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Revelation 13:16-18
And it causes all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free and the bondmen, that they should give them a mark upon their right hand or upon their foreheads and that no one should be able to buy or sell save he that had the mark, the name of the beast, or the number of its name.
Verses 16 and 17
In verse 16, there are the three distinction made: the small and great, the rich and poor, the free and bond. Could we have some help on these group? I also have a question with regard to the details of verse 17, them not being able to eat or to trade without a mark: is this more properly connected with Israel? To me, that this is the situation in which the so-called Lord's prayer will particularly come into its own, 'Give us this day our daily bread'.
As a very simple answer might be that in verse 16 it is an all embracive picture, small and great, rich and poor, free and bondmen. It would seem to indicate, surely, that the influence of this awful, deceptive system is going to be very widespread. Certainly these will be the days when the prayer will be relevant 'Give us this day our daily bread'. And that was why we noticed in previous readings the matter of the twelve hundred and sixty days. It will be a time of such pressure that the wise ones will know exactly how long it will last. And that will be a support for faith in circumstances where you do not know where tomorrow's meal is coming from. In a previous year we did notice that very interesting verse in Isaiah 7 where you get remarkable provision for the remnant in most extraordinary circumstances. You find in verse 21 at the time of the invasion of the Assyrians "that a man shall nourish a young cow and two sheep and it shall come to pass for the abundance of milk that they shall give that he shall eat butter for every one that remaineth in the midst of the land shalleat butter and honey." So that there are the opening up of extraordinary and unusual methods to supply the needs of the remnant in the days when the Beast and the antichrist are rampaging and holding their authority in the land.
But even so we can see to consider the mark of God. Here we have the marks of the Beast in the form of either the name or the number. In the word of God we have several marks of God. One of the first marks was put by the Lord on Cain in Genesis 4 "and the Lord set a mark upon Cain lest any finding him should kill him." And it is interesting to see that even Cain was a sinner, a murderer, nevertheless the first mark was upon Cain. Another mark of God we find that with the blood at the Passover which is put on the house and which is preserving also the faithful people of God. Another mark of God is found in Ezekiel 9. The Hebrew word/letter used there has the shape of the cross. This mark was put on the forehead of the faithful to free them of the judgement. And I would say also another mark of ownership of God on the believers is the seal of the Holy Ghost as received and clearly we are to think to bow to that in our whole life, our daily life, and our whole person: are we marked by the blood, are we marked by the Cross, are we marked by the seal of the Holy Ghost? This is very necessary that we bear all these markings clearly and that they reign with all power.
We have seen that the wording "the small and the great, the rich and the poor, the free and the bondmen" designates the whole people. Another aspect is that the responsibility to follow the Lord and not to follow the Beast is totally independent from the social condition. And it is also according to the world today we cannot say that because we are either rich or poor we have more or less the responsibility to follow the Lord. In this respect, we are all on the same level even though, as to our social condition, there might be differences which have other implications. Another aspect regarding the mark which is put on the forehead is this: we can have a look at Revelation 3, verse 12 where the command given to the faithful Philadelphian is: "I will write upon him the Name of My God, the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem which comes down out of heaven, from My God and My new Name." Basically we have three points: on this mark which is written by God upon the Philadelphian. One is the Name of my God. Is it totally clear for everybody around us that we belong to God and to nobody else? Second mark: the name of the city of my God which comes down out of heaven. It is our heavenly citizenship. Is it clear that we have a heavenly citizenship and not an earthly one? In this respect the characteristics of the mark of the Beast are quite the opposite. It is not the name of God, but the name of the beast. It is not the heavenly mark, but the mark of earthly citizenship. The mark of God in Revelation 3 is also connected with the glory, the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem which comes down out of heaven, chapter 21 is dealing with its glory. And here again, what kind of glory do we worship? Is the glory of God of the heaven or is it the glory of the world? And so clearly all these aspects of the mark of the Beast are totally opposite to what we should appreciate right now.
This matter of small and great occurs previously in chapter 11, verse 18 and we find it again in verse 5 of chapter 19 and it is those that fear the Lord, small and great. I was just wondering if perhaps the small and great have to do with those that fear the Lord. It just says, here He is causing them to do it, it does not say that they had actually got the name written on them, it was there to be written on them and perhaps small and great are those that do not accede to having the name written on them and they then form part of that company which are those that fear the Lord, both small and great.
The mark - or seal - stands for ownership: whose control is acknowledged.
