“The Beast and the Dragon”

Revelation 13:1-18

¹Then I saw a beast rising up out of the sea. It had seven heads and ten horns, with ten crowns on its horns. And written on each head were names that blasphemed God. ² This beast looked like a leopard, but it had the feet of a bear and the mouth of a lion! And the dragon gave the beast his own power and throne and great authority.

³ I saw that one of the heads of the beast seemed wounded beyond recovery—but the fatal wound was healed! The whole world marveled at this miracle and gave allegiance to the beast. ⁴ They worshiped the dragon for giving the beast such power, and they also worshiped the beast. “Who is as great as the beast?” they exclaimed. “Who is able to fight against him?”

⁵ Then the beast was allowed to speak great blasphemies against God. And he was given authority to do whatever he wanted for forty-two months. ⁶ And he spoke terrible words of blasphemy against God, slandering his name and his dwelling—that is, those who dwell in heaven. ⁷ And the beast was allowed to wage war against God’s holy people and to conquer them. And he was given authority to rule over every tribe and people and language and nation. ⁸ And all the people who belong to this world worshiped the beast. They are the ones whose names were not written in the Book of Life that belongs to the Lamb who was slaughtered before the world was made.

⁹ Anyone with ears to hear
should listen and understand.
¹⁰ Anyone who is destined for prison
will be taken to prison.
Anyone destined to die by the sword
will die by the sword.

This means that God’s holy people must endure persecution patiently and remain faithful.

¹¹ Then I saw another beast come up out of the earth. He had two horns like those of a lamb, but he spoke with the voice of a dragon. ¹² He exercised all the authority of the first beast. And he required all the earth and its people to worship the first beast, whose fatal wound had been healed. ¹³ He did astounding miracles, even making fire flash down to earth from the sky while everyone was watching. ¹⁴ And with all the miracles he was allowed to perform on behalf of the first beast, he deceived all the people who belong to this world. He ordered the people to make a great statue of the first beast, who was fatally wounded and then came back to life. ¹⁵ He was then permitted to give life to this statue so that it could speak. Then the statue of the beast commanded that anyone refusing to worship it must die.

¹⁶ He required everyone—small and great, rich and poor, free and slave—to be given a mark on the right hand or on the forehead. ¹⁷ And no one could buy or sell anything without that mark, which was either the name of the beast or the number representing his name. ¹⁸ Wisdom is needed here. Let the one with understanding solve the meaning of the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. His number is 666.

This morning’s reading reminds me of the one about a woman and a man who were involved in a car accident, and it was a bad one. Both of their cars were totally demolished but amazingly neither of them was hurt. After they crawled out of their cars, the woman said, “Wow, just look at our cars! There’s nothing left, but we’re unhurt. You’re a handsome man and I’m a beautiful woman. This must be a sign from God that we should meet and be friends and live together in peace for the rest of our days!” Flattered and highly relieved, the man replied, “Oh yes, I agree with you completely! This must be a sign from God!” The woman continued, “And look at this, here’s another miracle. My car is completely demolished but this bottle of wine didn’t break. Surely God wants us to drink this wine and celebrate our good fortune.” She handed the bottle to the man. The man nodded his head in agreement, opened it, drank half the bottle, and then handed it back to the woman. The woman took the bottle and immediately put the cap back on and handed it back to the man. The man asked, “Aren’t you having any?” The woman replied, “No. I think I’ll just wait for the police.”

And they say that women are no more evil than men but boy, that woman sure did an evil thing to that man! The cops will show up, see the scene of the crash, smell the alcohol on the man’s breath, and immediately deduce that his drunken driving was the cause of crash. No amount of convincing the cops otherwise would suffice. That poor man was in for a hefty fine and not one but two significant repair jobs. All because he listened to the woman instead of avoid the trap she so cleverly laid out for him. Of course, we know women have an uncanny ability to get men to do some pretty stupid stuff ever since Adam and Eve in the garden. But is it really “evil” of women? I tend to think it’s just their way of keeping us aware of other real dangers in this world. They’re just trying to help us, albeit through hurting us. It’s for our benefit that women get us to do stupid things…at least that’s what my wife tells me!

The point being that I don’t believe women are any more evil than men. I do believe, however, that there is distinct evil in this world. I’ve seen enough of my wife’s tv shows on crimes and police procedures to know that there is most definitely evil in this world. Too many bad things happen in this world that can be attributed to nothing but evil. I can’t quite correlate all the bad things that happen in this world to the sin and sinfulness of people. There are far too many things that occur randomly or outside of people’s control. Even the sin that is unleashed from within people can become out of their control. No, there is an evil in this world that can’t be fully explained or justified.

And apparently, it’s an evil that John caught a glimpse of in his vision as we heard in today’s reading. John saw three powerful creatures in his vision, all seemingly an extension of each other. He saw two beasts and a dragon. The first beast was a mangled beast that waged war against God’s holy people and conquered them. It blasphemed God and subjugated God’s people. Similarly, the second beast deceived God’s people into worshipping the first beast. A particularly maniacal two-pronged approach to subjugation. Conquer the people and then get them to worship their conquerors! Now that is distinctly evil! And who gives these two beasts their power and authority? Well, the dragon of course, the source of all evil. Interpreters have wrestled with who the two beasts and dragon represent. The dragon is commonly believed to be Satan. The first beast is either the Antichrist or an oppressive religious or political regime. Many believe John was referring to the Roman empire of his time. The second beast was then considered the False Prophet or Antichrist. Regardless of what specifically the beasts and dragon represent, they all collectively represent the evil of this world, the same evil that continues to afflict our world today. The dragon keeps enabling and empowering beasts in our world today. Beasts that want to conquer us and drag us back into darkness. Beasts that want to get us to worship our conquerors! Evil is a terrible thing in this world.

But it isn’t the most powerful thing in this world. No, the most powerful thing is and has always been our God. More specifically, the love of God. Friends, there is a light in this world that is far more powerful than any beasts and dragons. We know that light—Jesus Christ himself. He is the light that conquers all darkness! I don’t think John gave us his vision of the beasts and the dragon to frighten us or dishearten us. No, I think he did it just to give us an idea of who Christ us up against, who Christ fights against on our behalf. There is an evil in this world but there is also a goodness in this world. The goodness fights the evil each and every day, and each and every day the goodness wins the day. You know, the book of Proverbs warns us about the evil of this world. It says, “All who fear the Lord will hate evil. Therefore, I hate pride and arrogance, corruption and perverse speech.” (8:13) When we fear the Lord—when we reverence the Lord and claim him as our Savior—then evil has no power over us. We can defeat evil through Christ and Christ alone. We can defeat evil by doing as Christ wants us to do. Paul warns us in his letter to the Romans, “Don’t let evil conquer you, by conquer evil by doing good.” (12:21) That’s the key to conquering the evil of this world-simply do good, be good. Or, as Paul also explains in his letter to the Romans, “Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong (or evil). Hold tightly to what is good.” (12:9)

It’s frightening to think of the second beast brainwashing us and branding us with its mark of the number 666. But we don’t have to be afraid. He can’t have us! We have Jesus as our Lord and Savior and friends, that is all we’ll ever need to defeat evil and its representative beasts! So let us give thanks for his power over evil. Thanks be to God! In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.