The Two Beasts

Revelation 13 Then I saw a beast coming up out of the sea. It had ten horns and seven heads; on each of its horns there was a crown, and on each of its heads there was a name that was insulting to God. ²The beast looked like a leopard, with feet like a bear's feet and a mouth like a lion's mouth. The dragon gave the beast his own power, his throne, and his vast authority. ³One of the heads of the beast seemed to have been fatally wounded, but the wound had healed. The whole earth was amazed and followed the beast. ⁴Everyone worshiped the dragon because he had given his authority to the beast. They worshiped the beast also, saying, "Who is like the beast? Who can fight against it?"
⁵The beast was allowed to make proud claims which were insulting to God, and it was permitted to have authority for forty-two months. ⁶It began to curse God, his name, the place where he lives, and all those who live in heaven. ⁷It was allowed to fight against God's people and to defeat them, and it was given authority over every tribe, nation, language, and race. ⁸All people living on earth will worship it, except those whose names were written before the creation of the world in the book of the living which belongs to the Lamb that was killed.
⁹"Listen, then, if you have ears! ¹⁰Whoever is meant to be captured will surely be captured; whoever is meant to be killed by the sword will surely be killed by the sword. This calls for endurance and faith on the part of God's people."
¹¹Then I saw another beast, which came up out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb's horns, and it spoke like a dragon. ¹²It used the vast authority of the first beast in its presence. It forced the earth and all who live on it to worship the first beast, whose wound had healed. ¹³This second beast performed great miracles; it made fire come down out of heaven to earth in the sight of everyone. ¹⁴And it deceived all the people living on earth by means of the miracles which it was allowed to perform in the presence of the first beast. The beast told them to build an image in honor of the beast that had been wounded by the sword and yet lived. ¹⁵The second beast was allowed to breathe life into the image of the first beast, so that the image could talk and put to death all those who would not worship it. ¹⁶The beast forced all the people, small and great, rich and poor, slave and free, to have a mark placed on their right hands or on their foreheads. ¹⁷No one could buy or sell without this mark, that is, the beast's name or the number that stands for the name.
¹⁸This calls for wisdom. Whoever is intelligent can figure out the meaning of the number of the beast, because the number stands for the name of someone. Its number is 666.

Haman Plots to Destroy the Jews

Esther 3 Some time later King Xerxes promoted a man named Haman to the position of prime minister. Haman was the son of Hammedatha, a descendant of Agag. ²The king ordered all the officials in his service to show their respect for Haman by kneeling and bowing to him. They all did so, except for Mordecai, who refused to do it. ³The other officials in the royal service asked him why he was disobeying the king's command; ⁴day after day they urged him to give in, but he would not listen to them. "I am a Jew," he explained, "and I cannot bow to Haman." So they told Haman about this, wondering if he would tolerate Mordecai's conduct. ⁵Haman was furious when he realized that Mordecai was not going to kneel and bow to him, ⁶and when he learned that Mordecai was a Jew, he decided to do more than punish Mordecai alone. He made plans to kill every Jew in the whole Persian Empire.
⁷In the twelfth year of King Xerxes' rule, in the first month, the month of Nisan, Haman ordered the lots to be cast ("purim," they were called) to find out the right day and month to carry out his plot. The thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar, was decided on.
⁸So Haman told the king, "There is a certain race of people scattered all over your empire and found in every province. They observe customs that are not like those of any other people. Moreover, they do not obey the laws of the empire, so it is not in your best interests to tolerate them. ⁹If it please Your Majesty, issue a decree that they are to be put to death. If you do, I guarantee that I will be able to put 375 tons of silver into the royal treasury for the administration of the empire."
¹⁰The king took off his ring, which was used to stamp proclamations and make them official, and gave it to the enemy of the Jewish people, Haman son of Hammedatha, the descendant of Agag. ¹¹The king told him, "The people and their money are yours; do as you like with them."
¹²So on the thirteenth day of the first month Haman called the king's secretaries and dictated a proclamation to be translated into every language and system of writing used in the empire and to be sent to all the rulers, governors, and officials. It was issued in the name of King Xerxes and stamped with his ring. ¹³Runners took this proclamation to every province of the empire. It contained the instructions that on a single day, the thirteenth day of Adar, all Jews--young and old, women and children--were to be killed. They were to be slaughtered without mercy and their belongings were to be taken. ¹⁴The contents of the proclamation were to be made public in every province, so that everyone would be prepared when that day came.
¹⁵At the king's command the decree was made public in the capital city of Susa, and runners carried the news to the provinces. The king and Haman sat down and had a drink while the city of Susa was being thrown into confusion.

