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Revelation 13
16 He causes all, the small and the great, the rich and the poor, and the free and the slave, to be given marks on their right hands, or on their foreheads; 17 and that no one would be able to buy or to sell, unless he has that mark, the name of the beast or the number of his name. 18 Here is wisdom. He who has understanding, let him calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. His number is six hundred sixty-six.
on their right hands
In Hebrew the hand signifies authority, and the right hand symbolizes exercise of one's highest authority. When a person complies with demands, even if they don't agree or believe in them, that acquiescence is effectively surrender of their authority to whomever they choose to submit.
Don't you know that to whom you present yourselves as servants to obedience, his servants you are whom you obey; whether of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness? (Romans 6:16)
Then Yahweh answered Job out of the whirlwind, "Now brace yourself like a man. I will question you, and you will answer me. Will you even annul my judgment? Will you condemn me, that you may be justified? Or do you have an arm like God? Can you thunder with a voice like him?
"Now deck yourself with excellency and dignity. Array yourself with honor and majesty. Pour out the fury of your anger. Look at everyone who is proud, and bring him low. Look at everyone who is proud, and humble him. Crush the wicked in their place. Hide them in the dust together. Bind their faces in the hidden place. Then I will also admit to you that your own right hand can save you." (Job 40:6-14)
Do not miss what God is saying to Job here, or the subtle deception of the enemy can blind us to what God was seeking to communicate higher truth. Job's opinions about how God should do things were immature like many of ours, yet Job clung to his trust in God's heart despite the mass confusion all around and inside him. His presumptions about God's character were tainted with the subtle philosophies of good and evil. As with Job, God is challenging all of our views of Him and how He relates to the wicked. Job rehearsed similar opinions to ours, about how we assume evil must be dealt with if God ever expects to win this war and bring a final end to the reign of evil in the universe. The opinions of Job and even his three friends have been continued to be shared by many of God's children throughout history, yet it does not mean they are true simply because Bible heroes like Job and David believed or practiced them. It simply means we need to pay even closer attention to the truth that Jesus brings to light, and that is what God was conveying in His dialog with Job. We must not overlook this.
God said Job was seeking to annul God's judgment by condemning God in order to justify himself. God then goes on to rehearse Job's presumptions that sound the same as many people have today, about what God should do to bring an end to evil. The burning question of Job was why bad things happen to people who don't deserve them, yet what he failed to perceive, and so many of us continue to misread, was the false premise driving the question itself. God does not relate to His children according to the earning deserving system, and that is what is so important for all of us to appreciate. The real truth will set us free from the doubts, fears and misapprehensions that continue to trap us in the darkness of superstition.
Keep in mind that God was not angry or upset with Job. Quite the opposite, God actually called Job a hero. But He wanted Job, and everyone reading this story with an ear to hear, to learn how to respond rather than react to circumstances that seem convoluted and make God appear to be dark and sinister. Job was reacting to tragedies happening in his life much like many might react (though not as bad as his 'friends' seemed to perceive things). Yet too often many of us fail to turn our attention immediately to seek God's face and perspective in times of calamity. But when we do we may receive light to discover truths that can radically alter how we perceive reality when we learn to view things from the much larger perspective of heaven's vantage point rather than our narrow experience and emotions. This is true responsibility – learning to grow our ability to respond instead of react.
Look closely at the kind of God He describes here, but keep in mind that God is challenging the validity of this view of Himself rather than endorsing Job's reactionary views about Him.
An arm like God (Job believes God needs to flex His muscles more that He appears to do).
Thunder with a voice (God needs to be more forceful in stopping evil).
God decks Himself with excellency and dignity (this reflects the spirit of Lucifer, not God).
God arrays Himself with honor and majesty (He doesn't need to because these are inherent).
Pour out fury of anger (intimidation and use of fear to manipulate and control others).
Bring low and humble the proud simply with a stare (shaming, threats and intimidation).
Crush the wicked (use brute force to defeat evil, what Satan insists is true about God).
