Sitting On Many Waters

Ancient Babyon sat on many waters-the Euphrates River and numerous canals. These were a protection to her as well as a source of commerce producing wealth, until they dried up one night. (Jeremiah 50:38; 51:9, 12, 13) Babylon the Great also looks to "many waters" to protect and enrich her. These symbolic waters are "peoples and crowds and nations and tongues," that is, all the thousands of millions of humans over whom she has dominated and from whom she has drawn material support. But these waters are also drying up, or withdrawing support. - Revelation 17:15; compare Psalm 18:4; Isaiah 8:7.

Further, Babylon of old was described as "a golden cup in the hand of Jehovah, she making all the earth drunk." (Jeremiah 51:7) Ancient Babylon forced neighboring nations to swallow expressions of Jehovah's anger when she conquered them militarily, making them as weak as drunken men. In that respect, she was Jehovah's instrument. Babylon the Great, too, has made conquests to the point of becoming a worldwide empire. But she is certainly not God's instrument. Rather, she has served "the kings of the earth" with whom she commits religious fornication. She has gratified these kings by using her lying doctrines and enslaving practices to keep the masses of people, "those who inhabit the earth," weak as drunken men, passively subservient to their rulers.

Shinto Japan provides a notable example of this. The indoctrinated Japanese soldier regarded it as the highest honor to give his life for the emperor-the supreme Shinto god. During World War II, some 1,500,000 Japanese soldiers died in battle, almost to a man, they looked at surrender as dishonorable. But as a consequence of Japan's defeat, Emperor Hirohito was compelled to renounce his claim to divinity. This resulted in a notable withdrawing of the "waters supporting the Shinto segment of Babylon The Great-alas, after Shintoism had sanctioned the shedding of buckets of blood in the Pacific war theater! This weakening of Shinto influence also opened the way in recent years for more than 120,000 Japanese, the great majority of whom were formerly Shintoists and buddihists, to become dedicated, baptized ministers of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah.

Next time: The Harlot Rides A Beast.