And I saw a beast rising out of the sea… 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. Also it was 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 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.
If anyone has an ear, let him hear…
Revelation 13:1-9
It is
easy for us to be caught up in situations, gradually drifting further way from
our own ideals and principles, gradually compromising the ways that God says we
should live in the world he created. The following is something I read a short
time ago about how one man drifted into his lifestyle.
‘Some of the promises [you make], it’s true, you make too young, before you really have an understanding of what they mean. But once you’ve made those first promises, other promises are called for. And the thing is, you can’t deny the new ones without betraying the old ones. The promises get bigger, there are more people to be hurt and disappointed if you don’t live up to them.’
This
seems to me to typify the experiences of many people in society, in government and
in business. They are living up to their past and to other people’s
expectations of them, gradually drifting further away from the persons they
were created to be, under pressure to conform to the generally accepted
standards in the places where we live and work.
The
above quote is a Mafia don describing his life of crime but many people, to
some extent at least, experience similar corrosion in their lifestyles.
On the
whole, the evil symbolised by the two beasts that St John saw rising up from
the sea and the land evolves gradually over many generations, so that it is
accepted as normal by people who grow up knowing nothing different. John saw
the true nature of Babylon and the Beast only when he was taken by the angel
into the wilderness.
As I
said at the start of this series, I think these visions in Revelation
illustrate the entire period of history from Jesus ascension back to heaven and
his eventual return. Babylons and Beasts come and go and, while we are not to
retreat into literal, physical wildernesses, we should take time to explore the
Bible and reflect on the way of life that we so often take for granted.
‘If
anyone has an ear…’
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Copyright © All Souls Clubhouse Community Centre & Church and Philip Evans
2013.
Scripture
quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright
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