Hide the wicked and proud in the dust and bind their faces (humiliating punishment).
After listing the methods many imagine are necessary for God to regain control and exert raw power to achieve advantage over evildoers, God declares that if someone can prove that such high-handed methods are actually effective (as so may widely insist they are), then He would be willing to admit that our version of justice, our right hand use of power is the right way to save us, implying that God is the one who is wrong. But the truth is that these methods are never effective in the long run which is why God does not rely on them to overcome evil. God relies on kindness, graciousness, humility and forgiveness which is how good overcomes evil and repentance is induced in hearts softened by love and grace.
Such dark views of God are behind the methods and activities of these beasts and their image, for they all originate with the dragon who is the origin of such ideas and uses of power. These methods are what most people believe are indispensable to maintain control and keep evil in check. This is what we have long assumed is meant by the right hand of power, yet power as defined by the enemies of the Lamb is used to balance both good and evil through enticements of reward along with use of severe punishments for noncompliance as the means by which social order is maintained.
To receive the mark on the right hand involves perceiving God as using power to intimidate and crush evil by force whenever necessary. This is very popular among many today, yet it betrays the influence of paganism that permeates most all religions. It directly contradicts the revelation of God in Jesus Christ, represented as a non-violent Lamb who alone can effectively take away the sins of the world without ever resorting to Satan's tactics, methods or motives.
You let your mouth loose in evil and your tongue frames deceit. You sit and speak against your brother; you slander your own mother's son. These things you have done and I kept silence; you thought that I was just like you; I will reprove you and state the case in order before your eyes. (Psalms 50:19-21 NAS95)
I will wash my hands in innocence, so I will go about your altar, Yahweh; that I may make the voice of thanksgiving to be heard, and tell of all your wondrous works. Yahweh, I love the habitation of your house, the place where your glory dwells. Don't gather my soul with sinners, nor my life with bloodthirsty men; in whose hands is wickedness, their right hand is full of bribes. But as for me, I will walk in my integrity. Redeem me, and be merciful to me. (Psalms 26:6-11)
Notice the contrast between these two views. To walk in integrity and innocence is to give voice to thanksgiving and broadcast the wondrous works of God. It is to dwell where God's glory dwells and embrace the redemption accomplished for us and to rest in God's mercy. This is in stark contrast with wickedness which is rooted in false ideas about what is needed is to placate God's wrath with sufficient payments to buy Him off with bribery. Bribery is is implied in most theology circulating today, yet many cannot see that penal substitution is nothing less than bribery, buying God off, satisfaction of a beastly demand for punishment purported to originate in His Law.
How shall I come before Yahweh, and bow myself before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will Yahweh be pleased with thousands of rams? With tens of thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my disobedience? The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has shown you, O man, what is good. What does Yahweh require of you, but to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:6-8)
You had no pleasure in whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin. Then I said, 'Behold, I have come (in the scroll of the book it is written of me) to do your will, O God.' (Hebrews 10:6-7)
"This is the covenant that I will make with them: 'After those days,' says the Lord, 'I will put my laws on their heart, I will also write them on their mind;'" then he says, "I will remember their sins and their iniquities no more." Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. (Hebrews 10:16-18)
Stretch out your hand from above, rescue me, and deliver me out of great waters, out of the hands of foreigners; whose mouths speak deceit, Whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood.
I will sing a new song to you, God. On a ten-stringed lyre, I will sing praises to you. You are he who gives salvation to kings, who rescues David, his servant, from the deadly sword. Rescue me, and deliver me out of the hands of foreigners, whose mouths speak deceit, whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood. (Psalms 144:7-11)
This next passage is an important parallel to what we are learning about this image to the beast who compels its mark to be implanted on everyone's right hand or forehead.
Everyone who makes an engraved image is vain. The things that they delight in will not profit. Their own witnesses don't see, nor know, that they may be disappointed. Who has fashioned a god, or molds an image that is profitable for nothing? Behold, all his fellows will be disappointed; and the workmen are mere men. Let them all be gathered together. Let them stand up. They will fear. They will be put to shame together.
