(Part 8)
Scott Bayles, pastor
Blooming Grove Christian Church: 11/19/2017
If you’re just joining us, we are eight weeks into the curious and often confusing book of Revelation. As enigmatic as Revelation may be, I hope you’ve found this series both enlightening as encouraging. And I hope you’ll stick with me to the end… because that’s the best part.
Last week, in Revelation 12, we witnessed two wonders—a mother and monster. The mother symbolized faithful Israel and gave birth to the Messiah. The monster—a scarlet, seven-headed dragon—represented Satan. When Satan fails to devour Christ on earth, he wages war in heaven and is cast down in defeat. The devil then directs his wrath at Christians—Christ’ brothers and sisters on earth. And, in order to slaughter as many Christians as possible, the dragon enlists the aid of two more beasts, which brings us to chapter 13.
If you have a Bible or an app on your phone open it to Revelation 13. The beast introduced in this chapter is perhaps the most mystifying, yet mesmerizing character in all of Revelation. All sorts of sensational claims have been made concerning the identity of the beast, the mark of the beast and the number of the beast, which John tells us is 666. Likely candidates have included Adolf Hitler, Osama bin Laden, and the Roman Catholic Church. American president George W. Bush and British prime minister Tony Blair have also surfaced on the lists of prophecy pundits.
Rather than joining in this sensationalistic game of pin-the-tail-on-the-beast, Christians need only go to Scripture to find the answer. Before we get to the identity of the beast, however, we need to understand the imagery of the beast.
• THE IMAGERY OF THE BEAST
As the previous chapter closes, Satan—the dragon—dramatically takes his stand upon the seashore, as if calling forth his beastly servant from the ocean depths. Suddenly, the sea begins to bubble as John writes, “Then I saw a beast rising up out of the sea. It had seven heads and ten horns, with ten crowns on its horns. And written on each head were names that blasphemed God. This beast looked like a leopard, but it had the feet of a bear and the mouth of a lion! And the dragon gave the beast his own power and throne and great authority” (Revelation 13:1-2).
The first thing we should notice is that the beast has seven heads and ten horns, just like the dragon. Later, we discover that the beast is red in color, also like Satan. This similarity between the dragon and the beast symbolizes the bond between them. Just as people are made in the image of God, the beast is made in the image of Satan. The dragon’s horns represent power and his crowns symbolize authority. Now these qualities are transferred to the beast. The beast of Revelation is a perverse puppet. Follow the strings of this monstrous marionette and you find Satan himself.
But the dragon isn’t the only monster to which the beast bears a resemblance. John says, “This beast looked like a leopard, but it had the feet of a bear and the mouth of a lion!” This imagery is drawn, once again, from the Old Testament; specifically, from Daniel 7. In Daniel 7, Daniel experiences an apocalyptic vision that begins with a great storm churning the surface of the sea. Suddenly, four huge beasts explode to the surface. One looks like a leopard. One looks like a bear. One looks like a lion. Daniel describes the fourth beast as “terrifying, dreadful, and very strong” and having ten horns.
The beast John sees cleverly combines elements from each of Daniel’s four beasts into one hideous monster. An angelic guide assures Daniel, “These four huge beasts represent four kingdoms that will arise from the earth” (Daniel 7:17 NLT). This, of course, helps us identify the beast of Revelation, but we’ll get to that later. For now, let’s focus on the implications of this imagery.
First, God depicts Satan as a scary, seven-headed dragon. Then he uses that same imagery, along with an abnormal amalgamation of aggressive animals, to depict this beast. Why? Why create such a horrifyingly hideous picture?
I believe God wanted to show John, and us by extension, what evil really looks like. We need these shocking images because we don’t always recognize evil for what it is. The world teaches us to call unnice things by nicer names. Instead of cheating, its creative accounting. Instead of lying, its massaging the truth. Instead of profanity, its colorful language. Instead of fornication, its consensual sex. Instead of adultery, it an affair. The list goes on and on. The Bible says, “Woe to those who call… evil good,” yet that’s just what we’ve done.
Through the use of monstrous metaphors, God teaches us to see evil more clearly. God wants John to see that Satan and those serve his cause are not just misunderstood, they’re monsters—ugly, destructive, and unholy. Now, in addition to the imagery used to describe the beast, this chapter also reveals the intent of the beast.
• THE INTENT OF THE BEAST
What does this beast want? What’s he all about? As John’s vision continues, he writes:
The beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise its authority for forty-two months. It opened its mouth to blaspheme God, and to slander his name and his dwelling place and those who live in heaven. It was given power to wage war against God’s holy people and to conquer them. And it was given authority over every tribe, people, language and nation. All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast—all whose names have not been written in the Lamb’s book of life. (Revelation 13:5-8 NIV)
We see here, that the beast seeks two things: worship and war.
