Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation. Tonight is study #14 of Revelation, chapter 8, and we are going to be reading Revelation 8:10-11:
And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters; And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.
As we have been going through Revelation, chapter 8, verse by verse, we have seen that God’s strong emphasis is His judgment upon the corporate church, the New Testament churches and congregations that He had warned and given them space to repent. God said in the Book of Romans that they ought not to be high minded, but fear, because if He spared not the natural branches (national Israel), then take heed lest He also spare not thee (the New Testament churches). Yet the churches did not fear God; they did not humble themselves and submit to the commandments of God, but they did as Israel before them and they developed “other gods,” which in the New Testament era took the form of other kinds of gospels and other doctrines. So, as a result, God came at the point in time that He had long determined to do and He came in judgment in the 13,000th year of earth’s history to begin the end time judgment process; judgment began at the house of God. That is what we are reading about in Revelation, chapter 8, and now in verse 10, the third angel sounded; and, remember, each time one of these trumpets sounds, it is as though the Word of God is proclaiming it because the trumpet is identified with the voice of Christ and He is the Word.
And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters;
Let us look at the language of verse 10. “There fell a great star from heaven,” and we need to try to identify who, or what, that star represents. When we think about it, we see that it is falling from heaven and, therefore, the star was located in heaven. We can think of some possibilities, based on that, but we find our answer when we search the Scriptures for language concerning a “star,” and not “stars,” because we know the true believers are represented by “stars” (plural). But this is “star” (singular) and we do find that God makes this statement in Numbers 24:17:
I shall see him, but not now: I shall behold him, but not nigh: there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all the children of Sheth.
This is actually a Messianic prophecy. “There shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel.” Now a sceptre is something that a King would have. A ruler would possess a sceptre to rule over his kingdom. This is a prophecy speaking of that King that will come, the King of all kings, the Lord Jesus Christ. We know this is the case because it is plainly declared in Revelation 22:16:
I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.
“I am,” the Lord Jesus Christ says, “the bright and morning star.” So we have no doubt. The Bible confirms that Jesus is the “Star” (singular) and we also know that He is in heaven, so it fits very well that “there fell a great star from heaven.” The word “great” also has application to Christ, more so than anyone else. He is “the Great, the Mighty God” and, therefore, the “great star from heaven” and this great star fell from heaven, “burning as it were a lamp.”
Notice that it speaks of “burning” and “lamp.” When we check out the word “lamp,” we find it relates to the Word of God. Psalm 119 gives us a verse that defines the lamp, as we read of it in the Bible. It says in Psalm 119:105:
Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.
The Word of God, the Bible, is a “lamp,” and Christ is the Word made flesh. He is the “great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp.” Why? It is because the Word of God is coming in judgment and in fiery wrath to begin judging the churches. They have been unfaithful; they are now objects of the wrath of God and the wrath of God is being poured out upon them; and the Lord Jesus Christ is the Judge that is executing judgment upon them, so He is likened to a “great star” that fell from heaven, “burning as it were a lamp.” Then it goes on to say, in Revelation 8:10:
… and it fell upon and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters &hellip
Now we also have a similar verse in the next chapter and I want to read this because we can see here, also, that Christ is in view. It says in Revelation 9:1:
And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.
Revelation 9 is describing, in detail, the wrath of God being poured out upon the unsaved inhabitants of the world – the entire world – and Revelation 8 is describing the judgment that is targeting the churches only. But then in Revelation 9, it is transitioning and expanding to include the world and we have very similar language of a star falling from heaven. In both cases, it is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the “Star.” He is the one falling and in Revelation 8:10, it said He “fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters,” to let us know that the ones that are experiencing God’s fury are the churches. Again, it is the “third part.” It is the “third part of the rivers” and the “fountains of waters,” as rivers and fountains of water identify with the Gospel and the teaching of the Bible within the churches, as they would proclaim and share the Word of God, the Gospel.
As they would share the Gospel with their congregations or in any form of outreach in their missions, God likens the sending forth of His Word to “water,” and God says, in Isaiah, that He opened up rivers of water in the wilderness and that was an image illustrating the sending of the Gospel into this dry land – this dry world. Wherever the Gospel went, it was this wonderful “water of life” that brought salvation, as God would save individuals through His Word. Just as people need water to survive physically, a sinner needs the Gospel water to survive, spiritually and eternally.
