Audio Download

Rev 8: 10-11 Part 1, The Third Trumpet Upon The Rivers and Fountains

[Study Aired July 19, 2024]

Rev 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;
Rev 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.

Introduction

The first thing we will do is compare the target of this third trumpet judgment with the target of the third vial:

Rev 16:4  And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood.
Rev 16:5  And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus.
Rev 16:6  For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy.
Rev 16:7  And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments.

As with the first two trumpets this  trumpet affects “the third part of the rivers and fountains of waters” while the vial mentions no such limit.

Once again, we are confronted with six more symbols in this third trumpet. They are 1) “A great star fell from heaven.” 2) It is “burning as it were a lamp.” 3) It falls upon a third part of the rivers and fountains of water. 4) “The name of the star is called wormwood.” 5) “The third part of the waters become wormwood.” 6) “Many men died of the waters, because the were made bitter.”

Again we must ask, What do these six symbols mean, and where are all these six symbols explained? As always we must remember that these are words out of our Lord’s own mouth which we are to live and keep this very day.

Mat 4:4  But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

Rev 1:3  Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.

So “the time is at hand” for “a great star to fall from heaven, burning as it were a lamp.” The time is at hand for that star to fall upon the third part of the rivers and upon the fountains of waters. The time is at hand for us to know why this star is called wormwood and why it makes a third of the waters wormwood, and the time is at hand for us to know why many men die of those bitter waters. So let’s ask…

What is this great star that falls from heaven?

We were told what the spiritual significance of the word star is in the very first chapter of this book. Stars are angels, and angels are messengers who bring us a message from the Lord. This messenger is bringing us words which are for the seven churches of God.

Rev 1:20  The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches.

There is no way we can ever go wrong if we simply agree with our Lord’s words that “stars are the angels”, and angels are messengers who bring messages to us. Those messages can be the Truth, which, if we are given to receive it, will be guaranteed to “send a sword” into our lives and separate us from our own physical families and friends and make us “hated of all men”, or those messages can be lies from the Devil which, we are told, will always be smooth words which will make this life easier for us as we love those who love us and hate those who hate us. The messages brought by any angel, or any spirit, are doctrines, and it is the affect of those doctrines that tells us which spirit we are dealing with.

1Jn 4:1  Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

Let’s try the spirits with the Word of God and ask…

Why is this star “burning as it were a lamp?”

It is statements like this which reveal to us what this star in this third trumpet signifies.

Psa 119:105 NUN. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.

We have seen that the Word of God reveals that the hail and fire mixed with blood in the first trumpet is the Word of God which shall “sweep away the refuge of lies”, even as the waters of God’s word will overflow that hiding place. We also saw that this is all God’s judgments upon us, His house, in these seven trumpet judgments. We saw that this judgment is done progressively in thirds. Three being the process of judgment, all of these ‘thirds’ again witness to us of the process of judgment, and the revealing of Christ in us, which is the purpose for all of these seven trumpet judgments within our lives.

Isa 26:8  Yea, in the way of thy judgments, O LORD, have we waited for thee; the desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee.
Isa 26:9  With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

Isa 28:17  Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.

1Pe 4:17  For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

Rev 8:7  The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.
Rev 8:8  And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood;
Rev 8:9  And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed.

We have seen that the great mountain burning with fire of the second trumpet is also that same flaming, burning word of God working by little and by little destroying our old man as our new man becomes more like Christ each passing day as His fiery judgment continues its bitter and destructive work against the kingdom of our old man within us.

The holy spirit uses many words to signify the fiery, destructive and bitter works of our Lord’s doctrines upon the kingdom of our old man:

Psa 148:8  Fire, and hail; snow, and vapour; stormy wind fulfilling his word:

Isa 5:24  Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust: because they have cast away the law of the LORD of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.

Jer 5:14  Wherefore thus saith the LORD God of hosts, Because ye speak this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.

Jer 20:9  Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.

Jer 23:29  Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?

