Of Seals and Marks, Death and Life

Revelation 13:16 is the first use of the word “mark” (charagma). It is a different word from “seal” in chapter 7 (sphragis). 

The mark of the beast looks like a mark of life and power. Those who refuse to worship the image of the beast are threatened with death (13:15), and they are excluded from the exchanges of buying and selling (13:17). If you want to live long and prosper, better get the mark of the beast. While God seals the 144,000 for death, the mark of the beast appears to guarantee rescue from death.

Appearances deceive, especially initial appearances. What looks like a sign of life is actually a marker of death, and vice versa.

This becomes evident when we follow the mark through the remainder of Revelation. From 13:16 through the end of the book, the word is used seven times. The land beasts makes everyone receive a mark on the hand or forehead (13:16), and prohibits those without the mark from buying and selling (13:17). In 14:9, an angel warns that those who have the mark will drink the cup of God’s wrath, and adds that those who worship the beast and receives the mark will have the smoke of torment going up forever (14:11). When an angel pours out the first chalice, it becomes a sore on those who have the mark of the beast (16:2). When the kings gather to make war against the rider on the horse, the beast and the false prophet ho deceived the mark are seized and thrown into the lake of fire (19:20). Those who do not receive the mark come to life and reign with Christ for a thousand year (20:4).

Those who do not receive the mark of the beast do die, but their death is a passage to renewed life. The unmarked, those sealed for death, rise again and reign with Christ. The mark of the beast rescued from immediate death, but the important things don’t happen at the beginning. We only know what the marks and the seals mean when we get to the end of things.