6/12/2023

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:

I hope you see in the midst of chapter 13 what the “second beast” did. It caused the people to create an image, read idol, of the first beast who had been wounded in battle. Do you remember what the wound was? It was a “wound to the head.” Do you also remember what God told “the serpent” before He ushered Adam and Eve out of the Garden? He said “And I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers. He will crush your head and you will strike His heel.” (Genesis 3.15) I mention it only to draw your attention to the true “cycle of life” which begins and ends with God. It is a picture of what was, what is and what will be. When the story of humankind began in earnest with the creation of “man and woman,” it was with the words “in the image of God.” That image did not take life until God breathed into it. Before that moment, they were essentially non-entities. But, they were made to be alive and not merely project living. In fact, after God spoke truth to the serpent, Eve and then Adam before excusing them from the premises of Eden, Adam named his wife “Eve, the mother of all living.” She wasn’t just about life or being alive. She was all about living. Her true living was under the rule and protection which God declared. Sadly, many women want to believe that the New Testament does indeed invalidate the Old Testament so that what God said was “the order of things” would no longer be the “order of things.” Without such “order from God” all that would remain would be chaos. It would be a return to how things were before God brought life out of lifelessness, order out of chaos, and hope from despair. Such is not the case, however, and the prophecy of revelation given to John shows us full well that the plan of God is still at work and will succeed in spite of humanity’s desire to the contrary.

And there in chapter 13, the “second beast” creates an “image” of the first beast fatally wounded and crushed (wounded by the sword). He then breathes his life into it so that it would have the appearance of living (it talked and threatened death by the sword to all who refused to obey its command.) It is presented as the total opposite of the “image of God” by which God created humanity and the form in which He fashioned the “sword of their salvation” who is Christ Himself. The contrast is set as polar opposites with such clarity that we know “the time has come.”

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.