Revelation 13:16-18 “And the second beast required all people small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their forehead, so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark—the name of the beast or the number of its name. Here is a call for wisdom: Let the one who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and that number is 666.”

In the vision, those worshiping Caesar had marks on their right hands and on their foreheads. Barclay comments, “This mark is another of the grim parodies which occur in this chapter; it is a parody of a sacred Jewish custom. When a Jew prayed, he wore phylacteries on his left arm and on his forehead. They were little leather boxes with little scrolls of parchment inside them on which were written key scriptures from the Torah.”

Marks and tattoos of various kinds were commonly used in the Roman Empire in a variety of ways. Again, Barclay comments, “The word for the mark of the beast is charagma, and it could come from more than one ancient custom.

(i) Sometimes domestic slaves were branded with the mark of their owner. But usually they were branded only if they had run away or had been guilty of some grave misdemeanor. Such a mark was called a stigma; we still use the word in English. If the mark is connected with this, it means that those who worship the beast are his property.

(ii) Sometimes soldiers branded themselves with the name of their general, if they were very devoted to him. This, to some extent, corresponds to the modern custom of tattooing upon one’s person the name of someone specially dear. If the mark is connected with this, it means that those who worship the beast are his devoted followers.

(iii) On every contract of buying or selling there was a charagma, a seal, and on the seal the name of the emperor and the date. If the mark is connected with this, it means that those who worship the beast accept his authority.

(iv) All coinage had the head and inscription of the emperor stamped upon it, to show that it was his property. If the mark is connected with this, it again means that those who bear it are the property of the beast.

(v) When a man had burned his pinch of incense to Caesar, he was given a certificate to say that he had done so. The mark of the beast may be the certificate of worship, which a Christian could obtain only at the cost of denying his faith.

 What form will the mark of the beast take in this present age? Chips or other implants would be very simple and the technology has existed for years. There might be other even more subtle forms of marking and tracking with GPS technology. The question will be the same as it was for the ancient Christians: will we be faithful to the death?

What can be said about the number representing the Beast? Theologians and philosophers have struggled with this for years, coming up with all kinds of codes. Using one numbering system, the Hebrew letters for Nero Caesar add up to 666. Does this mean that Nero will be reborn? Nero was a horribly evil man and was obviously inspired by Satan. Whether or not Nero himself were to return, the import of this statement is that someone every bit as evil as Nero will appear.

J.R.R. Tolkien, the author of The Lord of the Rings was a devout Catholic who truly believed in Jesus Christ. At one point in the story when things look particularly bleak, Frodo and Gandalf the magician are talking.

 “I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo. “

“So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

Nobody is anxious to live during the time when the two beasts and the dragon appear and people are forced to take the mark of the beast or to die painful deaths. But we have no choice about that. What we can choose to do is to follow Jesus Christ as faithfully as possible and to beg God to help us so that we will be found faithful, no matter what.

PRAYER Father God, thank you for loving us! Thank you for sending Jesus to die for our sins and to set us free from Satan’s bondage. Lord, help us to follow hard after you all the days of our lives and to love you more each day than we did the day before. Help us to be faithful, no matter the circumstances. In the mighty Name of King Jesus. Amen.

Luke 2: ⁸ And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. ⁹ An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. ¹⁰ But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. ¹¹ Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. ¹² This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” ¹³ Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, ¹⁴ “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

¹⁵ When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.” ¹⁶ So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. ¹⁷ When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, ¹⁸ and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. ¹⁹ But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. ²⁰ The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.”

Sheep are really stupid and stubborn! Give a sheep any chance at all, and before you know it, the sheep will have wandered off following the next attractive clump of grass. There’s a meme that has appeared on Facebook showing a sheep standing on a small rock that is caught between two cliffs with a chasm below. When the Bible refers to us as sheep, it’s no complement! And sheep stink! There is a particular odor to the lanolin that comes off the wool of a live sheep. That stinky lanolin plus the grease from the sheep’s wool will come off on anybody who touches the sheep. What would shepherds who had to work with sheep and sometimes carry them smell like? And given the fact that there might not be a great deal of water out in a pasture, bathing might not have been a priority for shepherds either.

