Revelation 8:10 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.
Is this a star, in the sense of
what we understand as a star, which modern scientific definitions are
self-limiting and refer to specific things rather than categories, as ancient
expressions would? Or, is this just a reference to some astronomical body like
debris from a comet or an asteroid which poisons a third part of the rivers,
the headwaters of drinkable water? In the next chapter such a thing will be an
actual entity rather than an astronomical body.
A recent UK Guardian article was entitled, “Risk
of comet hitting Earth is greater than previously thought, say researchers.”[1]
The effects of such a disaster can only be reasonably assumed but it is clear
that such an event is waiting to happen. Earth is being held off from certain
horrible events, and it seems held off for a purpose, if we believe the
Scriptures. It is not amazing that terrible things happen but that they don’t
happen more often is amazing.
Wormwood is supposed
to be what the word Chernobyl in
Russian or Chornobyl in Ukrainian means. The town of Chernobyl was named after
the plant which was said to have supernatural properties in folklore.[2] Will this poisoning of the waters have
anything to do with a man-made nuclear disaster, though? It doesn’t appear so,
from a literal reading of the Bible, as this is a great star from heaven and on fire. Even if this is calamity is
from the spiritual world it clearly comes from someplace else. It falls on the
waters.
Fountains
of waters may refer also to underground water, perhaps
aquifers and fresh water supplies, or even oceans of water.
Genesis
7:11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s
life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were
all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were
opened.
Some scientists
believe there is more water in the earth’s crust than on the surface, which
would be where the flood waters receded to after the Great Flood. “Earth’s
Mantle Holds an Ocean’s Worth of Water,” was the title of a recent Scientific
American article.[3]
Another article, this time in the Christian Science Monitor reports that all of
the water under the ground could cover the continents in 600 feet of water so
we are blessed that God said He would never unleash that sort of destruction
again.[4]
Genesis
9:11 And I will establish my covenant
with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood;
neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth.
[1] “Risk of comet hitting Earth is
greater than previously thought, say researchers,” The Guardian, December 22,
2015. http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/dec/23/risk-of-comet-hitting-earth-as-bad-as-asteroids-or-worse-say-researchers.
[2] Mary Mycio, “Wormwood: Biblical
Botany,” in Wormwood Forest: An Natural
History of Chernobyl (Washington D.C.: Joseph Henry Press, 2005), Kindle ed. chapter one.
[3]
Becky Oskin, “Earth’s
Mantle Holds an Ocean’s Worth of Water,” Scientific American, March 12, 2014. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/rare-diamond-confirms-that-earths-mantle-holds-an-oceans-worth-of-water/.
[4] Lucy Schouten, “Scientists Tally Earth’s Hidden
Mega-stashes of Groundwater,” Christian Science Monitor, November 17, 2015. http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2015/1117/Scientists-tally-Earth-s-hidden-mega-stashes-of-groundwater#.
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