The Two Beasts

Revelation 13 I looked and saw a beast coming up from the sea. This one had ten horns and seven heads, and a crown was on each of its ten horns. On each of its heads were names that were an insult to God. ²The beast that I saw had the body of a leopard, the feet of a bear, and the mouth of a lion. The dragon handed over its own power and throne and great authority to this beast. ³One of its heads seemed to have been fatally wounded, but now it was well. Everyone on earth marveled at this beast, ⁴and they worshiped the dragon who had given its authority to the beast. They also worshiped the beast and said, "No one is like this beast! No one can fight against it."
⁵The beast was allowed to brag and claim to be God, and for forty-two months it was allowed to rule. ⁶The beast cursed God, and it cursed the name of God. It even cursed the place where God lives, as well as everyone who lives in heaven with God. ⁷It was allowed to fight against God's people and defeat them. It was also given authority over the people of every tribe, nation, language, and race. ⁸The beast was worshiped by everyone whose name wasn't written before the time of creation in the book of the Lamb who was killed.
⁹If you have ears, then listen!
¹⁰If you are doomed to be captured,
you will be captured.
If you are doomed to be killed by a sword,
you will be killed by a sword.
This means that God's people must learn to endure and be faithful!
¹¹I now saw another beast. This one came out of the ground. It had two horns like a lamb, but spoke like a dragon. ¹²It worked for the beast whose fatal wound had been healed. And it used all its authority to force the earth and its people to worship that beast. ¹³It worked mighty miracles, and while people watched, it even made fire come down from the sky.
¹⁴This second beast fooled people on earth by working miracles for the first one. Then it talked them into making an idol in the form of the beast that did not die after being wounded by a sword. ¹⁵It was allowed to put breath into the idol, so that it could speak. Everyone who refused to worship the idol of the beast was put to death. ¹⁶All people were forced to put a mark on their right hand or forehead. Whether they were powerful or weak, rich or poor, free people or slaves, ¹⁷they all had to have this mark, or else they could not buy or sell anything. This mark stood for the name of the beast and for the number of its name.
¹⁸You need wisdom to understand the number of the beast! But if you are smart enough, you can figure this out. Its number is six hundred sixty-six, and it stands for a person.

Haman Plans To Destroy the Jews

Esther 3 Later, King Xerxes promoted Haman the son of Hammedatha to the highest position in his kingdom. Haman was a descendant of Agag, ²and the king had given orders for his officials at the royal gate to honor Haman by kneeling down to him. All of them obeyed except Mordecai. ³When the other officials asked Mordecai why he disobeyed the king's command, ⁴he said, "Because I am a Jew." They spoke to him for several days about kneeling down, but he still refused to obey. Finally, they reported this to Haman, to find out if he would let Mordecai get away with it.
⁵Haman was furious to learn that Mordecai refused to kneel down and honor him. ⁶And when he found out that Mordecai was a Jew, he knew that killing only Mordecai was not enough. Every Jew in the whole kingdom had to be killed.
⁷It was now the twelfth year of the rule of King Xerxes. During Nisan, the first month of the year, Haman said, "Find out the best time for me to do this." The time chosen was Adar, the twelfth month.
⁸Then Haman went to the king and said:

Your Majesty, there are some people who live all over your kingdom and won't have a thing to do with anyone else. They have customs that are different from everyone else's, and they refuse to obey your laws. We would be better off to get rid of them! ⁹Why not give orders for all of them to be killed? I can promise that you will get tons of silver for your treasury.

¹⁰The king handed his official ring to Haman, who hated the Jews, and the king told him, ¹¹"Do what you want with those people! You can keep their money."
¹²On the thirteenth day of Nisan, Haman called in the king's secretaries and ordered them to write letters in every language used in the kingdom. The letters were written in the name of the king and sealed by using the king's own ring. At once they were sent to the king's highest officials, the governors of each province, and the leaders of the different nations in the kingdom of Xerxes.
¹³The letters were taken by messengers to every part of the kingdom, and this is what was said in the letters:

On the thirteenth day of Adar, the twelfth month, all Jewish men, women, and children are to be killed. And their property is to be taken.