The blacksmith takes an axe, works in the coals, fashions it with hammers, and works it with his strong arm. He is hungry, and his strength fails; he drinks no water, and is faint.
The carpenter stretches out a line. He marks it out with a pencil. He shapes it with planes. He marks it out with compasses, and shapes it like the figure of a man, with the beauty of a man, to reside in a house. He cuts down cedars for himself, and takes the cypress and the oak, and strengthens for himself one among the trees of the forest. He plants a fir tree, and the rain nourishes it. Then it will be for a man to burn; and he takes some of it, and warms himself. Yes, he burns it, and bakes bread. Yes, he makes a god, and worships it; he makes it an engraved image, and falls down to it.
He burns part of it in the fire. With part of it, he eats meat. He roasts a roast, and is satisfied. Yes, he warms himself, and says, "Aha! I am warm. I have seen the fire." The rest of it he makes into a god, even his engraved image. He bows down to it and worships, and prays to it, and says, "Deliver me; for you are my god!"
They don't know, neither do they consider: for he has shut their eyes, that they can't see; and their hearts, that they can't understand. No one thinks, neither is there knowledge nor understanding to say, "I have burned part of it in the fire. Yes, I have also baked bread on its coals. I have roasted meat and eaten it. Shall I make the rest of it into an abomination? Shall I bow down to a tree trunk?"
He feeds on ashes. A deceived heart has turned him aside; and he can't deliver his soul, nor say, "Isn't there a lie in my right hand?"
Remember these things, Jacob and Israel; for you are my servant. I have formed you. You are my servant. Israel, you will not be forgotten by me. I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, your transgressions, and, as a cloud, your sins. Return to me, for I have redeemed you.
Sing, you heavens, for Yahweh has done it! Shout, you lower parts of the earth! Break out into singing, you mountains, O forest, all of your trees, for Yahweh has redeemed Jacob, and will glorify himself in Israel. Thus says Yahweh, your Redeemer, and he who formed you from the womb: "I am Yahweh, who makes all things; who alone stretches out the heavens; who spreads out the earth by myself; (Isaiah 44:9-24)
He showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of Yahweh, and Satan standing at his right hand to be his adversary. Yahweh said to Satan, "Yahweh rebuke you, Satan! Yes, Yahweh who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Isn't this a burning stick plucked out of the fire?" (Zechariah 3:1-2)
The word Satan literally means accuser as clearly stated in chapter 12 where the devil, the dragon is clearly identified as the one who accuses day and night. Accusing originated with Satan, and it involves a diabolical twist of a principle that brings death out what was designed to be life-giving. The principle that accusing misrepresents is the way in which God rebukes. God never condemns or accuses, but at times rebukes are necessary to warn people to bring them an awareness of serious danger or to confront those who are abusing and exploiting other vulnerable children of God.
Here we see Satan strategically positioning himself at the right hand of God, the symbolic position of God's authority. From that vantage point he accuses, prosecutes, is an adversary, an antagonist. Such a spirit is not of God, for it is foreign to His nature of agape love. Love does rebuke when needed, but is never like the spirit of Satan who brings confusion, darkness, shame and fear.
If your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off, and throw it away from you. For it is more profitable for you that one of your members should perish, than for your whole body to be cast into Gehenna. (Matthew 5:30)
It also happened on another Sabbath that he entered into the synagogue and taught. There was a man there, and his right hand was withered. The scribes and the Pharisees watched him, to see whether he would heal on the Sabbath, that they might find an accusation against him. (Luke 6:6-7)
It is helpful to contrast this abuse of the right hand with the truth about God's use of His right hand. There are so many passages mentioning God's right hand that we will just look at a sampling in order to contrast the true nature and purpose for this mark being applied to our 'right hand.' Here is a summary of verses showing how God uses His right hand with only references instead of the full text for each one.
