“[Your] worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.”

 

This is a passage that holds a mystery.  What does it mean, “Their worm dieth not?”  The context is Hell and going to Hell and the everlastingness of Hell. That much we can deduce. What doth,  “worm” mean? Some have said the sinner will be transformed into a worm like creature. That is certainly frightening, is it not? I do not think that is quite the meaning, however.

What do we remember from Scripture regarding worms?  In the Psalms, Christ cries out prophetically, through David, “I am no man but a worm.”  In the New Testament, Herod is eaten alive from the inside out by worms.  If we look at these two (2) passages and try to align them, we might find our answer.

We know Christ was made sin while on the cross, so that we  might be made the righteousness of God in Christ. Was that being made a worm and no man?  Being made sin?  Then we see Herod being eaten alive by worms.  Could this then tell us that the sinner, in Hell will become sin and this sin-hood will eat him for all eternity.

In other words, Their conscience, their mind, their memories will eat at them for ever and ever.

Christ asks the question and sums up the entire book of Ecclesiastes with, “What shall it prosper a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?” His question is rhetorical in nature as the only and obvious answer is that man will prosper nothing.
*A person may be given good health.
*A person may be born into a fine family that is financially wealthy or not.
*A person may obtain a great education and develop a first (1st) rate mind.
*A person may obtain a great career.
*A Person’s health may hold up.
*This person may be blessed with a good family and live a good long life.
*THis person may be beloved by many.
*This person may collect and gather many toys.

Reader, though the person above has lived a life that many would envy, what happens after death?  This person, a good person, by all accounts. This person obeyed the law, paid taxes, gave to charity, and even attended church once in a while. By all human standards this was a fine upstanding person. BUT reader, this person will die and all he was, all he had will go to someone else and that someone else may sell it or whatever. Health benefits no more. Family benefits no more, careers matter no more, the love of family and all the toys benefit no more. None of it matters. None of it can be taken into eternity……..But wait.  If you read closely, we left one thing out of the “can’t take it with you.”

When one enters eternity, one will take the mind with them. One’s worm will follow. One’s gnawing consciousness will never be satisfied.  One will forever wonder why.  One will forever wish they could warn their family and others of this horrible place.  However, the irony is this, these will never repent of their sins, they will never mourn over their offenses and iniquities, they will never tear up over their trespasses. In fact, they will for all eternity continue to hate God and God’s Holiness and righteousness.

Our Lord in Luke 16 tells us of a rich man and a beggar. Two (2) extremes for sure. This is no parable. Persons in Christ’s parables are never named. In this teaching the poor man is named. The poor man is named because God knew him and loved him. The rich man was not named as God never knew him. The rich man lived and ate as only a wealthy man could.  Lazarus had nothing and sat outside the gate of the rich man.  I do not think he was begging as Scripture tells us he “was laid at his gate, full of sores.” The beggar did ask for the crumbs off the rich man’s table. We are told the dogs came to lick the beggars sores. I think from that, we may deduce that the dogs also ate the crumbs.

As God would have it, both the rich man and Lazarus (Not the Lararus that Christ raised) died. Lararus woke up in Abraham’s Bosom or Paradise (The Paradise Christ spoke of from the Cross).  The Rich man woke up in Hell. Both men we are told, were conscious. Both could talk and reason. Both had memory and emotions. The rich man became the beggar as he begged for water. The rich man also begged that he might be allowed to warn his family of this place. Neither requests were granted. There is no Mercy in Hell.

The rich man learned that it doth not prosper a man to have once had the whole world and to then find himself in Hell with eyes cast up, from where relief and release will never come. There will be no looking forward to anything, there will only be looking back at a wasted life. A life wasted as it was not lived for Christ.

To be clear, we are not inciting any animosity for the wealthy.  I have know very many persons of great wealth and they were fine persons. I have known persons that had very little and they were rotting from the inside out. Do not be a little person with a small mind and be prejudiced against all persons that are wealthy or better off than you. And do not pity all the persons that are less fortunate than you. Sometimes the rich are rich for a reason and sometimes the poor are poor for a reason. Remember what complaining really is? See last article on Complaining.