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.
All unbelievers are children of Satan (John 8:44), this man will give that a totally new meaning. We have already visited this symbolism in Revelation 12:3. The description of Antichrist emphasizes the importance of the ten horns by mentioning them ahead of the diadems with them instead of the heads.
Horns in Scripture symbolize strength and power, both for attack and defense (1 Sam 2:1, 10; 2 Sam 22:3; Job 16:15; Pss 18:2; 75:4-5; 89:17,24; 92:10; 112:9; Jer 48:24; Mic 4:13) Here though they bring mention and further clarification the horns do to the fact of the power of Antichrist’s reign during this time of the Great Tribulation. Ten would then fit in with Daniel 7:7,24, and is a symbolic number representing all the world’s political and military might. Antichrist will rise from among these ten (Daniel 7:16-24) and will not rule merely ten nations, but the entire world then (Daniel 7:23). Unlike the seven heads, which represent the seven success world empires, all of the rulers symbolized by the ten horns will rule at the same time (17:12), but under the power of the Antichrist.
Daniel 2
41 Just as you saw that the feet and toes were partly of baked clay and partly of iron, so this will be a divided kingdom; yet it will have some of the strength of iron in it, even as you saw iron mixed with clay. 42 As the toes were partly iron and partly clay, so this kingdom will be partly strong and partly brittle. 43 And just as you saw the iron mixed with baked clay, so the people will be a mixture and will not remain united, any more than iron mixes with clay. 44 "In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever.”
In a very real sense the Antichrist’s kingdom will be a return of the old Roman Empire (the iron legs and ten toes of the statue in Daniel 2 above), whose reign was nothing but pure evil. The roman emperors which John is here using the imagery of where absolute evil to any born again believer in the Messiah even to the point as Nero did during his reign of lining them up and burning them all in the field in front of his palace for pleasure. The kingdom of the Antichrist will be much more than a European confederacy lead by Germany and France, it will be a world wide empire which in turn will be crushed by the return of Christ (the stone that was cute without hands; Daniel 2:23,45), when Christ comes and establishes His earthly kingdom.
We will see later the meaning of the seven heads in Revelation 17 but here they represent seven successive world empires: Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome, and Antichrist’s final world kingdom. The ten diadems or royal crowns indicate the horns’ regal authority and victorious power. The fact that the heads were blasphemous names indicates the fact much like all the other world emperors and world leaders before the Antichrist, these world leaders will demand their subjects worship which will include the taking of divine names for the Antichrist which would in turn lead to them following the Antichrist, “who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God” (2 Thess 2:4).
Daniel 7:3-7, “3 Four great beasts, each different from the others, came up out of the sea. 4 "The first was like a lion, and it had the wings of an eagle. I watched until its wings were torn off and it was lifted from the ground so that it stood on two feet like a man, and the heart of a man was given to it. 5 "And there before me was a second beast, which looked like a bear. It was raised up on one of its sides, and it had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. It was told, ’Get up and eat your fill of flesh!’ 6 "After that, I looked, and there before me was another beast, one that looked like a leopard. And on its back it had four wings like those of a bird. This beast had four heads, and it was given authority to rule. 7 "After that, in my vision at night I looked, and there before me was a fourth beast-terrifying and frightening and very powerful. It had large iron teeth; it crushed and devoured its victims and trampled underfoot whatever was left. It was different from all the former beasts, and it had ten horns.”
The above imagery from Revelation 13:2 and Daniel 7:3-7 are here mentioned and used. The lion is a fierce symbol for the consuming power of the Babylonian Empire. The ferocity, strength and stability of the Medo-Persian Empire led to its depiction as a bear. The Greeks’ swift conquests particularly under mercurial Alexander the Great, reflect the speed and viciousness of the leopard, John lists the three animals in reverse order from Daniel because he was looking backward in time, as Daniel was looking forward in time, lists the animals and the kingdoms they represent in chronological order. Daniel 7:7 indicates that the Antichrist’s kingdom will be a complication of all these kingdoms that they will posses the strength, the swiftness, ferocity and viciousness of all the empires but that this will be Satan’s last and greatest attempt to stop the reign of Christ, but as we have already seen as with all of Satan’s attempts to thwart God’s agenda, it will fall to the purposes of God’s Sovereign hand.
