Today’s article continues the subject of “Restoring our Joy.”
The next point is that it Requires a Purging by the Lord - Purge (To remove what is offensive; to sweep away impurities).
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Psalm 51:7 - Hyssop was a plant that had an aromatic smell and a warm, pungent (bitter) taste. The Jews in ceremonies of cleansing used hyssop. It was also used as an applicator for the blood during the tenth plague in Egypt. Exodus 12:22 And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the bason, and strike the lintel and the two side posts with the blood that is in the bason; and none of you shall go out at the door of his house until the morning.
I believe that application of the blood with hyssop had a very significant meaning. Not only did the Lord see the blood that was applied, but he smelled the sweet aroma of the hyssop and thought of the bitter anguish that salvation would cost. About 2,000 years later, God sees the Lord Jesus Christ hanging on the cross with blood dripping from his wounds and staining the lintel and two side posts of the cross. He also smells the sweet aroma from the hyssop and taste the bitter tears of anguish as He watches His blessed Son die on the cross for the sins of the whole world.
I'm sure God's mind runs back to that dark night in Egypt when once again he saw the blood, smelled the hyssop and tasted the bitter tears, and now just as then He says 'When I see the blood I will pass over you.'
John 19:28-30 After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst. 29. Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a sponge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth. 30. When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.
Praise the Lord, that purging comes only through the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
1 John 1:7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth (purgeth) us from all sin.
Back those many years ago in Egypt's land, each individual had to apply the blood a certain way. But when Christ died on the cross, he applied the blood himself, and when God sees the blood, we are cleansed from our sins and God passes over us in judgment. Not only does our joy require purging from sin by the sweet aroma, bitter agony and shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, but it also Requires Washing. Continued.