And now God is striking the water; He is bringing a judgment upon the water that is flowing in the churches and out from the churches in their outreach to the world – all the waters (“the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters”) are being struck by the star that fell from heaven, “burning as it were a lamp.” We can visualize that; just imagine a star falling from the heaven above, burning with fire, brightly illuminating the sky and landing “upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters.” It strikes the water and what happens? We see what happens in Revelation 8:11:
And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.
It is as though that star (whose name God gives as Wormwood) turns all the waters that it touches to wormwood. This is language describing the Lord Jesus Christ executing His plan of judgment upon the churches. It is language that indicates that the Gospel waters have been changed – they have been turned into something else; something not drinkable; something that will not bring life. Rather, it turns to wormwood “and many men died of the waters.” Waters that once brought life and salvation now are bringing death and hell. These waters are “made bitter.”
Let us look at some of the Bible’s language concerning “wormwood.” This word is used a few times in the Old Testament. Let us begin in Deuteronomy 29:18-19:
Lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turneth away this day from JEHOVAH our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations; lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and wormwood; And it come to pass, when he heareth the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst:
Here, God is warning Israel (which, in turn, would be a warning to the congregations) that if they turn away in their hearts from serving the Lord and serve other gods in these nations…and keep in mind that in the Old Testament they would literally serve idols and false gods, but it is really a picture of the New Testament churches that develop “another gospel.”
Of course, the New Testament churches were not so “crude” as to carve an idol (a literal physical image) and say, “These be our Gods,” and bow down to them. But their theologians and their esteemed pastors and ministers create doctrines and form “other gospels” and this is done with words; it is done with some Scripture passages and misapplication of them; it is done through the minds of men as they write books and commentaries and confessions and creeds. These things take root within the congregation or within that particular denomination and then the church holds onto them above the Word of God and over the Scriptures. Their authority is no longer the Bible, and the Bible alone, but their authority is the Bible plus what their renowned theologian thinks about the Bible and what their church history has developed for their confessions concerning the Bible; these things, in addition to the Bible, become their gods – it becomes what they obey and what they serve – and an “idol” is developed. Every corporate church today has these “idols of doctrine.”
In the days when God’s people were in the churches and congregations during the church age, when they found out what that particular church taught and believed, you would find an “immovable” doctrine that the church would not budge on. It did not matter if they could show from the Bible that the particular doctrine was not true and that the Bible did not teach it. They still would not budge. They had held onto that teaching, perhaps, for hundreds of years: “Do you think you can come along and show us a couple of verses and cause us to leave that doctrine and that teaching? There is no way.”
This is why churches have opposing doctrine. They will not humble themselves and submit to the doctrines of the Bible only. They hold up these “high places” of other teachings. What form of worship took place in Israel’s high places? It was idolatry. That is what went on in the high places of Israel and that is what went on in the churches and congregations. So, this warning in Deuteronomy 29:18 applied to Israel and it applied to the New Testament churches; that if they did go and serve other gods, then there will come among them “a root that beareth gall and wormwood.”
The Lord says a little more about “wormwood” in the Book of Jeremiah. It says in Jeremiah 23:14-15:
I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem an horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies: they strengthen also the hands of evildoers, that none doth return from his wickedness: they are all of them unto me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah. Therefore thus saith JEHOVAH of hosts concerning the prophets; Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink the water of gall: for from the prophets of Jerusalem is profaneness gone forth into all the land.
Again, God is looking at not only Jerusalem of old, but at the sins of the corporate church and the error of their teachings and the lies they have put forth in place of His truth and He sees “Sodom” and “Gomorrah.” Therefore, God says: “Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink the water of gall;” that is, “I am going to come upon you, falling like a star from heaven, and I will land upon the third part of the rivers and the fountains of waters, and I will smite the waters and turn them to wormwood. When you drink the waters, you will die. Men will die as a result of the polluted waters of these gospel waters that ought to have been pure in their flowing forth from my Word through your lips, through the teaching of your leaders and teachers. Yet, they were never pure. You have trodden upon my Word. Therefore, I will finish the job and I will make the waters no longer clean – no longer able to bring life – and only able to bring death.”
