Revelation 8:10, 11

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.

When the third angel sounds, John sees something blazing fall from heaven and strike the rivers and fountains of waters. This judgment reaches right into the fresh water supply. That is what makes it so frightening. Men can live without many things, but they cannot live long without water.

And in our day, this does not sound far fetched at all. Aboveground nuclear testing has been banned largely because radioactive Strontium 90 was discovered in fresh water supplies surrounding the areas of detonation. So when John speaks of something burning as it falls from above and poisoning the waters below, it is not hard to see how this could describe that kind of devastation.

Then John says the name of the star is Wormwood. Perhaps coincidentally, perhaps not, the Russian word for wormwood is Chernobyl. That gives the passage an eerie weight. It is as if the Bible uses a word of bitterness and judgment that history itself would one day echo in a disaster tied to contamination and fear.

But Wormwood is not only a prophetic signal. It also points us to Jesus. Psalm 22:6 says,

But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people.

Jesus became sin for us. He entered into the place of shame, sorrow, and judgment so that we would not have to bear it ourselves. He stepped into the bitterness that belonged to us.

And that takes us back to Exodus 15. After Israel had gone three days in the wilderness without water, they came to Mara. They rushed to drink, only to find the water bitter. Then the Lord showed Moses a tree, and when the tree was cast into the water, the bitter water was made sweet.

That tree is a picture of the Cross.

I love that picture because it is so simple. Bitter water became sweet when the tree was added. The bitterness of life, the bitterness of sin, the bitterness of sorrow, all of it is answered at the Cross of Christ. What we could never make sweet on our own, He transforms by His sacrifice.

But here in Revelation 8, the opposite happens. The waters become bitter, and many men die from them. Why? Because this is tribulation judgment falling on a world that has rejected Christ and refused His work on the Cross. In Exodus, the tree sweetened the water. In Revelation, the bitterness remains because the Tree has been refused.

Think about that. There are only two ways to face bitterness. Either you bring it to the Cross and find it made sweet by Jesus, or you reject Him and drink bitterness in full. That is the tragedy of this scene. The world that would not receive the sweetness of grace must taste the bitterness of judgment.

So this is not merely a prophecy about poisoned water. It is that, yes. But it is also a warning wrapped in a picture. God has already provided the Tree. He has already given the remedy. He has already made a way for bitter things to be made sweet. If a man will not have Christ, then what remains is Wormwood.

Beloved, the Cross is still the answer. Bring Him the bitter water of your sin, your grief, your failure, your shame. Bring it all to the Tree. Because what judgment leaves bitter, Jesus can make sweet.