Tuesday, December 15 –
Welcome back as we continue our
reading thru the New Testament in a year. Today we will read Revelation 13:1- 18. After you have read the passage, please come
back and we’ll think a bit more about what it is all about – and thanks.
If you find yourself wondering what this is all about, you’ll be in good
company. Reading the book of Revelation
is difficult, simply because it is apocalyptic literature. Apocalyptic literature attempts to take the
imagery of the unknown heavenlies and explain it to us – earthies! What we know is that most of the imagery John
uses comes from the Old Testament Prophets.
Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, they were given visions,
images, words that were not bound by earthly descriptions. As such, attempts to describe what the
Prophet saw always leaves us imagining.
Instead of a concrete idea (e.g., if I said a truck) that we are
familiar with, the language is often “like” this or that. What is important to remember is the “now”,
“not yet” dimension of the prophecy.
While it is rooted in real-time, what is being written about has
fulfillment still in the future. I’ll
remind you that the prophecy of Bethlehem as the place of the birth of Jesus
was written by the prophet Micah, seven hundred years before it was fulfilled
(Micah 5:2). Micah was writing about the
imminent fall of Israel’s northern ten tribes to the Assyrians – an event that
happened in 722 b.c. Still, while the
real-time historical events were taking place, Micah saw a future deliverance
in the coming of the Messiah who would be born in Bethlehem – the city of David
– which didn’t happen until 700 plus years later.
In Revelation 13, John sees the
historical context of the church’s suffering (persecution by the Emperor
Domitian) in a heavenly view.
“And I saw a beast rising out
of the sea, with ten horns and seven heads, with ten diadems on its horns and
blasphemous names on its heads. And the beast that I saw was like a
leopard; its feet were like a bear’s, and its mouth was like a lion’s mouth.
And to it the dragon gave his power and his throne and great authority” (13:1-2).
The beast rises out of the sea
with ten horns and seven heads? The
beast was “like” a leopard, a bear, a lion, and it was clearly controlled by
Satan. We find the images similar to the
prophet Daniel who in chapters two and seven of Daniel, also saw beasts which
we know had to do with evil empires – “Daniel declared, “I saw in my vision
by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea.
And four great beasts came up out of the sea, different from one another.
After this I saw in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast,
terrifying and dreadful and exceedingly strong…It was different from all the
beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns…Thus he said: ‘As for the
fourth beast, there shall be a fourth kingdom on earth, which shall be
different from all the kingdoms, and it shall devour the whole earth, and
trample it down, and break it to pieces. As for the ten horns, out of
this kingdom ten kings shall arise, and another shall arise after them; he
shall be different from the former ones, and shall put down three kings” (Daniel
7:2-3, 7, 23-24). Daniel described
the vision from the standpoint of his own captivity in Babylon. Yet the four great beasts had historical
significance, for the Kingdoms that successively arose to rule Israel were
Babylon, Persia, Greece and then Rome.
John is depicting Rome with all
of its – seemingly – invincible power as it makes war against God’s people, but
John sees that the source of that power is Satan himself. The beast – in all likelihood – represents
the cult of the emperor worship that arose under the Caesars. Christians were martyred for their
unwillingness to make an oath of allegiance confessing the Emperor to be a god.
Satan is behind the false god religion of Rome, and even mimics Christ’s death
and resurrection to gain control –
“One of its heads seemed to
have a mortal wound, but its mortal wound was healed, and the whole earth
marveled as they followed the beast. And they worshiped the dragon, for
he had given his authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying,
“Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?” (13:3-4).
There is a lot of speculation
as to what might have occurred in John’s time. The most popular is that after
Nero’s death (68 a.d.), there were three Emperors in less than a year, and
many, outside of Rome, believed the Roman Empire might be over. Later on, we see John’s allusion to the “mark
of the beast…as 666 (13:18), which is a numerical cryptogram on the name of
Nero. The persecution that broke out
against the Church by the Roman rulers was relentless and led to thousands of
Christian martyrdoms.
“And the beast was given a
mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise
authority for forty-two months. It opened its mouth to utter blasphemies
against God, blaspheming his name and his dwelling, that is, those who dwell in
heaven. Also it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer
them. And authority was given it over every tribe and people and language and
nation, and all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name
has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of
the Lamb who was slain. If anyone has an ear, let him hear: If
anyone is to be taken captive, to captivity he goes; if anyone is to be slain
with the sword, with the sword must he be slain. Here is a call for the
endurance and faith of the saints” (13:5-10).
John sees the brutality, but
realizes that it is Satanically driven.
He reminds them that all they have is their faith to endure the
assaults. While this first part of
chapter 13 is rooted in real time history, the history of the church is that
empires have always existed that sought to destroy the church. The warfare has a spiritual dimension, and at
the end of all time, John sees that before Christ returns there will be even
more “hell on earth”. The “Antichrist”
is a person, not a thing. What John sees
has a “now” and a “not yet” dimension.
Take a look around our Western world and we can see the “seeds” of the
Antichrist in societies that have distanced themselves from the Christian faith
of their ancestors in order to live in a secular, post-Christian world, with
post-modern values. That is the reason
why it is not far-fetched to see that something like John describes will have
authority “over every tribe, people, language, and nation, all who dwell on
the earth, except those in the book of life of the lamb who was slain.” When John says “if anyone has an ear,
let him hear”, he is reminding us that faith in Christ is not negotiable
with those who are from Antichrist’s world.
It was true then, and it is true now.
The brutality of the beast from
the sea is matched by the beast which arises from the earth which serves as a
sort of prophet and priest for the Beast from the sea –
“Then I saw another beast
rising out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb and it spoke like a
dragon. It exercises all the authority of the first beast in its
presence, and makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast,
whose mortal wound was healed. It performs great signs, even making fire
come down from heaven to earth in front of people, and by the signs that it is
allowed to work in the presence of the beast it deceives those who dwell on
earth, telling them to make an image for the beast that was wounded by the
sword and yet lived. And it was allowed to give breath to the image of
the beast, so that the image of the beast might even speak and might cause
those who would not worship the image of the beast to be slain. Also it
causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to
be marked on the right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell
unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its
name. This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate
the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666”
(13:11-18).
The beast from the earth serves
the beast of the sea. Satan is the one
who controls both. Again, there is much
interpretive speculation about the historical and future realities that come in
this vision. I’ve heard everything from
technology to the internet, from artificial intelligence to the one-world
vision of the United Nations. Our
problem is that we limited to our own historical sphere, and not aware of what
John sees will come to pass in the future.
What we do see is Satanic control on all levels of government, religion, and economics. John sees that the
Antichrist, the beasts, under the control of Satan. The cult of the emperor is 666, a numerical
cryptogram that takes the Greek letters of Nero Lord and adds them together to
the sum of 666. Even though John is
writing during Domitian’s rule and persecution, the pattern of Emperor worship
is the same. John saw it in the present
tense of the Roman Empire.
We can’t identify any one
person, or institution based on what John saw.
What we can realize is that – at times – faithfulness to Christ Jesus
costs people their lives. Reading
chapter 13 is a reminder that we are always being seduced by Satan to deny
Christ by bowing down to something else.
We are not there yet, but the end of Satan’s power and seductions are
going to end.
Peace
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