Shed the Old Skin of Worm Theology (the deleted chapter)

This is a chapter I removed from Untwisting Scriptures #6 Striving, Dying to Self, and Life. (It seemed to go a bit off topic.)

The book now contains no reference to “worm theology,” but I left this former-chapter-now-web-article as is.

Untwisting Scriptures to Find Freedom and Joy in Jesus Christ: Book 6 Striving, Dying to Self, and Life is due to launch into the world on December 3, 2024. I invite you to join the Book Launch Team! You can get more information about that here.

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In the previous chapter, my reader made reference to what we might call “worm theology.” She said,

Am I a worthless worm? Is there really nothing good in me? . . .

 There’s a voice from my past telling me I’m worthless . . . and there’s nothing in me that I (or God) should love.

This is so important. For Christians who have been taught to see themselves as worthless worms, it’s high time for them to see themselves as well-loved sons and daughters of God. It’s a lie I’m eager to untwist.

The label of “worm” is used in Scripture three times in reference to people, so let’s look at all of them.

Job 25:5-6

When I think of a worm, I think of an earthworm. They’re admittedly lowly, but they help farmers, they do no harm, and in my opinion they’re all around pretty cool little fellows.

See how cool and helpful they are?

But when the Bible talks about worms, it’s not talking about earthworms. Of the two terms for worms in the Old Testament, one basically means “maggot,” because it’s associated with rot and decay. The other is different and interesting, but it doesn’t have the negative connotation. Like the pleasant earthworm, it just means “lowly.”

Job 25:6 uses both of these terms. So in the ESV it’s translated this way:

Behold, even the moon is not bright,
and the stars are not pure in [God’s] eyes;
how much less man, who is a maggot,
and the son of man, who is a worm!

What a downer.

To get you some context, that’s Bildad the Shuhite talking, one of Job’s “miserable comforters.” Good job being a miserable comforter, Bildad, especially after Job himself had already said things like, “My flesh is clothed with worms and dirt” (Job 7:5) and “If I say . . . to the worm, ‘My mother’ or ‘My sister,’ where then is my hope?” (Job 17:14).

In his three discourses, Bildad spent considerable time accusing Job that Job must have been wicked or these calamities wouldn’t have befallen him. In spite of these glaring inaccuracies, his “worthless worm” talk sounds hauntingly familiar, since it’s used so commonly by Christian in the present day.

Though all of Scripture is inspired, we don’t take every line as true, because of course, we have to consider who’s talking. It reminds me of the old joke my dad used to tell, “The Bible says there is no God!” As a young person, I didn’t understand, until he pointed me to Psalm 14:1. There it is in black and white: “There is no God.” But the full context of that verse is this:

The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”
They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds;
there is none who does good.

Oh, now I get it. Great dad joke, Dad.

Bildad the Shuhite wasn’t telling a dad joke—he fully believed what he said. But in light of all the rest of the Scriptures, we don’t have to. Consider the source, and shed this one.

Isaiah 41:14

Fear not, you worm Jacob, you men of Israel!
I am the one who helps you, declares the Lord;
your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.

Just to distinguish, this one is the lowly worm, not the disgusting maggoty worm. But even so, was God telling His Old Covenant people as a group (called here both “Jacob” and “Israel”) that they really were a worthless worm? (And, as we are often taught about ourselves, was He saying He would help them despite how disgusting they were?)

No—in fact, when you read all of verses 8-16 in that chapter, you’ll see how very different from “worm” is God’s attitude toward His people. This passage is long, but once again I ask you to read it all. I’ve added boldface to emphasize a few of the ways God saw His Old Covenant people. Isaiah 41:8-16 says,

⁸ But you, Israel, my servant,
Jacob, whom I have chosen,
the offspring of Abraham, my friend;
⁹ you whom I took from the ends of the earth,
and called from its farthest corners,
saying to you, “You are my servant,
I have chosen you and not cast you off”;
¹⁰ fear not, for I am with you;
be not dismayed, for I am your God;
I will strengthen you, I will help you,
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

¹¹ Behold, all who are incensed against you
shall be put to shame and confounded;
those who strive against you
shall be as nothing and shall perish.
¹² You shall seek those who contend with you,
but you shall not find them;
those who war against you shall be as nothing at all.
¹³ For I, the Lord your God,
hold your right hand;
it is I who say to you, “Fear not,
I am the one who helps you.”

¹⁴ Fear not, you worm Jacob,
you men of Israel!
I am the one who helps you, declares the Lord;
your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.
¹⁵ Behold, I make of you a threshing sledge,
new, sharp, and having teeth;
you shall thresh the mountains and crush them,
and you shall make the hills like chaff;
¹⁶ you shall winnow them, and the wind shall carry them away,
and the tempest shall scatter them.
And you shall rejoice in the Lord;
in the Holy One of Israel you shall glory.