While the Scriptures may have spoken of King David as having begun as a shepherd and of the Messiah as feeding His flock like a shepherd, the religious leaders of Israel wanted nothing to do with real shepherds. Shepherds were low – class and poorly educated. Watching sheep leaves little time to study Torah. It’s likely that the Bethlehem shepherds had started as children and that herding sheep and goats was the only thing they really knew. And yet, here is the miracle, the mystery, the wonder of it! God sent angels to these shepherds! Angels! And moreover, the shepherds joyfully received the message the angels brought and obeyed immediately. When Zechariah, an educated priest, met the Angel Gabriel, Zechariah refused to believe the message and had to suffer as a mute for 9 months. But the shepherds had no such problem; they believed and acted instantly. What made the difference?

Shepherds lived outside much of the time, in all kinds of weather. Being a shepherd meant adjusting to whatever natural conditions prevailed and accepting the way sheep would behave. Meanwhile, the religious leaders had reached the point where they had everything dissected, cut, dried, itemized, and parsed. It’s possible that even had angels appeared in the temple, the religious leaders would not have recognized them but would have merely thought that there was an unusual amount of light for some reason. Later when Jesus was baptized and God said, “This is my beloved Son,” some people only heard thunder. Elizabeth Barrett Browning once wrote, ““Earth’s crammed with heaven, and every common bush afire with God, but only he who sees takes off his shoes; The rest sit round and pluck blackberries.”

Today, God wants to send you joy! But are you willing to receive that joy? We are never told of the problems the shepherds were facing. We know nothing about their poor pay or their difficult living conditions. All we are told is that the shepherds received the angels gladly, they obeyed and found the Baby Jesus, and they told others. May God give each of us spiritual eyes to see the joy set before us!

PRAYER: Father, today we ask that you will help each one of us to stop wallowing in our problems and to see the joy that you want to give us. Thank you that you are going to give us special tokens of your love and care! Help us to recognize the common bushes aflame with God and take off our shoes in reverence and awe. Amen.

Luke 2:7 “And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.”

John 16:21 “A woman, when she is in labor, has sorrow because her hour has come; but as soon as she has given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world.”

Although I had good training in obstetrics as a medical student, I really learned midwifery in the middle of the Northern Ethnic Conflict of 1994. With no midwives available, I had to brush up on midwifery very quickly! Fortunately, the late Tani Alhassan had trained as a midwife. Tani would watch the pregnant ladies and do simple deliveries while I would handle the more complicated OB. With no electricity in Saboba, we had to use kerosene lanterns or flashlights (electric torches) for light for deliveries. When Bob was finally able to rig up a 12 – volt light for us that ran off a car battery, we thought we were in heaven! Over the years, I have probably delivered hundreds of babies. Two years ago, I had to do a delivery in the dark just outside our Children’s Ward because the poor lady couldn’t make it the last 50 meters to the Maternity ward. (I slid a rubber apron under the lady’s bottom and delivered the baby and placenta and then had to pinch the umbilical cord while our nurses came running to help. Mother and baby did fine.)

In each case, once the baby was delivered, the mothers were relieved and thrilled to have a healthy newborn baby. Many people have written about the Virgin Mary and what it must have been like for her to have to give birth away from home with no women to assist her or to perform the normal rituals. Ezekiel 16:4 describes the rituals surrounding a birth; newborn babies were rubbed with salt. “As for your nativity, on the day you were born your navel cord was not cut, nor were you washed in water to cleanse you; you were not rubbed with salt nor wrapped in swaddling cloths.”

Mary may not have had much water to wash the Baby Jesus, and there is no mention made of salt, so she might have had to settle for wrapping Him in swaddling cloths alone. But these cloths had an additional significance.

Have you ever wondered about “swaddling clothes”? Everyone knows that Jesus was born in a manger, and the 2nd chapter of the gospel of Luke says that he was wrapped in “swaddling clothes” and laid in a manger. In fact, even hospitals today use a cloth that they call a “swaddling” cloth. Unfortunately, it’s a misnomer that will soon be over 2,000 years old, because “swaddling clothes” have nothing to do with a child being born!

In the Middle East, people traveling long distances were often met with many hardships and trials on their journeys. In the event of a death in travel, the body could not continue to be transported for many days. For that reason, travelers wrapped a thin, gauzelike cloth around their waist many times. If someone died on the journey, the others would use this cloth, referred to as “swaddling clothes” to wrap the corpse in before burying them.

