in an earthen vessel over running water. Verse 6, our second use of hyssop. As for the living bird, he shall take it, so the priest takes the living bird, the cedar wood, the scarlet, and the hyssop, and dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water.

And he shall sprinkle it seven times upon him who is to be cleansed from the leprosy, and shall pronounce him clean, and shall let the living bird loose in the open field.

He who is to be cleansed shall wash his clothes, shave off all his head, and wash himself in water.

There again we see, once again, a connection between purification and covering sin by water and by blood. That he may be clean. After that he shall come into the camp, and stay outside his tent seven days. And then it goes on. We don't need to continue reading there, but let's go toward the end of the chapter, verse 49. Leviticus 14 verse 49. Here we have the third usage, and it has transitioned to different situations. If it was in the house of a person, what you do, and let's see. Verse 49. He shall take to cleanse the house two birds, so similar drill, cedar, wood, scarlet, and hyssop. Again kill one of the birds, an earthen vessel, over running water.

Take of the cedar, wood, the hyssop, the scarlet, the living bird. Dip them in the blood of the slain bird, and in the running water, and sprinkle the house seven times.

So there's what the third and the fourth use of the word. And in verse 52, we have the fifth use of the word hyssop. He shall cleanse the house with the blood of the bird, and the running water, and the living bird with the scarlet, excuse me, the cedar, wood, the hyssop, and the scarlet.

Then he shall let the living bird loose outside the city in the open field, and make atonement for the house, and it shall be cleaned. So that kind of summarizes the laws dealing with leprosy, whether it's sores on a person, or in a tent, or clothing, or garments, or a house.

Let's go forward to Numbers 19.

In Numbers 19, we have two places in this chapter, so we have number six and number seven, as far as the usage is in Numbers chapter 19. And this is a section dealing with the ashes of the red heifer.

Earlier in the chapter, you have instructions on this red heifer without blemish, no defect, no yoke has ever been placed on this heifer. Give it to Eleazar the priest, verse three.

Calf is outside the camp, is slaughtered. And let's see, verse five, the heifer shall be burned in his sight. Now, once in a while, you'll see a news article. You have a group over there in the Holy Land. You have this group that has reproduced all the accoutrements that go into having a tabernacle service, and a trained priesthood. And they're watching for. I think last night I read it was, they're looking for the ninth red heifer. It's always puzzled me why are they looking for specific red heifers, because you can grow up in certain parts, travel certain parts of this country and others, and see red calves all over. So I don't know what kind of special calf they're looking for, but that's a different matter.

It'll be burned in his sight. It's hide, it's flesh, it's blood, it's ophile.

Shall be burned. The cedars shall take, excuse me, the dyslexium, getting a word from one line, swapped with the word and the adjacent, or the line above or below. And the priest shall take cedar wood and hyssop and scarlet and cast them into the midst of the fire burning the heifer. Then the priest shall wash his clothes, he shall bathe in water. Afterward, he shall come into the camp. The priest shall be unclean until evening.

So it talks about gathering up the ashes of the heifer in verse nine and storing them outside the camp in a clean place. And this is for the water purification. It's for purifying of sin. So here you have this calf is completely burned up, but you also have these other cedar wood, the hyssop and the scarlet thrown in and burned with it. So we have a connection here, and it is for the purification of sin, as it says at the end of verse nine.

Now a little later in chapter 19, we come to verse 18, and this is actually in a section that deals with if someone dies in a tent, obviously if somebody dies, you have some who deal with the dead remains. And there's a procedure to go through, and we have to do that today. But in verse, well again, remember though, touching a dead body makes one ceremonially unclean from the camp back in the Old Testament. Verse 18, a clean person shall take hyssop and dip it in the water, sprinkle it on the tent, on all the vessels, on the persons who were there, or on the one who touched the bone, the slain, the dead, or the grave. The clean person shall sprinkle the unclean on the third day and on the seventh day. And on the seventh day he shall purify himself, wash his clothes, bathe in water, and in the evening he shall be clean. So here are Numbers 19. Moses is given instructions regarding one who becomes ceremonially unclean due to touching a dead body. Again, we have the ashes, in this case the ashes of the red heifer, the hyssop, the cedar, the scarlet wool, all of that combined. And it would appear that the water and the hyssop and etc. were used for cleansing. But it cleansed, it covered, it purified from sin.

