John now looking at the earth sees a beast coming up out of the sea. This beast is striking to see as it’s a hybrid of a bunch of different creatures. This beast though is, like the one that follows later, a pawn for the dragon’s scheme to destroy the church. As we read lets remember this great line from Scot McKnight and Cody Matchet as they say in their book ‘Revelation for the Rest of Us’: “Remember, these images are not about predicting the future, but about shaping our perceptions of the present.”
We were told in chapter 12 of Revelation at the end that the beast is now on the earth post resurrection of Jesus, trying to destory the church. Ever since Jesus rose from the dead, the church has been hunted down and persecuted. We must remember that for many of us reading this blog post today we are in 21st century America where we are in large part free to do whatever we want. You may believe that our freedom has a time limit and persecution is coming, but I would encourage you to remember that Christians all around the world have already been suffering persecution. Persecution is not a thing to look forward to in the future for them, but rather a present reality. Chapter 13 of Revelation will speak into that pain. It will uncover the spiritual realities of the persecution so many have faced throughout church history and much around the world today.
The First Beast
The first beast is all about power. “The dragon gave the beast his power, his throne, and his great authority“(Revelation 13:2 CSB). We are told that this beast is worshipped by the whole earth. Everyone believes in this beast and even says things like: “Who is like the beast? Who is able to wage war against it?”(v.4 CSB) The people have come to believe this beast is unstoppable. Though we are told one of this beast’s heads(out of its seven heads) was fatally wounded but now healed.
That number seven is important. Seven is the number for completion, it is the number for perfection. This beast though has six heads. To the reader this would scream out that this beast is “imperfect.” Something is wrong with this beast. Though it looks unstoppable to rest of the world, it apparently has been fought against before. It is stoppable but the world has come to a false worship of this beast. This beast with all its power granted by the dragon, has decided to wage war on the church, the people of God.
Why?
Well, let’s remember this beast is a pawn for the dragon. A tool merely to execute the draogn’s plans to destory the offspring of the woman in Chapter 12 of Revelation.
The Second Beast
The second beast is wildly deceptive(v.14). This beast “had town horns like a lamb, but it spoke like a dragon.” This should bring to mind again the image of the first rider from the seven seals. If you remmeber the first rider in the four horsemen. The rider looked and sounded like Jesus but was not Jesus. This beast is similar to the white rider. The beast looks like a lamb, but sounds like a dragon. We must remember, the Antichrist is not a one time single person in the future. The anti Christ is a spirit that many people will take on.
In other words, since “antichrist” functions as a representative symbol for anyone opposed to Christ, anyone who does not follow the slaughtered but standing Lamb(Jesus) is antichrist.
Scot McKnight & Cody Matchett (Revelation for the Rest of Us)
This beast though is more of a spokesperson for the first beast.
It deceives those who live on the earth because of the signs that it is permitted to perform in the presence of the beast, telling those who live on the earth to make an image of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived. (Revelation 13:14 CSB)
This beast calls for the worship of the first beast and causes “whoever would not worship the image of the beast to be killed(v.15 CSB). This now leads us to a very important question:
What Does Worship To This Beast Look Like?
The mark of the beast. If you grew up in the evangelical world like me you may have heard wild conspiracies about what this “mark of the beast” is. During Covid, I was told that the “mark of the beast” was the covid vaccine. I was also told that the neuro chip that Elon Musk is trying to implant in people’s heads is also the “mark of the beast”.
As Matt Chandler said in his series on Revelation at The Village Church:
This message cannot mean for us what it did not mean for them
This is a letter to the first century churches of Asia Minor. This book was used by these first century churches as a message pulling back the veil on the realities of pain and suffering that they were facing. It was not a book given to them with a message of “hold on to this, it’s not for you, it’s for people 2000 years later.” This book was a book to these 7 churches with a message to give them hope and understanding of the mysteries that were taking place at that time. We are able to glean from these truths given to them but only the truths given to them not the false truths that we have come up with by taking a message given to them and spinning it into a message given to us.