When Jesus was born, there was no room in the Inn, and so Mary and Joseph used a nearby stable for Jesus’ birth. With no other cloth to use, Jesus was wrapped in Joseph’s “swaddling clothes” – the cloth normally reserved for a person’s death. The King of Kings and Lord of Lords came into this world in a lowly manger and was wrapped with burial clothes – in truth, He was born to die. To die for the sins of all mankind. Source:https://christianity.stackexchange.com/questions/12197/what-is-significant-about-the-swaddling-clothes-with-which-jesus-was-wrapped-as

Many times, we must suffer before we can rejoice, but we must keep looking upwards. Discouragement is of the Devil, and it is so easy to become discouraged! Take heart! Even now, God is moving in your situation. Trust and look for signs of His working.

PRAYER: Father, thank you that even though we may have to endure pain, there will be joy at the end! And thank you that the King of Heaven and Earth was not born in luxurious surroundings, but in the lowliest place possible. And because Jesus came to live and die and rise again, some day we will have “joy unspeakable and full of glory.” Amen.

Revelation 13:11- 15 “Then I saw another beast rising out of the earth. This beast had two horns like a lamb, but spoke like a dragon. And this beast exercised all the authority of the first beast and caused the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose mortal wound had been healed. And the second beast performed great signs to cause even fire from heaven to come down to earth in the presence of the people. Because of the signs it was given to perform on behalf of the first beast, it deceived those who dwell on the earth, telling them to make an image to the beast that had been wounded by the sword and yet had lived. The second beast was permitted to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that the image could speak and cause all who refused to worship it to be killed.“

As if things weren’t scary enough, now there is a second beast reinforcing the power of the first beast. What’s going on? These visions frequently work on several different levels. How would John have viewed this vision? How might we view it? At the time of John, the Roman Empire was the greatest political power on earth and the Caesars had declared themselves gods. There was even a legend that the Emperor Nero would rise from the dead. Considering the Roman Empire as the first beast, Barclay suggests that the second beast is actually the organization that was set up to enforce Caesar worship throughout the Empire.

Barclay comments about this power:

(i) It produces signs and wonders, such as fire from heaven; it brings it about that the image of the beast should speak. Everywhere there were statues of the emperor in the presence of which the official act of worship was carried out. In all ancient religions the priests knew how to produce signs and wonders; they knew well how to produce the effect of a speaking image. Pharaoh had had his magicians in the time of Moses, and the imperial priesthood had its experts in conjuring tricks and ventriloquism and the like.

In Revelation 13:11 there is a curious phrase. This beast from the land is said to have two horns like a lamb; that is, it is a grim parody of the Lamb in the Christian sense of the term. But it is also said to speak like a dragon. It is just possible that that last phrase should be that” it spoke like the serpent.” The reference would then be to the serpent who seduced Eve in the Garden of Eden. The imperial priesthood could easily use seductive appeals: “Look what Rome has done for you; look at the peace and the prosperity you enjoy; have you ever known a greater benefactor than the emperor? Surely in simple gratitude you can give him this formal act of worship.” There are always excellent arguments why the Church should compromise with the world; but the fact remains that, when it does, Christ is betrayed again.

(ii) This beast brings it about that those who will not worship will be killed. That was, in fact, the law. If a Christian refused to make the act of worship to Caesar, he was liable to death. The death penalty was not always carried out; but, if a Christian had not the mark of the beast, he could not buy or sell. That is to say, if a man refused to worship the emperor, even if his life was spared, he would be economically ruined. It remains true that the world knows how to bring pressure to bear on those who will not accept its standards. Often still a man has to choose between material success and loyalty to Jesus Christ.

How are we to view this vision? Today there are many throughout the world who are pushing hard for a “One World Order.” Already in America, many churches and businesses have had to drastically operations due to the challenges of the COVID – 19 virus. Were someone to come out with a complete cure for COVID, how difficult would it be to encourage people around the globe to give allegiance to this person as a Savior? The chip technology has been used for years for pure bred animals. Already many people are questioning the possibility of keeping all one’s medical data on an embedded chip. What if financial data was added and you could only transact business if you had the proper code on your chip? And GPS technology also exists, making it very easy to track people through smart phones.

