The washing powder adverts proclaim that their detergents wash whiter than all the others; Persil Automatic washes whiter than the others [(Persil automatic advert 1978) & (Persil automatic advert 1982)]; Daz Ultra gets clothes ‘ultra white.’
It’s not just clothes, however, that need to be white. Sin stains our lives more effectively than mud, red wine or blood stains our clothes and we are powerless to clean sin in our own strength. David prays for God’s cleansing: ‘Scrub away my guilt, soak out my sins in your laundry. (Ps 51:2, The Message), ‘Soak me in your laundry and I’ll come out clean; scrub me and I’ll have a snow-white life.’ (Ps 51:7, The Message)
Water is, of course, traditionally the medium used in cleaning, and the Bible often talks about water in this way (see Jer 33:8, Ezek 36:5 and Eph 5:26). In Ps 51:7, however, David prays to be purged or cleansed with hyssop, and this reference to the aromatic herb reminds us that in the Bible, water is not the only method of cleansing.
In Ex 12:12-13, we see that hyssop is dipped into blood and used to daub the doorframes with blood, the signal to the angel of death to ‘pass over’ these households during that final night of death before the Exodus from Egypt. Later on, hyssop is used as a cleansing agent for people with skin diseases or houses affected by mould and mildew (see Lev 14:1-7, 33-53), as well as being tied into bunches for use in sprinkling the blood of the sacrificed animals in sacrifices. Later, in John’s Gospel, we see that Jesus’s last drink is offered on a sponge lifted up to him on a hyssop stalk (Jn 19:28-30), thus connecting him with the Passover lamb slain centuries before in Egypt, associating him with the sacrificial and cleansing ceremonies which His death superseded and reminding us that His death is the means by which we can all be purified from our sins.
The Bible makes it clear that it is through the life, the shed blood, the death, and the resurrected, eternal, glorious life of our God and Saviour that we can experience the ultimate cleansing and purification: our sins, though red like scarlet and crimson, can be whiter than snow (Is 1:18), but only through the blood of Jesus Christ (see Heb 9:14, 19-22). David’s prayer to be cleansed with hyssop takes on prophetic significance as we recognise that only God has the power to cleanse us and make us whiter than snow.