The worship of the beast looks like a mark that will show up on the right hand and forehead of those who worship the beast. Note, you will know if you have the mark of the beast. It’s not something you will be shocked by. Actually, you will gladly receive it if you take the mark of the beast.
The Mark of the beast though is widely similar to another mark given in the Old Testament. Around the time of the Exodus, there was an Egyptian ruler who wanted to brand the people of Israel with an image of an ivy leaf. The ivy leaf was a symbol of Dionysus.
Marking people as symbols of destruction for later was a common act to perform in the world of empires. But is interesting is in the Jewish world there was another way of being marked as well. Take a look at Deuteronomy 6:4-9
“Hear O Israel: Yahweh our God, Yahweh is One. You shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.
You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”(ESV)
This is the Shema. Shema is the Hebrew word for “hear” or “listen” which is the first word of the prayer. As you read our passage from Deuteronomy you may note that after the first three sentences a transition happens. The first three sentences are the “Shema”(the prayer). After that is an instruction to orient your life around the words of this prayer. For God’s people we are called to live our entire lives as an act of worship to God. We do this by raising our kids up with the values of our God, telling them the stories or testimonies about what He has done for our people. We talk about the things of God every chance we get. When we get up and when we lay down, our hearts must be bent toward God. Our actions our bent toward God.
Toward the end of the instruction there is this line: “You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.” This is similar to what we heard of the mark of the beast.
If the Shema is calling people to worship God with their actions by marking their hands, and to worship God with all their mind by marking their foreheads. The opposite of this would be to worship the beast by marking your foreheads and hands. This language of marking your foreheads and hands is worship language.
People who receive the mark of the beast are not necessarily getting a chip implanted in them, rather its a symbolic way of saying that their actions and thoughts are geared towards worship of the beast and not towards Christ.
The way of Jesus would be as the Shema says:
You shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.
What About 666?
We end this chapter with this last line in chapter 13 verse 18:
This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, because it is the number of a person. Its number is 666.
Scot McKnight and Cody Matchett make this observation first:
It’s wise to begin with the undeniable: if 777 is triple perfection, 666 is triple imperfection of falling short. It is the number of a human (vs.God).
The Greek language did not have numbers. Instead letters were numbers which is why the Roman Numerals look like they do. John had a specific person in mind when he wrote this line. A person he knew of. This person is Nero. Nero Casear’s name mathematically adds up 666.
What’s interesting is another word in Greek also adds up to 666. The word being “therion” which translates to “beast.” It’s rather interesting in John’s talk about beasts, he leaves us with a numerical value that is sum of Nero’s name.
“Nero was the first emperor to declare an official state persecution against Christians. Further, he burned hundreds of Christians alive to light his imperial gardens at night and butchered others in various ways.”
Dr. Craig S. Keener
What Nero accomplished with the persecutions against christians was just the start of what would soon come about with Emperor’s like Domitian. When Nero died though many in the empire believed Nero was still alive. False Nero’s began popping up claiming to be Nero resurrected but there were all imposters. Much of this took place decades before Revelation was written. What Nero became though was a symbol for the early Christians. A symbol of a “beast” who seeked to destroy. As we read about Nero, the mark of the beast, and the two beasts what should come to mind is not a matter of identifying who in pop culture is secretly hatching this world dominating plan. Rather as we read about these signs we are to look out into our world like the first century Christian’s did in their world. We should take note of the way of worship God has called us to and we should live diligently passing this worship down throughout our generations and seek to live our entire lives as an act of worship. We must also though be aware of the beast that are in the world. Beasts who oppose the Lamb. Beasts who prop themselves up like the Lamb but who are not the Lamb. We are to be aware of the beasts and their opposition to the church.
Much of this is not going to be black and white like our Left Behind series made us believe. There will probably not be a literal two beasts who rule the world or who mark us physically. Rather there will be forces at work opposing the work of God in the world. And they will be enraged at not only the work God has already accomplished but also the work that will be accomplished. As we read this we should not be afraid, we should be aware. Aware that there are forces beyond us who oppose us, and they are at work to deceive the world in greater ways than you can imagine. But press on, The Lamb has already won.
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