BibleProject | One Story That Leads to JesusSample

Yesterday, the bloodthirsty beast from Daniel 7 was mauling Jesus’ witnesses. Today, it craves more. The beast hunts for God’s people, but it also fails to see that God has set a trap for it. Watch the video to see how the book of Revelation’s second half details this evil predator’s path from what seems like insurmountable treachery to its eventual defeat.

Notice John’s sharp focus on allegiance in today’s reading. Those facing Roman persecution feel increasing temptation to break allegiance with Jesus and abandon his “weak” people by joining the “powerful” beast. But the beast lies, and God’s trap will expose its fake power.

John paints this battle for allegiance in two different dimensions: one cosmic, the other earthly. The cosmic clash confirms that Jesus’ followers wage war not against flesh-and-blood humans but against the spiritual darkness that deceives and harms them. The earthly battle exposes the beast as a recruiter, always enlisting people to participate in violence, war, and greed. It wants people’s total allegiance so they become like it—hell-bent on destruction.

The beast even takes Israel’s Shema (Deut. 6:4-8), a daily prayer that many wrote upon their hands and foreheads as a sign of allegiance, and demands that people write its name on their bodies instead. The beast wants people to turn their allegiance to God into allegiance for it.

John instructs the people to listen closely before choosing who they will pledge their allegiance to. He again envisions the rescued and redeemed—spotless, blameless humans set free from the beast. Victorious over evil and made whole by God, they now have the lamb’s name on their heads.

John gives an invitation to see God’s trap for the beast and overturn every assumption about power. Choose to follow the beast, and the powerful victory you experience now will fizzle into dust and death. But if you choose to follow the lamb, you will flourish into true life, walking with mercy into a victory that lasts forever.

Reflection Questions

• Compare Genesis 3 to Revelation 12. How do those two passages inform your understanding of the cosmic dimension of the evil we face?
• Read Deuteronomy 6:4-8 and compare it to the mark of the beast in Revelation 13. What do these two passages reveal about allegiance?