So that's use number seven out of twelve. Let's go to 1 Kings 4. 1 Kings 4. And we'll read, let's begin in verse 29, but the key verse is verse 33.

And this is the day and age of Solomon. His father David died, Solomon reigned in his stead.

And we have the story in an earlier chapter of how God appeared to him asking what he wanted. And he asked for understanding and for the wisdom to judge the great people of God, of Israel.

And God gave that to him. And so in verse 29, chapter 4, God gave Solomon wisdom and exceedingly great understanding and largeness of heart like the sand on the seashore. Solomon's wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the men of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt. He was wiser than all men. He mentions, Ethan, the Ezraite, Haman, and various ones. His fame was in all the surrounding nations. He spoke three thousand proverbs. His songs were one thousand and five. He spoke of trees from the cedar tree of Lebanon, even to the hyssop that springs out of the wall. He spoke of animals, of birds, of creeping things, and of fish. And men of all nations, from all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom, came to hear the wisdom of Solomon. But it mentions here, just in passing, the hyssop that would grow on a rocky wall, would spring out of a rocky wall, which tells us it's probably more like a shrub, a bush, at least the descriptions I saw said it would get up to somewhere around three feet high, which is important as far as the last passage we'll look at, where what turned out to be a length of hyssop was used to lift something up. And it makes sense at that point. But Solomon could speak about all of these subjects. He was given phenomenal wisdom. And when I read this, it reminds me maybe as a very small example in comparison was when Thomas Jefferson was president, reading about the Lewis and Clark expedition during Jefferson's presidency that we made the Louisiana Purchase. And then he commissioned captains, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, you know, Corps of Discovery, go up the Missouri and see if there is a water route to the other ocean.

But before Meriwether Lewis took off and then met Clark there near modern-day Louisville, Kentucky, he lived with Jefferson at Monticello. And he, Jefferson taught him all about scientific classifications, animals, plants, gave him all kinds of scientific instruction before he went. And again, you look at the journals, it was a marvelous job that the men did. Clark was better at drawing and sketching, but Lewis again, a tremendous man. He got that from Thomas Jefferson.

And that's why I know I'm getting sidetracked here, but that's why President Kennedy, John Kennedy, one time had a large group of the greatest scientific minds gathered there at the White House, and he made a comment that, well, this is the greatest body of knowledge since Thomas Jefferson was president here. So, anyhow, let us keep moving. Let's go to Psalm 51. Psalm 51. And as we are told at the beginning, this is a Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him after he had gone into Bathsheba.

Now, we could go back to the story back in Samuel, 2 Samuel 12, but as we remember the story, the events passed down which David turned that led to adultery, and then it led to deceitfully plotting the death of the woman's husband, and then actually giving the decree.

And that's when Nathan the prophet went and told him that parable of the rich man with all the lambs and the one man with one little lamb, and then told him, you are the man.

And so, David was just nailed right through the heart. And then here we have the rest of the story where he cries out to God, have mercy on me. And in verse 2, wash me thoroughly for my iniquity, cleanse me from my sin. He takes ownership, verse 4, against you, you only I have sinned. But let's go down to verse 7. He cried out, purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean.

Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. And so, snow is used to represent the whitest of whites that we have on this earth. And washed wool sometimes is used. Isaiah used both of those, and at the end of Isaiah chapter 1, though your sins be as scarlet, they'll be whitest wool, they'll be as snow. So here David is crying out for God to please cleanse me, purge me, get rid of that that is within me that needs to leave. Get rid of the old man, get rid of the sin, don't take your spirit from me. And again, but he cries out, and it's going to hearken back to a reference we have yet to see.

