Two terrible beasts
13
📚And I stood on the sand of the sea and saw a beast 📖 rise up out of the sea. He had seven heads and ten horns 📖, and ten crowns on his horns, and a blasphemous name 📖 on his heads.The beast from the sea
2 📚And the beast that I saw was like a leopard, and his feet were like a bear’s feet, and his mouth like a lion’s mouth 📖. And the dragon gave him his power and his throne, and great authority. 3 📚And I saw one of his heads as if it had received a fatal wound, and his fatal wound had been healed 📖. And the whole world was amazed and went after the beast.
13:3 See Rev 17:8-11. In Daniel’s visions of beasts “heads” signify parts of a kingdom and/or their rulers. Here “a fatal wound” seems to mean that either a part of the coming world empire, or one of its rulers is destroyed or dies. See Rev 11:7 – the “beast” will come up “from the Abyss”. The Abyss is the realm of dead individuals. It seems clear that the “beast” sometimes indicates a man who will be the ruler of the empire which is also called the “beast” (see v 18; Rev 17:8-13; 19:19-20; 20:10). He represents the empire and sums up all of its “beastly” characteristics in his own person. 2 Thess 2:3-4; 1 John 2:18, 22 speak of a person called “the man of sin” and the “antichrist”. Can we doubt that the “beast” is that person?⚜
4 📚And they worshiped the dragon 📖 who gave authority 📖 to the beast, and they worshiped the beast 📖, saying, “Who is like the beast? Who can make war 📖 against him?”
5 📚And he was given a mouth speaking big things and blasphemies 📖, and he was given power to continue for forty-two months 📖. 6 📚And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme 📖 his name, and his tabernacle, and those who live in heaven. 7 📚And it was granted to him to make war with the saints 📖 and to overcome them 📖, and he was given power over all tribes, and languages, and nations 📖. 8 📚And all who live on the earth will worship him, those whose names are not written in the book of life 📖 of the Lamb who was slain, from the beginning of the world 📖.
13:8 Verse 4.⚜
9 📚If anyone has an ear, let him hear 📖.
10 📚He who leads into captivity will go into captivity. He who kills with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.
The beast from the land
11 📚And I saw another beast, coming up out of the earth 📖, and he had two horns like a lamb, and he 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 live in it to worship 📖 the first beast, whose fatal wound was healed.
13:12 Wherever he may live he will act as the representative of the first beast, the ruler of the world empire.⚜
13 📚And he performs great signs. He even makes fire come down from heaven 📖 onto the earth in the sight of men.
14 📚And he deceives 📖 the inhabitants of the earth by those signs that he had been granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling earth’s inhabitants to make an image 📖 of the beast who had the wound caused by a sword, and yet lived. 15 📚And he was given power to give life to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast would both speak 📖 and cause all who would not worship the image of the beast to be killed 📖. 16 📚And he caused everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, 17 📚so that no one could buy or sell except he who had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
13:16-17 See how the people of the world will become worshipers of the beast – first political authority and military might (v 4); then deceiving miracles (vs 13-15); then the economic squeeze. The choice in many cases may be either to worship the beast or to suffer great hunger. Those will be times which will fully try men’s souls.⚜
The number of the first beast
18 📚Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. And his number is 666.
13:18 What is the meaning of 666? It is “man’s number”, a symbolic number signifying a man taking God’s place, saying he is God and trying to force God out of His world. If 7 is the number of perfection and completeness (Rev 1:4), 666 may speak of man at his most powerful, trying to take God’s place but coming short as he must always do. No doubt the meaning of this number and how it will be related to antichrist, will become clear when the events of this chapter are being fulfilled. Believers will then know all they need to know to resist him. Today in the world there are many forces preparing the ground economically, psychologically, politically, and religiously for the advent of the “beast”. Let us be on our guard.⚜