Revelation 15 -- Victory Over the Beast

It seems as if chapter 15 is basically a transition, wrapping up the battle against the beasts and preparing us to read about God's wrath being poured out against the forces of evil.  We see in verse 2 that victory has been achieved, followed by a song of praise.  Seven angels emerge to receive seven golden bowls filled with the wrath of God, and the short chapter ends.

Revelation 14 -- The Tide is Turning

After a couple chapters of beasts running wild, we see the spiritual forces of good begin to assert themselves in chapter 14.  The Lamb appears with 144,000 followers, followed by three angels who point us toward God and denounce the beast.  There's a lot going on as this battle rages, and verse 12 reminds us that all this requires "patient endurance on the part of the people of God."  It's striking how much waiting, patience and trust play into our faith.  It's as if trust is the currency of the Kingdom of God.

The last seven verses are an interesting depiction of two harvests, one of the earth and another of grapes that end up getting squeezed in a bloody winepress.  It seems pretty clear that wickedness is being dealt with in the grape harvest, but the first harvest is less clear.  Taking a closer look, are we seeing Jesus coming like a "son of man", calling to Himself those who are secure in Him?  That makes sense to me.

Revelation 13 -- Two Beasts

Read through Revelation 13 and a couple primary questions come to mind.  Who are these beasts?  What do they represent?  Is this a look back or look ahead?

What does it mean for a beast to have a resemblance to a leopard, feet like a bear and a mouth like a lion?  How can it have ten horns and seven heads?  What are those?  That's the first beast described in verses 1-8.  In that section we see that all who are not in Christ, with their names in the Lamb's Book of Life will worship this beast.  Again, I ask, is this something from the past or something yet to come?  One thing we see for sure, that "this calls for patient endurance and faithfulness on the part of God's people" (v. 10).

The second beast comes "out of the earth", as opposed to the sea, and is clearly in collaboration with the first beast.  It's a powerful beast as seen in verses 13-17.

The rise of the second beast prompts John to call for wisdom on the part of Christians (v. 18).

There's a lot here and it's hard to understand.  I decided to google "who are the beasts described in Revelation 13" and found about 1000 articles which offered theories.  Maybe there's a consensus out there among trustworthy Bible scholars, but I couldn't seem to find one.  Nearly halfway through this walk through the Book of Revelation, and I've got way more questions than answers.  In fact, I'm not even sure I have that right now.  Our God is operating in a realm that I can't begin to grasp.

Revelation 12 -- Dragons and Wars

I remember hearing this passage read in church when I was small, and I didn't really know what was going on.  How can a woman appear in the sky, up with the sun, moon and stars?  Why was a dragon in the sky?  And the dragon wants to devour the child that's about to be born?  It's a pretty weird story for a 5-year old.


Looking at it now, I see that the woman and dragon are both referred to as signs that appear in heaven, presumably meaning the sky.  This is not a completely literal story, which makes me feel a little better.  So who is the woman?  The child about to be born is fairly clearly Jesus, so is Mary the woman?  She gave birth to Him, after all.  Could it be that the woman is actually the nation of Israel, since that nation birthed Jesus? 


Once the child is born and rescued from the dragon (Satan), the rest of the chapter describes a war that is waged between God's angels, and the Satan/demonic/evil angel team.  It's a classic "good guys/bad guys" story, but one with the greatest level of significance. 


So what can we learn from this chapter?  A couple ideas that stood out to me:


- Satan is an "accuser" (v. 10)
- he is defeated by those who had the courage to "not love their lives so much as to shrink from death", so selflessness is an attribute to pursue (v. 11)
- Satan is relentless, continuing to pursue the woman who had given birth to the Savior, even after he is hurled to the earth.  He also pursues the rest of the woman's offspring (other Christians), once the "woman" is protected from him (v. 13, 17)
- Provision is made by God for those who are engaged in this battle/war, in that the woman had a place "prepared for her" (v. 14)