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-colored dyes of antiquity were extracted. What a picture this gives of Christ, dying on the tree, shedding his precious blood that He might “bring many sons unto glory,” as we read in Hebrews 2:10. He died for His own, that they might live through him! Psalm 22:6 describes such a worm and gives us this picture of Christ, “But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people.” And we also read in Isaiah 1:18, “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.”