Mordecai Asks for Esther's Help

Esther 4 When Mordecai learned of all that had been done, he tore his clothes in anguish. Then he dressed in sackcloth, covered his head with ashes, and walked through the city, wailing loudly and bitterly, ²until he came to the entrance of the palace. He did not go in because no one wearing sackcloth was allowed inside. ³Throughout all the provinces, wherever the king's proclamation was made known, there was loud mourning among the Jews. They fasted, wept, wailed, and most of them put on sackcloth and lay in ashes.
⁴When Esther's servant women and eunuchs told her what Mordecai was doing, she was deeply disturbed. She sent Mordecai some clothes to put on instead of the sackcloth, but he would not accept them. ⁵Then she called Hathach, one of the palace eunuchs appointed as her servant by the king, and told him to go to Mordecai and find out what was happening and why. ⁶Hathach went to Mordecai in the city square at the entrance of the palace. ⁷Mordecai told him everything that had happened to him and just how much money Haman had promised to put into the royal treasury if all the Jews were killed. ⁸He gave Hathach a copy of the proclamation that had been issued in Susa, ordering the destruction of the Jews. Mordecai asked him to take it to Esther, explain the situation to her, and have her go and plead with the king and beg him to have mercy on her people. ⁹Hathach did this, ¹⁰and Esther gave him this message to take back to Mordecai: ¹¹"If anyone, man or woman, goes to the inner courtyard and sees the king without being summoned, that person must die. That is the law; everyone, from the king's advisers to the people in the provinces, knows that. There is only one way to get around this law: if the king holds out his gold scepter to someone, then that person's life is spared. But it has been a month since the king sent for me."
¹²When Mordecai received Esther's message, ¹³he sent her this warning: "Don't imagine that you are safer than any other Jew just because you are in the royal palace. ¹⁴If you keep quiet at a time like this, help will come from heaven to the Jews, and they will be saved, but you will die and your father's family will come to an end. Yet who knows--maybe it was for a time like this that you were made queen!"
¹⁵Esther sent Mordecai this reply: ¹⁶"Go and get all the Jews in Susa together; hold a fast and pray for me. Don't eat or drink anything for three days and nights. My servant women and I will be doing the same. After that, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. If I must die for doing it, I will die."
¹⁷Mordecai then left and did everything that Esther had told him to do.

The LORD's Goodness to His People

Psalm 106 Praise the LORD!
Give thanks to the LORD, because he is good;
his love is eternal.
²Who can tell all the great things he has done?
Who can praise him enough?
³Happy are those who obey his commands,
who always do what is right.

⁴Remember me, LORD, when you help your people;
include me when you save them.
⁵Let me see the prosperity of your people
and share in the happiness of your nation,
in the glad pride of those who belong to you.

⁶We have sinned as our ancestors did;
we have been wicked and evil.
⁷Our ancestors in Egypt did not understand God's wonderful acts;
they forgot the many times he showed them his love,
and they rebelled against the Almighty at the Red Sea.
⁸But he saved them, as he had promised,
in order to show his great power.
⁹He gave a command to the Red Sea,
and it dried up;
he led his people across on dry land.
¹⁰He saved them from those who hated them;
he rescued them from their enemies.
¹¹But the water drowned their enemies;
not one of them was left.
¹²Then his people believed his promises
and sang praises to him.

¹³But they quickly forgot what he had done
and acted without waiting for his advice.
¹⁴They were filled with craving in the desert
and put God to the test;
¹⁵so he gave them what they asked for,
but also sent a terrible disease among them.

¹⁶There in the desert they were jealous of Moses
and of Aaron, the LORD's holy servant.
¹⁷Then the earth opened up and swallowed Dathan
and buried Abiram and his family;
¹⁸fire came down on their followers
and burned up those wicked people.

¹⁹They made a gold bull-calf at Sinai
and worshiped that idol;
²⁰they exchanged the glory of God
for the image of an animal that eats grass.
²¹They forgot the God who had saved them
by his mighty acts in Egypt.
²²What wonderful things he did there!
What amazing things at the Red Sea!
²³When God said that he would destroy his people,
his chosen servant, Moses, stood up against God
and kept his anger from destroying them.