Now, that's... what did I say? That's number eight with Solomon in 1 Kings 4. Number nine is here in Psalm 51. The tenth usage that we'll look at is in the book of Hebrews, but before we go there, let's go back to Exodus 24. Because we have a story told as far as the ratification of the covenant with the shedding of blood back in Exodus 24. And then Hebrews adds a very important point.

We could choose to start with Exodus 19 where God, through Moses, was asking the people, you know, it was a marriage that was being proposed. And the people said, all that the Lord has said we will do. And then you have chapter 20, the commandments, the basic heart and core of the law of God are given. And then chapter 21, now these are the judgments, and you've got three chapters. Then we get to chapter 24, and God has Moses to come up with Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, the two living sons at this point of Aaron, and 70 of the elders of Israel and worshiped from afar. Moses alone came, or shall come near the Lord, but they shall not come near, nor shall the people go up with him. So Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the judgments. And all the people answered with one voice and said all the words which the Lord has said we will do. So it's a repetition of some of the statements made in chapter 19. And Moses wrote all the words of the Lord, and he rose early in the morning, and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and twelve pillars according to the twelve tribes of Israel. Then he sent young men of the children of Israel, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the Lord. And Moses took half the blood and put it in basins, and half the blood he sprinkled on the altar. Then he took the book of the covenant and read in the hearing of the people, and they said all that the Lord has said we will do and be obedient.

And Moses took the blood, sprinkled it on the people, and said this is the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you according to all these words. And that's as far as we need to read.

This was the formal ratification of this marriage. This was the marriage ceremony, I think we could say, between the God of the Old Testament, the one we today know as Jesus Christ, with national Israel.

A proposal, an acceptance, and then a formal solemnizing of the arrangement by the shedding of blood and taking the blood and sprinkling on the altar and on the people and on the the book of the covenant. And it just sounds like a bloody gory mess, but at any rate, it certainly would make an impression. Now that we've read that, let's go to Hebrews chapter 9.

And in the book of Hebrews, as Paul or whoever the author may be, is looking back. He's talking about how there's got to be the shedding of blood, but it can't be the blood of bulls and goats. It had to be this one who came, God who came and gave His own life and entered once for all with His own blood into the Holy Place. But in Hebrews 9, let us begin in verse 16.

Hebrews 9 verse 16, for where there is a testament, there must also be necessity to the death of the testator, where testament is enforced after men are dead, since it has no power at all while the testator lives. Therefore, not even the first covenant was dedicated without blood. For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law. Now you may have, like my Bible, there's a marginal note right back to Exodus 24 where we were. He took the blood of calves and goats with water, scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, This is the blood of the covenant which God has commanded you. Then likewise, he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry. According to the law, almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission.

This adds the dimension that with the sparkling of the blood, he was using a bunch, a stalk, whatever you want to call it, of the hyssop plant, dipping it in the blood and then slinging it.

It had to do with entering this covenant, this holy covenant with God.

So that's usage number 10. 10 places, and that leaves the first time it was used, and chronologically the last time the word was written by one of the New Testament writers.

So the two are connected intimately. So let's go back to Exodus 12 to the Passover story, because this is the first place where the word hyssop appears in the Bible.

And in Exodus 12, we are familiar with the story, and you've probably been rereading this, but the tenth day of this first month, find this lamb, and one per household, unless the household was small, you could combine, but you would set this one apart on the tenth. And then verse 5, without blemish, male of the first year, it can be a lamb, it can be a kid, so sheep or goats, you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight. Now, any given day, and the Bible always speaks of the evening and the morning were the first day. From even unto even they were to fast on the day of atonement. And there's only one twilight. The old King James says, well, some will say dusk, some will have a marginal note that says between the two evenings, which our understanding, I believe we're right on, is between sundown and the time when it gets dark. You have the dusk, the twilight period of time. There's only one of those each day. If you kill it on the fourteenth at twilight, that's at the beginning of the fourteenth. And everything you do is done on the fourteenth.

There are those, the Jews, the practice change sometime later on in the intertestimonial, that's not the right word, intertestamental era. You know, from Malachi around 400 BC until the coming of Christ, you had those four centuries. And during that time, they changed their practice.

