"Hodgepodge"

 "Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a spunge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth." (John 19:29 KJV)

  "For I was born a sinner - yes, from the moment my mother conceived me. But you desire honesty from the womb, teaching me wisdom even there. Purify me from my sins, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow." (Psalm 51:5-7 NLT)

 Just for the record, these last few days have been brutal, as I have been sick, caring for a sick wife, and trying the best I can to stay in bed. As I laid in bed yesterday, I was thinking about this verse, the vinegar, the sponge, and the hyssop; actually, the hyssop keep going in and out of almost every aspect of my thinking, I couldn't keep track of all the uses it kept showing me. Think of it as a coarse paint brush, with a two-foot handle. 

 Thinking back, much of what I believed before my salvation, was pretty much a mix-batch of so many different things I had picked up over the years that I held onto; some of which, were immediately taken away at the moment Jesus came into my life. I say this because the Old Testament Saints were also such; they had little bits and pieces, with some understanding, but giant holes they sometimes filled with whatever seemed to fit, as long as it made them see God better. 

 Regarding the hyssop, it was used to brush the blood on the doorframes, the night of the First Passover. After the Temple was constructed, it was used for ritual sprinklings. As to the sour wine, Jesus refused it before, and He didn't drink when it touched His lips; the main reason He said what He said, was because it had to be said! 

 Don't you think that is interesting? God says that this or that will happen, and just in the right moment, He makes things happen, in just the right time. John has quite a few of these instances where he points out the prophecy, and then shows how in happens, just as it said it would happen. 

 By the way, I heard something said during the Thanksgiving gathering, which I guess is something that they currently teach in college. The main just of the matter was that little children have to be shown how to lie, because they start out thinking that their parents know everything, so they start off telling the truth, because they have no other option. 

 Well, truth be told, as a new believer I had to train myself to sin again; it really wasn't hard, but it was not something that I could not think about. Sooner or later, we will be faced with the question, it is best that we are truthful and don't try to lie; because unlike our earthly parents, our Heavenly Father knows not only what we do, but what we think! 

 Something else that caught my attention, in all of that garbled stuff going through my mind; the reason for the sacrifices were not really for taking away sins, but that those who sacrifice would acknowledge they sinned, and needed to be cleansed. God wants honesty, more than sacrifice... 

"You do not desire a sacrifice, or I would offer one. You do not want burnt offering. The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God." (Psalm 51:16-17 NLT)