Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - How Satan Works | New Testament | Revelation 13

Episode Date: November 8, 2023

Today's the day you get to conquer Revelation 13. In today's episode, Jensen explains the mark of the beast, the relevance of the number "666" and how exactly Satan tries to use his power. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Prepare your heart to celebrate Jesus. Sign up to have the 'I Am Your God' Advent Devotional delivered directly to your inbox starting Sunday, Dec. 3, 2023. Join the TMBT community in reading the entire New Testament in one year. Get your FREE reading plan here. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Revelation 13

Welcome to 10 minute Bible talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. And the time it takes to get to work. I'm Jensen Holt McNair. I'll be honest with you guys. When I first read through Revelation 13 for today, I said out loud, what in the world is going on? There are beasts and dragons and then another beast and certain amounts of time and marks of a beast and all kinds of craziness. I've heard of some of it before, but I've truly never deeply studied Revelation. because it all just seemed to be a little bit too much for me to understand. You see, I know that the Bible

says that no one will know the hour when Jesus returns. But I've also heard people use passages from Revelation to try and decipher when Jesus is coming back and who the Antichrist is and what the mark of the beast will be. And because those two things weren't really adding up to me, I just chose to steer clear of passages like these, I was comfortable knowing that God is sovereign, that he promised to establish his kingdom, and one day he will bodily resurrect me from the dead to live with him for all of eternity. And that was good enough for me. I'd just let Revelation hang out there in the back of my Bible. Cue me being a co-host of a devotional podcast that decided to go through and teach on Revelation and no longer being allowed to run away from the chaos and my confusion. And while I could hold a

grudge against Patrick for assigning me these chapters in Revelation. Instead, I'm realizing just how rich these passages are when you begin to really understand them. I'm realizing how much they speak to our modern context and how much they reveal about who God is and how amazing his plan for redemption really is. So if you read today's passage and thought, what in the world is going on? Just like me, buckle up. Because we're going to take this passage, by peace and see if we can't make some sense of everything that's going on. So first, we need to remember that this chapter has context. In chapter 12, we learn that there's a dragon, a symbol for Satan. And this dragon has been pursuing, attempting to destroy a woman. And in his pursuit,

he becomes frustrated. And the last verse tells us that he instead turns his attention to the rest of her offspring, specifically those who follow the commandments of God and believe the testimony of Jesus. Enter chapter 13. 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 head. And the beast that I saw was like a leopard and its feet were like a bears and its mouth like a lion's mouth. And to it, the dragon gave his power and his throne in great authority. 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 worshipped the dragon, for he had given his authority to the beast, and they worshipped

the beast saying who is like the beast, and who can fight against it. Okay, checking in. What's going on so far? We read that the dragon, in its attempt to destroy believers, has sent a beast. and he's given this beast his authority and power on the earth. The imagery that we have of this beast is that it's powerful and blasphemous, and that it seemed to have a wound that would bring it down, but it overcame that wound and took power. And because of this, the whole world has begun worshipping this beast. Let's continue on and read more about what this beast does in verse 5.

And the beast was given a mouth, uttering haughty and bowing haughty and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for 42 months. It opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name and his dwelling, that is, those who dwell in heaven. And it was also 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 the 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. So here we learn that this beast is blaspheming God and it exercises power for a certain amount of time, 42 months. And in that time, he makes war against believers and all who dwell on earth

worship him, everyone but those whose name is written in the book of life, everyone but true believers. This section of chapter 13 ends with encouragement to those who resist the beast. If anyone has an ear, let him hear. If anyone is to be taken captive to captivity he goes. If anyone is to be slain with a sword, with a sword he must be slain. Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints. Endure. Do not worship the first beast.

And then enter a second beast. 11. Then I saw another beast rising out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon. It exercises all the authority of the first beast in its presence and makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast whose mortal wound was healed. It performs great signs even making fire come down from heaven to earth in front of people. And by the signs that it is allowed to work in the presence of the beast, it deceives those who dwell on earth. telling them to make an image for the beast that was wounded by the sword and yet lived. And it was allowed to give breath to the image of the beast so that the image of the beast might even speak

and might cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be slain. So the second beast seems to have similar power and authority as the first. And it uses its power to cause the people to marvel and worship the first beast. It has captivated the people of the earth so much that they turn against those. those who do not worship the beast. Verse 16. Also, it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark.

