Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation. Tonight is study #31 of Revelation, chapter 13, and we are going to be reading from Revelation 13:15-17:
And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
I will stop reading there. In our last study we were in verse 15 and we began to compare the statement at the end of Revelation 13:15: “…and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.” We compared that to Daniel, chapter 3, and the true, historical event of King Nebuchadnezzar making a golden image and demanding that all of his subjects bow down and worship the image and if they failed to bow down, then they would be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace.
We left that account in the middle of it, but it is one of the greatest historical stories in the Bible. Of course, there are many wonderful and incredible Biblical true stories, but this is one of the most exciting, so I think we have to finish discussing it.
In Daniel, chapter 3, we saw that Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego had just told the king they would not bow down to the image. From this, we can learn a Biblical principal. Yes, God has established governments and a government commands its subjects and true believers, like anyone else in a nation, are subject to government and insofar as a government commands its subjects to do something that is not contrary to the Law of God, then the subjects are obligated to obey. This is made very clear in Romans 13:1-4-7:
Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake. For for this cause pay ye tribute also: for they are God's ministers, attending continually upon this very thing. Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour.
The Lord lays down a Law and a principal that the government is established by Him. And that is not just referring to “good governments” or democratic governments or republics or governments that have respect for their citizens, but it just as applicable to kings, dictators, prime ministers or ruthless tyrants that have risen to rule over a country. God would have His people in subjection to Caesars or Pharaohs or kings, like King Nebuchadnezzar, or any ruler because in order for that ruler to gain that position of rule over a kingdom, the Lord had to allow and permit it. I think it is in the Book of Daniel where God says, in speaking of King Nebuchadnezzar, that He sets up the basest (or most evil) of men, at times, as they are established in a kingdom. So when a ruler commands a thing, we are to obey. We are to obey not only for wrath’s sake (because he has the “sword” or an army behind him), but also for conscience sake because God would have us to do so. By the way, this is one reason we are not to speak evil or speak badly of paying taxes. God says, “Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due.” We are to pay our taxes. Do not complain about it. Likewise, we should not speak evil of the ruler of our country. There should be a genuine respect for the ruler, no matter who he is or what kind of character he has. It is not so much for the person (that we do this), but for the position that God has put him or her in and, therefore, we submit ourselves to the ruler and to the laws that the ruler makes and the taxes imposed.
However, the one stipulation to that is that the child of God submits in “all things lawful.” Therefore, when a Pharaoh of Egypt develops a law that all the male children of the Israelites (who are his subjects) are to be cast into a river and killed, it is an unjust law that goes contrary to the Law of God. An example of this was Moses’ parents and they could rightly take the child and hide him. They put him in an ark of bulrushes and put him adrift upon the Nile River to escape the injustice of that law; in doing so, they were disobeying Pharaoh, but God permits that. God permits the child of God to do this only if someone has developed an evil law.
This is what Nebuchadnezzar did here; he developed an evil law, where the subjects were to fall down and worship an image when they heard the musical sound. It stands directly against the Law of God in the Ten Commandments in the Book of Exodus: we are not to make an image or bow down ourselves to any god, except the God of the Bible. When the law of a land or the law of a government conflicts with the Law of God, then God’s Law is the higher Law. God’s Law is the supreme Law and we are to submit to the Law of God over and above the law of the men.
Daniel did this in his time, after Babylon fell and the Medes and the Persians were in power. Some wicked men intentionally designed a law to entrap Daniel, so they could accuse him before the king as a law breaker. They convinced King Darius, also known as Cyrus, to sign a law that no man could make any petition of any god but the king; they played upon his pride. Even though Cyrus was a type of Christ, it does not mean he was a saved man and we can be sure that if he were not saved, he would have had a great amount of pride and ego and this law would sound like a good law: “Of course, people should only petition me.” But he did not think it through and he did not think of how it would affect people like Daniel, so he signed the law into effect and for 30 days no one was to make any petition of any god or king except him. It was then the law of the Medes and the Persians and cannot be changed. But Daniel, knowing about the law, goes to his house, opens the window toward Jerusalem, and begins to pray, bowing down before God three times a day. He knows he is breaking the law, but, again, Daniel had a “higher law,” the Law of God, and the Law of God would have His people bow down only to Him. If the law of man says that you cannot bow down to God and you cannot bow the knee and humble yourself and pray before the true God of the Bible, then it is an evil and unjust law and it is not to be followed.
This is the case with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. With all due respect to the king and his authority to rule over the kingdom of Babylon, they tell him, “We are not careful to answer thee in this matter.” In other words, they were not making a hasty decision, but they had thought it through. It probably took some time to make that image and to develop the law and for everyone to hear about the law to either bow down or be thrown in a fiery furnace, so they were fully aware that this day would come and there was probably a lot of anxious and troubled prayer about it. Sometimes we do not know what we would do (in a situation); we know what is right; we know what is good; we know what God would have us to do. But, as a weak, frail human being, we sometimes fear: “Will I be strong enough to obey God? Will I be able to do it God’s way, rather than the king’s way, when I hear the sound of the musical instruments?”
