"The Beast, The Mark, And The Number" Series

“Revealing the Revelation”

Chapter 13

January 31, 2010

Revelation 13

1And the dragon stood on the shore of the sea.

And 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. 2The 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. 3One 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. 4Men 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?"

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. 7He 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. 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.

11Then I saw another beast, coming out of the earth. He had two horns like a lamb, but he spoke like a dragon. 12He 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. 13And he performed great and miraculous signs, even causing fire to come down from heaven to earth in full view of men. 14Because of the signs he was given power to do on behalf of the first beast, he deceived the inhabitants of the earth. He ordered them to set up an image in honor of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived. 15He was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that it could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed. 16He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, 17so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name.

18This calls for wisdom. If anyone has insight, let him calculate the number of the beast, for it is man's number. His number is 666.

“The dragon stood on the shore of the sea”; “a seven headed Beast comes out of the sea”; “Mark of the Beast”; “666”. These are a few of the images we will think about today.

I think the best interpretation of the Bible – is the Bible. And there are a few things we know – because the Bible tells us so. First of all, the dragon – who is he? I got hung up on this. Some later translations of the Bible translate “I” instead of “The dragon”. Some translate it “Serpent”. One translated the beginning of the chapter, “I, John, stood on the shore of the sea.” I’m not sure why there is a difference of translation. The best explanation was “Later versions add I”. The previous chapter ends talking about the dragon – so it seems correct to me that it is not John on the seashore, but the dragon. And we know the dragon is the devil. We know that. Last week in our study we read:

“The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. ..” Revelation 12:9

So, we know the dragon is Satan or the devil – the bible tells us so. But who is the beast? We know that, too. The Bible tells us so. Listen to Daniel:

"I, Daniel, was troubled in spirit, and the visions that passed through my mind disturbed me. I approached one of those standing there and asked him the true meaning of all this. "So he told me and gave me the interpretation of these things: 'The four great beasts are four kingdoms that will rise from the earth.” Daniel 7:15-17