Here is wisdom. He that has understanding let him count the number of the beast: for it is a man's number; and its number [is] six hundred [and] sixty-six.
verse 18
It was an important principle with which we closed the meeting this morning that the Lord ever retains to Himself the right to speak to His people. We have often been reminded that the last king, the last judge and the last prophet were all blind and in the example brought before us with Isaac, although he had lost four of his senses, still he discerned that the voice was the voice of Jacob. So that there are still with the Lord's people even in the darkest days not only the Lord's right to speak to His people but also a company who will hear what He has to say. In verse 18 we come to a statement which is worthy of our attention: "Here is wisdom". We will make no progress in our studies if we do not understand the place of wisdom in this section of God's word. In Daniel (12, verse 3) we learn that those who are wise will shine as the stars of the firmament and will turn many to righteousness, they that do know their God shall be strong and do exploits (Daniel 11, verse 32). This word 'wisdom' in verse 18 seems to open out a very important matter for us to get a hold of: God ever retains a remnant, a company who get the benefit of what He has to say. And as we proceed further in our chapters I think we will find that the remnant will come more and more to our attention.
In the epistle to the Corinthians the Lord Jesus is said to be made to us wisdom among other things. But here wisdom is spoken of in a more abstract sense.
We need wisdom as well. We have perhaps spent much time and effort trying to find the meaning of this number 666 at the end of this chapter. It is good that it starts by saying: "Here is wisdom". There will be those on earth, the remnant that we have been talking about, who will be given this wisdom. We may waste a lot of time trying to come to a conclusion as to what this is but there will be those who will surely know. The wise that we have been talking about at the end of Daniel, the Maschilim, the truly wise people, they will be given the secret of this number and we do not need to bother ourselves too much about knowing except we want wisdom, not to discern this number but we want wisdom to discern what is our portion and how we are to act in the days in which we live and there will be wisdom given if we ask for it. We are told to ask for wisdom and God will surely give us to do what is right by His glory in our day.
There is a very important point there in verse 15. It says (the second Beast) would cause those to die who would not worship the image of the Beast and I think we have got to see the challenge that is before us. Are we prepared, under pressure, to worship the Beast? When I was a young man we saw the trade unions, the political parties, the free masons, we were told all these things were the mark of the Beast, we were counselled as young men to stand apart from them and I do not want to speak out of turn but surely there is a challenge for us today, particularly for our young brethren, to stand apart from the things that relate to the Beast. They want to give us a moral application today, dearly beloved. We are called as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ to stand aloof from it. We may have to pay a price, as these dear ones there who would not take the mark of the Beast upon them, they paid with their lives.
There is some connection between this word 'wisdom' and the word 'mystery' that occurs so frequently in the New Testament. God makes known His mind to the initiated and the matter of wisdom, divine wisdom, is a preservative against man's wisdom. Should it be mentioned that there are degrees in this? I think the verses in Daniel suppose that there are degrees of wisdom. They that do know their God shall be strong and shall do exploits, they will teach others. So that there are degrees of wisdom amongst even the initiated and those who do have the wisdom are responsible to mediate what they have been given. So this word 'wisdom' opens up the positive side as a preservative to what our brother has been indicating on the negative side.
Our brother spoke about the Beast and about its moral effects. But then there is another aspect, not only that the Beast requires that homage should be given to him but there is also the side of our living: how we will get through in this world where you, if you do not have the mark of the Beast, you cannot sell and you cannot buy. So there will be a challenge as to sustenance in this world. So, on the one hand, we ask whether we are prepared not to worship the Beast because all worship should be to God. But then the challenge comes as to what relates to our sustenance in this world: are we going to say 'Well, we have to do these things because we have to live' or are we going to be prepared to be faithful to the Lord in these trying circumstances?
In general, 'knowledge' in Scripture means the proper understanding of the word of God whereas 'wisdom' means to apply the word of God properly to the circumstances or to see the circumstances with the eyes of God. This is true wisdom. And this will be a help to us regarding verse 18. It does not say here 'This is knowledge' but 'This is wisdom'. There have been many so far who have attempted to make some sense of this number, six hundred and sixty-six, but we need that only when the circumstances have arrived which are mentioned here, only then believers will have the wisdom and they will be much helped from this number. And hence it is therefore it says 'This is the wisdom' and not 'This is knowledge'.
There are different aspects to wisdom. There is the side of discerning, discerning where God is and discerning what the enemy is doing. But then in this verse after that statement, it says 'he that hath understanding let him count' so that there must be an aspect of wisdom which relates to understanding and we say we do not know what this number means or we cannot say what this number means but I wonder if that is correct because we get a clue as to what this number means in this very verse. It says 'A man's number'. 'Six' we are told is a man's number and here the number is six by three, six, six, six. We should move away from that which is connected with man to that which is connected with God. Now if we get back to the fundamentals, the death of our Lord Jesus removes man from before God, therefore we should not be reverting to that which is no longer before God. And this number is connected with that.
