Many of us American gardeners don't know much about hyssop since it is commonly found in Mediterranean areas. Its unique properties have made it useful for the vegetable gardener: it acts as a repellent, protecting young plants from a destrutive pests. When blended with a few herbs, it can be helpful for someone with respiratory difficulties or even indigestion. The fragrance industry has sought after the hyssop as an additive for colognes. Since the plant attracts bees and butterflies, it is useful for any gardener who is looking to pollenate. The gourmet chef may use a touch of dried hyssop to enhance the soup or salad; it brings a slight minty flavor to any dish.
Exodus 12:22 tells us of the first Biblical usage of hyssop: it was mixed with blood during the Passover. The purpose was to place this mixture on the doorpost to spare the Hebrew son when the death angel came through the land of Egypt. Hyssop was associated with purifying when used by the Levitical priests. It was a cleansing agent for sacrificial birds offered by the priests. Numbers 19:18 gives another reference for hyssop to be mixed with water, sprinkled on anyone who had been defiled by the residue of death. "And a clean person shall take hyssop, and dip in the water, and sprinkle upon the tent, and upon all the vessels, and upon the persons that were there, and upon him that touched a bone, or one slain, or one dead, or a grave." Again, a ceremonial procedure resulting in a type of purification. In Psalm 51:7 it is noted as an agent to purge away uncleaness.
It is interesting one of the last Biblical references to hyssop is at Calvary, the redemptive death of Christ. Though the soldiers knew it not, they used a cleansing ingredient which was integral to the Levitical priests' method of sacrifice and thrust it up to the mouth of Christ. John 19:29 "Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a spunge with vinegar, and put upon hyssop, and put to his mouth." The very plant, instrumental when mixed with blood to protect and spare the LIFE of the Hebrew children as the Egyptian first borns were slaughtered in the Midnight Plague (Exodus 12:29) while Moses implored, "Let my people go," was given to Christ!! The very plant is mixed with the bitterness of vinegar and offered to Christ, our Perfect Sacrifice, dripping down his cheek, mingled with His blood for the sins of His people.
As the snow falls quietly outside the window, covering your world in a blanket of white, may it present a picture of Purity, Cleansing that has come through the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Envision his precious blood with the touch of hyssop against that spotless covering -- such a contrast, yet one that is necessary to wash away our scarlet sins, to the whiteness of snow.
