He Reigns
Bible reading
1 The dragon stood on the shore of the sea. And I saw a beast coming out of the sea. It had ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns on its horns, and on each head a blasphemous name. 2 The beast I saw resembled a leopard, but had feet like those of a bear and a mouth like that of a lion. The dragon gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority. 3 One of the heads of the beast seemed to have had a fatal wound, but the fatal wound had been healed. The whole world was filled with wonder and followed the beast. 4 People worshipped the dragon because he had given authority to the beast, and they also worshipped the beast and asked, ‘Who is like the beast? Who can wage war against it?’
– Revelation 13 (NIVUK)
5 The beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise its authority for forty-two months. 6 It opened its mouth to blaspheme God, and to slander his name and his dwelling-place and those who live in heaven. 7 It was given power to wage war against God’s holy people and to conquer them. And it was given authority over every tribe, people, language and nation. 8 All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast – all whose names have not been written in the Lamb’s book of life, the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world.
9 Whoever has ears, let them hear.
10 ‘If anyone is to go into captivity,
into captivity they will go.
If anyone is to be killed with the sword,
with the sword they will be killed.’
This calls for patient endurance and faithfulness on the part of God’s people.
11 Then I saw a second beast, coming out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb, but it spoke like a dragon. 12 It exercised all the authority of the first beast on its behalf, and made the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose fatal wound had been healed. 13 And it performed great signs, even causing fire to come down from heaven to the earth in full view of the people. 14 Because of the signs it was given power to perform on behalf of the first beast, it deceived the inhabitants of the earth. It ordered them to set up an image in honour of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived. 15 The second beast was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that the image could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed. 16 It 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, 17 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.
18 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.
Devotional
When I was in the 7th grade, we studied Greek mythology. One of the pictures in our textbook was of the god Atlas. He was a muscular Titan who had to hold the world on his shoulders. I remember looking at that picture and thinking, that looks really heavy and difficult. He literally carried the weight of the universe on his shoulders! It seemed like a lot for someone to carry, he would need a lot of endurance to support that weight for long.
The Bible is not a myth, and the Book of Revelation is telling a real story about the weight of real worldly evil. We, the followers of Jesus Christ, are asked to endure the weight of this evil for a short while, but it’s not going to be easy, and it will take patient endurance.
Chapter 13 isn’t easy to interpret and it’s not my goal to explain here. Rather, I want to focus on two phrases that tell us everything we really need to know for now. The first phrase is at the end of verse 10 – “This calls for patient endurance and faithfulness on the part of God’s people”. And the second phrase is similar, the first part of verse 18 – “This calls for wisdom”.
The only way we are going to make it through the confusion, the agony, the trials, the temptations and the violence of these times is if we can practice patient endurance and faithfulness and if we are wise.
We don’t need to look very far to see the evil that is pressing in on us. From the media, to politics, education to entertainment we see the weak, the fragile and the poor exploited. Sexuality and violence are the dominant themes in our society these days. Maintaining purity, righteousness, humility, grace, compassion and love in a society like ours, isn’t easy or popular. So, we need patient endurance. This is only gained by working on developing our spiritual muscle over time and that only happens by studying the Bible and meditating on it and by observing the world, like the men of Issachar (1 Chronicles 12:32) and knowing what to do (wisdom).
Understanding the symbols of chapter 13 is fascinating, and I hope you take the time to search and study. But if you don’t get to it right away, at least work on what will keep you standing firm; patient endurance, faith and wisdom. All things that the Lamb provides for us through the power of the Holy Spirit.
– Connie Main Duarte
This devotional is part of a series that helps us navigate the texts of the book of Revelation with fresh eyes. A new devotional every Saturday.
These devotionals are available in Portuguese and in English.