“Revelation 13:15-18”

Monday, January 01, 2018

“And it was given to him to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast would even speak and cause as many as do not worship the image of the beast to be killed. And he causes all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free men and the slaves, to be given a mark on their right hand or on their forehead, and he provides that no one will be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for the number is that of a man; and his number is six hundred and sixty-six.”

---End of Scripture verses---

In verse 15 we see that if a person refused to recognize the idol, the statue or “image” (verse 14) of Caesar, as a living, breathing object worthy of praise and worship, they could have their own breath of life snuffed out. Often in the Old Testament, inspired prophets mocked the powerlessness and lifelessness of a chunk of metal or wood that God’s own people would shape into the form of an idol and worship. “Their idols are silver and gold, the work of man’s hands. They have mouths, but they cannot speak; they have eyes, but they cannot see; they have ears, but they cannot hear; they have noses, but they cannot smell; they have hands, but they cannot feel; they have feet, but they cannot walk; they cannot make a sound with their throat. those who make them will become like them, everyone who trusts in them.” (Psalm 115:4-5) “Every goldsmith is put to shame by his idols; for his molten images are deceitful, and there is no breath in them. They are worthless, a work of mockery; in the time of their punishment they will perish.” (Jeremiah 10:14-15). At the time that John wrote the book of Revelation, the Roman authorities attempted to coerce God’s people into worshiping the image of Caesar by the threat of death, or losing their financial livelihood (verse 17).

No one was exempt from the pressure of pledging allegiance to the emperor and the state authorities by worshiping the image of Caesar. “He causes all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free men and the slaves, to be given a mark on their right hand or on their forehead” (verse 16). This could have been an actual “stamp” or “brand” upon a person’s skin, or even a government-issued certificate of some sort that a citizen would carry on his person to show as verification to the authorities that he had fulfilled the ritualistic requirements of emperor worship. But, “in all probability this mark was not visible to the human eye any more than the ‘seal of God’ which, in contrast was said to be upon the foreheads of those who followed Jesus Christ… Unqualified allegiance to Christ meant that the saints of God would rather suffer martyrdom than compromise their faith by honoring a different Lord.” (Harkrider)

Much wild speculation has been made about the number “six hundred and sixty-six” being the number “of a man” (verse 18). People have assigned numbers to the letters of the alphabet and added the letters of the names of historical figures together to determine who “the Anti-Christ” would be. Men who have names that have added up to 666 by using this method include Napoleon, Adolph Hitler, Henry Kissinger and Saddam Hussein to name just a few. But nowhere in the Bible is the number 666 assigned to a specific figure known as “the Anti-Christ,” and the letters used to tabulate this number are taken from the alphabet of the Greek language in which the New Testament was written. The truth is that the number 666 is a figure rich in symbolism and is used figuratively as many other of the numbers in the book of Revelation are used.

Here is what Homer Hailey wrote in his commentary regarding “the number of the beast”: “Since the Apocalypse abounds in the symbolic use of numbers which express ideas rather than persons or literal quantities, the same principle should be followed in the interpretation of this number. Throughout the book, seven expresses the idea of perfection or completeness: the seven churches, seven horns, seven eyes, seven spirits and so forth. So six, which falls below the sacred seven, can never be seven or reach perfection; therefore, it symbolizes the imperfect, that which is human and destined to fail. It is said that to the Jews the number six was an omen or symbol of dread and doom, so when it was tripled, 666, it represented the completeness of doom and failure… the number of the beast, six-six-six, stands for the complete and total failure of all human systems and efforts antagonistic to God and His Christ—all are doomed to ultimate and complete defeat and failure.”

Please read Revelation 14:1-5 for tomorrow.

Have a great day and a Happy New Year!

-Louie Taylor

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