666
Today’s reading (Revelation 13:11-14:5) is more on the beast (including the famous number 666) and the war God’s people fight against him.
[This is later than normal—my apologies. I was just too tired last night to finish!]
Why the Monsters are Important
The church—the people of God—has an important role to play in God’s plan to bring the kingdom from heaven to earth, but the church will be fighting evil every step of the way.
In his vision, John has spiritual insight into the nature of the evil that the church will be fighting. By knowing these details, we know the nature of the fight and what it means to “conquer".
Some key insights:
Anything other than God that demands worship or complete allegiance is evil and must be resisted, even to the point of death.
Evil is cunning and often appears at first just slightly different from Christ, hence the term (found not in Revelation itself, but in the letters of John in the Bible) antichrist. The beast, for example, seems to come back from the dead, seems invincible, seems the source of peace. All these things are lies and twistings of the truth.
Deceit and death are the two weapons of the beasts in Revelation: they lie and they kill. Christians defeat the beast by living by the truth even to the point of death, thereby showing the beast is not actually all-powerful.
Monster Glossary
The dragon/serpent is the source of evil itself, i.e. Satan;
The beast (from the sea) is the Roman Empire;
The second beast (on the land) is the Roman imperial cult, i.e., the system of worshipping the Roman emperor through temples and ceremonies in cities across the empire;
666 is a numerical code for Nero Caesar.
Revelation 13:11-18
11 Then I saw another beast rising out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon. 12 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. 13 It performs great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in front of people,14 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. 15 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. 16 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, 17 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. 18 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.
The Mark of the Beast
In Deuteronomy 6, the Lord tells his people the importance of remember his law and their identity:
6:1 These are the commands, decrees and laws the Lord your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, 2 so that you, your children and their children after them may fearthe Lord your God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life. 3 Hear, Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, promised you.
4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts.7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
“Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.” In other words, God wants his people to be so committed to remembering
The mark of the beast is the opposite of this—it’s the sign that you are committed to the beast. Without the mark, you can’t even engage in commerce. In the Roman Empire, unless you were wiling to worship through the imperial cult (the second beast), you were often shut out of a city’s commerce. One of the ways the beast exercises control is to make it harder for God’s people to make money unless they publicly renounce their identity as the people of God.
The Number 666
The Jews practiced something called gematria, whereby a person’s name had a numerical value, based on the numerical value assigned to each letter. 666 is the number you get when you spell out NERO CAESAR in Hebrew letters.
After Nero killed himself in AD 68, there were rumors that he wasn’t really dead but would come back stronger than before. John is playing with these legends to get us to understand the evil that is often at work behind earthly forms of power.
The Lamb and the 144,000 [Revelation 14:1-5]
14:1 Then I looked, and behold, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father's name written on their foreheads. 2 And I heard a voice from heaven like the roar of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder. The voice I heard was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps, 3 and they were singing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders. No one could learn that song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth. 4 It is these who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are virgins. It is these who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These have been redeemed from mankind as firstfruits for God and the Lamb, 5 and in their mouth no lie was found, for they are blameless.
God’s people—the church—are portrayed in John’s vision like a Messianic army. Note the detail about how they refrain from sex—just like David’s army in the Old Testament; they are a holy army. They have spiritual power and are facing off against the beast and his lies.
Here, they are gathered on Mount Zion—the traditional center of God’s power and presence in the Old Testament—as they make their stand against the beast.
Who or What is the Beast Today?
The power of John’s images is that they help us see reality from a spiritual perspective. We no longer have to fight against the Roman Empire or Nero Caesar, but the beast is still on the prowl. Any rivals that claim complete control and power are the beast. The Soviet Union was the beast; the Chinese Communist Party is the beast.
The mark of the beast? To take a contemporary example, think of the social-credit system that is being developed in China.
How do we defeat the beast in our time? In the same way as in John’s vision: by our commitment to the truth about the world and about Jesus, even to the point of death.
Will a final greater beast come before the end? Seems likely. But, we should not be afraid—we know he will be defeated!