What is worse than finding a worm in your apple? Finding half a worm in your apple!
This quaint little joke serves to characterize how most people feel when it comes to worms – particularly those which find their way into our food and clothing. This vehicle of disgust is used numerous times in scripture to emphasize certain truths about our relationship with God. The worms referred to in scripture are not those friendly worms we dig up in the garden or put on our fishing hook. Rather, they are the larval forms of various insects – caterpillars and maggots which are destructive household pests.
In the Exodus narrative, God provides the children of Israel with a type of bread from heaven referred to as manna. We do not really know what manna was – there are no naturalistic explanations which align with the biblical data for this substance. The people of Israel did not recognize it themselves, but are instructed to go out in the morning and collect this flaky substance from the ground – but only as much as they need for the day. Some did not head this instruction and collected enough for the next day as well. Their proactive thinking does not pay off. All the manna saved overnight is found to be full of maggots in the morning. Interestingly, this same effect does not occur when they are told to collect an extra portion for the Sabbath – another indication of the supernatural provision of manna.
These worms serve to remind both us and the nation of Israel of the need for a daily dependence on God for both our physical and spiritual sustenance. Jesus teaches that “man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Fittingly, Jesus identifies himself as the bread of life, such that “those who come to [Jesus] shall not hunger”. Like the Israelites in the wilderness, Jesus expects this “bread gathering” to be a daily affair – that a follower of Christ is to “deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”[1]
The character of Job is one whose encounter with worms was none like any would desire[2] – it was deeply personal. The festering wounds from the boils on his skin were crawling with maggots – “My flesh is clothed with worms and dirt; my skin hardens, then breaks out afresh”. Job understandably makes a connection between the worms on his own flesh and the worms observed in the decaying flesh of those who die – both people who are happy and well along side those who are bitter and sad – “they lie down alike in the dust and the worms cover them.” Death is indiscriminate: even evil and powerful people will succumb – “the worm feasts on them…they have no assurance of life”.
Despite his great physical misery, we find in Job an indominable spirit who finds his hope, not in this present existence, but in the life with God to come. Recognizing that the worms may be there to consume him he declared, “I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God.” The worms of Job remind us of our mortal fate, and that there is a hope which exists beyond this life.
What is interesting to consider, but can never be confirmed, is that the worms in Job’s wounds may actually have been an aid to Job’s healing. Boils are sites of bacterial infection which could have been introduced by the bite of some other insect, but not the worms themselves. In current wound care, worms are sometimes used to help remove dead tissue at wound sites which helps accelerate the body’s own healing processes. The nature of Job’s healing is not recorded, but it is apparent that he was restored to health and God also restored his wealth.
A third worm is one encountered by the prophet Jonah[3]. While most remember Jonah for his encounter with the great fish, I think this worm should get equal billing. Jonah is called by God to reach out to the Ninevites – a people whom he despises. The encounter with the fish turns Jonah around from running away from this task. Much to his chagrin, when he prophesizes against the Ninevites, they repent and turn to God and they are not destroyed. Jonah is disappointed with this outcome – he really wanted to see them burned. Consequently, he sits in the blazing sun outside the city and mopes.
To teach Jonah a lesson, God brings forth a plant which grows up and helps to shade him in the hot sun. This makes him happy. No sooner has the plant brought Jonah relief, a worm comes along and destroys the plant. This makes him angry – “enough to die”. Then comes God’s challenge to Jonah who showed such passionate concern for a trivial little plant: “Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left…should I not be concerned about that great city?” Jonah’s worm reminds us to see people, especially those we dislike, as God sees them – they are objects of his concern because God has made them in his own image.
Both Jesus and the prophet Isaiah make reference to worms in their teachings[4], particularly the caterpillar of moths which feed on cloth. Isaiah warns the people of Israel against following the ways of other cultures even if those people taunt and revile them for following God’s ways because “the moth will eat them up like a garment and the worm will eat them like wool, but my righteousness will be forever, and my salvation to all generations.” In a similar way, Jesus exhorts his followers to focus on eternal things rather than worldly treasures which “moth and rust destroy”.
The greatest worm of all is the worm who is Christ. In his words on the cross, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me”, Jesus invokes Psalm 22. In that messianic psalm we read, “But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by the people.” The king of the universe humbled himself – he became a worm to us – and suffered a death on the cross. The excruciating experience of the cross is interestingly foreshadowed in that same psalm. But this suffering of Christ was not in vain. It accomplished a purpose. Psalm 22 ends with a word of triumph that “they shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn, that he has done it.” Like Job’s worms (perhaps), the worm who is Christ, though despised, is one who brings healing.
Worms, which we associate with suffering and decay, are used in scripture to help address, at least in part, the very problem of suffering. Suffering (worms included) is useful in correcting our perspectives in life. They remind us of the temporal nature of our existence and redirect our attention to those things which are enduring. They direct us to a daily dependence on the One who exists in eternity. They force us to divert our attention away from our self-interests and identify values and concerns closer to the heart of God. Ultimately, we take comfort in the one who became the worm for us. He understands our suffering because he also suffered. He provides the hope beyond all our suffering.
[1] See: Matthew 4:4, John 6:35, Luke 9:23, respectively.
[2] See: Job 7:5, 17:14, 19:25-26, 21:26, 24:20-24, 25:6
[3] See Jonah 4:1-10
[4] See Isaiah 51:7-9, Matthew 6:19-20
Cicada Song 