The question throughout the ages remains: whom shall we worship? Shall we worship the One True Living God and His Son Jesus Christ, who gave His life for our sins and who lives and reigns forever? Or shall we compromise, going along to get along?

The poet James Russell Lowell wrote a hymn. The words are worth considering.

1 Once to ev’ry man and nation 
Comes the moment to decide, 
In the strife of truth and falsehood, 
For the good or evil side; 
Some great cause, some great decision, 
Off’ring each the bloom or blight, 
And the choice goes by forever 
‘Twixt that darkness and that light. 

2 Then to side with truth is noble, 
When we share her wretched crust, 
Ere her cause bring fame and profit, 
And ’tis prosperous to be just; 
Then it is the brave man chooses 
While the coward stands aside, 
Till the multitude make virtue 
Of the faith they had denied. 

3 By the light of burning martyrs, 
Christ, Thy bleeding feet we track, 
Toiling up new Calv’ries ever 
With the cross that turns not back; 
New occasions teach new duties, 
Ancient values test our youth; 
They must upward still and onward, 
Who would keep abreast of truth. 

4 Tho’ the cause of evil prosper, 
Yet the truth alone is strong; 
Tho’ her portion be the scaffold, 
And upon the throne be wrong: 
Yet that scaffold sways the future, 
And, behind the dim unknown, 
Standeth God within the shadow, 
Keeping watch above His own.

PRAYER: Father God, help us to remain true to you, no matter how difficult things become! Give us the strength to follow, the grace to persevere, and the faith to see that you are there in spite of the difficulties. In the mighty Name of King Jesus. Amen.

Revelation 13:5-10 “The beast was given a mouth to speak arrogant and blasphemous words, and authority to act for forty-two months. And the beast opened its mouth to speak blasphemies against God and to slander His name and His tabernacle—those who dwell in heaven.

Then the beast was permitted to wage war against the saints and to conquer them, and it was given authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation. And all who dwell on the earth will worship the beast—all whose names have not been written from the foundation of the world in the Book of Life belonging to the Lamb who was slain. He who has an ear, let him hear: “If anyone is destined for captivity, into captivity he will go; if anyone is to die by the sword, by the sword he must be killed.” Here is a call for the perseverance and faith of the saints.”.

Yesterday we saw that a leader or empire would arise to which Satan would give his authority. This entity is represented by the beast coming from the sea. And now this beast wages war against God and the saints, slandering God, the place of His worship, and even His heavenly throne. Throughout history, there have always been rulers who have viewed themselves as gods and have tried to control public worship so that they and not God are the object of worship. Today in China after a brief respite, Chinese Christians are again being forced to go underground or to engage in state worship. The leaders in North Korea kill Christians whenever they find them. But this ruler that is coming will be worse than any of those preceding him.

Today international public opinion is readily swayed by news media, social media, and all kinds of other communications. Given the speed at which falsehoods can be spread, it is no wonder that this satanic leader will be able to deceive so many so quickly. And for those who do not know the One True Living God, demonstrations of power will quickly convince them.

At the same time, those God – followers are in for additional persecution! Barclay states, “One great truth stands out in this section. In this world a man and a nation have the choice between being the instrument of Satan and the instrument of God.”

What is meant by the Book of Life? Barclay explains, “In the ancient world rulers kept registers of those who were citizens of their realms; only when a man died or lost his rights as a citizen, was his name removed. The Book of Life is the register of those who belong to God.”

What is to be the Christian’s response to this persecution? Barclay summarizes:

 (i) If the Christian faith means imprisonment, the Christian must unmurmuringly accept it. Whatever is involved in following Christ, the Christian must accept.

(ii) Christianity can never be defended by force; the man who takes the sword perishes with the sword. When the Roman government began persecuting, the Christians could be numbered perhaps by the hundred thousand; and yet it never occurred to them to use force to resist. It is an intolerable paradox to defend the gospel of the love of God by using the violence of man.

(iii) There are weapons which the Christian can use and these are steadfastness and loyalty. The word for steadfastness is hupomone, which does not simply mean passively enduring but courageously accepting the worst that life can do and turning it into glory. The word for loyalty is pistis, which means that fidelity which will never waver in its devotion to its Master.