There it is. God’s Words are “as a fire shut up in my bones.” Christ is God’s Word, therefore He is that fire, working progressively in thirds upon us. It is Christ who is working everything that is in our ‘earth’ (Eph 1:11). That is the revelation of Jesus Christ we are to ‘read, hear, and keep’ (Rev 1:3), and that is the message of the first two trumpets. That is also the significance of the “fire” in this third trumpet, and that is also be the meaning of our next symbol of…

The rivers and fountains of water?

Christ Himself made this statement about the meaning of this particular symbol:

Joh 7:38  He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

A couple of verses which demonstrate what ‘trees’ signify in scripture, also reveal what rivers of water signify:

Jer 17:7  Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is.
Jer 17:8  For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.

Just like the pillar of fire that led Israel out of Egypt and gave light to Israel and the same pillar was darkness to the Egyptians, so also, the rivers of waters are life to those in Christ and the same rivers of waters are wormwood, bitterness and death to our old man of those who are not in Christ. To understand how these words apply personally, the Lord has given us a parable about the king of Egypt who typifies our carnal-minded, rebellious old man:

Ezekiel 31 demonstrates how these fountains and rivers of waters are both positive to those in Christ, and negative to those who are not in Christ.

Eze 31:1  And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the third month, in the first day of the month, that the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Eze 31:2  Son of man, speak unto Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to his multitude; Whom art thou like in thy greatness?

Eze 31:6  All the fowls of heaven made their nests in his boughs, and under his branches did all the beasts of the field bring forth their young, and under his shadow dwelt all great nations.
Eze 31:7  Thus was he fair in his greatness, in the length of his branches: for his root was by great waters.

In scripture, Egypt symbolizes and signifies us while we are in the world. We all begin as a “beast coming up out of the sea”, which ‘sea’ signifies this world. We are all “in Adam” (1Co 15:22), and Adam is first in the world. It is this revelation of Jesus Christ which teaches us that He is both the first and the last, and that the first is merely a shadow of the last.

Rom 5:14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who [“the first Adam”], is the figure of him that was to come.

Rev 22:13  I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.

The natural man will argue that Christ cannot be both the first and the last Adam. The natural man cannot discern spiritual matters, and he cannot understand how the first Adam can in any way be a figure or a type of the last Adam. However, the Truth of God’s Word is that there must be a shadow before that shadow can disappear in the light of the full Sun at midday. The natural man cannot accept that we are in the process of the revelation of Jesus Christ, and that with Christ we are both the first and the last. The natural man reasons, “Well, did you win the race, or did you come in last?” The spirit answers, “I am the first and the last. I was destroyed, and I died, and I lost the race, so that I could be saved, so I could be given life and so I could be first and win the race.” The Truth is always counterintuitive to our carnal minded old man:

Mat 10:39  He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.

In Christ, we are first losers, and through acknowledging that we are losing, we become winners. How many can win? only one can win the race, and that one is Abraham’s “one seed.”

Gal 3:16  Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.

As contradictory as it seems to the natural man, 144,000 somehow, without contradiction to the mind of the spirit, become the ‘one seed.’ It is all right here in this same third chapter of Galatians.

Gal 3:29  And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s [one] seed, and heirs according to the promise [and the “one winner” of the race].

This is the “two edged” nature of the word of God, and this same two edged characteristic is true also of these “rivers and fountains of water” here in Revelation 8. They become bitter to our old man whose “fair branches and high stature… because of the multitude of waters…” will be destroyed as he loses his life in increments of thirds as he becomes aware of the fact that he is guilty of hating his brother and therefore of murdering His own Savior.

Why is this angel, this star, called wormwood?

Here in this eleventh verse of this eighth chapter of Revelation is the only place in the New Testament we find this word ‘wormwood.’ This word and this symbol, as all the symbols of this prophecy, glean their weight and meaning from the prophecies of the Old Testament. Let’s once again allow God’s own Word to define this word for us. Here is how this word ‘wormwood’ is used in the Old Testament.

Deu 29:18  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;

There it is. That is the reason we read “many men died because the waters were made bitter.” “Many men” means all men of all time. That is made clear by all these New Testament verses:

Mat 16:27  For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works.

Mat 20:9  And when they came that were hired about the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny.
Mat 20:10  But when the first came, they supposed that they should have received more; and they likewise received every man a penny.