^14-15King Xerxes gave orders for these letters to be posted where they could be seen by everyone all over the kingdom. The king's command was obeyed, and one of the letters was read aloud to the people in the walled city of Susa. Then the king and Haman sat down to drink together, but no one in the city could figure out what was going on.

Mordecai Asks for Esther's Help

Esther 4 When Mordecai heard about the letter, he tore his clothes in sorrow and put on sackcloth. Then he covered his head with ashes and went through the city, crying and weeping. ²But he could go only as far as the palace gate, because no one wearing sackcloth was allowed inside the palace. ³In every province where the king's orders were read, the Jews cried and mourned, and they went without eating. Many of them even put on sackcloth and sat in ashes.
⁴When Esther's servant girls and her other servants told her what Mordecai was doing, she became very upset and sent Mordecai some clothes to wear in place of the sackcloth. But he refused to take them.
⁵Esther had a servant named Hathach, who had been given to her by the king. So she called him in and said, "Find out what's wrong with Mordecai and why he's acting this way."
⁶Hathach went to Mordecai in the city square in front of the palace gate, ⁷and Mordecai told him everything that had happened. He also told him how much money Haman had promised to add to the king's treasury, if all the Jews were killed.
⁸Mordecai gave Hathach a copy of the orders for the murder of the Jews and told him that these had been read in Susa. He said, "Show this to Esther and explain what it means. Ask her to go to the king and beg him to have pity on her people, the Jews!"
⁹Hathach went back to Esther and told her what Mordecai had said. ¹⁰She answered, "Tell Mordecai ¹¹there is a law about going in to see the king, and all his officials and his people know about this law. Anyone who goes in to see the king without being invited by him will be put to death. The only way that anyone can be saved is for the king to hold out the gold scepter to that person. And it's been thirty days since he has asked for me."
¹²When Mordecai was told what Esther had said, ¹³he sent back this reply, "Don't think that you will escape being killed with the rest of the Jews, just because you live in the king's palace. ¹⁴If you don't speak up now, we will somehow get help, but you and your family will be killed. It could be that you were made queen for a time like this!"
¹⁵Esther sent a message to Mordecai, saying, ¹⁶"Bring together all the Jews in Susa and tell them to go without eating for my sake! Don't eat or drink for three days and nights. My servant girls and I will do the same. Then I will go in to see the king, even if it means I must die."
¹⁷Mordecai did everything Esther told him to do.

Psalm 106
A Nation Asks for Forgiveness

¹We will celebrate and praise you, LORD!
You are good to us, and your love never fails.
²No one can praise you enough
for all of the mighty things you have done.
³You bless those people who are honest and fair
in everything they do.

⁴Remember me, LORD, when you show kindness
by saving your people.
⁵Let me prosper with the rest of your chosen ones,
as they celebrate with pride because they belong to you.

⁶We and our ancestors have sinned terribly.
⁷When they were in Egypt, they paid no attention
to your marvelous deeds or your wonderful love.
And they turned against you at the Red Sea.

⁸But you were true to your name,
and you rescued them to prove how mighty you are.
⁹You said to the Red Sea, "Dry up!"
Then you led your people across
on land as dry as a desert.
¹⁰You saved all of them
¹¹and drowned every one of their enemies.
¹²Then your people trusted you and sang your praises.

¹³But they soon forgot what you had done
and rejected your advice.
¹⁴They became greedy for food
and tested you there in the desert.
¹⁵So you gave them what they wanted,
but later you destroyed them with a horrible disease.

¹⁶Everyone in camp was jealous of Moses
and of Aaron, your chosen priest.
¹⁷Dathan and Abiram rebelled,
and the earth opened up and swallowed them.
¹⁸Then fire broke out and destroyed all of their followers.

¹⁹At Horeb your people made and worshiped
the statue ²⁰of a bull, instead of you, their glorious God.
²¹You worked powerful miracles to save them from Egypt,
but they forgot about you
²²and the fearsome things you did at the Red Sea.
²³You were angry and started to destroy them,
but Moses, your chosen leader, begged you not to do it.