Reading these verses is frightening! What if all these prophecies take place in our time? What will we do? Remember that the only way to prepare to die for your faith is to live it daily and consistently. Believers are to exhibit steadfastness and loyalty. We are to courageously accept the worst that life can do and turn it into glory. And we are never to waver in our devotion to our Master. To live this way requires the grace of God on a continual basis. But “Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!” (1 Corinthians 15:57) If we will continue to ask God, He will give us the strength to follow Him to the very end. 1 John 5:4-5 says, “And this is the victory that has overcome the world: our faith. Who then overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.”

PRAYER: Father God, we are afraid! Our faith is so small and the problems so immense! But YOU are the One who sent Jesus to die for our sins. YOU are the One who gives us the strength to follow You. Lord, we believe, help our unbelief! Help us to grow closer to you and to love you more each day. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.

Isaiah 9:1-2 “Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those in distress. In the past He humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future He will honor the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles: The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.”

GALILEE! GALILEE OF THE GENTILES! What a backward place! If Galileans had lived in Africa, they would have been called “ignorant people from the bush!” Galilee was a place of mixed races, a place where Greek customs were allowed to flourish. Many Jewish religious leaders had nothing but scorn for anyone from Galilee. When the Jewish leaders were beginning to conspire against Jesus and Nicodemus attempted to reason with them, they replied, “Aren’t you also from Galilee?” they replied. “Look into it, and you will see that no prophet comes out of Galilee.” (John 7:52) Actually, they were wrong! The prophet Jonah, who was swallowed by a huge fish and who preached a revival that swept all of Nineveh, was from Gath Hepher in Galilee. But the fact remained, that Galileans didn’t enjoy much of a reputation.

The Jewish leaders knew that Jesus was raised in Nazareth in Galilee. But these proud intellectuals were so certain that they knew everything that they didn’t ask Jesus any of the normal questions such as “where is your family from originally?” The Africans would have said that “Jesus was a royal,” meaning that Jesus was born into a line of chiefs. Jesus was born into the human line of King David and the family was originally from Bethlehem. That was why Joseph and Mary had to struggle on foot for more than 70 miles over terrible roads to reach Bethlehem to satisfy the demands of the Roman census. And that was how Jesus came to be born in Bethlehem.

When this upstart young preacher began teaching and healing in the villages around the Sea of Galilee, the religious leaders paid little or no attention. After all, this man was only speaking to ignorant fishermen and tradesmen. So as the light of the Gospel began to dawn on these people who had been walking in darkness, those in Jerusalem who claimed to be looking for the Messiah totally missed His coming.

Martin Luther has been quoted as having said that “we must be little Christs to our neighbor.” Many times, we are surrounded by people desperate for any kind of light in their lives. Because we ourselves are also searching for light, we may fail to share the light we already have with those around us. And sometimes we become light bearers by the grace of God.

Several years ago, we had a young friend who was looking for love and significance in all the wrong places. Drugs, alcohol, even witchcraft -this girl had tried them all, and nothing satisfied the longing in her soul. Then my husband began working with this young lady. Later, she told us that when my husband came into the room, it was as if she was under a pile of garbage and suddenly there was a bright light. And if she saw my husband and me together, the light became very bright. We knew nothing about this, but we kept praying and that was it. But the night this girl accepted Jesus, she prayed, “whatever Bob and Jean have, I want it!” When we saw our friend two years later, a holy joy radiated from her.

I am not telling this to boast. We were completely unaware of our friend’s observations. But God shone a light; we were just in the general vicinity when God decided to work. The world is full of darkness, but if we share whatever light and joy we have, who knows what God might do?

PRAYER: Father God, today we long for light and joy. Help us to share what we can, trusting that you will multiply our efforts to reach and encourage many others. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

Revelation 13:1-4 “Then I saw a beast with ten horns and seven heads rising out of the sea. There were ten royal crowns on its horns and blasphemous names on its heads. The beast I saw was like a leopard, with the feet of a bear and the mouth of a lion. And the dragon gave the beast his power and throne and great authority. One of the heads of the beast appeared to be mortally wounded. But the mortal wound was healed, and the whole world marveled and followed the beast. They worshiped the dragon who had given authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast, and who can wage war against it?”

