And the beast was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for forty-two months. It opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name and his dwelling, that is, those who dwell in heaven. Also it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them. And authority was given it over every tribe and people and language and nation, and all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain. If anyone has an ear, let him hear:
If anyone is to be taken captive,
to captivity he goes;
if anyone is to be slain with the sword,
with the sword must he be slain.
Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints.
The wickedness of Satan and his allies is only “allowed” to do what God “allows” them to do and gives the “authority” to do. That truth is what is contained and demonstrated in the above passage. We, as believers, can endure in our faith (see the last line of the above passage) because we believe this truth. Yes, the allies of Satan are going to be able to reck havoc across the world’s stage in the future (and, in a limited sense today). John is giving this teaching to the church to enable us to endure that even though this is happening and will happen to an extreme extent in the future, God is “allowing” only to the extent that He will “allow.” He is giving “authority” to the extent that He will give the Evil One “authority.” This material from the last book of the Bible, of course, brings to mind the same truth from one of the first books of the Bible, Job. Notice how God limited Satan in regard to his power over Job’s life:
And the LORD said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand.” So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD.
No comments:
Post a Comment