"The dragon gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority."
This here would refer simply to the fact that the dragon or Satan will give power to the beast. God’s supernatural restraint of Antichrist will be removed so the holy angels intervene (2nd Thess 2:7), which will allow Antichrist to rise to power at God’s appointed time, and will temporarily let sin run its course. The Antichrist will share Satan’s throne (2:13), just as the true Christ shares His Father’s throne (3:21; 22:1,3). Antichrist will then have complete unrestrained freedom of action and will answer to no one at this time until the return of Christ.
Revelation 13:3, “One of the heads of the beast seemed to have had a fatal wound, but the fatal wound had been healed. The whole world was astonished and followed the beast.”
The beast himself is slain (13:12, 14;17:8,11). His fatal wound would indicate that one of the kings is here in view, not the empire as a whole in addition to the phrase seemed to which in the NKJV is as if slain which is used in 5:6 of the Lord Jesus Christ, implying that is it also used of a person in this passage. A popular idea at this time would be seen in the following fact that many of the early Christians thought that Nero would rise from his committing of suicide in 68 AD and would rise from the dead, but it is doubtful that many of the early Christians believed in this, but also the beast will suffer violent death at the hands of another (13:14), which would show us that Nero obviously isn’t the person in view here that the Apostle John has in mind either.
Added to this is the fact that the head whose fatal wound had been healed can only be the future Antichrist in view here despite the fact of his death being real or fake (14;2nd Thess 2:9) is not clear either. It may be that the Antichrist is really killed and God for His own purposes will restore the Antichrist and allow him to be resurrected. More than likely though Antichrist’s alleged death and resurrection will be counterfeit which would fit right into the whole of our discussion today in the first place since we have already seen Satan will have an unholy trinity and now we see that Satan will have unholy resurrection as well thus counterfeiting Christ’s death and resurrection. This could be seen as one of the lying wonders spread by the false prophet (13:12-15; 2nd Thess 2:9 NKJV). This should not be shocking either when this happens in the pluralistic, pagan, New Age pantheistic, and Eastern mystic society in which we live in now these days, more people than ever would be inclined to believe in a reincarnation than a resurrection. It doesn’t’ matter what happens however since in view here the Antichrist will already be greatly popular having transcended death his popularity will reach fever pitch. Since the Tribulation will be a time of incredibly amount of death, Antichrist’s seeming victory over death will win him all the followers he needs to build up his army in preparation to fight the Lord Jesus Christ.
Revelation 13:4, “Men worshiped the dragon because he had given authority to the beast, and they also worshiped the beast and asked, "Who is like the beast? Who can make war against him?"
2 Thessalonians 2:4, “He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.”
Here again we draw upon our discussion of the unholy trinity, as Satan its leader gave power to the Antichrist, the spreader of this false religion. Despite the fact that we have thus already discussed Antichrist’s popularity, it is this popularity that will sky rocket and people will ask the above questions in verse 13:4, “Who is like the beast? And, “Who can make war against him.” This then could be seen by the rise of the final false prophet whose job it will be to, “He exercised all the authority of the first beast on his behalf, and made the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose fatal wound had been healed. (Revelation 13:12). Unbeknownst to all they will be worshipping all three here of the unholy trinity, Satan, the Antichrist and the false prophet will all demand worship but it will be Satan who is the real power behind all the other two. To draw this point out here let us go back to the Epistles in 1st Corinthians 10:20, “No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons.” People involved in other religions today think that they are in fact worshipping the gods or the philosophies that they adopt; however it is far more serious than this. The people involved in anti-biblical teaching are in fact worshipping demons who hold people under control by that very religion. It is merely the demon impersonating that particular god whose teaching goes against what Biblical Christianity and Biblical Teaching show us regarding the Word of God. It will be like this for many people during this time as it is now, they will think who they are worshipping albeit in this case a supernaturally powerful leader, but the sad reality is that they will be worshipping Satan.
"Who is like the beast? Who can make war against him?" refers to the fact that Antichrist will be worship as God (Exodus 15:11; Pss 35:10; 113:5; Isa 40:18,25; 46:5; Jer 49:19; Mic 7:18), Antichrist’s deluded worshippers will attribute deity to him (2 Thess 2:4), but this answer by any born again believer would be no as we have thus discussed already. In the political, military and religious realms, Antichrist will reign supreme and unchallenged by earth and hell.