And it's hard to follow the clues to find out exactly how, but we can go to Exodus and Leviticus, and we can go to what Jesus did when He walked on the earth, and what He told, and what Paul told the church to do, and we do what they did. The night He was betrayed, He took the bread, He took the wine, and that's why we do it at the beginning of the fourteenth, because the next afternoon He was dead. So, twilight, when the day begins.

Then, and they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two door posts, and on the lintel, so the upright on either side of the door, and then the crossmember at the top, where they eat it. They shall eat the flesh on that night, roasted in fire, with unleavened bread, and with bitter herbs, they shall eat it. Verse 10, let none of it remain until morning, and whatever remains of it until morning, you shall burn with fire. You eat it with the belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, your staff in your hand, so you shall eat it in haste, it is the Lord's Passover. For I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast, and against all the gods of Egypt, I will execute judgment. I am the Lord. And if you go back to all the plagues, every single plague was an attack on a god of Egypt. Now, the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. So, feast and memorial forever. Alright, let's talk about the days of my living bread, but let's skip on down to verse 21. He's coming back to the earlier instructions and recapping and expanding a bit. Verse 21, then Moses called for all the elders of Israel and said to them, Pick out and take lambs for yourselves according to your families, and kill the Passover lamb.

And you shall take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood. There's our 11th use of the word.

Exodus 12 verse 22. A bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and strike the lentil in the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. So, that tells us a little bit more. You could use it as a paintbrush. Put it in the blood that's going to draw up like a paintbrush, hold a lot of it, and you can paint with it, and it's going to stay together enough to do that.

None of you shall go out of the door of his house until morning. Now, there are those who look at verse 11 where you're going to be dressed ready to move, and they conclude, Oh, they must have been leaving that night, but that same night they were told, don't go out until morning. And if you knew that anyone who's a firstborn in that country is going to be killed that night, I suspect you wouldn't go out of the house till morning. Period. All right. Verse 23. The Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians, and when he sees the blood on the lentil on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and not allow the disordered come into your houses to strike you. You shall observe this thing as an ordinance for you and your son forever. Now, they mark the door.

It set them apart. It protected them. It sanctified them as God's holy separate people. God, with the destroyer, we just read that word, would see the blood and pass over. The blood that was painted on the door, or the doorposts and lentil, protected them, saved them. It covered them so that they would survive. It would be spared the judgment. God was in the process of dealing out to the Egyptians in this tenth plague. Now, Exodus 12. We have the little passover lambs that are killed. Later on, it was, and this is what they did in their own houses, out households, or groups of families together, if they were smaller. It later became something that was centralized, that was done in a different manner.

But the little lambs and the blood that was shed was teaching the concept of a substitutionary sacrifice. That that lamb and that blood shed by this little animal would cover our sins and purify and cleanse. And again, that's where the hyssop comes in.

I do wonder, as they dipped it in blood and then were striking it on doorposts and lentils, did the process, because these plants have a lot of oil, and the oil gives off an aroma. In the process, of course, blood is yuck. I don't know if there's much smell, but it turns my stomach easily if there's much of it around. But in the process, did it release some of the aroma, the fragrance of this plant? Again, I wonder that. But the sacrificial blood sprinkled or smeared by a bunch of hyssop graphically represented the line of separation between God's people, Israel, and those of the world who were going to pay a horrible price that evening. So the blood, and as it was applied with the hyssop, ceremonially cleansed them, protected them, and spared them. Alright, now we're going to go to the last usage, the 12th one. It's in John, but we're not going to John yet. I want to see the parallel accounts in the other, the synoptic Gospels first. So let's go to Matthew 27. And Matthew, Mark, and Luke wrote quite a bit earlier than John did, and John adds one word as a detail, and it is the word hyssop. And it's interesting. As if John's there in, you know, 80-something AD, and he's inspired to write a Gospel. His Gospel is totally different than the others. He writes so much. I'm so thankful it's there. There's so much we would have missed without John's Gospel. But even in telling the story of the crucifixion, he adds the word hyssop.

