Revelation 13:15 And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.
As it was throughout history, the use of force will be the last resort after incentives and other sweeteners do not work. There will be tremendous pressure to bow down in order to retain your rights, and we can expect these pressures to be coming from unlikely sources. The mark of the beast spoken of in Revelation is a pressure campaign to get the people of God to bow down to a false system of worship, and efforts will be made in the extreme, to starve individuals into compliance.
But when these and other measures are exhausted, there will be only one more tool in the tool box, the use of brute force for this is the very last page of the playbook used by man’s mortal foe, through human agencies…. Revelation 13:11 And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spoke as a dragon. 12 And he exercises all the power of the first beast before him, and causes the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.
Then the servant of The Lord lays out in a graphic manner, what kinds of pressure and arm twisting we should expect from frenemies and foes alike. This is none other than a wakeup call for us to renew our commitment to serving and obeying God first…. Revelation 13:16 And he causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads.
Revelation 13:17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
May God add His blessing to the study of His word. “Good night” and God bless!