And the third angel sounded [his] trumpet and there fell out of the heaven a great star, burning as a torch, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters.
The third trumpet does not strike the land or the sea but the fresh water — the rivers and springs people drink from. What falls is a "great star" — a picture of authority — and its name tells you what it does.
The picture comes from government. A star ranks below the sun, so it stands for a power that answers to someone higher, yet still rules and still shines. One writer traces the height it held and the strange fact that it keeps glowing after the fall:
A star is the symbol of authority in government. It is not supreme authority — the sun stands for that — but authority held under another. So the very picture used shows a man who should have been a source of light and order to people. But he falls "from heaven," from the place where God had set him, for God appoints the powers that rule. By that fall he is now cut off from all connection with God. Yet he still burns — not as a star now, but as a lamp — and so he still attracts people by his light and brightness.
Where he falls from matters, and so does the word for the fall:
The Heaven is the source of authority, a fixed position; all spiritual, civil, and political authority has its source above… Under the two trumpets before this, the instruments of judgment were "cast" upon the earth and the sea. Here this apostate ruler "fell" out of the Heaven. "Cast" would imply that an unseen actor used irresistible power, and that the judgment was violent. "Fell" points rather to a sudden, unexpected downfall.
Where the star lands is as symbolic as the star itself. Water in these visions stands for peoples. Springs and rivers stand for what refreshes them and shapes their course:
Waters are the symbol of peoples with no settled shape. Fountains are the sources of their refreshment, and a river stands for what marks the course they take… This blow seems less political than the judgment before it. It is rather the poisoning of everything that ought to bring blessing to people and that touches their ordinary life.
Wormwood is a bitter plant. The star's name describes its effect, and that effect reverses an old mercy: God once turned bitter water sweet for Israel.
The name "Wormwood" shows his character… Everyone under the withering influence of this fallen being shares his character, "Wormwood." There is a reference here to that striking event in Israel's history told in Exodus 15:22-25. There God made the bitter waters sweet; here the sweet waters become bitter… It poisons their springs of action — their motives, principles, and moral life.
Commentators differ. Some read a civil ruler, others a religious teacher, others the Antichrist himself. The case for a fallen teacher rests on where the star lands:
The heavens are the sphere of government, whether civil or spiritual, so this could point to a ruler of either kind… Yet the fall from heaven and the poisoning of the sources of refreshment seem to point much more strongly to an apostate teacher. His fall turns the springs of spiritual truth bitter, and people perish… They refused to love the truth and so be saved, so God sends them a strong delusion and they believe what is false. Here would seem to be the beginning of this.
Another writer narrows it further, to a man who first claimed God's authority and then abandoned it:
It is some person who claimed authority and then becomes an apostate. His fall produces the awful results given here. It may be the final Antichrist. He may first have claimed to be a great teacher for Israel with divine authority, and then he takes the awful plunge.
The deaths come by drinking, not by disaster. One writer reads them as the death of the soul, not of the body:
He corrupts the truth of God by his poisonous teaching (1 John 2:22). Many die through it — not in body, but by falling away, so that they become dead to any recognition of the living God.
Judgments like this leave hearts where they were. Only one thing changes them:
One would think that such mighty displays of divine power would soften people's hearts. But it is not so… Love, God's own love to man as a sinner, in the cross of Christ, alone breaks and captivates the human heart.
- Height. A star is subordinate authority, set in place by God to give light and order to others.
- Fall. Falling "from heaven" means being cut off from God — yet the star keeps burning like a lamp, so it still attracts.
- Poison. It lands on rivers and fountains, so the sources that refresh and guide people's lives turn bitter.
- Name. "Wormwood" names its character, and it reverses an old mercy: God once made bitter waters sweet; now sweet waters go bitter.
- Death. Many die from drinking. One writer reads this as moral death — people dead to the living God through false teaching. Only God's love in the cross breaks a heart that judgment only hardens.
And the name of the star is called Wormwood; and the third part of the waters became wormwood, and many of the men died of the waters because they were made bitter.
