Up and Down

John ascends to heaven at the bidding of a trumpet-voice (4:1); an angel ascends from the east with the seal of God in his hand (7:2); since and the prayers of the saints ascend to heaven from the censor (8:4); the two witnesses ascend to heaven (11:12, 2x).

There are “infernal” ascents as well. Shortly after smoke ascends from the censor to heaven, smoke ascends from the abyss and blots the sun, a cloud that becomes a cloud of locorpions (9:2). The beast ascends from the abyss to make war on the two witnesses and kill them (11:7). After the witnesses ascend, we see the ascent of the dragon from the sea (13:1), and then another ascent from the land (13:11). Ultimately, what ascends from the beasts and enemies of the saints is the smoke of their torment (14:11; 19:3), as the beast that ascends from the abyss is cast down again (17:8). When after the millennium the nations ascend to a plain to encircle the camp of the saints, fire comes from heaven to consume them (20:9). 

All the ascents of the wicked are temporary, and end up in permanent falls. They are beasts, and so in the end their breath “descends downward to the earth” (Ecclesiastes 3:21). They are beasts like the beasts in Daniel 7, who ascend from the sea only to be ruled by one like the Son of Man.

We should put these ascents in the context of the world-picture laid out in Genesis 1 and assumed throughout the rest of the Bible. Heaven, earth, and sea equal God’s environment, the high place of God’s people, and the sea. Sea is naturally lower than the land, and so a sea beast has to be elevated to rule the land. A beast can be quite the thing in the ocean but only rules the land by ascent. Literally, this is about the Roman beast ascending from the sea of Gentiles to become a ruler in Judea, in the land. Once there, he is joined by another beast, a beast who is already part of the highland, but who is raised up above the highland to reign over it.

The end of these beasts is hardly surprising, given their origin. They both ascend, come up from low places to the heights. But they are summoned to ascend by the dragon, who has already been thrown down from heaven. He can only summon them so far. He can’t call them all the way to the heavenly places because he’s not there anymore. 

The fall of the beasts is expected too because there is already a beast in heaven. Ferocious as they are in their ascent, beasts from sea and land are doomed, because the reigning beast is the Lamb, who is the Lion of Judah.