Sing It Out Like You Know What It Means

Have you ever sung the words to an old hymn and wondered what it meant? The words appear to be clever metaphors for something that made sense a long time ago, but now makes little sense. Some of the words even references Scripture, but still leave many wondering what they mean exactly.

A few weeks ago at one of our Sunday morning gatherings we were singing the old hymn “Jesus Paid it All.” One lyric in it is:

Sin had left its crimson stain,

He washed it white as snow!

This is a reference to the prophet Isaiah. He speaks for God, and promises the people of Israel that although their “sin is like scarlet it will be made white as snow.” Years ago I sang that song and wondered why, of all colors, the writer of Isaiah chose red? Why not purple or sea foam green?

Curiosity grew, and I searched for an answer. It led me to Leviticus 16, which gives instruction about the Day of Atonement. This day was observed by the people of Israel every year. It was a day when all the people of Israel would gather together, fast, pray, and celebrate God’s forgiveness of their sins.

On this day the two goats were chosen and brought to the High Priest of Israel. One goat was sacrificed. The other was the scapegoat, and would have a crimson cord tied around its horns.

When the time came, the High Priest would confess all the sins of Israel over the head of the scapegoat. Then it would be led out into the wilderness never to be seen again. For the people of Israel it was a great time of celebration, as they saw their sins carried off, removed from them, never to be seen again.

The one who led the goat out into the wilderness would, at the moment he released it, remove the crimson cord from the goat. When he returned to the camp the cord would be hung above the door of the tabernacle (and later the temple). This scarlet cord that was tied to the horns of the scapegoat was the last thing that reminded the Hebrew people of their sins.

The Jewish people say that when God forgave the sins of the people that scarlet cord would turn to white. During the forty years that Simon the Just was high priest the crimson cord always turned white showing them their sins were forgiven (Talmud, Yoma; IV). To speak of crimson turning to white, as the prophet Isaiah did, was to speak of the miracle of forgiveness that was seen every year when the cord would turn white.

Eventually, the cord stopped turning white. History tells us that forty years before the destruction of the Second Temple the cord no longer turned white. So what happened?

It’s interesting to note that the Second Temple was destroyed in 70 CE. Forty years before this, when the cord stopped turning white, was the year 30 CE, which many believe was the year that Jesus was crucified, buried and resurrected. And so we sing …

Sin had left its crimson stain,

He washed it white as snow!