And he [the land beast] does great signs, so much so that he causes fire to come down out of heaven to earth in the presence of men.  Rev. 13:13.
 
    At one time one could experience something similar to this in the Yosemite Valley of central California.  Every summer evening national park personnel staged a "fire fall" from Glacier Point, which is more than 3,000 feet above the valley floor.  People gathered before sunset for a short nature program at a campground near the base of the mountain.  While this was going on, rangers tended a raging bonfire up at Glacier Point.
 
    After the program below ended, someone would shout up the vertical granite wall: "Let the fire fall!"  After a moment, there would come a response from the rangers high up at Glacier Point, "Let the fire fall!"  They would then begin pouring hot coals over the side of the mountain to form an awesome glowing waterfall that disappeared several thousand feet into the darkness.  It was truly a spectacular sight.  Some people traveled thousands of miles for the chance to see the spectacle.
 
    Bringing fire from heaven to earth reminds the reader of Acts 2:2-4.  It tells of "a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven....They saw...tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.  All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit" (NIV).
 
    The text of Revelation 13 warns us not to trust totally what we see with our eyes and hear with our ears.  One day the fire of Pentecost will seem to be falling all around us, but it will not be the real deal.  A great end-time agent of Satan will counterfeit the working of the Spirit and call people to give their allegiance to a counterfeit trinity.
 
    But the best way to detect a counterfeit is to know the genuine.  Those filled with God's Spirit will know when the counterfeit appears.  And the true Spirit of God goes to those who seek God with all their hearts (Jer. 29:13) and are willing to do whatever He asks (Acts 5:31).  God ministers His Spirit to us through His Word (John 6:63).  As we treasure God's Word through faith in Jesus, we will be filled with the genuine Spirit.  But this will not occur by means of occasional or casual attention to the Word.
 
    Visitors to Yosemite Valley today will not see the fire fall.  Years ago the valley was uncrowded and free from the masses that visit the place today.  Nowadays, because of the popularity of the valley, the fire no longer falls.  There are just too many people and too little space.  Sometimes our lives can get too crowded to hear the voice of the true Spirit.  Don't allow the press of people and things to keep the fire of the Spirit from spilling into you life.
 
Lord, clear some space for You in the events of this day.  Tired and overwhelmed right now, I need Your Spirit as never before.

And he [the land beast] exercised all the authority of the first beast in his behalf, and he forced the earth and those who live in it to worship the first beast, whose wound of death was healed.  Rev. 13:12.
 
    Sharp contrasts seem to fill life.  Jackie found herself drawn to a newspaper article about a recent massacre in Burundi.  It seems that some rebel Hutus had attacked a United Nations refugee camp with machetes and automatic weapons.  They shot and hacked to death some 180 men, women, and children.  "Their charred remains lay among the cooking utensils and the smoldering remnants of their former homes....The attack...resembled the killing during the 1994 genocide in Burundi's neighbor Rwanda."
 
    While the article was fairly brief, Jackie felt compelled to place herself inside the story.  What would she have been thinking had she been a survivor of this attack?  Why is this happening to me?  How can I live without my family?  Whom can I turn to?
 
    In startling contrast on the same page were ads that screamed out, "Cell phones that are cool and stylish.  Buy one and get a second free."  "Video mail...Free for 60 days!...Fun and easy to use!"  "Fashion hits!  Big summer clearance blowout!  Up to 75 percent off."
 
    Jackie struggled to find some correlation between the Burundi massacre and the need for video mail.  Were the survivors of the massacre concerned about getting a more stylish cell phone?  How many of them would be relieved to know that video mail even exists?  Would they be excited that the latest fashions are now 75 percent off?
 
    In the last days God's people will be caught between two very contrasting worlds.  The beasts of Revelation 13 counterfeit the work of Jesus and the Holy Spirit.  Like the Holy Spirit, the land beast exalts the counterfeit Jesus, rather than itself.  These two characters, along with the dragon of chapter 12, do a work of deception in the final crisis of earth's history.
 
    The land beast has two horns "like a lamb."  In the book of Revelation the true Lamb was willing to be sacrificed in order to redeem the human race (Rev. 5:6, 9, 12).  The Lamb does not force His way into the affections of human beings.  This self-sacrifice was not for personal advantage, but for the benefit of others.
 
    By way of contrast, the beasts of Revelation 13 impose their will upon the people of the earth.  Through economic boycott (Rev. 13:16, 17) and the threat of death (verse 15), the land beast forces human beings to submit to its authority and the worship the sea beast.  The character of the beasts will be in sharp contrast to that of Jesus.
 