Well, in Matthew 27, notice verse 34. This is at Golgotha, the place of the skull. Verse 34, they gave him sour wine mingled with gall to drink, but when he tasted it, he would not drink.

Now, let's go down a few verses. Several verses to verse 48. This is when he cried out, and he was crying out in Aramaic, which the Roman soldiers most likely, or it appears to be evident, they did not understand. As he cried, Eli, Eli, Llamas, Sabachthani. You know that first verse from Psalm 22 that we looked at. And they thought he was calling for Elijah to come and get him. Well, verse 48, immediately one of them, so apparently one of these soldiers, ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it to a reed, and offered him to drink. A reed.

That's a different word. It's not the word hosopus from once we get hyssop.

Let's look at Mark 15. Mark 15, and notice verse 36.

Same basic story. They thought he was calling for Elijah. Verse 36, and then someone ran and filled a sponge full of sour wine, put it on a reed, and offered it to him to drink. And then verse 37, he died. So this is right at the very end.

And the last thing he did was he cried out, it's finished, it's completed, it's accomplished.

Now let's go to Luke 23, verse 36. Luke 23, verse 36.

The soldiers also mocked him, coming and offering him sour wine.

It doesn't even tell that it was on a reed or a rod or anything, as far as handing it up to him.

Now let's go to John 19. And to me, it's almost as if God inspired John to add one little detail that would perfectly, well, more completely tie together the original, the killing of the Passover lambs in Exodus 12 with the fulfillment of the death of the Lamb of God. Remember how John 1, verse 29, and then it's repeated again a little bit later, but John the Baptist saw Jesus, and he said, Behold, the Lamb of God who bears away the sins of the world. Now this latest BT magazine, I think it's Mr. McNeely's article right toward the beginning, he mentions that phrase, Lamb of God, and how many times it's mentioned in the New Testament, and especially in the book of Revelation, it's repeatedly called the Lamb, the Lamb of God. So John the Baptist, the Lamb of God who bears away the sins of the world. So by the use of hyssop, though, there is an even greater connection to help us fill in the blanks and connect all of the dots.

So, John 19, verse 28. After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said I first. Now, let me pause right there. I'm trying to quickly find Psalm 22 that we looked at two weeks ago. But Psalm 22, verse 15, one of the phrases was, He said, My tongue clings to my jaws. And we can only imagine how horribly dehydrated He was getting. He was losing blood. He was out in the open sun, out in the elements.

It has been hours. The one account said they offered Him the sour wine. He tasted it, but He would not drink any of it. The Roman practice was to drug it. A stupefying agent would help dull the pain. And I believe that that means that Jesus wanted to go through with a completely clear head as He became sin for all humanity. So, in verse 28, He cried, I thirst. Verse 29, Now a vessel full of sour wine was sitting there, and they filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on hyssop, and put it to His mouth. Which makes me wonder, at Golgotha, very rocky area, did you just have hyssop bushes growing out from the rocks like spoken of in the days of Solomon? And they just ran over and grabbed something, a length of three feet, maybe a little more, and they put the sponge into the cluster of the branches at the top, soaked it, and then held it up to Him. Put it to His mouth. So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, it is finished. And bowing His head, He gave up His Spirit. So He died. So this is actually the sixth time He cried from the cross that day. I thirst, and then He said, it is finished. It is done. So, hyssop. It is to me an interesting topic that I got off on. I want to share that with you, but at any rate, the biblical use of hyssop in the Passover, with the sacrificial law, with the laws regarding ceremonial cleansing, ceremonially cleansing of an individual, painted a detailed picture of the washing, the cleansing, the saving, the purification, the salvation from death itself that can only come from the use of the blood of God to be offered on our behalf. And from the beginning to the last time the word is written in the Bible, we have a connection with the plant hyssop, the cleansing agent, a purging agent that was used. So, in the final moments of Christ's physical life, we got orchestrated that hyssop be connected and connect Him back to the Passover lambs of so many centuries before back in Egypt. Have a wonderful Sabbath day!