You can see the context: Some fearsome enemies were coming against the Israelites. But God was telling them not to fear, because He would be their strength to overcome those enemies. In that context, with all the beautiful words the Lord says over His people (including some verses I memorized in my youth), why would He call them a worm?

In context, it’s because they saw themselves as small and utterly incapable of defeating the fierce enemies they faced, and they knew their enemies saw them the same way—easy to defeat, very stompable, like a worm.

It was not because God saw them as vile and disgusting  and worthless. From all the rest of the passage, He clearly didn’t.

But, without considering the context at all, some assume that this epithet is how God was naming this people group. They then go one step further and apply it equally to His New Covenant people as a group, His people after they have become His redeemed people.

When people are brought out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God’s dear Son, are they to be considered worms? That’s what many would have us think, even in some cases using the word “maggot” so we can see ourselves as even more disgusting.

But no. There is nothing at all like that in the entirety of the New Covenant. God’s people are beloved sons and daughters of God.

Imagine telling that dearly loved child of wise and good parents that she is a worthless worm. It would take a long time and much conditioning and brainwashing before she would believe you on that one.

Psalm 22:6

But I am a worm [the lowly worm, not the maggoty worm]
and not a man,
scorned by mankind and despised by the people.

Again, of course, we want to consider the context and the speaker. This is Psalm 22, perhaps the most famous of the Messianic psalms. That is, David the author was speaking, but it also points to the Lord Jesus Christ, so we can also consider Him as the speaker.

Why would he say, “I am a worm and not a man?”

The whole psalm makes it clear. From the eyes of David, his enemies opposed him not only with physical weapons, but with “tongues like swords” and “bitter words like arrows” (Psalm 64:3). But even more for the Lord, this is the psalm of Jesus as He was dying. This shows how mocked, belittled, and scorned He was while He hung on the cross. This hyperbole indicate how others viewed Him.

The only way these words would apply to us is if we also use them as hyperbole when we are treated terribly by others. They have nothing to do with the way our God views us or the way we are supposed to view ourselves.

That fascinating worm

When I was researching worms for this chapter (fun times), I ended up down a rabbit hole—or I guess we might call it a wormhole. Something surprising about this particular lowly worm showed up that I had never heard before.

Earthworms are intriguing and even valuable creatures that my organic farmer daughter could surely expound on at length. But this “lowly worm” word in the Old Testament refers to a specific kind of lowly worm that also had significant value in its day.

It’s the kind of thing we would call a “grub” rather than a worm.

In fact, this particular Hebrew word for worm is more often translated “scarlet.” That’s because this insect was the source of the scarlet dye used to color some parts of the breathtakingly beautiful inner tabernacle.

Scarlet dye. The color of blood. And when it was crushed for the dye, the scarlet grub brought forth a sweet fragrance (a stark contrast to the disgusting stench of maggots).

But it was the life cycle of the scarlet grub that caught my attention the most. The female climbs a tree, attaches herself to the tree (so firmly that she cannot be disattached without breaking into pieces), forms a protective shell around herself, and lays her eggs under her. Her young become covered with the scarlet secretions as they feed on her body to maturity. (More information here and here and here.)

Try to get past the ick factor on this one to ponder the metaphor. I was stunned, actually.

When David used this word in Psalm 22, I’m sure none of this symbolism ever crossed his mind, even though he would have known this information as part of normal Hebrew life. After all, when it wasn’t indicating the color, the scarlet grub simply represented lowliness.

But O Lord Jesus. They mocked You as if You were a lowly worm.

I am scorned by mankind and despised by the people.
All who seem me mock me: “He trusts in Jehovah to deliver Him!
Let Him rescue Him, if He delights in him!” . . .
They open wide their mouths at me,
like a ravening and roaring lion. . . . .
For dogs encompass me;
a company of evildoers encircles me . . .

But You, O Lord, so securely affixed to that tree . . . so despised, treated so lowly. You were the seed to die, to bring forth much fruit, many souls, covered by Your cleansing and purifying blood.

And as happens so often, I was brought back in my mind to Psalm 2. Psalm 2, the one that says that the evildoers believe they have conquered, but God in heaven laughs. Laughs. Because the very thing they thought would finally thwart God’s plan was the very thing that accomplished God’s plan.

Understanding the Scriptures aright—yes, even the parts about worms—all help us stand with the Lord in that “Psalm 2” stance. Even while our Lord was treated like a lowly worm, the salvation plan of God was being accomplished.

And as for us? Even though others may believe they’re being Biblical in calling us worthless lowly worms, we can stand firm in who God really says we are, in Christ. Along with the non-Biblical teaching of “daily dying to self,” we can shed the old skin of worm theology.