What’s My Line? Series

Revelation 13: 11 – 18

What’s My Line?

11 Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon. 12 And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence, and causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. 13 He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. 14 And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived. 15 He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed. 16 He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, 17 and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. 18 Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666.

When I was a kid there was this program called ‘What’s My Line?’ There was a host and a panel of three people. A person would walk on stage and write their name on a chalk board. The panel then asked questions of the individual to figure out what the person did. In our last study we played the game of ‘clue’ to see what our Bibles revealed about who the Antichrist is. Today we are going to play the game ‘What’s my line?’ to determine who the Prophet is.

11 Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth

The Antichrist came up out of the ‘sea’. This beast which is the False Prophet comes up out of the earth. In the Gospel of Matthew chapter 23 we find this verse, “that on you may come all the righteous bloodshed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.”

Please notice the word used in this verse which is ‘earth’. The man Zechariah was slain in Jerusalem which is in Israel. In the New Testament "the earth" denotes the land of Israel.

So, we can write out the first portion of verse 11 to read “11 Then I saw another beast coming up out of the land of Israel.”

and he had two horns like a lamb

I notice two things here – horns and lamb. First of all let us look at the significance of ‘a lamb’. The ‘Lamb’ has been from the book of Genesis a reference to the sacrificial system of Israel. Our Lord remarked about the life in the blood. We are saved by the Precious Blood of the Lamb of God. Therefore the listing by John that the False Prophet had the two horns of a lamb refers to Israel.

We are looking at the description of the False Prophet correct. I find it interesting that the prophets of old were the ones who offered a lamb for a sacrifice. We read for example in the book of Exodus chapter 20 this regarding God’s instruction to the prophet Moses, “An altar of earth you shall make for Me, and you shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen. In every place where I record My name I will come to you, and I will bless you.”

This False Prophet is going to cause everyone on earth to worship the Image of the Beast. If someone refuses, then The False Prophet will offer these individual’s lives for his worship of the Beast.

Now what about the ‘two horns’? In our studies so far we have seen that horns can equal a nation. Here we have two ‘little horns’ so we have two leaders or nations that are involved.

As you know those who rule over others use the bullying tactic through strength [might] and power. We see in the book of Zechariah chapter 4 , “So he answered and said to me: “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,' Says the LORD of hosts,” So these two horns can equal two of the main characteristics of this False Prophet. This third person of the unholy trinity will have the power and legal might of the dragon to do his evil work.