END OF TIME PROPHECIES 196

In verses 15-18    Attention is now turned to the woman.   There are three aspects clearly unfolded here.

• Verse 15     -         Her influence.    
• Verse 16&17     -  Her indictment.
• Verse 18     -         Her identification.       

Each of these aspects are very fascinating and contain important spiritual truth for all of us.   it is my belief that every book of the bible has its own message for us today; the same can be said of every chapter; and indeed the same can be said of every paragraph.   There is a core message in these four verses which we will describe later.  

We begin with the worldwide influence of this woman.  

"The waters which thou sawest where the whore sitteth are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues." (verse 15).   This is an expansion of chapter 17v2 which said  "the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication."   It is further stated in chapter 17v18 that "she reigneth over the kings of the earth;"   again it says in chapter 18v3  "the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies;" and again in chapter 18v9  "and the kings of the earth who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her."    All this is quite staggering because this will happen in a relatively short period of time.   The time scale of the period of tribulation is estimated by biblical scholars to be somewhere between seven and forty years.   In that time this woman has exercised universal dominion in a way which is unparalled in human history.   She not only was in union with the kings of the earth but she reigned over them.   The merchants of the earth became dependent on her for their livelihood, which was described to be luxurious.   The inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication, that is they were totally sold on this woman and her ways.   The verse which we are studying goes into further detail and divides the inhabitants of earth into four separate groups; peoples, multitudes, nations and tongues.   Therefore her influence was total and covered every division of the human race imaginable.   This fourfold description of the world finds its origin in Genesis chapters 10.

• Chapter 10v5     -    "By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands; everyone after his tongue, after their families in their nations."
• Chapter 10v20     -     "These are the sons of Ham after their families, after their tongues, in their countries, and in their nations."
• Chapter 10v31     -     "These are the sons of Shem, after their families, after their tongues, in their lands, after their nations."
• Chapter 10v32     -     "These are the families of the sons of Noah, after their generations, in their nations; and by these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood."

The four divisions of the inhabitants of the earth could be seen like this.   Peoples refer to families or kindred's and multitudes probably refer to ethic origin and describe a wider circle than kindreds. In our culture we speak of "northerners", and southerners", and so on.  Nations of course we know about of which there are over 200 in the world today; and tongues refer to diverse languages.   We have gone through all that to show the extensive influence this woman had worldwide.   There is not a group of people who do not come under her spell.   She is loved by all, probably because of the vast riches she brought to the world. but there was one group of people who hated her and wanted rid of her as we shall see next.

We have all seen, recently, the effect achieved by the transference of power during an election in a country like America.   In that case the country was divided with love for one candidate and hate for another.   Consider that, if such an effect is produced in a situation of division and economic downturn where half the country is in relative poverty, what will it be when a world government comes along who unites every nation and produces wealth for everybody.   What we are seeing here is the global reality of the vision of Genesis chapters 10&11. Her global influence can therefore be said to be POLITICAL (the kings of the earth), COMMERCIAL (the merchants of the earth), and SPIRITUAL (the inhabitants of the earth). It is the union of these three things that brought her supreme power. 

Amazon bookshelf   George Neilly

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