First, he blasphemes God and wages war on God’s people—Christians. The beast will instigate an intense period of persecution against Christians for forty-two months, or 3 ½ years. Those who worship the beast will cry out, “Who is like the beast? Who can wage war against it?” (Revelation 13:4 NIV). The answer to that rhetorical question is—no one. The beast was like a giant boulder tumbling down a mountainside, flattening everything in its path.
In light of this seemingly unstoppable onslaught, John writes, “Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand. Anyone who is destined for prison will be taken to prison. Anyone destined to die by the sword will die by the sword. This means that God’s holy people must endure persecution patiently and remain faithful” (Revelation 13:9-10 NLT). John warns his readers that many Christians would be caged or killed at the hands of this beast.
But the beast isn’t satisfied by waging war on Christians. He also demands to be worshipped. In fact, a second beast appears whose sole purpose is to ensure the worship of the first beast.
Suddenly cracks form across the earth and dust fills the air. As the surface begins to buckle and budge, John writes, “Then I saw another beast come up out of the earth. He had two horns like those of a lamb, but he spoke with the voice of a dragon. He exercised all the authority of the first beast. And he required all the earth and its people to worship the first beast” (Revelation 13:11-12 NLT).
This second beast is a servant of the first. He convinces and coerces people to worship the beast. Later called a “false prophet” (16:13), this beast performs false miracles on the first beast’s behalf, builds statues of the first beast to be used as objects of worship, and finally forbids anyone from buying or selling in the marketplace unless they bear the mark of the beast (13:13-17).
Together, the two beasts of Revelation put unbelievable pressure on the followers of Jesus. But just who are these beasts? Thankfully, we have more than enough clues within Revelation to discover the identity of the beast.
• THE IDENTITY OF THE BEAST
Remember that the four huge beasts in Daniel’s vision represented four kingdoms. Since, John’s vision uses the same imagery, the beast of Revelation must also represent a kingdom. This is confirmed a few chapters later, when John sees a woman sitting on the beast and an angel explains to John, “This calls for a mind of understanding: the seven heads of the beast represent the seven hills where the woman rules. They also represent seven kings. Five have fallen, the sixth now reigns, and the sevenths is yet to come, but his reign will be brief” (Revelation 17:9-10 NLT).
We’ll explore the identity of the woman next week, but for now, this passage provides the keys to identifying the beast. First, we’re told that the seven heads represent seven hills. In John’s day, the city of Rome was known throughout the world as the city of seven hills, because it was literally built on seven hills.
Furthermore, the seven heads represent seven kings. This undoubtedly refers to the Roman Caesars. Five have fallen: Julius Caesar, Augustus Caesar, Tiberius Caesar, Caligula Caesar, and Claudius Caesar. The seventh is yet to come, but his reign will be brief: Galba, the seventh Caesar, reigned only seven months before his assassination. Finally, the sixth who now reigns: Nero Caesar.
Thus, the beast of Revelation represents the Roman Empire and the current head of the beast is none other than Emperor Nero. Born in A.D. 37, Nero murdered his way to the imperial throne, which he occupied from A.D. 54-68. His life was characterized by debauchery, violence, and extravagance.
Like the beast, Nero Caesar waged war on Christians. As mentioned before, in A.D. 64, a terrible fire broke out in Rome. It was strongly believed that Nero deliberately torched the city in order to justify building a more splendid one, but to escape the blame, Nero pointed his finger at Christians. The Roman historian Tacitus describes the events in his Annals (XV.44):
“And so, to get rid of this rumor, Nero set up as the culprits and punished with the utmost refinement of cruelty a class hated for their abominations, who are commonly called Christians. Christus, from whom their name is derived, was executed at the hands of the procurator Pontius Pilate in the reign of Tiberius. Checked for a moment, this pernicious superstition again broke out, not only in Judea, the source of the evil, but even in Rome.... Accordingly, arrest was first made of those who confessed [to being Christians]; then, on their evidence, an immense multitude was convicted, not so much on the charge of arson as because of [their] hatred for the human race. Besides being put to death they were made to serve as objects of amusement; they were clothed in the hides of beasts and torn to death by dogs; others were crucified, others set on fire to serve to illuminate the night when daylight failed… All this gave rise to a feeling of pity… for it was felt that they were being destroyed not for the public good but to gratify the cruelty of an individual.”
This terrible persecution lasted from the November of 64 to June of 68, exactly 42 months. According to the historian Eusebius, Nero beheaded Paul, crucified Peter (II.25), and slaughtered a thousand others who held to the testimony of Jesus. At no other time in history could the very foundation of the Christian church be assaulted.
