“Where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched”
(Mark 9:48)
No one discusses hell more than Jesus. The one who came from heaven knows more than any other how horrible missing it would be. The worm is a grub or a maggot, an eater of the dead or decaying. Hell is a place where maggots are never done gnawing and the fires are never done burning. This picture of hell, just like the pictures we are given about heaven is not literal, but figurative language meant to impress upon us the gravity of the situation.
Hell is where the cremation never ends and the decaying soul is digested forever. It is where the soul ever weeps and gnashes its teeth with the regret of that which might have been. Hell is where the soul exists in eternal darkness instead of the radiance of God’s light. It is where the rain no longer falls upon the righteous and the unrighteous because all of the blessings from God are removed on the other side of the great chasm. Hell is the eternal absence of God and all that blooms to life at His touch.
And we ought to shudder at such a thought. Jesus wants us to shudder now so we never have to see it up close.
Matthew 4:4 #Biblebites