D. Scott Meadows

Let us resume our exposition of Revelation 13 begun this morning. We took most of our time with general advice about how to interpret this passage properly, and only expounded the first two verses in particular. This afternoon we should be able to conclude the exposition, but I will have to be concise.

The first part of the chapter presents a beast from the sea (vv. 1–10). Let us hear it again before continuing.

1 And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. 2 And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority. 3 And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast. 4 And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him? 5 And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. 6 And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven. 7 And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. 8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. 9 If any man have an ear, let him hear. 10 He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.

This morning we noted the appearance (vv. 1–2) of this beast from the sea. It is a seven-headed monster resembling a leopard, a bear, and a lion, and possessing great power from the Devil.

Its Power (vv. 3–8)

The next six verses elaborate on that power, which is

1) A power to persist, despite terrible setbacks (v. 3). “And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death [mg. slain]; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.”

Now remember that this beast is “a system of evil . . . manifest . . . in economic, social, and religious structures on earth” (Beale). The killing of one of the seven heads of the beast is a graphic way to portray substantial, temporary damage to these structures, and yet they rise again to wage war upon Christ’s church. Satan’s kingdom suffers setbacks from all kinds of problems, both internal (as when one group of wicked men demolish what another group of wicked men had set up) and external, for example, when Christ’s kingdom makes inroads by conversions of powerful individuals and reformations of societies and cultures for good. But whatever losses Satan’s kingdom suffers, evil seems to have a marvelous power of reconstitution and perpetuation in this sinful world. This is what we can expect throughout human history until Christ returns. Only He can deal the fatal and final blow to the beast from the sea.

2) A power to seduce and keep captives of Satan (v. 4). “And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?” The whole point of Satan’s scheme is to take the place of God in the hearts of mankind, thus robbing God of His due to be glorified and human beings of eternal life in a proper relationship with Him, to the praise of our Savior Jesus Christ. One of the ways Satan seduces and keeps his slaves, called “they” in this verse, is by impressing them with an appearance of the beast’s invincibility against the setbacks symbolically portrayed in verse 3, and they sing its praises, at least by their lives and actions of continued loyalty to the systems of evil.

Now most people who worship Satan and his evil systems do not realize that is what they are doing. But as long as they give their ultimate praise to anyone besides Jesus Christ, and as long as they side with the Church’s enemies, they make their functional lord and master plain enough, and he is the Devil. Pop culture, pop religion, pop politics, and pop-everything is vying for your heart against the straight and narrow way which is to deny yourself, take up your cross daily, and follow Jesus. And the broad way is a way of continued bondage to the devil.

Let me illustrate this from the biblical characterization of idolatry. In his first letter to them, Paul is urging members of the church at Corinthian to make a clean break spiritually and morally from their compromise with the unbelievers in their society. It seems some of them were sinning by participation in pagan worship. So, to shock them with the true nature of this sin, Paul says, “But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils” (1 Cor 10.20). Paul knows this from the Old Testament teaching in Deuteronomy 32.16-17 which says, “They provoked [God] to jealousy with strange gods, with abominations provoked they him to anger. They sacrificed unto devils, not to God; to gods whom they knew not, to new gods that came newly up, whom your fathers feared not.” You see, everyone is faced with a stark religious choice in this world. Sometimes truth has surprising spokesmen. Bob Dylan put it this way in his song, “Gotta Serve Somebody.” He describes all kinds of people in all kinds of situations, and repeats this refrain,

You’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You’re gonna have to serve somebody
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody.
–http://www.bobdylan.com/us/songs/gotta-serve-somebody (accessed 21 Mar 2015)

3) Further, the beast has power say the most outrageous things against God Almighty and His Church for a long, long time (vv. 5-6). “And there was given unto [the beast from the sea] a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.” The 42 months mentioned here is equivalent to the 1260 days and the 3.5 years which symbolize the time between Christ’s first and second comings, that is, during the whole period that Christ’s New Covenant church exists until He consummates His kingdom of grace and glory. God’s “tabernacle” is a visionary way to portray the Church Militant on earth, and “them that dwell in heaven” seems to point to the saints who have already died and gone to be with the Lord. Until Christ returns, He exercises an incredible patience with His worst enemies by letting them have time and space to repent of their sins.

