Day 213

“17 So the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her [a]children, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.” Rev 12:17 (NASB)

The balance of law and grace is summed up beautifully in this verse. Law has never been a means of being saved but is a measure of the saved. True Christianity is not faith plus works, but a faith that works. In the book of Hebrews twice Paul says that in the New Covenant the law would be on our hearts not on tablets of stone. (Heb 8:10 and 10:16.) He was quoting Ezekiel 36:26 when he said this. Ezekiel had prophesied about the new covenant and the future role of faith and obedience for a recalcitrant nation.

But what does ‘keep’ mean? The Greek word for “keep” is “tereo,” and it includes the meaning of: watch over, preserve or guard. It would work like this; If I had an expensive car and I was going away for a while and I asked you to look after it until I return, what would you do with it? Look after it or abuse it? I would hope you could, upon my return, present it to me in pristine condition, untainted by abuse.

Our verse for the day makes it evident that the dragon does not like commandment keepers. In fact, Rev 13 points out systematically his war on each of the various commandments. Concerning the last 6, we see in our world how he works to fracture families (5), insight murder (6), create immorality (7), encourage theft, (8) lying (9), and coveting (10).

The dragon’s war on the first 4 commandments are strongly presented in chapter 13 The 1st commandment is counterfeited in V:4 the 2nd in V:15 the 3rd in V:6 and the 4th in V: 16 & 17. These are the commandments that particularly focus on the worship of Yahweh. Who to worship, how to worship, the approach of worship, and the time of worship.

The keyword in the next 2 chapters is worship, occurring 9 times in chapters 13 and 14. As a spiritual exercise try highlighting them and noting their context.