The Beast From The Sea

John's Revelation makes it abundantly clear that the people of God will be opposed, persecuted and killed, but they will prevail and ultimately win the victory. And so now comes an agent of the dragon, the Beast!

And I saw a beast rising out of the sea, with ten horns and seven heads, with ten diadems on its horns and blasphemous names on its heads. And the beast that I saw was like a leopard; its feet were like a bear's, and its mouth was like a lion's mouth. And to it the dragon gave his power and his throne and great authority. - Rev 13:1-2

The prophet Daniel had received a vision of four great beasts coming up out of the sea, pointing to the four great empires that were to follow (best understood as the Assyrian, Median, Medo-Persian and Greek). The sea from which the beasts arise is a symbol of chaos and destruction (Isa. 27:1), but the LORD is in full control of that sea (Psa 89:9; Prov. 8:29; Jer. 5:22). He leads his people safely through it and destroys their enemies (Psa 66:6; 78:13). Nevertheless the enemies of God and his people continue to rise from the sea. The Revelation to John appears to be an update to that of Daniel. John's beast appears as a composite of Daniel's four. His first was like a lion with eagle's wings, the second like a bear, the third like a leopard and a fourth with iron teeth and ten horns (Dan. 7:3-8).  To the Johannine beast the dragon, the devil, gives his power, throne and great authority. John continues,

One of its heads seemed to have a mortal wound, but its mortal wound was healed, and the whole earth marveled as they followed the beast. And they worshiped the dragon, for he had given his authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, "Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?"- Rev 13:3-4 ESV

Daniel's prophecy pointed to the Seleucid Empire that began with the collapse of Alexander the Great's. The Roman Empire replaced the Seleucid and in John's day became the great anti-Christ. The role of Daniel's fourth beast had been filled by Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who desecrated Jerusalem's temple in 167 B.C. by sacrificing a pig to Zeus/Baal upon its altar. Now John's beast from the sea represents Rome, the world power opposing the reign of Christ.

And the beast was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for forty-two months. It opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name and his dwelling, that is, those who dwell in heaven. - Rev 13:5-6 ESV

Beginning with Julius Caesar, Roman emperors had been declared gods, the early ones after their deaths, but later emperors even during their lifetime. Emperor Domitian required that people address him as "our master and god."

The Holy Roman Emperor

The "mortal wound" that was healed refers to the Nero legend. The 32-year-old Nero committed suicide in A.D. 68. The earliest legend claimed that Nero did not really die, but fled to Rome's greatest enemy, Parthia. From there he would return with a large army to Rome to destroy it. Thus the mortal wound was "healed" and the beast continued to utter blasphemies against God, God's name and dwelling, that is, those who dwell in heaven.

The Lord Jesus had predicted that false christs and false prophets would arise and perform signs and wonders so as to lead men astray (Mark 13:21-22). He also predicted the destruction of Jerusalem, an event a generation prior to John's Revelation (Mark 13:14-20). But the opposition to Christ and his people continued as the beast was allowed to make war on the saints, throwing God's word in their faces. In mockery they cried, "Who is like the beast?" and "Who can fight against it?" These words are parodies of the words of the worshippers of the true God, "Who is like you, O LORD, among the gods?" (Exod 15:11; Deut 33:26; 1 Kings 8:23).

John points to the beast receiving a blasphemous mouth and authority from the dragon. That authority is world wide, "over every tribe and people and language and nation." However note carefully what John also says,

Also it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them. And authority was given it over every tribe and people and language and nation, and all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain. If anyone has an ear, let him hear: - Rev 13:7-9 ESV

Four times in vv. 5-7 John points out that the beast "was allowed" or "was given" (Greek - edothē). So John reminds his readers, "If anyone has an ear, let him hear." Not even the Antichrist can escape God's plan and time frame. His time and power are limited. He is given forty-two months (3 1/2 years - Rev 11:2; 12:6). After that he loses his authority. He continues only until his time is up. 

The same lessons apply in our day as beasts and anti-christs of various kind arise to persecute and kill the people of God. But we are comforted. They cannot, they will not prevail, but Christ's kingdom will. That is the great message proclaimed throughout John's Revelation. 

