Read with Me
Revelation 13:11-18 (HCSB)
Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth; he had two horns like a lamb, but he sounded like a dragon. He exercises all the authority of the first beast on his behalf and compels the earth and those who live on it to worship the first beast, whose fatal wound was healed. He also performs great signs, even causing fire to come down from heaven to earth in front of people. He deceives those who live on the earth because of the signs that he is permitted to perform on behalf of the beast, telling those who live on the earth to make an image of the beast who had the sword wound and yet lived. He was permitted to give a spirit to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast could both speak and cause whoever would not worship the image of the beast to be killed. And he requires everyone—small and great, rich and poor, free and slave—to be given a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark: the beast’s name or the number of his name.
Here is wisdom: The one who has understanding must calculate the number of the beast, because it is the number of a man. His number is 666.
Lisen with Me
The first beast represents the Roman Empire and its leadership who had unleashed the severe persecution, the Great Tribulation, on the Church as an agent of the dragon, satan, working behind the scenes. This was all a desperate attempt by the enemy who had been cast down to earth to get rid of the children of the woman before they could gain a fatal foothold. In this war, the beast is supported by a second beast that rises out of the earth, showing that its influence and power are earthly, not heavenly.
The second beast was easily identified by John’s readers as the priesthood of the cult of the emperor. This priesthood developed measures of coercion and persuasion to compel a sworn allegiance to the emperor. This was seen as necessary in order to secure order throughout the empire.
Whereas the first emperors were men of valor and strength of character who attracted the best and brightest into their orbit, later emperors were men of poor character, men of little natural magnetism, and men who showed strength not by leadership but through throwing destructive tantrums. The early emperors were venerated and even exalted and worshiped after their deaths. But these later emperors were held up as divine during their lifetimes as a means of squashing revolt and uniting the far-flung empire around them.
But that effort required a priesthood who could point the people to the emperor in good times, and who could exert necessary force to compel worship from the people when times were not good. Such force could gentle and persuasive, or it could be capricious and violent, depending on who was leading the effort. And these priests frequently used faux miracles, slights of hand, and mechanical apparatuses that seemed to demonstrate the emperor’s power to the wondering crowds.
The Christians were seen as a threat to unity in the empire, especially by weak emperors, because they would not pledge allegiance to the emperor and to his reign. Their King was in heaven. Thus they were easily labeled enemies of the state and the source of all of society’s troubles when those troubles arose.
Loyalty tests were frequently used to force people to demonstrate their fealty to the emperor. Each person would have to appear at an altar and burn a pinch of incense to the emperor, declaring “Caesar is lord”. For this act of loyalty, they would be allowed to buy and sell openly. Christians, of course, were repelled by the whole idea. They would never offer worship, not even a pinch of incense, to anyone other than God. And the only declaration regarding lordship they would say is, “Jesus is Lord!”
This meant that Christians were denied the right to buy and sell openly, driving them into the black market. They were also seen as subversives and enemies of the state who could be arrested without due process (for the good of the republic, of course), and even tortured and executed if they would not repent.
Much is made of the number of the beast. John clearly said that it is the number of man (not of “a man” according to the Greek grammar). In other words, this “number”, the approval of the government and its priests to buy and sell openly, was not a divine mark, the mark of God (Revelation 7:3-4, 9:4). It was the mark of an earthly power that was doomed to be overthrown.
Pray with Me
Father, it seems like many today concentrate so much on the details of this vision, trying to decode the digits of this number for example, that they miss the overall message, the message that gave hope to those being persecuted. That message is that even though these beasts looked fearsome, and even though they were allowed to make war against the saints in order to seal their doom (Revelation 13:7), and even though the priests of the empirical religion seemed to be able to do powerful signs and wonders, it was all fake. The mark of this so-called powerful beast showed that he was a mere man, doomed to destruction when You finally called “enough”. These kinds of regimes have risen throughout history, claiming either divine authority or simply right by might. But like the Roman Empire, they have ultimately fallen by Your hand. Thank You, Lord, for Your power and Your faithfulness, even in the most challenging of times. Amen.