Saturday, December 10, 2011

Standing On The Sand

Revelation 13:1 KJV
And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.

All of the writers are quick to note that the sea is representative of the troubled masses of people. It seems to be used that way throughout the Bible. During the Tribulation that sea will be most troubled. And so the beast that rises out of it should be viewed as a man who, though in the midst of the mass of humanity, rises to be seen by all in the masses.

I don't have any trouble with that. Very frequently and most recently, a particular man whose name was nearly obscure and was certainly unknown to me, rose out of the sea of American politics to become President Barak Obama. That he won the election was astonishing to me because he came out of nowhere to become the leader of the free world.

Back to the text.
While the sea is troubled and the beast rises from it, John said he stood on the sand of the sea observing. His was of course a vision but it represents a safe place in the troubles of this world. The Christian is unique in this world in that, though we are still in the world we are not of the world. Though we may be in some manner impacted by the world, as the sea impacts the sand, we are not of the sea any longer. We are observers of the sea. We stand in a safe place in Jesus Christ and watch the events of the world unfold.

And we pray

And we work to rescue some from the sea onto this safe place.

Sand is unstable in its own right, though not as much as the season. But we who stand on the sand the sea are assured that underneath there is a Rock. And on this Rock we shall never be moved.

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