Jesus uses His right hand to raise us up or dispel our fears (Rev. 1:17)
Jesus holds 7 stars in His right hand representing all who follow Him (Rev. 1:20; 2:1)
God was left holding a sealed scroll in His right hand later taken by the Lamb (Rev. 5:1,7)
The right hand is raised as part of swearing an oath (Rev. 10:5-6; Isaiah 62:8)
In passing on the generational blessing, the right hand showed priority or favor above others (Genesis 48:13-14,17-18; Psalms 45:9)
The right hand symbolizes superior power and salvation (Exodus 15:6,12; Psalms 17:7; 18:35; 20:6; 21:8; 44:3; 45:4; 60:5; 74:11; 80:15,17; 89:13,25; 98:1; 108:6; 109:31; 110:5; 118:15-16; 138:7)
Having God at our right hand brings security and pleasure (Psalms 16:8,11; 63:8; 73:23; 121:5; 139:10; Prov. 3:16; Ecl. 10:2; Song. 2:6; Acts 2:25)
Who or what is at God's right hand has greatest authority (Psalms 77:10; 110:1; Mt. 22:44; 26:64; Mr. 12:36; 14:62; 16:19; Luke 20:42; 22:69; Acts 2:33-34; 5:31; 7:55-56; Rom. 8:34; Eph. 1:20; Col. 3:1; Hebrews 1:3,13; 8:1; 10:12; 12:2; 1 Peter 3:22)
As is your name, God, so is your praise to the ends of the earth. Your right hand is full of righteousness. (Psalms 48:10)
Don't you be afraid, for I am with you. Don't be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you. Yes, I will uphold you with the right hand of my righteousness. (Isaiah 41:10)
Here is another helpful passage that may relate to this compulsive mark on the right hand.
"Woe to him who gives his neighbor drink, pouring your inflaming wine until they are drunk, so that you may gaze at their naked bodies! You are filled with shame, and not glory.
You will also drink, and be exposed! The cup of Yahweh's right hand will come around to you, and disgrace will cover your glory. For the violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you, and the destruction of the animals, which made them afraid; because of men's blood, and for the violence done to the land, to every city and to those who dwell in them.
"What value does the engraved image have, that its maker has engraved it; the molten image, even the teacher of lies, that he who fashions its form trusts in it, to make mute idols? Woe to him who says to the wood, 'Awake!' or to the mute stone, 'Arise!' Shall this teach? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in the midst of it. But Yahweh is in his holy temple. Let all the earth be silent before him!" (Habakkuk 2:15-20)
After reviewing significant verses referring to the right hand of God, keep in mind that humans are designed to reflect God's image and become like Him. So it makes sense that this mark by God's arch-enemies targets the symbol of God's power and authority on the right hand. In other words, the enemy intends to hijack the authority of the right hand of every reflector of God to implant his own identity so that his version of authority is what they reflect, his image and the disposition of his beasts displaces the image of the original Creator. This is the ultimate defacing of the image of our true Creator in the very beings designed to reflect Him best.
Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and traded the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of an image of corruptible man, and of birds, and four-footed animals, and creeping things. Therefore God also gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to uncleanness, that their bodies should be dishonored among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. (Romans 1:22-25)
on their foreheads
God's image is designed to be primarily reflected from the prefrontal cortex which is the creative and imaginative part of our brain. Thus the mark of Satan implanted in that location is clearly designed to deface the image of God in humanity and replace it with the face of evil. By this means Satan's objective is achieved, for by distorting the reflection of God's glory and character in the ones best designed to reflect what is hidden in the mystery of where God exists, Satan can point to His mirrors designed to reflect His heart, now emanating reflections of evil, and legitimately boast that his initial slander about God's true character is vindicated as true after all.
This creates a difficult argument to refute. The evidence is from mirrors designed to reflect what is invisible! No created being has ever seen God, so His character, disposition and motives have to come out in other ways. We saw this in chapter 12 in the war involving Satan and Michael. Satan asserted God is a mixture of good and evil, light and darkness, relying on enticements of reward linked with threats of punishment to control His subjects. These allegations about God undergird his entire trading and balance scale system. This goes to the very heart of how reality is perceived, how social order should be maintained, how peace and harmony can be effectively sustained.
