REVELATION 13
It is at this time of the year that we talk about “Santa’s little helpers”. Well, in this next chapter, we read about Satan’s little helpers!
Out of the sea thunders a beast of indescribable horror and viciousness. Ten horns, seven heads, ten crowns with a body represented by leopard, bear, and lion. It is such a powerful beast that the nations of the world worship it. Behind the scenes, as they worship the beast from the sea, they are also worshipping the dragon! This beast blasphemes God and wages war against God’s people for 42 months – a period representative of the gospel age – and to enslave the rest of the people on earth. The only defence against such slavery is to have your name written in the Lamb’s Book of Life – i.e., to be born again and submitted to Jesus.
What is this beast? Remember the parallel passage in Daniel 7, a dream where four beasts come out of the sea, first a lion, then a bear, then a leopard, then a terrifying one with lots of teeth. The interpretation of this dream was that each beast represents an empire that will oppress God’s people; and eventually, the Lord himself will defeat these empires and will establish his own kingdom for us, his saints.
In Revelation 13, the Beast from the Sea has a composite of bear, lion, leopard, and other images. Consistency of interpretation should mean that this beast also represents human empires that fight against God’s people using political and military power to oppose the true faith. It further symbolises the persecuting power of world empires and ungodly nations – tools in the hands of Satan to oppose and attempt to destroy the church. In prophetic imagery, the ‘sea’ always represents the ungodly nations and their governments – e.g., Isaiah 17:12; Isaiah 57:20; Jeremiah 6:23; Revelation 17:15). So much so that the final grand entrance of the new heaven and new earth in Revelation 21 states that “…there was no longer any sea”.
Unsurprisingly, then, the Beast from the Sea has in reality emerged as a succession of evil empires that have persecuted God’s people through church history. Perhaps beginning with Babylonia, Persia, Greece, and Rome, for example? The particular empire might change, but it is still an instrument in Satan’s hands to terrorise and destroy the church. In Roman times, actual worship was demanded by the later emperors, who often tortured and killed those Christians who refused to bow down to them. Of course the power behind these empires is not of human origin, but spiritual. Ephesians 6:12 ESV tells us: “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places”. The invisible forces that direct and energise the nations of this world are fallen heavenly beings of immense power (ironically, often called ‘sons of God’) – beings that emphatically oppose the will and purposes of the Lord God. Deuteronomy 32:8-9 ESV tells us: “When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he divided mankind, he fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God. But the LORD’s portion is his people, Jacob his allotted heritage”. See also what Psalm 82 has to say about these ‘gods’. Daniel – in Chapter 10 – learns about the ‘Prince of Persia’ and the ‘Prince of Greece’, two prominent examples of these cosmic powers.
And then there is the Beast out of the Earth. What is this? By outward appearances, this beast is much gentler, more ‘lamb-like’. Yet it still speaks with the dragon’s voice and assists the larger sea-beast. It is also a great ‘performer’, doing some amazing (but false) miracles to deceive the peoples of the earth. It eventually shows its true colours when it begins to kill those who will not worship the first beast. It also forces all who wanted to trade to have some kind of mark on their foreheads, with the ‘number of the beast’ – 666.
This second beast is also called the ‘False Prophet’ later on in chapter 19 v 20. It probably symbolises false religion and false philosophy and deceives gullible people to follow the dragon by more subtle means than the other beast. Whilst the first beast uses coercion, this second one uses deceit. The effect is that antichristian governments and antichristian religions or philosophies work hand in hand to attempt to bring down God’s church. Jesus referred to them also in Matthew 24:24. We see this strategy in our own days with the propagation of identity politics, of critical race theory, and of a whole range of other extreme ‘-isms’ being imposed upon our Western society in general, and upon our children in particular. Their combined aim is to undermine God and his wonderful creation – and to divert people into the worship of more nebulous ‘gods’ such as ‘Nature’. In particular, the doctrine of the primacy of mankind, created to be imagers of God Himself, is under major attack in our day.
The ‘Mark of the Beast’ has always been a bit of a mystery. Many contemporary explanations have been given, but they all fall flat on the basis that they are too contemporary. What is highly topical in one generation is almost meaningless in another. So this ‘mark’ must be of more universal symbolism. It seems to relate to being ‘branded’ – like cattle – to signify some kind of ownership. Perhaps Revelation 14:9 throws some light upon it: “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives its mark on their forehead or on their hand, 10 they, too, will drink the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath”. Simply worshiping false gods and bowing down to earthly emperors is sufficient to be ‘marked’ as belonging to that beast!
As for 666, many commentators think that it might refer to a specific individual. The letters of the Hebrew alphabet each had a numeric value too, so it would not be difficult to find a name with letter/numbers totalling 666. But perhaps the fact that it is called “man’s number” indicates something more fundamental. In scripture, seven is the number of perfection, completeness, and victory. Six falls just short of that. So a number like 666 indicates a consistent failure to attain perfection at every level. If our ‘faith’ is only of human origin, it is imperfect and ineffective, false, and bringing failure. All mankind’s attempts to reach God by his own efforts are doomed to fail.
The Big Picture 