Revelation 13:5-6, “5The beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise his authority for forty-two months. 6He opened his mouth to blaspheme God, and to slander his name and his dwelling place and those who live in heaven.”
Was given a mouth refers to God’s sovereign control of events (6:4, 8:7:2; 9:5; daniel 4:1, 25,32). Satan and his minions will totally disregard God’s holy name and continue on uttering proud words and blasphemies against His Holy Word. This has been Satan’s original plan since day one of his fall when he fell from heaven and holiness. Satan said in his heart, “I will make myself like the Most High.” (Isa 14:14). This would then lead us to see why Satan desires so much to take the seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God (2nd Thess 2:4). Daniel 7:8 points out that Satan will have a mouth uttering great posts, while verse 11 of that same chapter points out that the sound of the boastful words which the horn was speaking. Daniel further notes that Antichrist, “will speak out against the Most High. and will speak monstrous things against the God of gods” (7:25; 11:36)
Revelation 13:6He opened his mouth to blaspheme God, and to slander his name and his dwelling place and those who live in heaven", which here now shows the original intent of Satan all along. Satan desires to blasphemy all that God is and will ever be, His temple, His name and his dwelling place are all tied into who God is. This would then be a direct shot at God’s Person, His abode, and His people, both the redeemed saints and the holy angels. God will grant Satan authority for forty two months which is the last three and a half years of 1,260 days of the Tribulation, the seventieth week of Daniel’s prophecy found in Daniel 9:24), where Satan, his unholy trinity, and his unholy minions will be able to operate within that time limit till the true Ruler of the Universe comes, but until then these evil minions will dominate the known world at this time while still be restricted from admittance into heaven’s gates.
Revelation 13:7, “He was given power to make war against the saints and to conquer them. And he was given authority over every tribe, people, language and nation.”
Once again we go back to the fact that Satan has to be given permission by almighty God to do, thus stressing that God never relinquishes His absolute control of events. Believers in the true God will bear the brunt of his murderous fury. The result of this will be a world wide slaughter of God’s people (6:9-11;7:9-17;11:7;17:6; Daniel 7:25). This is really in fulfillment of Daniel 7:25, “He will speak against the Most High and oppress his saints and try to change the set times and the laws. The saints will be handed over to him for a time, times and half a time.” This persecution will begin in earnest during the midpoint of the Tribulation, when Antichrist breaks his covenant with Israel (Daniel 9:27) and sets up the abomination of desolation (Daniel 9:27; 11:31; 12:11; Matthew 24:15; 2 Thess 2:3-4). The fact that Satan will make war with the saints and overcome them does not mean that he will have the power to destroy their faith. He will overpower them physically but not spiritually. Genuine saving faith in the Messiah cannot be destroyed because as the Apostle Paul in Romans 8:38-39 says, “Neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Nor will the Lord Jesus Christ permit any born again believer to suffer the loss of eternal life (Revelation 3:5; Job 13:15; John 10:27-29).
Revelation 13:8-10, “8All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast--all whose names have not been written in the book of life belonging to the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world.9He who has an ear, let him hear. 10If anyone is to go into captivity, into captivity he will go. If anyone is to be killed with the sword, with the sword he will be killed. This calls for patient endurance and faithfulness on the part of the saints.”
John here shifts his focus to all who dwell upon the earth who worship the Antichrist. This phrase is used throughout Revelation to describe unbelievers (12,14; 3:10,6:10; 8:13; 11:10;17:2,8) and does not include everyone who will be alive at that time. All whose names have not been written in the book of life belonging to the Lamb that was slain from is the qualifier statement here are those who will not worship the Antichrist. Unbelievers whose names are not recorded in the book of life ,”Will perish because they did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness” (2 Thess 2:10). The eternally elect are saved through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (John 3:16; 5:24; Acts 13;39; 16:31; Romans 3:22-30; 4:5; 10:9-10; Galatians 3:22-2; Eph 2:8-10). The non elect are lost because they refuse to believe in the gospel (John 3:36; Romans 1:18-32; 2:8; 2 Thess 1:8-9; 1 Peter 2:8; 4:17). Unbelief and rejection are always indications that those persons whose names were not written in the book of life.