Now, concerning the number Six, six, six. I agree with our brother, we do not need to be afraid of it but I do not think we are. And I think we understand the significance of it. The difficulties arise when we try to identify the person and it is in a line there that we must not attempt to interpret Scripture in the light of history or in the light of topical circumstances. We interpret circumstances in the light of Scripture. One of the reasons why we cannot identify the person is that he has not yet been manifested. After we have gone, when the circumstances detailed in the chapter arise, then the identity of the person will be perfectly plain to those who suffer under him in that day because they do not accept his lordship over them.
Would you accept the statement that coming events cast their shadow before them? I raise it up because of the significance of six, six, six in the day in which we live. We are all becoming increasingly aware of the new age movement. Now, in the situation that it is man that is being pushed to the front and God has been moved to the back. Now, we know that the wise when they see this number will look up and say 'Our redemption draws near'. And I think if we look out on the world today and see these movements that are pushing man into the front and excluding God increasingly we likewise can say, even for the Church 'It won't be long before we go'. And I would just add one little point in this connection, a very delicate matter perhaps, when you come to what is called genetic engineering and man begins to interfere with the sphere where God's rights are supreme, I think we are getting very close to the end when it won't be long before the Lord is here. This matter of six, six, six I think is very much before us in the world situation in which we are living.
Is there some particular importance that it is in the right hand and upon the forehead, this mark of the Beast?
The forehead everybody can see, the right hand you might be able to cover up. But whether it is visible or invisible it is the heart that matters.
So you have that which cannot be hidden and you have that which is insidious and the second, the latter, is much more dangerous and we need to guard against it, even amongst ourselves, as to whether there is that kind of insidious activity which has the effect of undermining the word of God and at the same time having a show of what is right.
We understand Scripture by comparing Scripture with Scripture. We do have a reference to the number six, six, six in 1.Kings 10:14. Now, are we correct in looking at this Scripture or do we say that because the word written out in 1.Kings was here according to the received text, it is the numerical value, we would be in error to compare the two. It refers to the revenue that King Solomon received. Now, we have been told that in that context we would apply the number to the falling short of the glory which nations will give to Christ in the millennial reign. Now, I do not know whether it is helpful to compare these two Scriptures or whether we can say they should not be linked.
There is another reference to this number in Ezra2:13, the children of Adonikam, six hundred and sixty-six.
Now I ask you, have you done any work on the meaning of Adonikam?
Well, the only one I referred to told me it meant 'The Lord rises'. So that may signify the character of antichrist who rises to a prominent position.
Well, I think the fact that it is taken up by an Israelite indicates that the Lord is rising up on their behalf. Now, let me try and explain. Babylon was coming under judgement. Babylon did not think so but the instructed ones like Jeremiah knew that the captivity would only last seventy years. And this word, Adonikam, might suggest that the Lord would arise in connection with leading His people out of Babylon. And six, six, six might be a reminder of the fact that already there were those in Babylon who realised that Babylon was going to come under judgement. And the recovery, of course, is seen in recovery under Ezra and Nehemiah. Now, we have been well taught in our meetings never to build an edifice on such a shaky foundation and I think we have to be careful to follow what Darby says 'I do not like novel explanations of Scripture'. But I think we can see the plain teaching that certainly Babylon is going to come under judgement. Man's day is going to come under judgement and our wisdom is to get away from it as far and as quickly as we can.
We do get these numbers also in relation to Babylon in Daniel where we have the image of Nebuchadnezzar which was sixty cubits and also at the sound of six instruments they had to bow down and worship and that seems to be a moral feature of Gentile power to enforce unity of worship. This is what we have here: it would appear to be unity of worship. So whilst we want to be unspotted from the world, the world is a vast integrated system and these verses speak about that really because, it says he causes all, the pressure is upon all, not one is exempt from any of these groups. The world cannot protect a man from it nor even imagined democratic liberties. Whatever situation he finds himself in he will be under pressure to comply, not only in relation to religion but also commerce. So we have really a religio-socio-political commercial system before us and I think it is that system which is termed the Beast and we are heading up for its full manifestation. But already it is a rising progress of evil which has universal tentacles. We want to be aware that when a Christian's been separated from the world he has to take a very distinct position from all that is contrary to the word and mind of God.