Until this issue is settled unequivocally, evil cannot be defeated or eliminated effectively from the universe. The methods and motives of God in defeating evil is the key issue central to vindicating His reputation. This truth alone effectively exposes the true nature of evil and neutralizes it. And there can be no residual doubts left over that could potentially reinfect the universe again.
Another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a great voice, "If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives a mark on his forehead, or on his hand, he also will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is prepared unmixed in the cup of his anger. He will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb. (Revelation 14:9-10)
We will look at this much closer in future studies, but notice that this is describing cause and effect, not inflicted punishment imposed by God. The torment is an unavoidable reaction to exposure to the presence of those filled with the passionate love of God, not the location where forced punishment is administered as so many assume.
I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them. I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus, and for the word of God, and such as didn't worship the beast nor his image, and didn't receive the mark on their forehead and on their hand. They lived, and reigned with Christ for the thousand years. (Revelation 20:4)
The word translated judgment here comes from a root word meaning discernment, ability to make right decisions. Never confuse this with our distorted ideas about passing judgment on others like we do here on earth. This is not about soliciting saints to figure out how much punishment sinners deserve, but rather utilizing their matured judgment, their ability to think and discern like God does, so they can perceive the real issues involved beneath the surface appearance. This is about being given advanced capacity of perception that is in sympathy with how God clearly sees everything.
The following passages are examples of how the forehead and the face exhibit motives, expressing the emotions and inward feelings driving the behavior a person.
Then Uzziah was angry; and he had a censer in his hand to burn incense; and while he was angry with the priests, the leprosy broke forth in his forehead before the priests in the house of Yahweh, beside the altar of incense. Azariah the chief priest, and all the priests, looked on him, and behold, he was leprous in his forehead, and they thrust him out quickly from there; yes, himself hurried also to go out, because Yahweh had struck him. (2 Chronicles 26:19-20)
Hear you this, house of Jacob, who are called by the name of Israel, and are come forth out of the waters of Judah; who swear by the name of Yahweh, and make mention of the God of Israel, but not in truth, nor in righteousness (for they call themselves of the holy city, and stay themselves on the God of Israel; Yahweh of Armies is his name): I have declared the former things from of old; yes, they went forth out of my mouth, and I shown them: suddenly I did them, and they happened. Because I knew that you are obstinate, and your neck is an iron sinew, and your brow brass; therefore I have declared it to you from of old; before it came to pass I shown it you; lest you should say, My idol has done them, and my engraved image, and my molten image, has commanded them. (Isaiah 48:1-5)
These referred to anger and hardness being expressed on the forehead. Here are verses referring to how the forehead can display a spirit of prostitution, something closer to home than we might think.
The look of their faces testify against them. They parade their sin like Sodom. They don't hide it. Woe to their soul! For they have brought disaster upon themselves. (Isaiah 3:9)
They say, If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another man's, will he return to her again? Won't that land be greatly polluted? But you have played the prostitute with many lovers; yet return again to me, says Yahweh. Lift up your eyes to the bare heights, and see; where have you not been lain with? By the ways have you sat for them, as an Arabian in the wilderness; and you have polluted the land with your prostitution and with your wickedness. Therefore the showers have been withheld, and there has been no latter rain; yet you have a prostitute's forehead, you refused to be ashamed. Will you not from this time cry to me, My Father, you are the guide of my youth? Will he retain his anger forever? will he keep it to the end? Behold, you have spoken and have done evil things, and have had your way. (Jeremiah 3:1-5)
When Balaam saw that it pleased Yahweh to bless Israel, he didn't go, as at the other times, to meet with enchantments, but he set his face toward the wilderness. (Numbers 24:1)
The story of Balaam is strange indeed, but helpful in ways to understand the nature of this mark implanted into the forehead. From the outset of his story it becomes clear that in spite of the fact that Balaam was a prophet of the true God, the same God who brought Israel out of Egypt into the wilderness to be a special people to reflect His character to the world, Balaam's craving for power, recognition and lust for wealth continually caused him to look for every way possible to leverage both sides for his own advantage. He wanted to keep his reputation in tact as being a messenger of heaven, yet at the same time gratify his greed and pride. This led him to compromise and circumvent clear instructions given him by God without outright rebutting them.