Before this chapter is through, we will see not one, but two beasts. What does the beast from the sea represent? Remember that John is a believing Jew well – versed in his own scriptures. It is only logical that God would remind John of things that He had already revealed to the prophets. Barclay explains:

The general meaning is this. Satan, cast out of heaven, knows that his time is short and is determined to do as much damage as he can. To cause that damage on earth he delegates his power to the two beasts who are the central figures in this chapter.

The beast from the sea stands for the Roman Empire, to John the incarnation of evil and is described in terms which come from Daniel. In Daniel 7:3-7 there is a vision of four great beasts who come out of the sea; they are the symbols of the great empires which have held world power and of an empire which, when Daniel was written, was holding world sway. The beast like a lion with an eagle’s wings stands for Babylon; the one like a bear stands for Media; the one like a leopard with four wings stands for Persia; and the fourth stands for the empire of Alexander the Great. As the writer of Daniel saw these world powers, they were so savage and inhuman that they could be symbolized by nothing but bestial figures….

Now John sees one beast with the features of all four. It is like a leopard with bear’s feet and a lion’s mouth. That is to say, for John the Roman Empire was so satanic that it included all the terrors of the evil empires which had gone before. This beast has seven heads and ten horns. These stand for the rulers and the emperors of Rome. Since Augustus, the first Roman Emperor, there had been seven emperors… These seven emperors are the seven heads of the beast. But in addition it is said that the beast had ten horns. The explanation of this second figure lies in this. After the death of Nero there was a short period of almost complete chaos. In eighteen months three different men briefly occupied the imperial power, Galba, Otho and Vitellius. They are not included in John’s list of the seven heads but are included in the list of the ten horns.

John says that on the heads of the beast there were blasphemous names. These are the titles which the emperors took to themselves. Every emperor was called divus or sebastos, which means divine. Frequently the very name God or Son of God was given to the emperors; and Nero on his coins called himself The Savior of the World. For any man to call himself divine was a blasphemous insult to God. Further, the later emperors took as their title the Latin word dominus, or its Greek equivalent kurios, both of which mean lord, and in the Old Testament are the special title of God and in the New Testament the special title of Jesus Christ.

What is the meaning of the head that was mortally wounded but then recovered? Christians are well aware that when God does something wonderful, Satan attempts to copy it, producing a satanic counterfeit. It stands to reason, therefore, that Satan would try to counterfeit Jesus’ death and resurrection to deceive as many as possible.

At this point, Satan brings in a counterfeit Messiah who is actually the supreme enemy of Christ. The Emperor Nero, an extremely evil man, spared nobody, including his own mother in pursuit of his evil schemes and eventually committed suicide. But there was a legend stating that Nero would be reborn.

Even the pagan Sibylline Oracles foretold that in the last terrible days, a king would come from Babylon (the East) “whom all men hate, a king fearful and shameless and of abominable parentage.” This king would murder his own mother and bring ruin on the world.

When the satanic counterfeit Messiah comes, those without discernment worship this counterfeit Messiah and the dragon who has given him power. How can you tell the real from the counterfeit? Those charged with examining money study real money so long that they have no problems discerning the false from the real. In the same way, if we are not to be deceived, we must study God’s Word and pray, so that we actually know the One True Living God. If we are casual about our beliefs, when false Messiahs arise, we will be among the deceived.

PRAYER: Father God, help us to press in to know you in your purity, in your righteousness, in your beauty, and in your holiness! Help us to learn to know you so well that we will not be deceived by any satanic fakes. In the mighty and precious Name of Jesus. Amen.

Luke 1:39 ^“At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, ⁴⁰ where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. ⁴¹ When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. ⁴² In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! ⁴³ But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? ⁴⁴ As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. ⁴⁵ Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!”

