Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“In amazement the whole earth followed the beast.”
NL Daily Devotion for Friday, August 29, 2025
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
This beast is the Roman Empire. (Metzger p.75) Enormous. Powerful. Intimidating. Who wouldn’t have been in amazement? Who wouldn’t have followed the beast? For much of the time, the Roman Empire was pretty open to individual religious practices within its borders. But periodically, certain emperors, usually in attempt to restore the greatness of an earlier era, would crack down on differences, especially among those who refused to follow the Roman religious syncretism which sort of folded all traditions into one, so long as the emperor was seen as the main god. Early Christians weren’t having this, of course. It was Jesus/God and no one else. So they were persecuted by this “beast” who uttered blasphemies while most of the rest of the world just went along with it.
Other beasts have arisen throughout time. Nations whose greed for wealth and power caused them to behave in ways Jesus would never have endorsed. The whole African slave trade and every country that participated in it. Nazi Germany. And now this insane U.S. nationalism/exceptionalism (and the increase in similar nationalism and violence in other countries) that has the lot of us bowing down to money and fame and power, leaving many of us morally bankrupt and creating a culture of lies and hatred in order to keep us from questioning the worship of these other gods. It seems as though, in amazement, most of the world is following this materialistic beast to the detriment of millions of people and creation as a whole.
It can’t hurt to look honestly at our own lives and ask ourselves who and what we are worshipping on a daily basis, and perhaps how we can free ourselves from the influence of the beast so that we are able to work to defeat it.
How do my daily habits, routines, and practices support our culture of money-worship?
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Metzger, Bruce M. Breaking the Code: Understanding the Book of Revelation. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1993.