Seven times throughout the NT is made reference to the fact that believers in the Messiah have there name written in the book of life (3:5; 17:8; 20:12,14; 21:27; Phil 4:3). It would seem that the reference to the foundation of the world is used as a phrase for eternity past in 17:8; Matthew 13:35; 25:34; Luke 11:50; Eph 1:4; Heb 9:26; 1 Peter 1:2; 2 Thess 2:13 and 2 Tim1:9). Unlike unbelievers the elect will not be deceived by Antichrist (Matthew 24:24), nor will they worship him (20:4). Antichrist will not be able to destroy believers saving faith for the Lord Jesus Christ promised that in Revelation 3:5; 1st John 5:4. Believers have been kept in the power of God since before creation, and they will be there after the destruction of this very order and the establishment of the new heaven and new earth (21:1).
To put emphasis to this point further believers are doubly secure since the Book of Life belongs to the Lamb was slain. Not only is this a direct reference to election as believers, but also to the atoning work of Christ seals the redemption of the elect forever. This would then show that as believers in the Messiah we are not redeemed with perishable things but by the very power of the precious blood of a Savior who shed His very blood so that we could be secure in the palm of His hand; held firm by that very sacrifice by the manifestation in our lives as believers obedience to His Word through bearing fruit for His everlasting Kingdom (1st peter 1:18-19; Romans 4:24; Heb 1:3; Heb 5:9). It is not within the power of the Antichrist, Satan or any of the forces of hell to alter that glorious reality. The very saints that Satan seeks to destroy are later pictured in Revelation 15:2-4 in worship; singing to the Lamb who sits upon the throne. Satan can take there lives but he cannot destroy their faith in Christ.
9He who has an ear, let him hear.” Is used fifteen times in the New Testament (2:7, 11,17,29; 3:6, 13, 22; Matthew 11:15; 13:9,43, Mark 4:9, 23; Luke 8:8; 14:35) to emphasize a particularly important truth. In its use in Revelation it is used as “what the Spirit says to the churches.” But here that is not used which would further strengthen the position that the church is not in view here but would show to prove that the rapture starts first before the start of the Tribulation (3:10).
10If anyone is to go into captivity, into captivity he will go. If anyone is to be killed with the sword, with the sword he will be killed. This calls for patient endurance and faithfulness on the part of the saints.” Amazingly this would show that this upholds the divine institution of capital punishment even by the Antichrist’s evil government (Genes 9:5-6; Matthew 26:52). The Apostle Peter nailed this on the money, after slicing the ear off of the people that tried to take Jesus away from him, he would later write in 1st Peter 4:19, “So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.” Christ did not appeal to His rights upon the Cross and neither are we but He suffered yet did not revile in return; while suffering did not do any threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously (1 Peter 2:23). Let them then, “Those who revile their good behavior in Christ will be put to shame (1 Peter 3:16). Those who are reviled for the name of Christ are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on them (1 Peter 4:14) The message of this passage and this section then is clear. Let the beast from the abyss do his worst. Let Satan and his minions have their hour. Paul said, “In all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us (Romans 8:37). We win and Satan loses for we will triumph on that glorious day when, “The kingdom of the world becomes the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever” (Revelation 11:15).
Finally today we have seen the Gospel replayed even here in Revelation. We have seen that its story began in eternity past that the story now being played out is not all. Satan’s kingdom will be exposed as will all those who oppose Biblical Christianity and Biblical Teaching as well. You can either stand among those who are called Children of God or among those who are not. Barclay points out, “here is the truth-and it is still true-that the right can never be defended by doing wrong; that, when Christianity begins to defend itself by force, it ceases to be Christianity; that is an intolerable paradox to defend the Gospel of the love of God by using the violence of man. But there are weapons which the Christian can use and these weapons are the steadfastness and loyalty. The word for steadfastness is that great word hupomone, which does not simply mean passively bearing things; it means courageously accepting the worst that life can do, and turning it into glory. The word for loyalty is pistis, and it means that fidelity which will never waver in its utter devotion to its Master and its Lord. The Christian must accept what being a Christian involves. The Christian can never defend the faith of love with the weapon of brute force. The Christian must win his battle with the world by presenting to al men the steadfastness and the loyalty which will not be moved by the fear of the favor of men.”
Pastor David
