Pastor Ryan Story
Revelation chapter 13 begins with John doing his best to describe the coming of the Beast. The physical description of the Beast that rises out of the sea is like something out of a J.R.R Tolkien book. While reading, I was drawn to two ways John describes the Beast.
Revelation 13:1 says, “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.” Revelation 13:5-6 continues, “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.”
There is a lot to go off of here to paint the picture that this Beast is not good. The part I was drawn to was more over the Beast’s character. We see he spoke with haughty and blasphemous words. He had blasphemy spewing forth from every syllable he spoke towards God, Heaven, and God’s people. Sounds like a pleasant guy to be around, and yet, sadly, people will follow him. The Beast lived in his sin, his rebellion towards God, and his pride. The fact that the Beast lived this way speaks more about who he is rather than what he is saying. His character is on display. He is not just a “blasphemer” as an action, it is rooted in who he is to the core of his being.
The thought I had while reading this chapter was what an absolutely destructive force sin is. Sin is destructive to humanity since it entered the world, but at least humanity has always had God pulling us to Him, offering repentance, writing the Law on the hearts of the Gentiles, and giving the Law to the Hebrews, desiring that none should perish. For the Beast, sin consumes him.
Sin and rebellion against God are so toxic to your being. Luckily for us, our character is not rooted in our rebellion, our sin, our past, or our blasphemous moments. For us, Paul’s words to the church of Corinth become our character, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
Because of the work of Jesus on the cross, we are no longer bound by our sin. We are no longer ruled by rebellion. The Beast was consumed to his very core with toxicity and death. Praise Jesus for what He did on the cross. We are the righteousness of God because of what Jesus did.