Lord, may I clearly see the contrast between the "beasts" of self-indulgence and the self-sacrificing spirit of Jesus.

And I saw another beast, this one coming up out of the earth.  He had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon.  Rev. 13:11.
 
    Many students of the Bible have applied this beast to the United States of America.  They point to a number of elements in the text.  For one thing, this beast comes up out of the earth.  Whenever the book of Revelation contrasts earth with sea (the first beast emerges from the sea), it is a positive element, not an enemy of God, an understanding further supported by the fact that the earth helped the woman in Revelation 12 when she faced attack from the dragon.
 
    Its lamblike horns also suggest a positive beginning for this beast.  Twenty-eight times the book of Revelation refers to Jesus Christ as the Lamb.  The twenty-ninth use of the symbol of a lamb is in this text here.  There is something lamblike about the beast when it first appears, but its opposition to the dragon fades and over time it begins to speak like the dragon.  The land beast becomes the decisive player on the world stage, bringing about an end-time world unity in opposition to the true people of God (Rev. 13:12-18.
 
    Twenty-five years ago the thought that America could become the dominant player on the world stage seemed ludicrous.  From Vietnam to Watergate to stagflation to Jimmy Carter's apologies, America seemed in decline on the world stage.  Before you can speak like a dragon you have to have a dragon's power and vocal cords!
 
    But the scenario of Revelation is credible today.  All it would take to trigger the "dragon" would be a terrorist event on a far larger scale than September 11.  In the words of General Tommy Franks, who toppled Saddam in 2003: "The potential of a weapon of mass destruction and a terrorist, massive casualty-producing event somewhere in the Western world--it may be in the Unites States of America--[could cause] our population to question our own Constitution and to begin to militarize our country in order to avoid a repeat of another mass-casualty-producing event.  Which, in fact, then begins to potentially unravel the fabric of our constitution."
 
    If you remember the fear and helplessness that followed September 11, you know that Americans would be desperate to protect themselves if something far more deadly occurred.  And if letting the attorney general read my e-mail, tap my phone, and peek in my bedroom window would save my family from getting nuked by terrorists, I'd be inclined to let him.  But the end result would be the destruction of freedom and the emergence of the voice of the dragon!
 
    That's why I'm glad this book is the "revelation of Jesus Christ" and not the revelation of the land beast or the dragon.  Jesus promised to be with us always, and Revelation assures us that He will lead the winning side in the end.
 
Lord, thank You for providing solid ground in a terrified world.

                        And I saw another beast, this one coming up out of the earth.  He had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon.  Rev. 13:11.
 
    An interesting feature of this part of Revelation is that beasts keep turning up, one after the other.  The beast from the sea (Rev. 13:1-10) greatly resembles the dragon of chapter 12.  The beast from the earth, on the other hand, looks very different.  But all three beasts have something in common--they all behave badly.  A serious indictment on the human race is that we learn very little from one generation to the next.
 
    A beautiful, blond 13-year-old Austrian girl got on a train and said goodbye to her parents.  Fifty years later she ended up in the hospital with high blood pressure.  The physicians could find no explanation for the problem.  Because she had no history of blood pressure problems, the doctors kept a close watch on her.
 
    She told the chaplain that she was a Holocaust survivor.  "I don't talk about it much--I mean, I didn't talk about it until my husband died.  That's just how it was.  We just didn't talk about it.  But lately I've begun to...my parents were killed in Auschwitz.  I was only 13.  They sent me away on a train to Holland.  From there I went to England.  I never saw them again.  I've always felt guilty that I left them there to die.
 
    "You feel guilty?" the chaplain said.
 
    "Yes, I still do.  I never knew for sure if my parents were dead or alive until three years ago when they found the hidden files in East Germany.  I was on a tour in Berlin when the news came to me about the date they perished in Auschwitz.  The Germans kept very precise records, but they were hidden for many years.
 
    "I have lived through things that are now part of the history books," she went on.  "I don't understand why we [humans] don't learn.  The genocides keep occurring.  Look at Cambodia and Vietnam.  Look what Saddam Hussein did to the Kurds.  I watched a program last night about it.  They showed pictures of the bones and things.  That's probably why my blood pressure went so high."
 
    A nurse came in.  The chaplain told her the probable reason for the blood pressure surge, and she went off to tell the doctor.
 
