The Least of Worms is the Greatest of Worms

By Jessica Breazeale

A prophetic psalm in Psalm 22:6 is often associated with the crucifixion states:

“But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by everyone, despised by the people.”

I spent most of my life thinking this prophesy of Jesus was merely imagery that gave us a visual of the trauma he would endure. I thought, “maybe this is the lowest creature the psalmist could picture”. This worm is small and looks more like a grub. Dare I say it looks tasty like a berry? HAHA!

It wasn’t until recently that I discovered “the Scarlet Worm”. It’s known in Hebrew as “Tola’at”, and this word refers to a crimson worm known as a Kermes vermilio that actually leaves a red stain on the wood it’s clinging to as it’s dying.

Here’s the story of a mother crimson worm. When she’s ready to lay her eggs, she finds her way toward a specific type of oak tree. She then makes the difficult ascent up the side of the tree, knowing she will never come back down. She’s come here just for this moment…to lay the eggs and give her offspring life.

Once she reaches her destination, she secures herself against the wood; her shell turns into a hard red shelter for three days of protection for her babies. As if that weren’t enough, she provides life for three days while her babies feed on her (wow) until she’s given herself to the death to her offspring. Her body produces a crimson dye that stains the tree and the children underneath her. The babies are now crimson worms for the rest of their lives.

I had read the verse hundreds of times and never knew this. It really does go to show that the more you read your bible, the more you’ll discover and want to discover!

And after three more days, her dead body changes form. Her tail pulls into her head, forming a body shaped like a heart. The red stain remains on the wood, but it turns into a white, waxy substance, then disintegrates into white flakes that fall to the ground.

Is your mind absolutely blown by now? Mine is.

Can you think of any other wood that was stained?

The doorframe during Passover had a bloodstain across it to identify them so the angel of death would pass over the home of the Israelites, showing mercy from taking the home’s firstborn son during the exodus story.

The crucifixion cross was blood-stained. This was the fulfillment of everything. The worms were part of creation in Genesis, I’m sure. Now, the cross was the redemptive part of God’s story.

I am in AWE. I can’t even move forward at the current moment. Isn’t it amazing that our God took the body of a human (like a shell of a worm), walked amongst us, and yet He is more than a physical body. The worm only gives its blood for its children. The crimson color was its purpose and identity.

It’s easy to think the worm is the lowest of all creatures, but in this case, she was the greatest. She gave all of herself to her bloodline. When we start studying, not just reading, but studying scriptures, we see the characteristics and life cycle of the Scarlet Worm and how tremendous truth is revealed.

ARCHAEOLOGISTS have uncovered a 3,800-year-old piece of fabric dyed in a vivid scarlet hue deep within Israel’s Judean Desert.

Found in the Cave of Skulls, this small textile fragment is believed to have been colored using dye from oak scale insects, a substance thought to be the “scarlet worm” referenced in the Bible.

The U.S. Sun

Juliana Cruz Lima , Foreign News Reporter

Published: 10:47, 20 Oct 2024

The discovery gives unprecedented insights into ancient textile production and its links to priestly garments described in biblical texts. The dye would identify or set them apart. This identification mattered greatly back then.

Naama Sukenik, curator of the Organic Material Collection at the Israel Antiquities Authority, explained the process behind the creation of the fabric’s scarlet color.

“In ancient times, the dye was produced from female scale insects, which live on kermes oak trees,” she said. “Collecting these insects was a highly specialized process, done in a short window of time — one month each summer — when the amount of dye was at its peak.”

This challenging process, combined with the rarity of the dye-producing insects, made scarlet (or crimson) an impressive, valuable and celebrated color back then.

The “scarlet worm” is mentioned 25 times in biblical scripture, often alongside other prized colors like blue (tekhelet) and purple (argaman), which were similarly associated with wealth and status.

The worm didn’t die in vain. The worm emitted even more purpose than it did before.

Now this got me thinking…

-          If even these worms were made to worship, so was I.

-          If even these worms have a bigger purpose, so must I.

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