By: Tom Lowe Date: 3-27-2016
Title: Third Trumpet: Third of Rivers and Springs Become Bitter, Many Die (Revelation 8:10-11)
Revelation 8:10-11 (KJV)
10 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;
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.
Introduction
At the blowing of the third trumpet, a star with the name Wornwood falls from the sky and lands on a third of the rivers and springs, making a third of the water toxic. The plant with the same name as the star, Wormwood, is a bitter plant often used as a metaphor for something bitter to the taste, though it is not usually considered a poison.
The blowing of trumpets called the Israelites together for instruction (Numbers 10:3) or for marching (Numbers 10:3-7); it summoned them to assemble for war (Jeremiah 4:19; 42:14, etc.), and to return from dispersion (Isaiah 27:13); it announced release in the year of jubilee (Leviticus 25:8-10), and here it announces judgment. The trumpet judgments are quite similar to the plagues which God sent upon Egypt at the time of the deliverance of Israel, though they do not occur in the same order. After the Exodus, Israel encountered bitter waters at Marah (which means “bitter”) and Moses had to purify the water supply (Exodus 15: 23-27). But no supernatural purification will be available during the Tribulation.
Commentary
10 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;
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.
“And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven.” This occurred when a great flaming star fell out of the sky. Some Bible commentators believe that this may be a comet. If this is taken literally, a third ecological disaster is depicted. The trees, the grass, the sea have all been devastated; now the rivers and fountains of waters are spoiled. But a disaster affecting the water supply of mankind hardly seems a sufficient explanation of what happens under this trumpet. The events described must probably be taken symbolically, even though interpreters have varied widely in seeking to identify the fallen star. Simon Magus; Attila, “the scourge of God;” Muhammad; and even the Jewish historian Josephus have been suggested. Some have identified the fallen star with the AntiChrist. Others identify the star as Satan. Since the star that falls at the sounding of the fifth trumpet (9:1) is an angelic being, it is possible that Wormwood is also an angel. But no star or fallen angel named Wormwood can be found in any other source.
The clue to the interpretation is in Revelation 12:12, where we read, “Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.” The earlier part of the chapter tells how, in his original fall, the devil, the great red dragon, cast a third part of the stars (i.e., his angels) out of heaven. With Satan’s fall from heaven, recorded incidentally in Revelation 13, a new woe is to be added to the horrors taking place on earth. Michael warns mankind that Satan’s expulsion from heaven causes woe on earth. It is significant that the last three trumpets are specifically called “woe” trumpets. Revelation 13 lends strong support to the view that the fallen star is Satan himself. He is given the symbolic name of Wormwood, and he poisons the third part of “the waters,” which become bitter and result in the death of many men. The symbolism of the waters is explained in Revelation 17:15: “the waters . . . are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.” In other words, Satan’s fall to earth results in the immediate poisoning of human life and society. The peoples of the earth take on the character of the evil one and become “wormwood” too. Satan is bitter because he has been cast out of heaven. Men become bitter, and many people die.
When God’s Son descended from heaven to earth at the incarnation, God put a new star in the sky. It is possible that, when Satan is cast down from heaven to earth, his fall will be heralded by the fall of a giant comet. The fall of Satan adds a new dimension to the disasters which now overtake the globe. The beast will already be here, benign as yet; and now Satan arrives, knowing that his time is short. It will take only a step or two for Satan’s plans for the planet to mature.
“Burning as it were a lamp.” Here John uses a lamp to illustrate the tremendous burning light that fell from the sky, just as he used the mountain to illustrate the burning mass under the second trumpet. No doubt this will be another heavenly body—a meteor or something like that—that God turns lose; and as it falls it will assume the form of a giant torch, in its blazing path down through the heavens as its speeds toward earth at an unknown rate of speed. When the gaseous vapors are scattered throughout the atmosphere, and these vapors explode, they will be absorbed by the waters—and a third of the Rivers and fountains of water will be poisoned by the gases from this burning torch.
There is another theory that is very similar to the “burning torch” theory and it has been explained in this way. It is likely that this fallen star is molten and that, as it nears the earth, it begins to disintegrate and fall into the various bodies of water. If a star actually struck the earth, our globe would be destroyed; so this star must “come apart” as it enters the atmosphere. Of course, this event is a divinely controlled judgment; therefore, we must not try to limit it by the known laws of science.
We should not think it strange that a great burning star could communicate a poisonous bitterness to the waters upon which it fell. On March 21, 1823, a volcanic explosion in the Aleutian Islands caused the water to become so bitter that it was unfit for use. God will use that which He created to affect His ends. He put the stars in their places (Genesis 1:14-16); He knows how many there are (Psalm 147:4); and He has called each one by name (Job 9:9-10).