    The book of Revelation places the blame for human misery on Satan aided by human stupidity.  Generation after generation we make the same mistakes, thinking we are solving our problems, when the only solution is to be found in the slain Lamb.
 
Lord, strengthen me to be part of the solution, not part of the problem, today.  Help me to break the cycle of violence and oppression in my family first, and then everywhere else I go.

  If anyone leads into captivity, into captivity he will go.  If anyone kills with the sword, with a sword he will be killed.  Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.  Rev. 13:10.
 
    A characteristic of the saints is patient endurance.  Followers of God are persistent in well-doing and faithful in trial.  Not content to live on the surface, they go deep into God's Word, willing to follow wherever it leads.  In 1938 the king of Saudi Arabia, Abd-al-Aziz ibn Saud, authorized a team of American engineers to explore the trackless desert bordering the Persian Gulf, an arid landscape marked only by the occasional palm-fringed oasis.  He hoped they would find water.  A tribal leader with precarious finances, Ibn Saud believed the Americans might discover places where he could refresh his warriors' horses and camels.
 
    But the team, from Standard Oil of California, had something else in mind.  Geologists had discovered oil in other countries in the region, and the engineers thought they would find more in Saudi Arabia.  During a period of several years they drilled more than half a dozen holes without result.  They could easily have given up in frustration.  Instead, they decided to see if going deeper than normal might make a difference.  So they set up their equipment again at well number 7 and dug deeper than they had ever done before.  They burrowed all the way to a depth of 4,727 feet and finally hit the first sign of what would turn out to be the largest supply of crude oil in the world.  A willingness to go a little deeper was all that stood between failure and unimaginable success.
 
    Oddly enough, the king did not appear to appreciate the discovery at first.  He ignored the news about the oil for an entire year afterward.  Finally he and his retinue arrived in a caravan of 400 automobiles at the pumping stating of Ras Tanura in time to witness the first tanker hauling away its cargo of Saudi crude.  The discovery would change everything.
 
    Up until then, the primary source of income in the Saudi kingdom came from servicing pilgrims in Mecca, Islam's holiest city.  But even the first shipment of oil produced wealth beyond all expectation.  The lives and lifestyles of Arabian Bedouin would never be the same.  This isolated country with no other exportable product now became a major factor in global politics.  The Saudi royal family became powerful players on the world scene.  Their wealth became a crucial factor in Middle East politics and the bargaining over global energy supplies.  Today their nation is at the center of world attention.  All because a handful of American engineers were not willing to be content with a surface approach to their task.
 
Lord, give me the patience and the endurance of the saints.  May I not be content with anything less than the deep things of Your Word.

  If anyone has an ear, let him hear.  If anyone leads into captivity, into captivity he will go.  If anyone kills with the sword, with a sword he will be killed.  Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.  Rev. 13:9, 10.
 
    The word translated "patience" here literally means "remaining under."  It depicts someone stuck for a time under a heavy burden or difficulty.  He or she is in a position to escape the load but chooses not to for some higher cause than just avoiding a problem.  Translators often render the word "patient endurance."  Patience is about hanging in there for the long term, even when it doesn't feel great in the short term.  In Revelation 13:10 the saints are willing to endure captivity and death because their hearts and minds are in heavenly places (note verse 6).
 
    Few things are more frustrating than to have to wait for something you have prayed for.  It taxes our patience.  And it doesn't seem to make sense in the Christian scheme of things.  Why should it take months or years for God to find you a good job when He spent only seven day creating the world?  Why should people ever have to go hungry when Jesus fed the 5,000 in an instant?  Why should it require months to be healed of some sickness when Jesus raised Lazarus with a word?  What is the point of patient endurance?
 
    One reason God asks us to do so is that waiting is a tremendous tool for personal growth.  In Romans 5:3, 4, Paul tells us that suffering produces patient endurance (same word as the one in Revelation 13:10) and patient endurance creates character.  So patience is not an option for Christians.  In those times of waiting God reveals His plans and purposes to us in ways we would never discern in the hustle and bustle of everyday life.  "Remaining under" develops strength of character in us.
 
    It seems, if you watch American television or Hollywood movies, that the American way is the one of instant gratification.  If you need it, buy it; if you don't have the money now, borrow it; and if you want it but will never be able to afford it, steal it.  But the easy and quick solutions don't serve long-term goals and don't produce long-term growth.  In a sense Americans live in an adolescent culture.  The main difference between an adult and a child is the ability to delay gratification.  Real adults have the ability to wait.  They can sacrifice immediate pleasures for long-term benefit.
 
