6/11/2023

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE READING:

“It [the second beast] also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name. This calls for wisdom. Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. That number is 666.” (Revelation 13.16-17, 18b)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

Let’s take the burden off of all people when it comes to discern the meaning of “666.” How many times has it happened to you or in your presence that something with the number “666” shows up? It could be at a grocery store, a fast food restaurant, a license plate or just anywhere. For the believer, what is the first response but an anxious moment wanting to be disassociated with whatever it was. Even for “unbelievers” the number 666 causes a moment of pause usually expressed with nervous laughter or a quick dismissal. We all, for the most part, are uncomfortable with that number and the mystery which surrounds it. I find it interesting that we know as little, or as enough, about that number as we do the number of the date of Christ’s return to claim the Church as His Holy Bride and to validate the parking of those who accept the invitation to the wedding party and the wedding feast. What? You have never thought about the Second Coming in that way? Have you considered the validation of your faith in the midst of struggle as the mark of Jesus’ claim over your life? Has He not covered your heart, mind and soul with “the blood of the Lamb that was slain and raised to life by God for our good”? It is by the blood of Jesus that the covenant, the promise, is “revealed” in all its fullness, dominion, power and authority. It is a mark on the life of the believers which cannot be ignored, dismissed or overcome.

It is like the mark which God put on Cain after Cain killed his brother Abel in a jealous rage. Living in the moment for Cain was one thing. Living in the after-moment for Cain was another. We read from Genesis 4. 13-14, “Cain said to the Lord, ‘My punishment is more than I can bear. Today you are driving me from the land. I will be hidden from Your presence. I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.’” God extended mercy to Cain upon his confession of sin and profession of faith. God put His mark of protection on Cain. It marked a serious change in the course of human history from that point forward. The complexity of that change is evident in searching through the geneology of Cain and Seth (Adam and Eve’s replacement son) who was born because Cain had killed Abel. As both lines are traced you can see how the names intertwine as if they existed in side-by-side realities (in today’s Sci-fi language, it would be alternative universes). What is significant is that the promise God made to Adam and Eve for the final crushing of the Serpent at the hand of a descendant had to come from a kind of “resurrection” event. In this case, it would be the birth of Seth whose descendant Noah would carry on the legacy of life in “an ark.” Whether we blame the presence of evil people on the descendants of Cain in conjunction with the Nephilim (the fallen angels from Heaven) or the intermarriage of Cain and Seth’s descendants (see how their names intertwine until the days of Noah as you read their geneologies), the fact remains it will take another “resurrection” event (i.e. the Flood) to maintain the future line of God’s people on earth who will serve Him all the days of their lives.

Of course, no sooner do we put “the Flood” to rest with the descending of a dove as out of Heaven, than we find the story of “blame” being reinserted with the cursing of “Ham for gazing upon his father’s nakedness.” Of course, Noah was not only naked as a jaybird but as drunk as a skunk. And the curse on Ham became the curse on Ham’s descendants which included the Cainites, or as we know them in a different context- the Canaanites. In the words of Sir Walter Scott in his poem, Marmion: A Tale of Flodden Field, “Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive.” The deception born under the cover of “blame others for one’s own demise” is a thread of commonality in all cultures and climes throughout the history of humankind. Even the well-known comedian Flip Wilson played off of it with his rendition of “The Devil Made Me Do It.” And it rears its ugly head in each generation including the very last generation as it is revealed to John. The Second Beast, the successor to the First Beast, gives life to the “image” of the First Beast. The projection of such “life-giving power” wielded by the Second Beast causes many, a vast majority, of people to believe in him. They believe so much they are willing to accept his “mark” on them as if it were a sign of protection over them. Let us remember the mark put on Cain carried this accountability: “Anyone who kills Cain will suffer vengeance seven times over.” According to legend, it would be Lamech who would kill Cain with the words “If anyone seek vengeance on me, let them suffer seventy-seven times over.” (Genesis 4.24) Does this sound somewhat familiar to you, mighty ones of God? Peter asked Jesus, “How many times must I forgive a person? Seven times?” Jesus responded, “Seven times? No, I tell you seventy-seven times [or seven times seventy].” (Matthew 18.21-22.) For those with a curious mind, this is an allusion to Jubilee, the Grand Jubilee, when all “debts” are to be forgiven and the people return to their promised land. In that “promised land,” their lives and livelihoods would be restored, renewed, revived… resurrected– if you will. Of course, it could only happen if it aligned with the authority of God to make it so. And we can read in the gospel of Luke the words of Jesus in Nazareth after He read from the scroll of Isaiah. He read the [assigned] passage which reflecting upon Jubilee and declared “In your hearing this word [this scripture] has been fulfilled.” What was that scripture? It said and says “The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind; to set the oppressed free and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4.18-19) Interesting to me is that this event happened after Jesus had spent forty days in the wilderness following His baptism by John the Baptizer in the Jordan River. It was there that Jesus was “flooded” over by the waters and was empowered by God’s blessing (a dove descended from Heaven) to enter into the Promised Land. It wasn’t so much a land as it was a kingdom- the Kingdom of God on earth as it was and would be in Heaven.

So, mighty ones of God, we can concern ourselves too much in seeking to uncover and discern the “name of the man” represented by the number 666. In that over-concern, we miss the truth of the mystery which is revealed in the moments of truth. Those moments of truth are revealed in the nature of the “beasts” over and against the nature of “the Lamb who was slain and raised to life again” not under the authority of the Dragon but under the authority of Yahweh Elohim, the Lord our God who is the same yesterday, today and forever. Serve Him only and call upon His Name. He is a jealous God and promises to honor His word to those who will be His people and bear His mark on their lives forever and ever. Shalom.

A PRAYER FOR TODAY:

You are our God and we shall be Your people in spirit and in truth. Continue to dwell among us. Let the revelation by Your Holy Spirit inspire us to greater service in a more refined identity. We do not live as ourselves for ourselves. Rather, we live in Christ as He lives in us. We declare it with all the elders and angels in Heaven, saying “Holy, holy, holy is He who was and is and is to come.” In Jesus’ name we live, serve and pray. AMEN.