Borne On Eagles' Wings

In the last post about the Revelation we considered Satan's fall from heaven and his fearful work of dragging as many as possible with him to his destiny, the bottomless pit, the abyss. The woman, the symbol for the church of all ages, will be protected, however. Listen.

And when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. But the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle so that she might fly from the serpent into the wilderness, to the place where she is to be nourished for a time, and times, and half a time. The serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, to sweep her away with a flood. But the earth came to the help of the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river that the dragon had poured from his mouth. Then the dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. And he stood on the sand of the sea. - Rev 12:13-18 ESV

Given the two wings of the great eagle? When the Children of Israel were in the wilderness on the way to the Promised Land, the LORD spoke these words through the prophet Moses:

. . . while Moses went up to God. The LORD called to him out of the mountain, saying, "Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the people of Israel: You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel." - Exo 19:3-6 ESV

Later, the prophet Isaiah writes,

Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. - Isa 40:28-31 ESV 

This then is the wondrous promise to us who are in Christ, who are the offspring of the woman, the church. Yes, Satan will make war on us. He will kill us and our families. He will do everything possible to tempt us to sin and give up in despair. But the everlasting God, the Creator of the far stretches of the earth, will give us power. He will fill us with His Spirit. He will nourish and feed us with His all-powerful Word. As we "wait for the LORD," as we put our faith and trust in Him, we will not be disappointed. We will rise above the fray and fly from the conflict in victory. We will remain firm in our faith and—in the words of Luther's great hymn—

"And take they our life, Goods, fame, child, and wife, Let these all be gone, They yet have nothing won. The Kingdom ours remaineth." 

The battle is real. The devil is real. The temptations and trials are real. But so is the victory. Hold to the testimony of Jesus! His great work of self-sacrifice upon Calvary's cross bears witness about Him. He is the one sent by the heavenly Father to be both the High Priest and the final sacrifice for the sins of the world (John 3:16; 5:36-37). And the Father has accepted that sacrifice as the full and final payment for the sins of all mankind.

And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying, "This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds," then he adds, "I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more." Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin. Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. - Heb 10:11-25 ESV

Let this Word of God comfort and strengthen us in all times of testing. And then let us walk with patience and in faith, for the devil's time is limited and the day of his judgment draws near.

The Dark Side Of All The Talk About Angels

Angels are big in our American culture. Google the word and you come up with tens of thousands of sites. And they're apparently always ready to help. All you have to do is get in touch. Strangely, they're usually pictured as feminine in gender, but ever with glorious powers of healing and protection. Example:

The Purple Oasis - A Sacred Space for Healing

What has the Creator of men and angels revealed about these wondrous beings? Its quite different in many cases from what is passed off as inside information on the Internet. This week I'll take a look at some of God's, not man's revelations.

When we start at the very beginning—with the serpent in the garden—we come at once to the dark side to this story. Prior to Adam's creation there was a rebellion among these spirit beings we are told (Rev.12:7-9). When God created Adam and Eve, the leader of that rebel angel crowd sought to take these bodied souls under his control. So we read . . .

Now the serpent was more crafty (cunning, shrewd, subtle) than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God actually say, 'You shall not eat of any tree in the garden'?" - Gen 3:1 ESV

Was this serpent a fallen angel? The text says nothing about the serpent being an angel. Instead we simply read about the nachash, the serpent, "The nachash was more crafty than any other beast of the field made by the LORD God." What made this poor beast so cunning? Could it have been the spirit that had taken over its body? Furthermore, it seems this nachash was more like a dragon, a reptile with feet, because he wasn't forced to crawl on his belly until later:

The LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. - Gen 3:14 ESV

I see nothing to suggest at this point that the curse extended to all of that particular serpent's offspring. Nothing suggests that wonderful class of creatures known as snakes are all under some curse of God.

The word nachash is also a noun meaning divination, enchantment, omen and sorcery. The only place we find that noun is in the story of the pagan prophet Balaam (Numbers 23:23; 24:1). In Gen. 30:27 we meet the verb form as Laban learned by divination that he was blessed because of Jacob. Divination is in the list of forbidden secret practices of Deut. 18:10. Further, the Hebrew words for copper, bronze and brass have nachash as their root. All that may help to explain why Eve was attracted to the dragon/serpent in the garden.