Rom 2:6  Who will render to every man according to his deeds:

1Co 3:8  Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour.

1Co 3:13  Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.

1Co 11:3  But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.

1Co 15:22  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
1Co 15:23  But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.

Col 1:28  Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus:

We are called ‘saviors’ because it will be through our mercy that “every man” will receive mercy:

Rom 11:30  For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:
Rom 11:31  Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.
Rom 11:32  For God hath concluded them all [every man] in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all [Every man].

Here are the other seven verses in which the holy spirit uses this word wormwood demonstrating the two-edged sword nature of this word:

1) Proverbs 5:4 and its context.

Pro 5:1  My son, attend unto my wisdom, and bow thine ear to my understanding:
Pro 5:2  That thou mayest regard discretion, and that thy lips may keep knowledge.
Pro 5:3  For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil:
Pro 5:4  But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a twoedged sword.
Pro 5:5  Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell.
Pro 5:6  Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life, her ways are moveable, that thou canst not know them.

Notice that the words of both Christ and the great harlot are said to be “sharp as a twoedged sword”:

Heb 4:12  For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Heb 4:13  Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.

Wormwood is our time in Babylon listening to the “lips of a strange woman [with] movable ways.”  The lips [and doctrines] “of a strange woman” have an end which is “bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two edged sword.”

Is it not truly revealing that Babylonian ministers can prophesy a false prophecy which misses the date and the truth, and yet those who follow them just ignore the fact that they have proven themselves to be false prophets?

Deu 18:20  But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die.
Deu 18:21  And if thou say in thine heart, How shall we know the word which the LORD hath not spoken?
Deu 18:22  When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that [is] the thing which the LORD hath not spoken, [but] the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.

“Her end is bitter as wormwood” because the great star burning as a lamp is what makes our faith in the twisting of God’s words, His rivers and fountains of waters, into lies, to become a burning bitterness to us. This fifth chapter of Proverbs explains the bitterness that is this star called wormwood which turns God’s rivers and fountains of waters into wormwood when we listen to “the lips of a strange woman.”

Pro 5:7  Hear me now therefore, O ye children, and depart not from the words of my mouth.
Pro 5:8  Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house:
Pro 5:9  Lest thou give thine honour unto others, and thy years unto the cruel:
Pro 5:10  Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth; and thy labours be in the house of a stranger;
Pro 5:11  And thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed,
Pro 5:12  And say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof;
Pro 5:13  And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me!
Pro 5:14  I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly.
Pro 5:15  Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well.
Pro 5:16  Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters in the streets.
Pro 5:17  Let them be only thine own, and not strangers’ with thee.
Pro 5:18  Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth.
Pro 5:19  Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love.
Pro 5:20  And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger?
Pro 5:21  For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and he pondereth all his goings.
Pro 5:22  His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins.
Pro 5:23  He shall die without instruction; and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.

“The lips of a strange woman” is the doctrine of Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and of abominations of the earth. Verse 22 and 23 are the gall and bitterness that is the fruit of this ‘wormwood.’ It is very few Christians who realize that their ‘waters’ have become bitter, and it is few Christians who realize that it is that very bitterness which is designed to destroy the old man within. We must live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God, and that means “Thou shalt not…” is a prophecy of what mankind will do. In this case we do not attend to the wisdom and understanding of our Father. Instead we have all listened to the lips of a strange woman which “lips drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil.” Consequently we have learned that “her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword” just like the Word of God.

2) Jer 9:15. Here is the effect that wormwood has upon us:

Jer 9:13  And the LORD saith, Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, neither walked therein;
Jer 9:14  But have walked after the imagination of their own heart, and after Baalim, which their fathers taught them:
Jer 9:15  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.
Jer 9:16  I will scatter them also among the heathen, whom neither they nor their fathers have known: and I will send a sword after them, till I have consumed them.

“Scatter them among the heathen” includes taking them captive to Babylon, where they (we) all drink the waters of wormwood.

3) Jer 23:15. Wormwood is the effect upon us of false doctrines from false prophets.

Jer 23:15  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.

We will pause our study on the spiritual significance of ‘wormwood’ at this point and continue with the remaining five instances of this word in scripture in our next study.