September 15, 2016
Today’s reading from Encounter with God

THE BEASTLY BEAST

Please see the links to our EXTRA Bible Study notes at the bottom of the page.

Opening Prayer

Lord, open my eyes to what it means to be faithful. Guard me against the longing just to be liked.

Read REVELATION 13:1b–10

[1] The dragon stood on the shore of the sea. And I saw a beast coming out of the sea. It had ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns on its horns, and on each head a blasphemous name. [2] The beast I saw resembled a leopard, but had feet like those of a bear and a mouth like that of a lion. The dragon gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority. [3] One of the heads of the beast seemed to have had a fatal wound, but the fatal wound had been healed. The whole world was filled with wonder and followed the beast. [4] People worshiped the dragon because he had given authority to the beast, and they also worshiped the beast and asked, “Who is like the beast? Who can wage war against it?” [5] The beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise its authority for forty-two months. [6] It opened its mouth to blaspheme God, and to slander his name and his dwelling place and those who live in heaven. [7] It was given power to wage war against God’s holy people and to conquer them. And it was given authority over every tribe, people, language and nation. [8] All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast-all whose names have not been written in the Lamb’s book of life, the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world. [9] Whoever has ears, let them hear. [10] “If anyone is to go into captivity, into captivity they will go. If anyone is to be killed with the sword, with the sword they will be killed.” This calls for patient endurance and faithfulness on the part of God’s people.

Scripture taken from the THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, NIV Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Reflect

“In any age the two things essential for Christ’s followers in persecution, and even martyrdom, are endurance coupled with faith” (Paige Patterson).

Satan needs earthly associates if he is to harm the people of God—and he has found them. The beast that comes out of the sea here is a hostile kingdom that is to come, and reflects a combination of the worst of all Daniel’s beasts (Dan. 7). The kingdoms represented by Daniel’s vision—Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome—had one thing in common: they demanded worship and ultimate allegiance to an emperor, as did the empires of Assyria and Egypt before Daniel’s time. These six world empires along with the final seventh which will ‘resurrect’ this cult worship, are the seven heads, or manifestations of the kingdom of this world, the beast that has stood in opposition to God through history.

 

Revelation sets these politics in their theological context. It is aligned to satanic power. Its persecution of the church was part of its claim to be the center of humanity’s belief and adoration. Throughout history there have been, and are, similar ideological claims from the state. Totalitarian regimes clearly expect their leaders to be worshiped, and it is very easy for political leaders to forget that they are “God’s servant[s]” (Rom. 13:4). When an anti-God agenda rises against biblical ethics and social justice; when righteousness (Prov. 14:34) is no longer the aim of the political leaders; when loyalty to a humanistic agenda sets out to suppress the authority of God and the Gospel—then Satan is active in a nation.

 

John has an encouragement for the beleaguered believers who are going to suffer: they are eternally secure because their names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

Apply

What are some “beasts” or “idols” in your life that test your devotion to Christ?

Closing prayer

Sovereign Lord, through all the turbulence of life, thank You for being the stabilizing center.

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