Why Wormwood?

 

My friends and I were reading in the book of Amos today and came across the word, ‘wormwood.’  Of course, my mind immediately went to the book of Revelation 8:10-11, where we read:

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.

So, I thought I would explore this a little.  God could use anything.  Why wormwood?

Wormwood, as used in the book of Revelation, is a plant.  I used to have a wormwood plant in my yard.  Its proper taxonomic name is Artemisia absinthium.  Please forgive me while I nerd out a little bit on that name.

Artemisia is, of course, from the Greek goddess Artemis.  She has too many aspects for us to cover here, but there are a couple that are relevant.  She was the goddess of the hunt and carried a bow and arrows.  Because of her close association with the wilderness and animals, she was seen as ‘Mother Nature.’ 

She was associated with lakes and springs, as in freshwater, and was called Limnaia, or Lady of the Lake by some.  I thought this aspect was particularly interesting considering her namesake star makes one third of fresh water undrinkable in the Revelation 8 passage.

Artemis was the twin sister of Apollo.  They were each given the power by Zeus to kill whomever they wished, Artemis women and girls, and Apollo boys and men.  For this reason, Artemis was known as the goddess of sudden death. 

As for the absinthium part, nothing fancy here.  It is just the Latin word for wormwood.

I always assumed that when the star falls and turns the water bitter that it would be named by people like newscasters or government leaders who are influenced by the name John gives it.  I never gave a thought to where John may have gotten the name.  I mean, why wouldn’t he name it wormwood.  After all, wormwood is bitter, and the star makes the water bitter and undrinkable.

I don’t know why I stopped there.  I’m the one who is always saying that everything in the Bible has its root in the Torah, or the first five books.   For whatever reason I didn't do it before, I did it today and drew an interesting conclusion.  So, let’s go.

The first reference we have in the bible is, as you probably guessed, is in the Torah, Deuteronomy specifically.  It says in the King James Version:

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 29:18

Let’s look at this verse in a more modern Translation.  I like the New Living translation which says:

I am making this covenant with you so that no one among you—no man, woman, clan, or tribe—will turn away from the LORD our God to worship these gods of other nations and so that no root among you bears bitter and poisonous fruit.

The Hebrew word la’ặnâ is translated wormwood seven times in the Old Testament and once as hemlock.  As you can see, it always means bitter or poison.

With these verses in Deuteronomy as our foundation and knowing that the prophets are giving expanded commentary on what God said in the Torah, let’s connect some dots.

The first connection is between Proverbs and Revelation.  The fifth chapter of Proverbs tells us about an adulterous woman.  Here is a portion of that passage:

For the lips of an immoral woman are as sweet as honey, and her mouth is smoother than oil.  But in the end, she is as bitter as poison, as dangerous as a double-edged sword.  Her feet go down to death; her steps lead straight to the grave.  For she cares nothing about the path to life. 

Proverbs 5:3-4 (This is the NLT.  KJV says “...bitter as wormwood.)

The Lord showed me a while back that this was an insight into the Whore of Babylon found in Revelation chapter 17.  She is dangerous and the inhabitants of the earth are made drunk with the wine of her fornication.  If you multiply chapter 5 of Proverbs by a factor of ‘global,’ you get the Whore of Babylon and the fools who are in a dalliance with her.  Proverbs 5 also links her to wormwood.

Jeremiah uses wormwood four times.  Two times in his namesake book; and both times in the same way:

Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, “Behold, I will feed them even this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink. Jeremiah 9:15

Therefore thus saith the LORD 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.  Jeremiah 23:15

These verses connect backwards and forwards.  Look back at the use of the word in Deuteronomy.  God declares that one of the curses for turning to the gods would bring forth the bitter fruit of wormwood and gall.  Consider that many times in the prophets, Israel’s idolatry is compared to adultery.  Marriage is a covenant and God made a comparable covenant with Israel at Mt. Sinai.  Now remember Proverbs 5.

He then uses wormwood twice in Lamentations:

He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath made me drunken with wormwood. Lamentations 3:15

Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood, and the gall.  Jeremiah 3:19

All these Jeremiah and Lamentation passages make me think of Jesus on the cross.  Remember, He became the curse hanging on a tree for us so that we can be redeemed from the curse (Galatians 3:15).  Deuteronomy gives us the scripture that Paul refers to in this Galatians passage:

If someone has committed a crime worthy of death and is executed and hung on a tree, the body must not remain hanging from the tree overnight.  You must bury the body that same day, for anyone who is hung (the Septuagint and KJV include ‘on a tree’) is cursed in the sight of God…  Deuteronomy 21:22-23

What did Deuteronomy tell us would be part of the curse of breaking God’s covenant?  Wormwood and gall.

What did the Roman soldiers offer Jesus as He was dying on the Cross? Wine mixed with bitter gall (Matthew 27:24). 

Jesus took on the role of covenant breaker in our place, in Adam’s place, in the place of all of mankind.  Our part is to believe in what He did.

Now to the scripture that started this whole thing, Amos 5:7:

Ye who turn judgment to wormwood and leave off righteousness in the earth. 

This little verse is in the middle of Amos ties everything together for me, and when I say middle, it’s pretty close to dead center.  

Amos is written to the Northern Kingdom or Israel.  The whole book is a pronouncement of judgment because Israel was worshiping other gods at Bethel.  Not only that, they were taking advantage of the weak and abusing the poor, which was also against God’s covenant. 

If you read Amos 5:7 carefully, you can see the answer to the question we asked at the beginning.  Why wormwood?  God said in the beginning that certain actions would bring on the bitterness of wormwood.  They were guilty of those actions.

Is it any wonder that a star named wormwood falls to earth and poisons one third of all the fresh water?  Remember how Proverbs five was multiplied by a global factor?  Well, so is Deuteronomy 29:18.  All the curses associated with Israel in the Torah will be multiplied worldwide.  Jesus was given bitter water to drink, so will the world in the end.