The third trumpet drops a burning star on the rivers and springs — the water people drink, not the land or the sea. Its name is its verdict, and what should refresh now kills.
The star stands for a person, not a lump of rock. In this book a star pictures someone set in authority under God, and this one has come down from his place.
A star, as we saw in an earlier chapter in another connection (Revelation 1:20), pictures someone who holds a lower place of authority. He may give light to others. He is under another himself, but he still rules. Here it is a degraded ruler, a dignitary fallen from his place of authority. Waters are the symbol of peoples not yet formed. Fountains are the sources of their refreshment, and a river is what gives their course its character.
He has lost his standing yet keeps his shine, and that is exactly what makes him dangerous.
But he falls "from heaven," out of the place where God had set him — for God appoints the powers that exist. His fall now cuts him off from all connection with God. Yet he still burns, not as a star but as a lamp, so he still attracts people by his light and brightness. He falls on all the sources of life, the moral sources, pictured by the rivers and fountains of waters. You can often see this when someone prominent in the church of God turns unfaithful or apostate and morally destroys his hearers by unbelieving teaching.
"Wormwood" is an Old Testament word. Earlier passages explain what the name means here.
His name was Wormwood. Deuteronomy 29:19-20 speaks of the man who hears the curses of the law and says, "I shall have peace, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart, to add drunkenness to thirst." Scripture compares him to a root that bears gall and wormwood. See also the immoral woman of Proverbs 5:4, and Jeremiah 23:15. In Jeremiah 9:15, wormwood seems to be the bitter result of disobedience — even the scattering among the nations. Here, as in Amos 5:7, "You who turn justice to wormwood," it seems to mean the corruption of the waters, and the death of those who drank them.
Everything the star touches takes on its flavour. Israel's history shows the exact reverse of this scene.
The name "Wormwood" points to character... The fountains, the sources of national life, are poisoned. All who come under the withering influence of this fallen being share his character, "Wormwood." There is a clear reference here to a striking incident in Israel's history, told in Exodus 15:22-25. There the bitter waters were made sweet; here the sweet waters are made bitter.
Commentators differ over who this ruler is. One reading sees the poisoning of the springs as a matter of teaching, not politics.
The heavens are the sphere of government, whether civil or spiritual, so a ruler of either kind might be meant here... Yet the fall from heaven, the poisoning of the sources of refreshment, and the connection with the sixth trumpet — a parallel, if not something deeper — seem to point much more strongly to an apostate teacher. His fall would embitter the springs of spiritual truth and cause men to perish... People have not received the love of the truth so that they might be saved. So God will send them a strong delusion, so that they believe a lie. Here would seem to be the beginning of this.
Others name a candidate. "It may be the final Antichrist. He may first have claimed to be a great teacher for Israel with divine authority, and then he takes the awful plunge" (Arno Clemens Gaebelein).
Many die from the water. Several writers read this death as spiritual, not bodily: "not physically, but by apostasy they become dead to any recognition of the living God" (L. M. Grant). The damage is terrible, but it has a limit — "a third," not everything.
The language stays highly symbolic. One feature is common to each judgment: it falls only on a third part of the things affected. This shows that for the moment the effects are not universal but limited.
The passage records no repentance. Judgment on this scale does not soften anyone:
One would think that such mighty displays of divine power would soften people's hearts. But it is not so... Love, God's own love to man as a sinner, in the cross of Christ, alone breaks and captivates the human heart.
- Fall. The star is no rock from space. It is a ruler who leaves the place God gave him — still shining, and so still attractive.
- Poison. He lands on rivers and springs: not the surface of life but its sources, the moral wells people drink from.
- Name. "Wormwood" is Scripture's word for the bitterness of turning from God. Whatever he touches takes his character.
- Reversal. In Exodus God made Israel's bitter water sweet. Here sweet water turns bitter — that mercy run backwards.
- Limit. A third, not all. The death is mainly moral. The judgment warns, yet leaves room for the love that alone melts hearts.