Of course, we do read more about serpents in other places. For example, at the start of Exodus story, the LORD sends Moses and his brother Aaron to Pharaoh with their miracle working staffs. When Pharaoh demands proof of their authority, they throw the staffs down and Aaron's "became a nachash!" No big deal, says mighty Pharaoh. He merely calls in his magicians whose staffs do the same thing. But—and I've always like this part—Aaron's staff-nachash swallows up those of the Egyptians (Exodus 7:8-12).

What's the deal about serpents, both in the garden and in Egypt? All through the myths and stories of Egypt and various other religions, both ancient and modern, serpents and snakes figure in very prominently. The Egyptians had many serpent or dragon gods.

- Aker, was a dragon representing the earth. It bound the coils of Apep. It was believed to preside over the point where the eastern and western horizons of the Underworld met. Aker aids the forces of light by binding and chaining the serpent when Ra passes through the underworld. 

- Apep [also known as Apophis], a terrifying great sea-serpent, lay in wait in the Egyptian underworld to ambush the sun god, Ra, who had to voyage through it each night ready to rise again. Apep would viciously attack the boat Ra was in as he crossed the sky during the day, and when there was an eclipse, it was believed to be due to Apep swallowing the vessel whole. Despite Apep's menace, he never gained complete victory over his eternal enemy. However Apep was also never believed to have been fully vanquished. The reddening of the sky at dusk was said to demonstrate that the serpent had been overcome by the sun's strength.

- Ankh-neteru was a serpent god. Afu Ra [the sun god] had his boat pulled by twelve gods through Ankh-neteru's body, entering the tail and exiting the mouth. This results in Afu Ra being transformed into Khepera, the ancient god associated with the creation of the world.

- Denwen came about during the third millennium B.C. and is described as a fiery serpent. He would have caused an inferno that would have destroyed all of the gods had he not been thwarted by the Egyptian King.

- Nehebkau, a servant of Ra, was an Egyptian serpent with human arms and legs. It was the great serpent upon which the world rested, and is sometimes represented with a man's body and holding the eye of Horus. Nehabkau was known to guard the entrance of the Underworld and accompanied the sun god on his nightly journey through it as well. 

- The Uraeus was the symbol of sovereignty, worn on the royal Egyptian headdress. It is used as a protective symbol, as the Egyptians believed that the cobra would spit fire at any approaching enemies.

- Wadjet was an Egyptian serpent guardian sent by Osiris to protect Pharoah and control the Nile. The cobra goddess was the patroness of Lower Egypt. Wadjet was part of the Osirian myths and was always viewed as a protector of Egypt, depicted as a woman with a cobra head or as a cobra about to strike at the nation's enemies.

Common also was the ouroboros, the snake that eats his own tail. Dating back as early as 1600 B.C. Egyptians believed that the sun god rose through the underworld each night on the back of ouroboros. The word comes from the Greek: ouroboros = tail-devourer. In many religions the ouroboros is a symbol of eternity and infinity. Like the circle, it symbolizes creation out of destruction, life out of death. You can read more about general serpent symbolism in the Wikipedia article.

Ouroboros - Wikipedia

In the Exodus story the power of the LORD was greater than all the serpent gods of the Egyptians. 

So back to the serpent in the garden. Was the serpent or dragon in the garden the devil? It is obvious that the devil or satan—and those under his control—are spirits. They do not need bodies to move around. However, they are able to enter bodies of beasts or men. For instance, we read of two demon-possessed men who lived among the tombs in the country of the Gadarenes. Jesus drove them out and gave the demons permission to enter a herd of pigs (Matthew 8:28-34). Again, we read about how Satan entered into Judas, leading him to betray Jesus (Luke 22:1-6). The only conclusion we can reach is that in the garden the devil used that particular dragon's body to seduce Eve to disobey a specific command of the LORD. 

For this and other reasons snakes are seen as seductive and deceptive, especially since many carry lethal poison in their fangs. The snake's phallic shape is also associated with fertility.

The warning at the Bible's very beginning: The devil long ago succeeded in his plans. In many and various forms he now appears, not only as a snake. He has become, in fact, the ruler of this world (John 12:31; 14:30; 1 John 5:19). 

Not a good way to start our examination of angels, but quite realistic.