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The wounded beast
Revelation 13:1-3 “Then I stood on the sand of the sea. And I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name. Now the beast which I saw was like a leopard, his feet were like the feet of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. The dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority. And I saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded, and his deadly wound was healed“
Back in Daniel 7 we discussed this beast, which Daniel also describes (click here to read more). The leopard, bear and lion were each a country : Greeks, Persians and Romans. Together they make up this massive beast system. But, we also read that this beast was wounded.. by Yeshua, and the war that broke out in Heaven (see yesterday’s post about the “Accuser”, the war, and him being thrown down to earth). This was fulfillment of the prophecy made by YHWH Himself back in the garden of Eden. Genesis 3:15 “He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel”. Bruising Yeshua’s heel, could mean His actual heel during the crucifixion, but it is more likely Yeshua’s followers. Read again back in Revelation 12:17 that says, “And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring..”
The Hebrew word for heel is H6119 – ʿāqēḇ, and means heel, rear, footprint, the following. We see this heel also being used in the prophetic birth of Jacob and Esau, in Genesis 25:26 “Afterward his brother came out, and his hand took hold of Esau’s heel; so his name was called Jacob.” Jacob’s name in Hebrew is H3290 – yaʿăqōḇ, meaning “supplanter”. A supplanter is someone or something that takes the place of another, often through force or strategy. Yeshua came to replace, by strategy and force the damage that the devil have caused, but it came at a price, the devil striking at the heel.
Buy and Sell
Revelation 13:16-17 “He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.”
Revelation 14:11-12 also says, “..who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name. Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Yeshua.”
For years now, people are speculation over what the mark of the beast could be, and you have probably heard a few! Probably the most famous one, would be the literal marking of a code or tag into our heads of arms by implantation or injection. It could even be our phones, because almost every person (even children) have phones today, and our phones are used to identify us, we do our shopping and banking with it, and we carry it in our hands and place it next to our heads. But we must remember, the devils’ main priority is to deceive. Yeshua warned and said in Matthew 10:16, “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.”
Everyone is so fixated on the mark of the beast, that what is more important to focus on, get missed completely : The Mark and Seal of YHWH! We read in Revelation 7 and 9 (go back to that post to read more about “Seals on Foreheads”) that those with the mark of YHWH will not be hurt! But everybody else, as Revelation 13 says, will be forced (“he causes all”) to have the mark of the beast.
One of the things in order to have the seal of YHWH on your forehead and hands, is to keep the Sabbath. The forehead and hands represent what you think and what you do – it comes down to : Worship. Worship is about humbling yourself, bending the knee. It is not about our own will, whether how and when we want to worship, but how the Creator, YHWH, wants us to serve Him – and He declared it since Creation – on the 7th day, it is the Sabbath. We are to rest and no work! What is work..? Work has to do with “buying and selling”. Work is not plucking the grain to eat – like we see the pharisees accuse Yeshua of in Matthew 12:1-8. Work is plucking grains to gather enough to store for tomorrow and future, or for selling the grains in order to live in the future. Work has to do with what we do in order to survive in the future. Sabbath teaches us to depend on YHWH for our survival.
So here is the double meaning of the mark of the beast:
- Keeping the Sabbath places the seal of YHWH on us – which means we can buy or sell on a Sabbath.
- NOT keeping the Sabbath – allows one to buy and sell on a Sabbath – which by default is the mark of the beast enforced.
People are so scared of the idea that they won’t be able to buy or sell, that they are focussing on the wrong thing : the mark of the beast. Instead, and this is what is so great about Sabbath, is that one learns how to survive without buying and selling. We need to learn to trust YHWH for His protection and survival. Not buying and selling is not the end of the world.. it is not worshipping YHWH as He declared since Creation.
These words are given at the beginning and the end of Revelation. Revelation 1:8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” and Revelation 22:13-14, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last. Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city.”
Click here to read more about previous posts on the Seal of YHWH.
666
Revelation 13:17-18 “who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666.”