That is, the name of the beast or the number of its name. This calls for wisdom. Let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is six, six. So this beast has taken over so completely that everyone who wants to participate in the economy in the world must be marked. They must be complicit with the beast. And then we learn that this beast has a specific number, 666.

And that's chapter 13. And the first question you should probably be asking is who is this beast. Now, many people have lots of thoughts on this. But the interpretation that is most compelling to me, as I've studied, is that the beast is an image, a representation of the political powers of this world, and specifically in context of which John receives this vision for Rome. There's specific imagery and context that points to Rome being the beast, and the second beast being the pagan cult priests that exercise Roman authority and use their power to persecute believers and uphold Rome. Rome had incredible power in John's Day. The people were told to worship the emperor as Lord. There was a time when it seemed that Rome would fall, that it had been dealt a mortal wound, but it overcame and reestablished itself. Many people fell prey to the power and worship of Rome, taken captive by its morality, its way of life. The Roman emperes famously targeted and killed many in the early church.

In order to participate in the Roman economy, you had to use money marked with the face of the emperor. Oftentimes there was pagan worship and rituals so embedded into culture that to participate in the economy was to monetarily support Rome and its pagan worship. to not worship Rome was to be excluded from much of the culture and to be in danger of persecution from the Roman government. The number 666, which I'm sure you've heard about, may relate to the emperor Nero. In ancient times, letters had numeric value, and if you use those values for Nero Caesar, you get 666. Or 666 could stand in comparison to God's perfection displayed in the number seven. This beast is inferior to God. It is not like Him, not as powerful as Him.

Now, we would need a lot of time that we do not have to dig into every single piece of imagery in this passage. And I would encourage you to look into it and study this passage even further on your own. It is fascinating in its detail. But I think that there is compelling evidence to suggest that John's vision points to the nation of Rome. Now, if Rome is the beast, you may be asking, why does this passage matter? Rome is gone. Was this vision only for the early church? Now, some believe that this vision is only about Rome, and in the past. But in this passage, we learn that the beast will reign for a certain amount of time, 42 months. Forty-two months is the same as 1,260 days. And this specific number can be

referenced back to prophecy that is found in Daniel, suggesting a symbolic amount of time that will include suffering from the time of Christ's ascension until his return. The beast will reign in this entire time. And so while this passage does refer to Rome specifically at times, it also indicates that from the time Jesus ascended until he returns, the dragon, Satan will send his beasts, send nations and powers to try and capture the allegiance, the hearts and minds and worship of all who dwell on the earth. Rome specifically to John, but through many other nations and powers throughout all of history.

And so if we read this passage with that in mind, this is the vision that we will come away with. Satan, in his fury and desire to overcome believers, has enabled a great and powerful nation to rise up, and that nation asks for the allegiance and worship of all the inhabitants of the earth. To reject the beast is to put yourself in danger, physically, but also financially and socially. The draw and allure of this nation is strong, so strong that only those who have the endurance of faith are able to stand against the power and draw of this great nation. I hope you can see how this potentially chaotic and confusing section of scripture is a warning about the ways that Satan is at work in the world, both when John received this vision and even today.

Satan has and will continue to use his power and authority in this world to stir up evil, and he will do so by raising up great nations and cultures to lead people astray. Now the question we have to ask ourselves is are we marked more by our allegiance to our nation, to our culture, to its values, or to God? Are we like those who dwell on the earth and worship the culture, giving our allegiance to a political party, a nation, a candidate, a way of life, or are we like those who stand firm in faith and root their allegiance in King Jesus no matter the cost. Satan is trying to fool us into believing that the beast is worth our worship, that the powers of this world know what is good and right and true that they deserve our

allegiance. But we know, we know that only God is those things, that only God can build a lasting kingdom that is full of goodness, mercy, and truth. May we give our lives to worshiping and building that kingdom. May we hold fast against the temptation and pressure of the world, resisting the beast no matter the cost, so that one day, one day, we can dwell in God's eternal and everlasting kingdom alongside him. Amen.