Image Is Everything - Part 2

 

    Now let me make a couple of interpretive comments before we get to the heart of the matter.  There are many approaches to the book of Revelation and to specific passages within Revelation, since this is not a classroom, I’m not going to take the time to talk about different approaches, but I do want to make some points.

 

           Mt. Zion in 14:1 speaks to us of where God dwells.  These 144,000 are living their lives where God is.  They aren’t putting off their obedience and fellowship with God until some pie – in – the – sky futuristic experience, but they are living with God in the present, in the eternal present.  That is an experience in Jesus Christ that we all can know.  That is one of many differences between having a religion and a relationship.

 

           The number 144,000 is a symbolic number that speaks to us of completeness.  That is, the Lamb is going to have a complete number of people follow Him and His work on earth won’t be finished until He is finished gathering His firstfruits.  In verse 4 we see this group called firstfruits. James 1:18 “He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.”  God’s people are spoken of as firstfruits in the Scriptures.

 

           The idea that this group hasn’t defiled itself with women isn’t talking about sexuality.  In fact, this group is made up of men and women, girls and boys.  Instead this image speaks to us of the fact that this group has remained faithful to the Lamb.  In the book of Revelation, the image of women is used to portray unfaithfulness to God and promiscuity with the dragon and the beast on the one hand, and on the other hand we have the woman who is the Bride of Christ, pure and spotless and faithful, with which the book of Revelation culminates.  The book of Revelation is an equal opportunity employer and there are many images of men in the book that are evil.

  

          We’ve got a contrast in chapters 13 and 14, a contrast between the beast and his followers and the Lamb and His followers; a contrast between the false lamb and the true Lamb; a contrast between the mark of the beast and the name of the Lamb. 

  

It is important to remind ourselves that chapter and verse divisions did not exist when the Old and New Testaments were written, they were added much later for ease of reference, and while chapters and verses can be useful they can also be harmful and this is a case in point.  If we simply stop reading at the end of chapter 13, we miss the author’s intent to see the contrast found in chapter 14.

 

          Two images.  The image of God and the image of the beast.  Two strains in the flow of history, in the flow of philosophy, in the flow of education, in religion, in science, in government…in all of life.  The image of God and the image of the beast.

  

          God makes us in His image.  The serpent, the enemy of God, the dragon comes alongside us and asks, “Did God really say these things?”  The serpent would have us believe that we can be greater than we are.  He would have us believe that we can attain to a greater image.  He offers us the intoxication of an independent autonomous life without God, in fact he seduces us with the idea that we can be like God.

  

          We are made in God’s image, and in that respect we bear His likeness, but we think we can do better and so we go our own way…and the image that we once bore we fractured…and in our descent from that image we have become like the man fallen into what seems like a bottomless well with smooth slimy sides, trying constantly to pull ourselves up only to slip further down.

  

          How many times in the past few weeks have I been asked if we’re living in the book of Revelation, if we’re living in the tribulation period?  How many times am I asked about the number 666?

  

          Last week I suggested we not look outside for the beast but inside, inside our hearts, inside our minds, inside these temples.  Yes, the flow of history will see the beast and work of the dragon personified in some form, but if I don’t recognize what’s going on inside of me, I’ll never recognize what occurs outside of me.

  

          Now the number 7 in Revelation often represents perfection or completeness.  It is associated with the perfection that we find only in God.  The number 6 is a less than perfect number, a number that falls short of perfection.  Man was created on the 6^th day.  When a number or word is repeated in the Bible it is done so for emphasis and to convey the fullness of an idea.  For example, heavenly beings in the Scriptures cry out to God, “Holy, holy, holy, LORD God Almighty.”  The repeated word “holy” is showing that God is perfect in holiness or full of holiness.

  

          We have the number 666, meaning that the self-exaltation of man in his rebellion and imperfection has reached a crescendo.  Man’s worship of himself, a worship empowered by the dragon and the beast reaches a point where it can go no farther, man finally constructs his ultimate tower of Babel.

to be continued...