“No man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.” Revelation 13:17
I suspect that eventually probably everyone will have to decide whether or not they will receive the chip, Christian and non-Christian alike. But we know that God looks at the heart. Whether we have a chip or not does not change what’s in our heart, any more than a number etched into the skin of a Jew could make him or her a Nazi. Jews were forced to take the mark their enemy gave; they had no choice. But this did not change their hearts or make them evil and corrupt, and certainly did not put them out of favor with God.
Proverbs 4:23 tell us to “keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.”
The biblical numerical meaning for the number three is “completeness” or “fully complete”. Examples are:
the Trinity, the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, the three in one, making up a perfect, complete God.
the Ark of the Covenant contained three sacred objects ‘The jar of manna, Aaron’s staff that had budded, and the stone tablets of the covenant”
Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japeth
Daniel regularly prayed three times a day giving thanks to God
Jesus answered Satan’s threefold temptation by citing three scriptural passages
Peter denied three times that he knew Jesus
Paul prayed three times for the Lord to remove the thorn from his flesh
Man is made up of three parts, the mind, the body, and the soul.
The biblical meaning of the number six is “man” and/or “man-animal”.
Man was created on the sixth day.
The gold lampstand for the tabernacle had six branches coming off it. Remember that Jesus said He is the vine and we are the branches, which means the lampstand represents Jesus and the six branches again represent man and his imperfection.
Joshua marched around the city of Jericho for six days. Nothing he could do in his own strength/nature could make the wall come down. But on the seventh day God brought down the wall.
The number seven means complete perfection.
Jesus made seven statements while being crucified…
“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”
“Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise”
“Woman, behold, your son!” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!”
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”;
“I thirst”
“It is finished”
“Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!”
Jesus used seven metaphors to describe himself as the only way to salvation.
The bread of life
The light of the world
The gate to salvation
The good shepherd
The resurrection and the life
The way, the truth, and the life
The vine
The number one represents the Godhead, the one God.
When you take six (man) and add one (God) you get complete perfection!
You many be asking by now, “what does any of this have to do with buying and selling”?
Three sixes (666) is speaking of having that animal, or “beast nature” in all three parts of your being, mind, body, and soul. Then you are completely (3) under the influence of the beast nature (6). Remember that many words in the bible mean different things than we think they do. As I mentioned in my previous post, forehead represents our thoughts, government, authority, etc. and hands and feet represents our works and our walk.
Now, let’s zero in on the meaning of “buying and selling” and when that will take place. As I said before, I suspect that there will come a time when people will have to decide about taking the chip. Right now people are doing it willingly. There very possibly could be a time in the future that it becomes “mandatory.”
As far as the buying and selling, we are already seeing this in action in many ways.
For instance, there are many businesses who have stated that unless you have the same views they do concerning homosexuality, transgender, gender neutral, etc., they don’t want to serve you. Many cake decorators have been sued for refusing to make a wedding cake for homosexual couple’s weddings. We see cases like this all over the news. Christians are “marked” as being different from the world and the world doesn’t like us. We are frowned at for our unpopular views and in many cases already certain businesses have flatly refused to trade (buy or sell) with us. These are just a couple of examples. God wants us to look to Him to be our provision. When the Lord is fully and completely our Shepherd, like David, we shall not want for anything. He fed the Israelites mana in the desert for years so we know that our God is well able.