    It will take great strength of character to endure the trials of the end-time.  "Remaining under" is never fun, but it's a lot easier when you keep your eye on things above!
 
Lord, I thank You for the visions of Revelation.  They teach me how great You are, and how worthwhile it is to endure to the end.  May my patience in the little things now bring the strength of character to endure the big things that lie ahead.

   And everyone who lives on the earth will worship him [the beast], everyone whose name was not written in the book of life of the Lamb slaughtered from the foundation of the world.  Rev. 13:8.
 
    I received quite a shock in Singapore recently.  A meeting of all the Adventist churches in the city had been planned for Sabbath at a large public venue.  To make sure that the members did not forget, the mission leaders sent out text messages on Sabbath morning to remind everyone of the times and the particulars.  I thought they were talking about e-mails, but someone explained to me that those messages pop up on the screens of mobile phones and that nearly all the members in the city had such phones (I didn't)!
 
    This novel way of reminding members of a major meeting caused me to pay attention to a report about text messaging in the Philippines.  It seems that the Manila area of the Philippines is the text-message capital of the world.  Everyone there seems to have a cell phone--they are more ubiquitous than flies on a summer day.  Even the poorest of people have cell phones, and they are constantly using them.
 
    But because of limited resources, most of them cannot use the phone for talking--that is way too expensive.  So they end up text-messaging one another...constantly.  It is very common to see people everywhere waiting or walking, feverishly punching in their messages with some elaborate code and sending them off to all their buddies.
 
    For a while text-messaging even affected the catholic Church in the Philippines.  It seemed that instead of going to the priest in church to confess their sins, many Filipinos found a new and more time-effective way to confess their sins.  They text-messaged their sins to the priest!  The priest then sent the absolution back with the appropriate penance.  The practice was convenient, but soon the horrified church issued a stern edict to stop it.
 
    While we might chuckle a little bit at this convenience-store type of religion I wonder how many of us are "text-message Christians."  Do we try to squeeze faith into our lives in order to meet the minimum daily requirement, or do we fit our lives around faith and seek God afresh every day with a personal and heartfelt devotion?
 
    I am so glad that God is not a text-message Deity.  He invested Himself in the person of Jesus.  Instead of just punching in a few letters and hitting the send button, He gave of His time and sacrificed Himself in person.  And that sacrifice affected things all the way back to "the foundation of the world."  Such a God is worthy of more than just a casual response.
 
Lord, I see more clearly the depth of the investment You have made in me.  I respond to You with a whole heart today.

 And everyone who lives on the earth will worship him [the beast], everyone whose name was not written in the book of life of the Lamb slaughtered from the foundation of the world.  Rev. 13:8.
 
    The picture never ceases to amaze me.  The Lamb, so innocent and trusting, dies for the very ones who slaughter Him.  He gives His life for the very ones who are taking His life.  "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing" (Luke 23:34, NIV).  A similar scenario played out again recently.
 
    During the night of December 22, 2003, an intruder broke into the home of Ruimar DePaiva, a pastor in the island nation of Palau.  The robber was intent on theft, but as members of he family got up, the man attacked them until they were all dead except 10-year-old Melissa.  After abusing Melissa for 20 hours, he released her, and she told the story to the police.  The authorities soon had him captured and put in prison.  His deed stunned the whole nation, and the government ordered the country's flags lowered everywhere.  A state funeral was held, hosted by the high chief of the island where the crime took place.
 
    At the funeral Ruimar DePaiva's mother took the microphone without warning.  She had already visited the prison holding the murderer, Justin Hirosi.  Praying with the man who killed her son, daughter-in-law, and grandson, she assured him of her forgiveness.  Then learning that Justin's mother was at the service, she asked Mrs. Hirosi to join her at the microphone.  After hugging Mrs. Hirosi like a long-lost friend, she announced to the crowd that they were "both mothers grieving for lost sons."
 
    Then she implored the community to remove any shroud of blame that they might place on Justin's mother or his family.  She declared that parents raise their children and try to teach them right from wrong, but in the end they have their own minds.
 
    The funeral reached another level of shock when the high chief announced that Justin's family, though of meager means, had sold many of their belongings and now desired to deliver $10,000 in cash to the surviving Melissa for her college education.  But the greatest moment of all was yet to come.
 
    When asked where she would like to live, Melissa said, "I'd like to stay here in Palau."
 
    Her grandmother explained to her that that would not be possible.  "OK," the girl replied.  "But I'll be back someday.  I'll come back as a missionary!"
 
