The colour red doesn’t always naturally occur in the things we make. How do you put the vibrant colour of an apple into a T-shirt or lipstick? In early times, the red pigment was made from clay or red rocks. In the 1400s, the Aztecs invented a way of using cochineal insects to make red dye. Today, those same tiny insects supply the world with red.
In the Bible, red denotes royalty, and it also signifies sin and shame. And of course, it’s the colour of blood. When soldiers “stripped [Jesus] and put a scarlet robe on him” (Matthew 27:28), these three symbolisms merged into one heart-breaking image of red: Jesus was ridiculed as would-be royalty, He was cloaked in shame and He was robed in the colour of the blood He would soon shed. But Isaiah’s words foretell the promise of this crimsoned Jesus to deliver us from the red that stains us: “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow” (1:18).
One other thing about those cochineal insects used for red dye—they are actually milky white on the outside. Only when they are crushed do they release their red blood. That little fact echoes for us other words from Isaiah: “[Jesus] was crushed for our iniquities” (Isaiah 53:5).
Jesus, who knew no sin, is here to save us who are red with sin. You see, in His crushing death, Jesus endured a whole lot of red so you could be white as snow.
By Kenneth Petersen
REFLECT & PRAY
How do “sins . . . like scarlet” stain your life? How might Jesus restore you and make you clean again?
Dear God, thank You for Your Son, Jesus, and the saving grace of His shed blood.
SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
In Isaiah 1:18, we read, “ ‘Come now, let us settle the matter,’ says the Lord.” Other translations render it, “Come now, and let us reason together” (ESV, KJV, RSV). This is amazing! The Creator of the universe, rather than shutting down the conversation, encourages it with the phrase “reason together.” Some translations render it “to discuss” or even “to argue it out.” My preference is “reason” because God is utterly reasonable in His expectations of us. We see His reasonableness affirmed in Paul’s letter to the Romans when he challenged them, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service” (Romans 12:1 KJV). Because of all that God has done for us, it’s only reasonable that we would respond to Him with love and devotion.
Bill Crowder
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