Also, like the beast, Nero demanded to be worshipped. Emperor worship was common in John’s day, but most emperors were worshipped only after their death. They were venerated postmortem. Nero demanded to be worshipped during his lifetime. He instructed the Concilia, a sort of religious police in charge of state religion, to place statues of him in the marketplaces and forbid people from buying or selling without first offering a pinch of incense and pronouncing “Caesar is Lord.” The second beast likely represents the Concilia. They were the ones often responsible for identifying and arresting Christians, per Nero’s orders.
Perhaps the most decisive confirmation comes from the number of the beast. Toward the end of the chapter, John writes, “Wisdom is needed here. Let the one with understanding solve the meaning of the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. His number is 666” (Revelation 13:18 NLT).
All sorts of speculation and sensationalism swirl around this ominous number. However, the number is not six-six-six, as is often said, but six hundred sixty-six. And John explains to his first-century readers that with “wisdom” and “understanding” they could “solve the meaning of the number.” This immediately removes far-future candidates like Stalin, Hitler, or Joel Osteen from the running, because no amount of wisdom or insight would have enabled first-century Christians to identify a far-future individual. So, the number must refer to someone in their day.
It might help for us to understand that early civilizations, like the Jews and Romans, didn’t have a separate numerical system like we do today. Today we have our ABCs and 123s. They didn’t. They just had their ABCs. They used their alphabet as both letters and numbers. A would be 1, B would be 2, C would be 3, all the way to 10. Then the next letter would be 20, then 30, etc. Once they reached 100, the next letter was 200, then 300, etc. This was true for both the Hebrew and Greek numerical system. This means every word or name also had a corresponding numerical value.
For instance, if Americans used the same system, rather than our separate numerical system, the number of my name, Scott, would be 563. The number of my wife’s name, Ashley, would be 844. And this was a common form of code called gematria. In fact, archeologists have discovered ancient graffiti on a wall in the Roman city of Pompeii that reads, “I love the woman whose number is 545.”
When the name Nero Caesar is written in Hebrew (a language less recognizable to Roman authorities), the sum value of the Hebrew letters is 666. You’ll notice, however, that many Bibles contain a footnote stating, “Some manuscripts read 616.” Why might this be? Well, it’s the Latin manuscripts that tend to have 616 instead of 666. When Nero Caesar is written in Latin, the sum value of the Latin letters is 616. This tells us that early translators understood the meaning of the number and changed it accordingly when writing in Latin.
The beast of Revelation is rightly identified as Nero Caesar. Ancient accounts of Nero’s life, most notably The Twelve Caesars by the Roman historian Suetonius, identify Nero as a desperately wicked individual who grossly violated each of the Ten Commandments through a long litany of disgusting demonstrations of depravity. He savagely persecuted Christians whom he had dressed in tar jackets and put on stakes and burned at night to light the streets. He demanded to be worshiped as a god. He castrated of a young boy named Sporus whom he then married publicly. And he brutally murdered of some of his closest family members, including his mother, his wives and his son. Nero was a boisterous, bloodthirsty beast if there ever was one.
Conclusion:
So, as we survey this chapter, it’s obvious how very relevant this message was to the Christians living in John’s day under the thumb of a megalomaniacal murderer, like Nero. But what about us? How is this chapter relevant for you and me?
First, while we may not live in an evil empire ruled by an evil emperor, evil still abounds. False religion and godless governments still populate our planet. Revelation’s portrayal of Satan, Nero and the Concilia as menacing monsters helps us visualize the evil all around us. Sin and Satan still tempt us to make subtle compromises, so we need to keep our eyes open and recognize evil when we see it.
Furthermore, this chapter also reminds us to be sympathetic to the plight of the persecuted church. We may have it easy today, but Christians are still the most persecuted religious group in the world and faithful followers of Jesus are dying for their faith every day. Let us lift them up in prayer before our Almighty God!
Finally, perhaps the most meaningful message for us today is—the beast has been beaten. When the Roman Senate turned against him, Nero took the coward’s way out and died by his own hand. Afterward, Christianity flourished. Eventually Rome declared Christianity its sole authorized religion. And we are living proof that Christianity outlived its persecutors. Over the next 1,400 years the once-great empire experienced a long, lingering death. Today, tourists can walk among the ruins of that ancient civilization but the Kingdom of Christ is alive and well. Jesus promised that all the powers of hell would not conquer his Kingdom. There will always be those who harass, hate and harm the people of God. But we will persevere. We will prevail. We will push forward. No matter what comes our way, we will overwhelming conquer through Christ who loves us. Amen.
Next week, we’ll continue our adventure through Revelation.
Invitation:
In the meantime, even though we are not a persecute people—our lives and livings are not being threatened—we still live in a fallen world and face spiritual, physical, and financial struggles every day. The good news is we don’t have to overcome those challenges alone. We can lean on Jesus and each other along the way. If you could use some help in any area of life, then come talk with me after church, call me at home, or come forward now while we stand and sing.
Let’s sing together church!