Many times, when we think of John the Baptist, we picture an angry prophet condemning the Pharisees for hypocrisy, but we rarely think of John as being joyful. And yet, when Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, John leaped for joy in her womb. Elizabeth was thrilled to be pregnant! Now her shame was taken away; she was going to bear a son, and not just any little baby boy. This was the boy of whom the angel Gabriel foretold that “And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth. ¹⁵ For he will be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb. ¹⁶ And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. ¹⁷ He will also go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, ‘to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,’ and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” (Luke 1:14-17, NKJV)

Zechariah was equally thrilled. Being part of a childless couple, Zechariah had heard all of the gossip. “Hmmmm, if Zechariah and Elizabeth are so righteous, why hasn’t God seen fit to give them children? They probably have some secret sin they have been hiding! Well! God knows! God sees! And God rewards the faithful!” Priests and their families are just as likely to gossip as anybody else, and over the years, Zechariah had heard it all. But now Zechariah and Elizabeth had been chosen as parents of the most important prophet since Elijah. Incredible! And even as Zechariah had to endure nine months without being able to speak, he must have rejoiced all over again every time he looked at his wife’s bulging abdomen and watched the baby move inside her.

Perhaps God has called you to do something difficult. Your family does not understand. Your neighbors gossip about you. Your colleagues at your work place think up new insults every day and mutter them as you pass by. If this is your situation, take heart and be joyful! “Where God guides, He provides,” was a favorite saying of Hudson Taylor, the founder of the China Inland Mission. And when God guides, He also gives joy for the journey. The journey of faith is difficult, but it is not merely a matter of grimly hanging on and begging God for things. We follow a Master who laughed and cuddled little children and who joked. Mary’s Son came to give us life more abundantly, and that includes joy.

PRAYER: Father, this morning many of us are struggling. We haven’t felt joy in so long that we have almost forgotten that there is such a thing. But you are the One who gave Zechariah and Elizabeth a baby who was joyful even in the womb. You spoke the world into existence in a joyful instant. You are a good Father who rejoices in your children. This morning, we beg you, cut off our shackles of gloom and despair. Open our eyes to see the joy that you have set before us. We thank you that you are a good Father who gives good gifts. This morning, Lord, please give us joy! Amen.

The Magi Visit the Messiah

Matthew 2 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi^[a] from the east came to Jerusalem ² and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” ³ When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. ⁴ When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. ⁵ “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:

⁶ “‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
    are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for out of you will come a ruler
    who will shepherd my people Israel.’^[b]”

⁷ Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. ⁸ He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”

⁹ After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. ¹⁰ When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. ¹¹ On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. ¹² And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.” No, the Magi did not show up at the same time as the shepherds, even though Nativity sets always portray things that way. But Matthew gives quite a complete account, and Matthew was a tax collector, a detail man who delighted in getting things correctly. And certainly, the portrayal of Herod is very accurate; Herod was a paranoid vicious man who killed several members of his own family to protect his power.

Talk about having faith!!! Who were the Magi? Nobody knows. Some people have speculated that they were Babylonian or Zoroastrian astrologers. An ancient text housed in the Vatican and translated in 2011 suggested that “it is clear the magi (defined in this text as those who “pray in silence”) are a group—numbering as few as 12 and as many as several score—of monk-like mystics from a far-off, mythical land called Shir, possibly China. They are descendants of Seth, the righteous third son of Adam, and the guardians of an age-old prophecy that a star of indescribable brightness would someday appear “heralding the birth of God in human form.” Whoever the Magi were, they had spent countless centuries scanning the night skies for a sign that a baby had been born who would be king of the Jews. Then when they saw the star, they began a journey that may have lasted as long as two years. “Field and fountain, moor and mountain” might sound poetic, but the reality was that these men were enduring snowstorms and avalanches, sandstorms with choking dust, and flooded rivers – all to reach the King for whom they and their fellowship had been awaiting. If they were coming from China, they may have been following a route similar to the old Silk Road – a route noted to be infested with bandits.

And yet, these brave men persisted. Why? The answer lies in the writings of King Solomon.

Ecclesiastes 3:11 New King James Version (NKJV) ¹¹ He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, He has put eternity in their hearts…” The Magi sought out Jesus because they had made this the chief purpose of their lives and nothing was going to stop them short of death. They were searching for the King who would be eternal.

Christmastime can be wonderful, but it can also be incredibly stressful. Many times, we become so distracted the events, the food, the presents, that we can lose sight of the reason we celebrate Christmas in the first place. One of the reasons the story of the Magi is so important is that it tells of a group of men who waited for centuries for the birth of a king. And when these men saw signs that indicated that this king had been born, they left everything to find Him. God is no respecter of persons; He has put eternity into your heart just as he did for the Magi. Ask yourself this Christmas if you are seeking Emmanuel, “God with us,” or if you are spending time and energy on things that don’t really matter.

