The book of life of the Lamb that was slain
Thu, 22 December, 2005: Today’s Bible readings.
1 And I saw a beast rising out of the sea, with ten horns and seven heads, with ten diadems on its horns and blasphemous names on its heads. 2 And the beast that I saw was like a leopard; its feet were like a bear’s, and its mouth was like a lion’s mouth. And to it the dragon gave his power and his throne and great authority. 3 One of its heads seemed to have a mortal wound, but its mortal wound was healed, and the whole earth marveled as they followed the beast. 4 And they worshiped the dragon, for he had given his authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?”
5 And the beast was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for forty-two months. 6 It opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name and his dwelling, that is, those who dwell in heaven. 7 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, 8 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 that was slain.
Today’s passage in the Revelation of Jesus Christ is a favorite for people who like to speculate about the future. Many an hour has been spent discussing the exact meaning of the land and sea beast, and to discern to whom the mysterious number 666 refers. As entertaining as it might be to look into our newspapers and try to find a name that fits the number 666, when we do that we are missing the point of the passage.
John in his vision sees a beast like the beasts of Daniel’s visions of the world powers. John sees this beast demanding people worship it, and persecuting the Christians who fail to do so. By the context and in light of similar Old Testament passages, it appears the beast is a governmental power that is persecuting the church. This certainly would be understandable by John’s original readers as they lived under Roman persecution.
What do we learn from this?
God allows the beast to conquer the saints. He allows the evil government to wage war on the Church, persecuting and killing the professing Christians. That is exactly what we see happend as Rome went through successive waves of persecution against His church. For His purposes, God will sometimes allow these things to happen. Evil appears to triumph over good, as the beast demands and receives worship from the world, destroying all those who oppose it.
But notice that even as the beast appears to triumph, not everyone will worship it. Those who worship are those whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb that was slain. Those who are in the book of life do not worship the beast. The will suffer persecution and even martyrdom for their stand, but they will not worship.
Notice that God has written the names of all His people in this book of life of the Lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world. He has always known and loved His people. In fact, it is because He has known and loved them from the foundation of the world that He will work in their lives to bring them to saving faith. He has written their names in His book because He knows what He will do for them. In essence, He guarantees that they will come to faith. And all those in whom He is working to infallibly bring to saving faith, He will also work so that they will not worship the pagan state. It might costs them everything to make their stand, but they will do so because God is working in them so the will perserver to the end.
In modern day America, we don’t face government persecution of Christians. The worst thing we see is when the government bans nativity scenes and non-denominational prayers. We think that because saying “Merry Christmas” is frowned upon that we are being persecuted. But these things are trivial. In other parts of the world right now, people face torture and death because of their faith. Those who really face persecution can relate to this passage before us. They understand a persecuting government. But in the face of their suffering, they also understand better than I the comfort in seeing that God has known them and loved them from before the foundation of the world. Make no mistake. What they face is terrible. But their names are written in the book of the life of the Lamb that was slain for them, and nothing can erase their names. There is great comfort in knowing this as they take their stand against a persecuting government.
Where is Christ in this passage?
Jesus Christ is the Lamb that was slain so that all those written in the book of the life of the Lamb that was slain could have eternal life. Their salvation is based upon His substitution on their behalf. Because of Jesus Christ’s work of atonement, they can be forgiven of their sins and be declared righteous in God’s sight. Jesus Christ knew everyone of His people from before the foundations of the world, and He went to Calvary for each and every one of them.