I have seen, for example, YouTube videos where atheists mocked belief in God by saying they were committing the unpardonable sin by uttering blasphemies against the Holy Spirit. And instead of killing them on the spot, the Lord preserved their lives, gave them the means to post their wicked videos, and perhaps even saved some of them—since they may not have actually committed the unpardonable sin in this way. For all we know, these blasphemers may have convinced other unbelievers to harden their hearts further against Christ and His church. We are warranted to think, from this passage in Revelation, that this kind of depravity is only committed by an infernal strength that comes straight from the Devil.

4) Fourthly, the beast from the sea has power to persecute Christians and keep the non-elect for himself and Satan (vv. 7-8). “And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”

The true Church of Christ is made up of “saints,” that is, holy ones, people set apart by God to be especially His. Just like Satan had an “hour of power” over Christ Himself in His crucifixion, even so the Church of Christ is called to suffer. Jesus said to the men conspiring to murder Him, “this is your hour, and the power of darkness” (Luke 22.53). Likewise, the risen Christ said to the church at Sardis, “Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life” (Rev 2.10). And this threat of violence and persecution is one of the important ways that the devil succeeds in keeping everyone from defecting to Christ, except for those eternally chosen by God for salvation.

Its Demise (vv. 9–10)

In verses nine and ten, there is the subtle suggestion of the first beast’s demise. It comes, first, in a call for us to believe these things, and second, in a warning about the miserable end of the wicked. “If any man have an ear, let him hear.” This idiom is a call to faith. More than physical hearing is in view, but a kind of hearing that is a deliberate, obedient response to the exhortation, “let him hear.” This appeal has already appeared seven times in the messages from Jesus to the seven churches of Revelation 2 and 3 (2.7, 11, 17, 29; 3.6, 13, 22). “The exhortation assumes a mixed audience, of which only a part will respond positively” (Beale, on 2.7). And the first phrase, “if any man have an ear,” implies that the faith-response is only possible when and if God grants the grace of faith in the heart. By the grace of God, some people have an ear for God’s truth, and while others are spiritually deaf.

The warning of verse ten stresses the strict justice of the punishments God will inflict upon the unbelieving, impenitent ones. “He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword” (v. 10a). These are both the actions of a victorious military force, and in this context, of the beast that temporarily had received power “to make war with the saints, and to overcome them” (v. 7). All oppression will justly boomerang. For those found to be sinners at last, Judgment Day will measure out just and corresponding punishments, the Lex Talionis, a cosmic realization of the principle, “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.”

The Church’s confidence that God is holy and just and omnipotent is foundational to persevering as persecuted, afflicted saints. “Here is the patience and the faith of the saints” (v. 10b). We know that vengeance is the Lord’s, and that He will repay as He has promised. This induces a holy fear of apostasy and rejoining the devil’s minions, and it also undergirds our determination to remain faithful to the Lord, though it cost our very lives.

Now consider the second beast in Revelation 13,

THE BEAST FROM THE EARTH (13.11–18)

I urge you to attempt a very attentive hearing of the text, this time really trying to take in all the rich details of the second beast.

11 And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. 12 And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. 13 And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, 14 And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live. 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. 16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: 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. 18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.

For time’s sake we must keep our exposition brief, but it should be easier to appreciate the true and spiritual sense of this part from what we have already considered in the first part. In a somewhat parallel manner, John rehearses the appearance, the power, and the number of the second beast, the beast rising from the earth.

Its Appearance (v. 11)

1) First, John saw this beast “coming up out of the earth” (v. 11a). While similarities with the first beast appear, the different origin is clearly intended as a contrast with its rising “up out of the sea” (v. 1). Whereas the first beast is especially associated with the state, this second beast is more religious and in league with it for evil. Beale characterizes the beast from the earth as the state’s “political, religious, and economic allies as its agents to persecute the Church and to deceive the ungodly” (in loc.). This ally of the first beast seems to be called “the false prophet” in Revelation 16.13, making explicit the unholy trinity I mentioned earlier of the dragon and the two beasts,

who represent respectively Satan, the Satanic political system, and the religious support of the political system. This is the first occurrence of “false prophet” in the Apocalypse. The word summarizes the deceptive role of the second beast of ch. 13, whose purpose is to deceive people so that they will worship the first beast (Beale, in loc.).