PRAYER: Father God, our hearts are heavy this Christmas. Our lives have become crazy and we feel overwhelmed by the events of this year and by the expectations of friends and families. Lord, help us to remember that nothing is more important than seeking and finding you. Help us to learn from the Magi, that when we have found You, we have found our hearts’ desire. In the matchless Name of Jesus, Emmanuel, “God with us.” Amen.

Revelation 12:13 – 17 “And when the dragon saw that he had been thrown to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle to fly from the presence of the serpent to her place in the wilderness, where she was nourished for a time, and times, and half a time. Then from the mouth of the serpent spewed water like a river to overtake the woman and sweep her away in the torrent. But the earth helped the woman and opened its mouth to swallow up the river that had poured from the dragon’s mouth. And the dragon was enraged at the woman, and went to make war with the rest of her children, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. And the dragon stood on the shore of the sea.”

Michael and the other angels have banished Satan from heaven forever! The only place left for Satan is the earth and he is determined to take revenge! Satan’s first target is the woman who has given birth to the Messiah. This female figure represents both the Virgin Mary and the Church as a whole. When Jesus was on the cross, he gave the care of his mother to John, the disciple closest to him. There is nothing to indicate that Mary suffered further; God gave her sanctuary and protected her.

Now that Satan has descended to earth, he is determined to attack the Church as much as possible as a means of attacking Jesus. We humans can be part of the attack or part of the defense. Barclay observes, “When we despoil the Church of the help we might have given it, we despoil Jesus of the help we might have given him; and when we serve the Church, we serve Jesus himself.” Some church members seem to feel that they have a mission to criticize church leaders as much as possible, but who is inspiring these attacks? Certainly not Jesus!

As soon as Satan mounts this attack, God provides means of escape.

a. But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle to fly from the presence of the serpent to her place in the wilderness, where she was nourished for a time, and times, and half a time. The eagles’ wings represent God’s provision and protection. There are countless references throughout the Old Testament to God bearing his servants on the wings of eagles. Isaiah 40:31 says, “But those who wait upon the LORD will renew their strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not faint.”

Deuteronomy 33:26-27 says, “There is none like the God of Jeshurun, who rides the heavens to your aid, and the clouds in His majesty. The eternal God is your dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms.” As believers, we can take comfort in these promises, knowing that no matter the difficulty, God is still with us and for us! One of the Names of Jesus is Immanuel, that is “God with us.”

b. “Then from the mouth of the serpent spewed water like a river to overtake the woman and sweep her away in the torrent. But the earth helped the woman and opened its mouth to swallow up the river that had poured from the dragon’s mouth. ” When the Woman escapes on eagles’ wings, Satan sends floods. Isaiah 43:1-2 says, “Now this is what the LORD says— He who created you, O Jacob, and He who formed you, O Israel: “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are Mine! When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you go through the rivers, they will not overwhelm you.”

c. When Satan sends a flood tide of evil to try to engulf the Church, the earth itself opens up and swallows the water. Not only has heaven rejected Satan, but his power over the very earth itself has been broken and now the earth is opposing him as well! It is a mistake to assume that the earth is passive. Leviticus 20:22 says, “You are therefore to keep all My statutes and ordinances, so that the land where I am bringing you to live will not vomit you out.”

d. “And the dragon was enraged at the woman, and went to make war with the rest of her children, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. And the dragon stood on the shore of the sea.” Left with no other options, Satan now targets those believers left on the earth. This is the time when believers persevere and become even stronger in their faith.

What are the lessons from these verses? God will help his Church, but that does not mean that Christians are immune from persecution. As the end of the age approaches, persecution might even increase. Now more than ever, we must know what we believe and in Whom we have put our trust. Only faith in Jesus Christ and what he has done for us by dying for our sins will save us.

PRAYER: Father God, thank you for eagles’ wings, for the everlasting arms, and for your protection! Help us to follow hard after you all the days of our lives! In the mighty Name of King Jesus. Amen.