God's Anger Brought to a Finish - Giving them blood to Drink - Conclusion

 Such tainted "waters" have led men to become bloodguilty,  for example, in encouraging them to shed blood on a monumental scale in wars, whichc in the last century took more than a hundred million lives. Particularly in Christendom, where the two world wars erupted, have men  been  "in a hurry to shed innocent blood" and this has included the blood of God's own witnesses.  (Isaiah 59:7;  Jeremiah 2:34)  Mankind  has also incurred   bloodguilt by its misuse of huge quanitities of blood for transfusionns, in violation of Jehovah's righteous laws.  (Genesis 9:3-5;  Leviticus 17:14; Acts  15:28, 29)  On this account, they have already reaped sorrow by the proliferatioon, through blood transfusions, of AIDS, hepatitis and other diseases.  Full retribution for all bloodguilt will come shortly when transgressors   pay the supreme penalty, being trampled in "the great winepress of the anger of God.  -REVELATION  14:19, 20. 

In Moses' day, when the Nile River was turned into bloood, the Egyptians were able to to keep alive by seeking other sources of water.  (Exodus 7:24) Today, though,  during the spiritual plague, there is nowhere in Satan's  world that people can find  life-giving waters.  The pouring out of this third bowl involves proclaiming that  the world's "rivers and the fountains of the waters" are as blood, bringing  spiritual death to all who imbibe them. Unless people turn to Jehovah, they reap his adverse judgment. - Compare EZEKIEL 33:11. 

"The angel over the waters," that is,  the angel who pours this bowl into the waters,  magnifies Jehovah as the Universal judge, who righteous decisions are absolute.  Therefore, he says of this judgment: "They desere it." Doubtless, the angel personally  witnessed much of the bloodshed and cruelty fomented  over thousands of years by the false teachings and philosophies of this wicked world.   Hence, he knows that Jehovah's judicial decision is right.  Even God's "altar" speaks out.  At Revelation 6:9, 10, the souls  of those who were martyred are said to be at the base of  that altar.  So "the altar" adds  powerful  testimony as to the justice and righteousness of Jehovah's decisions .  Certainly, it is fitting that those who have  shed  and misused so much blood should themselves be force-fed with blood, in symbolof Jehovah's sentencing them to death. 

Next time: God's Anger Brought to a Finish - Scorching Men With Fire

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