Lord, help me to learn the full meaning of Your forgiveness so I can forgive others the way You have forgiven me.

 And to him it was given to make war with the saints and to conquer them.  And to him was given authority over every tribe and people and language and nation.  Rev. 13:7.
 
    Do you remember the long, hot, lazy days of summer when you were a child?  I grew up in Little Ferry, New Jersey, an amazingly backwater community less than 10 miles from Times Square, New York City.  Summers I spent hanging out with friends, playing board games and swimming on the hottest days, and playing stickball and Wiffle ball when the temperature was more conducive to being outside.
 
    The part of the summers that I least liked, however, was boredom.  I was never bored on my own, because I had discovered the joys of reading and often had fun constructing games out of my imagination.  The problem came when I was with other kids.
 
    "Let's play Wiffle ball."
 
    "I don't feel like it."
 
    "How about a game of Risk?"
 
    "I don't feel like it."
 
    "What do you want to do?"
 
    "I don't know--I'm bored."
 
    The problem was that if I felt obligated to be with friends when they were bored, then I was stuck being bored too.  Boredom today is something to avoid at all costs.  No one wants a dreary day-in-and-day-out type of existence.  When was the last time you heard "boredom" lauded as a major part of an "exciting" vacation?
 
    Well, according to Revelation, Christian life is never boring.  On the one hand, we have the excitement of Christian growth, of sharing the gospel, and of seeing what the Spirit will do next with our lives.  On the other hand, Christian excitement involves the battle against sin and Satan, and the awareness that our faith will provoke opposition.  Christian life has sometimes been termed "a battle and a march."
 
    But the excitement of Revelation isn't always on the surface.  Monotony and routine are underrated elements of the Christian life.  Keep in mind that Jesus spent the first 30 years of His life toiling away as an unknown carpenter in a tiny village in northern Israel.  The daily "monotony" of His existence allowed him the time to sink His root deep into the soil of God's wisdom and love.  A healthy mix of excitement and monotony are at the core of Christian existence.
 
Whatever today will bring, Lord, use it to build character in me.

 And a mouth was given to him [the beast from the sea], speaking great things and blasphemies, and he was given authority to operate for forty-two months.  He opened his mouth in order to speak blasphemies against God, to blaspheme His name and His tabernacle, those who are in heaven.  Rev. 13:5, 6.
 
    The beast from the sea here behaves in a manner that makes perfect sense from a human perspective.  If you want to be great and highly regarded by others, you "talk big things," as the beast does here.  Let everyone know how spectacular you are.  And it doesn't hurt your image to swear a little, making everyone think how tough and how cool you are.  And don't forget to walk with a little swagger!  Then people will conclude you're really something!
 
    How the gospel goes against the grain!  The sea beast is attempting to take the place of Jesus Christ in the hearts of earth's inhabitants.  And to a degree he succeeds.  But for the real Jesus, greatness does not appear in big talk, swearing, and swaggering.  Real greatness is characterized by a basin and a towel (John 13).  It humbles itself even to the point of death (Phil. 2:5-8).
 
    I caught just a glimpse of real greatness on the golf course one day.  The group a friend and I were playing with took the game very seriously.  A string of profanities followed bad shots, as each desperately sought to show that he was better than the others.  On the seventeenth hole the president of the club faced a crucial shot.  The game was close, and every stroke counted.  He studied the layout ahead, took a couple of practice swings, and carefully prepared to hit the ball.  But his swing was a little high, and so instead of propelling the ball ahead, he drove it into the ground.  I waited in silence for the inevitable.  But he said nothing and prepared to swing again.  This time he drove the ball even deeper into the ground!  Once again he remained absolutely silent.  I was amazed.  It was like stubbing your toe twice on one trip across the room.  Yet he said nothing (you could see on his face that it wasn't easy).
 
    As my friend and I were leaving the clubhouse a little later, I stepped back in and went up to the man, put a hand on his shoulder, and said, "It took a really big man to do what you did on number 17 without swearing."
 
    I learned that day that anybody can swear, but the person of really strong character is the one who can face bitter circumstances without letting loose.  It is easier to become president of a golf club than it is to control your speech or humble yourself to serve others.  True greatness does not come from following the beast, but rather from following the Lamb. What comes out of our mouth reveals our true character.
 
Lord, Your words are gracious and kind.  You left heaven for me, to save me and to show me the path to true greatness.  May You live that kind of greatness through me today.