That is what God did. When God departed from the churches in May of 1988, in the 13,000th year of earth’s history, immediately, the Gospel waters in all churches all over the world (and we are talking about a lot of churches of every denomination – millions and millions of churches – and about two billion professed Christians within those churches) turned to “wormwood.” Instantaneously, at the moment the Holy Spirit departed out of the congregations, that is what happened.
Let us just look at one last verse concerning “wormwood,” in Proverbs, chapter 5. Here, the Lord is speaking of a “strange woman,” and it says in Proverbs 5:3:
For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil:
This “woman” would be a representation of a corporate church that has the Word of God, because God likens His Word to “honey” or the “honeycomb.” So, she can quote the Bible, just as Satan and his emissaries do. Satan comes as an “angel of light” and his emissaries as “ministers of righteousness.” They come with the Bible and with the Word of God.
Yet, “her mouth is smoother than oil.” It is a very deceptive declaration of God’s Word. And it is extremely deceptive. Those of us who (by God’s grace) have learned the truths of the Gospel and know the things that God teaches in His Word, when we hear the churches teaching contrary to the Word of God, we are able to recognize it. But it is extremely deceptive and very hard to resist when someone comes speaking “smooth things” and kind things and gentle things. They seem so nice and everything is so positive: “This is really a wonderful gospel. God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. Just think of all the wonderful blessings that will occur when you become a Christian and God is on your side. Look at the promises of the Bible and claim them as yours! Everything will go well.”
There is such a power to persuade men, because people want to think that God loves them. People want to think that once they choose God, then God is on their side and everything will go well. They want that to be true. So there are men that Satan has raised up within the congregations who will tell people what they want to hear. They will tell them “smooth things” and things that “tickle their fancy” and “tickle their ears.” They are not “hard things.” The true Gospel is so harsh, at times. It can be so hard to hear. Remember when Jesus would speak to the Jews, they would say, “Who can hear these things?” They were hard truths and difficult truths; God is just too honest and too straight-forward and our situation is so bad and so bleak, so when God tells us the honest truth of the matter, we just do not like it. Remember, when the mountain was burning, the Israelites said, “Let not God speak unto us. We cannot go before God.”
People prefer to hear the words of men over the Word of God. They prefer to hear the lie that will speak good and comfortable things to them than to hear the truth that grieves them and causes them to be troubled in mind.
So the “strange woman” fills the needs of a great many men that want her – they desire her. They want her over the “virtuous woman,” for instance, who is found later on in the Book of Proverbs and that typifies God’s elect. They do not want that woman; they would rather have a “strange woman.” Then it goes on to say in Proverbs 5:4:
But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a twoedged sword.
Again, God first says, “Here is the sin – look at this “strange woman.” (The fact that she is a “strange woman” indicates that she is not the bride of Christ.) “She has dared to take my Word into her mouth and, as a result, in the end, her end will be bitter as wormwood. I will strike her waters and turn them to wormwood, making them bitter and causing all that drink of those waters to die.” Once again, it is just like the “burning lamp” fell; the great star, which was called Wormwood, fell as a burning lamp into the third part of the rivers. Here, God is also linking together the turning of the Gospel into “wormwood” and the bitterness of the water to His Word because the Word of God is likened to a twoedged sword. We know from Hebrews 4:12 that the Word of God is a twoedged sword. Here in Proverbs 5:4, God is joining the two ideas together – that His Word will perform the judgment at the time of the end.
That is precisely what God did when He opened up the Scriptures to reveal that the church age had ended. Immediately, God’s people realized that we had to get out of the churches. There is no salvation there. We cannot drink of the waters. We must leave and drink the waters outside of the congregations; there was abundant water in the world outside of the churches, but the waters of the churches was undrinkable; it was filthy, polluted water that was “bitter” and would only kill. So God’s people did leave the churches and it was the Word of God that struck the water of every church, as God opened up the Scriptures to reveal these things; and that is why it is as a “burning lamp,” and why it speaks of the sharp, twoedged sword in Proverbs, chapter 5.