“And she gave birth to her firstborn Son, and she wrapped Him in long strips of cloth …”
(Luke 2:7a, ALT)
The newborn Jesus was wrapped in swaddling cloths, long strips of material tied around the child. This seemingly inconsequential detail links to many obscured prophetic signs concerning the Messiah. For this reason the shepherds who are on their way to see Jesus are told in Luke 2:12 – “And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.” (KJV). The first thing we should note is that the strips of material covering him at birth were similar to the strips of material with which he was covered after his death. In Luke 23:53 Murdock declares it as “a winding-sheet of linen” and Strongs as “strips of linen cloth for swathing the dead”.
The root of the word swaddling means “to strap or wrap with strips”, which in turn has been derived from “to gasp, to mangle, convulse”, with the symbolic correlation of “rend, tear”, of which the root meaning is “to draw out”! Let us examine this: Jesus was born for one reason alone, so that He may die. At birth he was already “packaged” for death. Of course the fact that God was clothed with (mortal) flesh was already a sign that He would be subject to the elements of the world, including death. Heb 2:14-15 beautifully articulates His position: “Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” Jesus literally came to tear apart all that brought division between man and God (Isa 59:2; Eph 2:14). Thus He did not care that He was torn apart like a piece of cloth (Isa 53:5), which is exactly what happened when the veil (which points to separation – see Ex 26:33) tore from top to bottom. Heb 10:20 states that the veil was the flesh of Christ! As Moses struck the rock so that it would part to dispense with the living water (Num 20:11), Christ the rock also had to be struck in order to release his living water (1 Cor 10:4). Concurrently God also tore the heavens (Isa 64:1) so that man and God could reach one another.
It is then very interesting to note that although Jesus’ body was torn, his tunic (woven without a seam) was not torn, even though the soldiers all wanted a piece of it (John 19:23-24). His mantle, his authority, could not be torn. This appears in strong contrast to the tunic of the high priest which Christ himself tore apart (Mark 14:63).
Earlier on we noted that the root meaning of the swaddling cloths with which Christ was wrapped is “to draw out”. As Moses’ carefully woven ark of bulrushes, and Noah’s carefully constructed ark, Christ’s flesh was the wrapped vessel with which He drew us out of the waters of humanity (Rev 17:15). Indeed it is true – “He sent from above, He took me; He drew me out of many waters.” (Ps 18:16). Sela.
- Sela: Find out the meaning of the names Moses and Noah, and correlate your findings with this teaching.
- Read: 2 Chr 19; Job 17; Rev 21
- Memorise: Rev 21:2-3
- For a deeper understanding: Read chapter 14 of Colin Urquhart’s In Christ Jesus.