“And it fell upon the third part of the rivers.” The National Geographic Society lists about 100 principle Rivers in the world, ranging in length from the Amazon (4,000 miles long) to the Rio de la Plata (150 miles long). The U. S. Geographical Survey, report’s thirty large rivers in the United States, beginning with the mighty Mississippi (3710 miles long). One third of these Rivers, and their sources, will become so bitterly polluted that drinking their water could produce death.
“And upon the fountains of waters.” One-third of the world’s fresh water springs are polluted.
“And the name of the star is called Wormwood.” The star is named “Wormwood,” (meaning; bitterness, undrinkable) which is the name of a plant with a very bitter taste (see Proverbs 5:3-4; Jeremiah 9:15; 23:15; Limitations 3:15, 19; Amos 5:7). This pictures the bitterness of sorrow, great calamities, and death. “Wormwood” is a general name for the class of plants known as artemisia. The rendering “Wormwood” derives from its association with medicinal use to kill intestinal worms. It is a perennial herb, extremely bitter, used in the manufacture of absinthe, which is used in France as a beverage, and it is much more intoxicating and destructive to the human body than ordinary liquors known in America. It is not really poisonous in the sense of being fatal, although they are harmful, but the Israelites dreaded their bitterness.
“And the third part of the waters became wormwood.” In Exodus, when Moses lifted up his rod and smote the waters, the waters of the Nile turned to blood and the fish in the river died (Exodus 7:20, 21). In Zephaniah’s picture of the Day of the Lord the threat of God is: “I will sweep away man and beast; I will sweep away the birds of the air and the fish of the sea” (Zechariah 1:3). Wormwood was the fruit of idolatry—“And ye have seen their abominations, and their idols, wood and stone, silver and gold, which were among them:) Lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turneth away this day from the Lord our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations; lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and wormwood” (Deuteronomy 29:17, 18). It was the threat of God through Jeremiah that God would give His people wormwood to eat and the waters of gall to drink (Jeremiah 9:14, 15; 23:15). The prophet Amos wrote “those who turn justice into wormwood” (Amos 5:7). Wormwood always stood for the bitterness of the judgment of God on the disobedient.
Dear reader, we are living in a world today where a great deal is being said about pollution, and it is a real problem. Man seems to have gotten a head start on the star in polluting all the waters. Personally, I think that man is going to be forced to clean up the water of the world if he is going to be able to exist at all. Self-preservation is considered to be the first law of nature, and man wants to hang on to this little earth; so he is going to do something about it. In the Great Tribulation, the fresh water is polluted, and the drinking water for mankind is contaminated, that is one-third of it is.
There is no parallel for the picture of the fall of the flaming star, but there are many parallels of the idea of waters turning to wormwood. This judgment affects one-third of all the fresh water on the earth—horrible, but still not total and final judgment.
“And many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.” One-third of the living things in the sea died as a result of the second trumpet. When the “third angel” blew his trumpet, the results affected one-third of all the inland waters—one-third of the rivers, the wells, and the springs of water. The waters will be made very bitter. “Many men” shall die from drinking the poisoned water. [In one of the paragraphs above, I had stated that “It (wormwood) is not really poisonous in the sense of being fatal,” according to today’s text books, but the Lord did something to make this particular heavenly wormwood extremely poisonous, “and many men died” from drinking it.]
This reversed the miracle that God had performed for His people in the wilderness at Marah—turning the bitter water sweet so that it would be drinkable (Exodus 15:22-25). Here, sweet water was turned bitter, making it undrinkable and causing many people to die. As yet, there is no mention of harm, coming to the believing community or even to humanity in general. Rather, in systematic fashion, first the things of the earth are affected, then the things of the sea, followed by the things of the fresh waters, and finally the things of the heavens.
When our Lord hung upon the cross, His enemies “Gave Him vinegar to drink mingled with gall” (Matthew 27:34). But at the sounding of the third trumpet, many wicked men will die from water made bitter by the Divine Judge. How wonderful that in this day of grace God makes available to men the soul-satisfying water of life! “But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life” (John 4:14). “Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’” But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified” (John 7:37-39).
This time of judgment is foretold by the prophet, Jeremiah: “Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will feed them, even this people (the people Israel), with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink” (Jeremiah 9:15). Thank God I will not be here . . . You do not have to be here . . . You can be saved if you are not saved now; and if you are born again now you have nothing to fear or dread, for you will not be here. The born again will be seated at the marriage supper in the sky when these terrible judgments occur—“Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.” It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. Then he said to me, “Write, ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.’” And he said to me, “These are true words of God.” Then I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, “Do not do that; I am a fellow servant of yours and your brethren who hold the testimony of Jesus; worship God. For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy” (Revelation 19:7-10).
