I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Revelation 13-16.

    Today’s passage is almost completely metaphor. First is the beast which came out of the sea and spoke blasphemies against God. It had seven heads and ten horns. One of the seven heads had what appeared to be a fatal wound, yet the wound was healed. I am unclear if this beast is a person, a group of persons, a nation, or an organization (I lean toward the latter two). However, the people of this world will worship this beast and give it authority to wage war against God’s people (again unclear if this is the Church or the Jewish people). Those whose names are written in the Book of Life will be persecuted while the beast holds power (here it is clear that it refers to the Church). Then another beast will arise. This time out of the earth. Again, I am unclear as to whether this second beast is a person, or an organization. It will be given the authority of the first beast. The second beast will create a statue which will be given life by the beast. This sounds like a robot or a computer with Artificial Intelligence to me. John then mentions the number of the beast and tells us that it is “666”. Three sevens would represent perfection, but three sixes does not represent almost perfection. Instead the three sixes represents something which falls short of perfection in every way so that, rather than being wonderful, it is terrible.

    After an interlude describing things which I am not going to comment on today, seven angels holding seven plagues came out of the Temple in heaven. One after another they poured these plagues out on those who worshiped the beast and his statue. I am convinced that these plagues are the natural result of following the practices involved in worshiping the beast. However, that is not where I want to direct our attention. Instead, I want to take notice of a point which John makes several times here. After experiencing each of the plagues, those who worshiped the beast cursed God rather than repent of their sins and turning to Him. Rather than recognizing that God had warned them that their actions would result in these plagues and glorifying His name, they cursed Him and blamed Him for the suffering they had brought upon themselves.