All around them would have been tens of thousands of people that quickly and obediently bowed down – they did not want to give even the slightest impression that they were not obeying the law; they did not want to risk that and they all lowered their heads, bowed their bodies and bowed to the ground as low as possible. All around them, everyone is bowing down, for as far as they could see – to the left and to the right – and everyone has their head to the ground, bowing down to the golden image, but there are Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, still standing. It is no wonder that the Chaldeans were able to accuse them, as the saying goes when something is out of order, “It stands out like a sore thumb.” It is out of place. Everyone else in Babylon is bowing down and, yet, these three men were not.
The king of Babylon wanted to make sure, so he had them brought before him and asked them: “Is it true? Is it true?” These were three men that had positions of authority in his kingdom. “You refused to listen to me and to hearken to my law? You refused to humble yourselves before the image I had set up?” More than likely, King Nebuchadnezzar could not believe it, because he was such an arrogant and ruthless man. They admitted it was true and they said, “We will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.” Then it says in Daniel 3:19-25:
Then was Nebuchadnezzar full of fury, and the form of his visage was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego: therefore he spake, and commanded that they should heat the furnace one seven times more than it was wont to be heated. And he commanded the most mighty men that were in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and to cast them into the burning fiery furnace. Then these men were bound in their coats, their hosen, and their hats, and their other garments, and were cast into the midst of the burning fiery furnace. Therefore because the king's commandment was urgent, and the furnace exceeding hot, the flame of the fire slew those men that took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace. Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonied, and rose up in haste, and spake, and said unto his counsellors, Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered and said unto the king, True, O king. He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.
King Nebuchadnezzar did his best to kill these men and, yet, he was unable to do it. Anyone else would have been killed. Even the mightiest men in his army were slain as they cast these three young Hebrew men into the fire, but Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were unharmed; they were not injured at all. Of course, the point God is making with the four men that were seen in the fire (and the fourth was like the form of the Son of God) was that Christ was protecting them, preserving them, watching over them and keeping them safe. Nebuchadnezzar could do all that he could do to destroy them, but it did not hurt them in the least. Again, remember that King Nebuchadnezzar is a type and a figure of Satan as Satan rules during the Great Tribulation period; and all the world wondered after the beast. We also read that the world worshipped the beast, in Revelation 13:4:
And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?
The beast is so ferocious and terrible and he is a king of a fierce countenance and all the world is in fear and submits to the him and bows the knee to Satan during the 23-year Great Tribulation, but not the true believers that are protected by the Lord Jesus Christ.
We read in Daniel 3:26-30:
Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the mouth of the burning fiery furnace, and spake, and said, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, ye servants of the most high God, come forth, and come hither. Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, came forth of the midst of the fire. And the princes, governors, and captains, and the king's counsellors, being gathered together, saw these men, upon whose bodies the fire had no power, nor was an hair of their head singed, neither were their coats changed, nor the smell of fire had passed on them. Then Nebuchadnezzar spake, and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who hath sent his angel, and delivered his servants that trusted in him, and have changed the king's word, and yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god, except their own God. Therefore I make a decree, That every people, nation, and language, which speak any thing amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made a dunghill: because there is no other God that can deliver after this sort. Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, in the province of Babylon.
I mentioned earlier that in Daniel, chapter 3, musical instruments are listed four times. Three of the times six musical instruments were listed by name and the fourth time, only five were listed. This totaled “23,” which points to the Great Tribulation period.
But there is another interesting thing in this chapter and that is the number of times God refers to Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. I know as I was reading these verses, I was constantly reading their names, so I counted the incidences. In Daniel 3, God refers to these three young men 13 times. That is significant because the number “13” points to the end of the world. As a matter of fact, the year 1988 was the 13,000th year of earth’s history and that was the year, on May 21, 1988, that the church age ended and Satan was loosed. He came up out of the sea, as it is pictured in Revelation 13 and, therefore, the language we read of making the image to the beast took place in the 13,000th year of earth’s history and continued for a full 23 years. Is that not something?
It is just amazing how God has written the Bible. In this chapter, which so clearly identifies with the things we are reading (in Revelation 13) of the image made to the beast, we find the number “23,” which relates to the 23 years from May 21, 1988 to May 21, 2011 in which Satan had dominion and was ruling. But we also find the number “13.” We find Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego mentioned 13 times, individually and collectively. So, if we count the individual and collective use of their names, it is “39” times altogether; this would be “3 x 13,” meaning that it was God’s purpose that at the end of the world (which would begin in the 13,000th year of earth’s history) these things would take place: judgment would begin on the house of God, the Great Tribulation would begin, Satan would be loosed and the “image of the beast” would be made and all the unsaved of the world would bow down to the beast. God is letting it be known that even though all the unsaved will worship the beast, His people will not worship the beast and they will remain faithful to God, no matter what the consequences.