Clothed in Worms - Yucky!

Isaiah 14:11

Your pomp and the music of your harps have been brought down to Sheol; Maggots are spread out as your bed beneath you and worms are your covering. (Also in the NLT – Now maggots are your sheet and worms your blanket.)

OK, life has gotten really overwhelming for the past little while, and the blog suffered for it. The heart and the brain couldn't muster the strength to sit and reflect on these things of God, for it was distracted by heartache, concerns, tasks that had serious deadlines, etc. For that I am ashamed, but God knows my heart, my strength and battles, and also that I can not give light when I am not getting it. I did not want to talk truth to you when I wasn't sure of it myself some days.

So when I knew it was time to get serious about listening to God speak through cloth again, I was somewhat amused that THIS would be the passage I would get. I seldom have a passage in mind when I sit down...He takes me places. This is the story of the King of Babylon...in case you didn't know it, God has no love for Babylon...read Revelation and see what He has stored up for her! Ugh. This passage is a preview of that destruction. Babylon is the symbol of all pride, arrogance, worldliness, and sin. They were self-dependent, ruthless, and selfish. They had no time for God, no love for Him, or appreciation for all the good they had stored up for themselves. They fought God's people ruthlessly. And God used them as judgement against His people more than once.

But God uses them also as the example of what happens to the arrogant, the godless, and those who would do harm to the cause of God's kingdom on earth and in heaven. Those who love death will ultimately suffer the fate of those they killed and tortured. They will have the same worms devour them as devoured their enemies.

This passage is gross. I admit it. But why did God use this illustration of bed and blanket with the worm? Remember the former discussions we have had. We were uncovered with the sin of Adam, and God covered them with skin and blood was shed. No leaf would do the job. This was a foreshadowing of the death of Christ used to cover our sins. Ever since, people have been clothed with something. We need clothes to hide our nakedness (which for most of us is a mercy to the rest of the world!), to warm or cool us, and to protect us from the elements of the world that were suddenly set against us. Clothes are usually a mercy to us (except certain wools that itch us to death, or sackcloth, used in mourning). But this covering, this cloth of worms, was a covering of judgement. Those who received not the clothing provided by God, the cloth that makes us acceptable to Him, who rejected God, His mercy and compassion, those would be covered in condemnation. What is a worm to a man? There is even a passage that says I am not a man but a worm...the lowest of creatures. Crawling in the dirt, eaten by birds, trampled after a rain, or used as bait...despised in food and used to eat manna gathered beyond allowance...the worm is nothing and destructive at the same time. One worm can't do much, but many worms devour the flesh, multiplying and consuming, making that which was strong and powerful into the very soil it trod without a thought. And it would cover the grandness and make it into dirt. Those who glory in their strength and power will someday face the worm. Herod was consumed by them from the inside out! And with today's funeral procedures, many may not see worms as were in the days of just digging a hole. But all will face the destruction of the body to some extent. All will grow powerless and cease to rule.

We look at the world and wonder about the evil we see. Evil people in government, in the community stealing and killing, evil traffikers of people, evil, arrogant people who have power in some way over the lives of others, and we shudder to think of the misery they bring. But God promises that if they do not repent of this that the worm will never cease to torture them. It is a humbling thought that God is not one to let people get away with sinning against Him or others. We all deserve the worm. We all have earned this covering, yet for the blood of Christ that no worm can stomach. We are covered in the blood of Christ if we have accepted His sacrifice for our sins, and the worm can not consume that blood nor penetrate it. It consumes the blood of the wicked. But we have been made righteousness in Christ, and the worm and moth shall not destroy that which the Lord has cloaked in a shield of protection.

Are you covered with the blood so that you will not be covered with the worm? Only the arrogant do not see their fate coming. Those who prosper now by oppression and rebellion against God do not see their end...I just ask that you and I consider where we stand and guard against the worm in our lives and the lives of those we love. God prefers to cover us with Christ if only we will humble ourselves before Him.