Beast Out Of The Sea Series

Beast out of the Sea (Revelation 13:1-10)

Today we will examine the government of the Antichrist. We have already seen the nature of Satan’s warfare in our examination of Revelation 12. This will lead us further into an understanding of the government of Satan of his powers which God has to bestow upon him. It is the age old question really, good verses evil. God is absolutely holy but He permits Satan as an agent to test us as we examined last time, Satan prowls around like a lion but it is only like a lion. It’s more like a dog on a leash and even now this power is limited. Satan’s rule will be short but it is God who is really in control of the whole show. We can rest assured even in the midst of this time that God knows what He is doing, because the reality is that He does. The above verses are best seen in reference to the establishment of the false world kingdom that Satan’s agent the Antichrist will reign. Along with the dragon, the antichrist and the false prophet (which we will be getting into in 13:11-18) they form a counter to the Trinity-God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, except in this case it would be Satan (the dragon), Antichrist (the beast out of the sea), and the false prophet (the world religious leader). It is best seen then as a counter to the real Trinity to the real power of God. God operates in order and Satan knows this very fact well since Satan was the worship leader among the angels but fell due to his pride in his position. The reality then is that our focus and our aim in this life should always be to bring honor to the majesty of God. We thus have then seen that Satan’s rule is about to end and the story is being unraveled for us bit by bit as John weaves us in and out of the story and then back into the story, much as our Christian lives are weaved in and out so God weaves His life into us through the trials and tribulations of our lives so that we can see the story more clearly. This is the purpose of the Apostle’s writing that we would understand that even here the Gospel is being unraveled for us to understand in even greater significance and power that we can really walk in His power by faith in His Son Jesus Christ.

Revelation 13:1-2 “And the dragon stood on the shore of the sea. 2And I saw a beast coming out of the sea. He had ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns on his horns, and on each head a blasphemous name. The beast I saw resembled a leopard, but had feet like those of a bear and a mouth like that of a lion. The dragon gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority.”

Once again we return to the dragon that we have already identified as Satan. It is interesting to note though that on the shore of the sea is mentioned here because it depicts the nations of the world in Revelation 20:8. Theron or beast refers to a wild savage vicious monster thus here describing the Antichrist as a ferocious and rapacious personality which would lead us to see that clearly this person is not a beast but represents a kingdom and a person all at the same time. The beast must represent a kingdom because of the complex description of him in the latter half of verse 1, but also at the same time the beast must represent a person since he is always described with personal pronouns (“his, “him”, “he”; vv.1-8, 14:9,11;15:2; 16:2, 10). Daniel (Daniel 7:25; 8:24-25; 11:36-45) and Paul (2nd Thess 2:4) which also describe the Antichrist as a person. This then would lead us to conclude that Scripture views the rise of the final world empire as inseparable, which would further lead us to believe that the Antichrist will not be able to do anything apart from Satan and the final false prophet, which would strengthen the argument above about the unholy trinity as well as serve as further show that this dragon here in view is Satan the commander of archangels of darkness.

The sea here is the abyss, since most of the Old Testament seems to agree with this picture or metaphor to picture the realm of satanic activity (Job 26:12; Pss 74:13-14; 89:9-10; Isa 27:1). As we have already seen some of the demons are in the abyss (9:11-; Luke 831), and Satan himself will be imprisoned in that abyss during the millennial kingdom (20:1-13).

Scripture clearly teaches that the Antichrist will be a man (2 Thess 2:4) and indwelt by a powerful demon more than likely a living breathing Satan since in Revelation 12 we have seen that Satan was thrown down and has no more access at all to the Father in heaven. It has often been said of this man that he will posses great oratory ability to captivate audiences, intellectual genius, great charm, and charisma and have immense leadership power as well; however it is these powers which will be used for the forces of darkness rather than the forces of Light and the result will be a man possessing superhuman power, vast intelligence, and consummate wickedness.