The greek definition used for 666 is G5516 – chxϚ, is “six hundred and sixty six, the meaning of which is the basis of much vain speculation“… It is defined almost sarcastically, “much vain speculation”! The greek letters used are “χξϚ”, where the first letter is 600, then 60 and 6. The number 6, and what this verse says, it is “the number of a man” – points directly at the 6th day of Creation, the day Adam/Man was created. The 7th day, is the Sabbath day – YHWH’s Rest Day. This falls in line with this previous topic above, “Buy and Sell” and the mark of the beast vs. the Seal of YHWH (which relates to 7). In the post from 1 John 2 we talked about the “antichrist”, which in definition is anyone who is an adversary of the Messiah.
Looking at the numbers 666, many names and ideas have come forward, by trying to “calculate the number of the beast“. Like The pope’s title “Vicar of the Son of God” in Latin is Vicarius Filii Dei. When you add up the Roman numerals in this title, you get 666. Other names that also come up are Nero Caesar, the tyrannical Roman Emperor who ruled from 54 AD to 68 AD (during the time when these letters and Revelation was written).
At the end of the day, the bottom line is that whoever and whatever the 666 is, it has to do with Men, Man’s Will and Man’s Laws compared to YHWH, YHWH’s Will and YHWH’s Laws.
Matthew 7:23, “Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness!’“
Song of Moses and Lamb
Revelation 15:2, 3-4 “those who have the victory over the beast, over his image and over his mark and over the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass, having harps of God. They sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb”
Those who overcome the tribulation, and don’t have the mark of the beast – will sing the Song of Moses and the Lamb! Moses the Prophet, representing the Laws and Yeshua, representing the fulfillment of the Laws and Prophets.
Do you know the song of Moses? Do people even know that Moses had a song? When we starting the Bible Reading Program, we learned about Moses’ song back in Deuteronomy 32. At the end, Moses says the following, “Set your heart on all the words with which I gave you today, so that you command your children to guard to do all the Words of this Torah. For it is not a worthless Word for you, because it is your life, and by this Word you prolong your days on the soil which you pass over the Yardĕn to possess.”
These words we must learn, and teach our children – “it is your life”! Our survival depends on knowing the things Moses was teaching, and it is about YHWH – what He has done (the beginning) and what He will do (the end). Click here to read more about the post from Deuteronomy 32, and go print the song from that Chapter.
Revelation 15:3-4
“Great and marvelous are Your works,
YHWH Elohim Almighty!
Just and true are Your ways,
O King of the saints!
Who shall not fear You, O Adonai, and glorify Your name?
For You alone are holy.
For all nations shall come and worship before You,
For Your judgments have been manifested.”
7 Bowls of Plagues
Revelation 16:1 “Then I heard a loud voice from the temple saying to the seven angels, “Go and pour out the bowls of the wrath of God on the earth.””
Back in Exodus 7, Egypt experienced 10 plagues – and they were quite severe. Yet, it took 10 plagues at the end of the day, for Pharaoh to submit. But, after the Hebrews left.. it didn’t take long and Pharaoh regretted his choice and chased after the Hebrews, even until his own death. And that is the case all throughout Scripture, even until the end of time – the plagues, the curses, the exiles.. it is all of consequence of sin – but 99% of people will still refuse to admit their sins and have a change of heart.
The hebrew word for plague is H4046 – magēpâ, meaning really a “hard blow”, defeat, divine judgement. Here is the list of final judgements that will be poured out:
(from Revelation 16, verse:)
- 2 – loathsome sores upon the men who have the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image
- 3 – the sea as blood as of a dead man, and every living creature in the sea dies
- 4 – the rivers and springs of water, and they became blood
- 8 – the sun will scorch men with fire
- 10 – on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom became full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues because of the pain
- 12 – the great river Euphrates‘ water dry up, so that the way of the kings from the east might be prepared
- 18 – thunderings and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, .. The great city divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. Every island fled away, and the mountains were not found, and great hail from heaven fell upon men.