The passage above comes in the narrative after two failed attempts by Balaam to cast a curse upon unsuspecting Israel in order to win massive payoffs on the part of Balak king of Moab who felt threatened by the encroaching presence of these people. This is clearly spiritual warfare, something extremely relevant to what we are studying here right now. Because it had become clear to Balaam that attempting to invoke a curse on Israel through the normal means of offering sacrifices was not possible, Balaam appears to be trying a different venue in hopes that maybe he can somehow invoke a curse from God on Israel some other way so he could achieve his goal of accessing the rich rewards being offered to him by Balak. In essence, both Balak and Balaam were attempting to bribe God.
Much to his frustration, and leading to a furious reaction on the part of Balak, this third attempt to curse Israel from another direction only led to even greater insights of blessing, including a famous prophecy about a coming Messiah who would defeat and overturn the plots of several nations arrayed against His people. Yet throughout all this, what was clear is that Balaam's disposition and heart was not right with God, for he was set on manipulating God for personal gain by any means possible.
Contrast this disposition of Balaam setting his face toward the wilderness with the spirit of the One who was the true revelation of God's disposition, the One unwillingly prophesied about by Balaam.
It came to pass, when the days were near that he should be taken up, he intently set his face to go to Jerusalem, and sent messengers before his face.... (Luke 9:51-52)
For the Lord Yahweh will help me; therefore I have not been confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be disappointed. (Isaiah 50:7)
Behold, I have made your face hard against their faces, and your forehead hard against their foreheads. As an adamant harder than flint have I made your forehead: don't be afraid of them, neither be dismayed at their looks, though they are a rebellious house. (Ezekiel 3:8-9)
Finally we come to passages that symbolize how God wants to mark the forehead of all who are willing to cooperate with His design for restoring His likeness in the forehead of His children.
"You shall make a plate of pure gold, and engrave on it, like the engravings of a signet, 'HOLY TO YAHWEH.' You shall put it on a lace of blue, and it shall be on the sash; on the front of the sash it shall be. It shall be on Aaron's forehead, and Aaron shall bear the iniquity of the holy things, which the children of Israel shall make holy in all their holy gifts; and it shall be always on his forehead, that they may be accepted before Yahweh. (Exodus 28:36-38)
They made the plate of the holy crown of pure gold, and wrote on it a writing, like the engravings of a signet: "HOLY TO YAHWEH." They tied to it a lace of blue, to fasten it on the turban above, as Yahweh commanded Moses. (Exodus 39:30-31)
I saw another angel ascend from the sunrise, having the seal of the living God. He cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was given to harm the earth and the sea, saying, "Don't harm the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, until we have sealed the bondservants of our God on their foreheads!" (Revelation 7:2-3)
I saw, and behold, the Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with him a number, one hundred forty-four thousand, having his name, and the name of his Father, written on their foreheads. (Revelation 14:1)
There will be no curse any more. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. (Revelation 22:3-4)
In summary, the image of God was the original plan for all humanity to reflect and most clearly through the expressions of joy seen in their faces and embodied in their creative brains located right behind their foreheads. This image was never designed to involve force, fear, coercion or anything similar, for the glory of God is found in the love, joy and freedom so His reflectors could enjoy the infinite capacity to grow and develop and expand their joy and intimacy for all eternity. This is a heart relationship, intense admiration and reflecting of God's heart. This joy and freedom to live transparent and vulnerable, free of all fear or shame is the very thing the enemy hates most, so it is no surprise that in the end it is the primary target to deface the glory of God in His reflectors.