2) This beast from the earth “had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon” (v. 11b). Just as the first beast alluded to the four beasts of Daniel 7, so this second beast seems to have in mind another in the visions of Daniel, the one mentioned in chapter 8 verse 3, “a ram which had two horns,” perhaps there representing the Medo-Persian empire, but here, also “a trans-cultural, trans-temporal symbol” for any means the devil uses to keep subjects in submission to governments under his influence and control, especially religious means. There may very well be a special concern of false teachers found even within the visible church. The dragon-like speech shows the function of the false teachers to channel satanically-inspired messages and “doctrines of demons” (1 Tim 4.1).

Its Power (vv. 12–17)

Like the first beast, the second also has power, but its power is subservient to the first. It has power

1) to induce worship of the first beast (vv. 12-14). Essentially, these verses start by stating that the second beast succeeds in seducing virtually the whole world to idolatry with the first beast as the focus of admiration. Then the means of that seduction are stated to be a deception fostered by counterfeit miraculous signs, like making fire fall from heaven. The third substantial remark is that this worship takes the form of a manufactured image patterned after the first beast as the object of worship.

It is difficult to say exactly how this vision is being fulfilled throughout church history, and perhaps that is because so many different times and events are in view. But the point is that the devil uses the state and other means to keep people in spiritual darkness and from turning to Christ as Lord and Savior.

2) The second beast also has power to revive the first and to coerce the multitudes into compliance with its nefarious wishes (vv. 15-17). Verse 15 contains another allusion to counterfeit miracles and a revelation of the false prophet’s power of the death penalty for saints who resist the mandated idolatry. Another strategy to gain widespread conformity is the application of severe economic pressure described in verses 16 and 17. The “mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads” is a symbolic label identifying the devil’s cowardly dupes, who are able to get along better in the world than the saints who refuse the mark, and thus are ostracized and oppressed. This kind of mistreatment has always been the lot of God’s people considered as a whole. For example, the book of Hebrews characterizes the people of faith through the ages this way (Heb 11.36-38): they

had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: they were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; (of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.

The true church exists in a period of serious tribulation between Jesus’ first and second coming (cf. Acts 14.22; 2 Tim 3.12).

Any Bible interpreters who interpret this part of the symbolic vision containing the mark of the beast in the hand or forehead in crassly literal way as a UPC code or the arrival of a “cashless society” or some other such foolishness are not to be trusted!

Let us conclude by addressing the one verse in the book of Revelation that has probably been the occasion of the most reckless, ludicrous speculation, but which was intended by God to edify the church of all ages—the famous 666 passage.

Its Number (v. 18)

The text reads, “Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.” It is commonplace for modern evangelicals to assume this pertains to a particular individual yet to appear at some future time who can be identified by some correlation between his name and the number 666, as if this were some kind of Bible code to be cracked by experts in the last days. Many have thought that by assigning numerical values to letters, the name of the Antichrist might be discovered. Candidates have ranged from HITLER (with A=100, B=101, etc.) to Ronald Wilson Reagan (three names with six letters each).

But as with nearly all the numbers in Revelation, this one too has symbolic significance. Six is, as the text says, “the number of a man,” not of a particular individual but the beast figure that is only human and falls terribly short (hence, three sixes) of perfection symbolized by the number seven associated with Christ. Six-six-six is not for identification but for characterization. Satan’s rival kingdom tries to mimic Christ’s but it is inherently and diabolically inferior.

This interpretation is accessible to diligent Bible students in all centuries of church history since Christ ascended to heaven, and it is helpful to all. We need to be reassured by the Spirit of God that our nonconformity to this present age and our atypical loyalty to Jesus Christ is based on truth and will be honored at last, while all who refuse to join us and continue outside the Church are cogs in the wheel of Satan’s great machine churning century after century, all over the world, in an attempt to prevail against Christ and His people. Because of the absolute sovereignty of God and Christ, spiritual victory for the righteous is assured. Our Lord promises us, “Upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”

This concludes our brief survey and interpretation of Revelation 13, and may the Lord strengthen our hearts for Him by means of it. Amen.

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