As the world worsens, Christians often think about what’s next on the horizon—the End Times. Although some may have strong views on the matter (dispensational rapture theology and so on), and there’s nothing wrong with having different views on how the end of this earth will play out—some of us do believe that Christians may be here for part of the tribulation. And if we believe we’ll be around for part of that, we may endure some of the plagues that hit the earth. This includes the wormwood star.
Some of us may recognize the name wormwood from C.S. Lewis’s famous novel The Screwtape Letters, but there’s so much more to the word than just a novel’s title. Let’s dive into what the wormwood star does in Revelation and how wormwood showed up long before that.
What Is the Wormwood Star in Revelation?
We meet the “star” in Revelation 8:11-13. According to the text, the wormwood star enters the scene during the trumpets.
Throughout Revelation, a series of plagues (in groups of seven at a time) are poured out on the earth. These include the seven bowls of wrath, seven seals, seven thunders, the woes (not grouped in seven, unlike the others), and the seven trumpets.
The seven trumpets take place right after the seven seals are broken. The seven seals kick off the events of God’s wrath in the End Times.
Because the wormwood star is part of the events associated with the seven trumpets, we need to see the full series first.
Trumpet One: Hail and fire mixed with blood hit the earth. This is reminiscent of the bloody Nile river and the fiery hail that hit Egypt during the Ten Plagues.
Trumpet Two: A huge mountain is thrown into the sea, and one-third of the sea is turned to blood. You’ll notice throughout Revelation that one-third gets used a lot. One-third of a water supply may get tainted. One-third of the population may get wiped out.
Trumpet Three: Enter wormwood. A star falls from the sky. This could be an asteroid or something else, but what matter is it taints one-third of the water supplies. It makes the water “bitter” and undrinkable.
Trumpet Four: A third of the sun’s light is extinguished. The moon and other celestial bodies are also affected.
Trumpet Five: An abyss is opened, and a swarm of demon locusts stings those who do not have the seal of the Lord. The sting is so painful that people will wish for death.
Trumpet Six: Four fallen angels, bound at the Euphrates river (which has incidentally completely dried up recently), and they kill one-third of humanity.
Trumpet Seven: The third woe to wrap up the seven trumpets and make way for the next judgments.
Now that we have those listed, let’s zoom in on wormwood.
What Does the Wormwood Star Do?
The original word for star does mean “star” technically in the Gree. However, if a literal star was thrown to the earth, we’d all be incinerated. We can assume it’s likely some asteroid or an unidentified object that lands in our water supplies.
Scripture doesn’t focus on the contents of the star. But we do know that it makes all the waters bitter.
This is reminiscent of a time in the Old Testament in Exodus 15. When the Israelites could not drink it, the Lord made the water sweet and drinkable once more. I also think about the judgment in Numbers 5, with a woman potentially caught in adultery. The bitter water she drinks symbolizes God’s potential wrath if she has sinned. It parallels what we see in Revelation 8: poisoned water as a judgment upon sin.
The water in Revelation becomes so bitter that many people die for it. In other words, a poisoned water supply. This judgment from God makes sense if we look back to the Ten Plagues. What did God turn to blood? The lifeblood of Egypt was the Nile. Water is a symbol for life. But because of humanity’s depravity, we have brought about death.
The better understand the wormwood star, we need to see what the herb wormwood looked like in the Old Testament.
What Was Wormwood in the Old Testament?
Wormwood is an older name for an herb we know today as absinthe. This herb is mentioned several times in the Old Testament, always emphasizing its bitterness.
- Proverbs 5 talks about a seductive woman as seeming like honey, but she ends up bitter.
- Jeremiah 9:15 predicts God will give Israel bitter water to drink.
- Lamentations 3 refers to wormwood in the same way as an affliction, bitter and agonizing.
So, like in Revelation, wormwood is associated with painful circumstances. I think of Naomi when she returns to her hometown. She tells people to call her “bitter” because of the circumstances she has undergone. The difference is that wormwood is used in reference to bitterness arising from divine judgment.
According to Bible Study Tools, bitterness “is defined as anger and disappointment at being treated unfairly. It is synonymous with resentment and envy. One of the most well-known stories of bitterness in the Bible is the archetypal tale of Cain and Abel.”
Although God is not envious of us, he certainly has a strong sense of justice. Human beings have not treated one another fairly. And therefore, we have given into bitterness. And have therefore earned the judgment of the wormwood star.
What Can We Learn from the Wormwood Star?
Whether we will experience it or not, the wormwood star has several applications for us as we approach the End Times.
First, bitterness plays a role throughout the Bible. In the example mentioned above in Bible Study Tools, bitterness drives Cain to murder Abel. He allows envy to consume him and commits the first killing act in history.
Second, God’s judgment can attack (physical and spiritual) water supplies. When God turns the Nile into blood, this has dangerous physical repercussions for the Egyptian people. The water was used for bathing, cleaning, drinking—just about everything. Spiritually, an attack or lack of water indicates we’ve become cut off from a life-giving resource. We survive on water. When we choose to cut ourselves off from the living water, we die a spiritual death. The wormwood star shows us the physical repercussions of our spiritual souls.
Third, we are more fallible than we realize. When I took a prophetic literature Class at Taylor University, it was interesting to see the parallels between the Ten Plagues and the plagues of Revelation. God may not bring huge supernatural judgment exactly the way he has in the past, but he’s not afraid to speak in a similar way again. He gives lessons, and too often, we don’t listen.
Fourth, we still have a mission before us. It’s easy to get excited about the End Times. The world has gone from bad to worse, and we want Jesus to return. But at the same time, we still have a mission before us. We still have to preach the Gospel to every tribe, tongue, and nation—something we have not yet accomplished. Although we should know much about eschatology, let’s not forget to focus on the present. After all, no one knows the hour in which Christ will return.
Finally, this is why reading all of the Bible is important. We can often neglect the Old Testament or harder-to-read sections of the Bible. But as Christians, we need to know where we came from to know how to move forward. With something like the wormwood star, for instance, it helps to know the roots of wormwood and bitterness in the Bible. So we can better bolster our faith.
Photo Credit: Getty Images/RomoloTavani
Hope Bolinger is an acquisitions editor at End Game Press, book editor for hire, and the author of almost 30 books. More than 1500 of her works have been featured in various publications. Check out her books at hopebolinger.com for clean books in most genres, great for adults and kids. Check out her editing profile at Reedsy.com to find out about hiring her for your next book project.
This article is part of our larger End Times Resource Library. Learn more about the rapture, the anti-christ, bible prophecy and the tribulation with articles that explain Biblical truths. You do not need to fear or worry about the future!
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