Revelation Chapter 13
Last week we saw in chapter 12 the introduction of the Great Red Dragon, which is none other than the Devil, or Satan. I explained how this Dragon will influence the anti-Christ and then will after the first three and a half years be incarnated into him.
Chapter 13 is important because we are introduced to two other characters that lends his support to the beast that we saw in chapter12. These two characters are seen throughout the rest of this book of Revelation.
This new character will be known as the False Prophet (Revelation 16:13; 19:20 and 20:10).
Revelation 16:13 “And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.”
19:20 “And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lade of fire burning with brimstone.”
20:10 “And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night and forever and ever.”
Chapter 13 goes into more detail and shows us more about the anti-Christ. This chapter gives much insight into the character of this Great Tribulation. It will be a time of world government and one world religion, with a one world economic system. Those who will resist the ruler and refuse to worship this anti-Christ will be subject to execution. It will be Satan’s final attempt to cause the world to worship him and to turn them from the worship of the true God and Jesus Christ as their Savior.
Chapter 13:1-10 shows us four things:
Wonder verses 1 thru 3
Worship verse 4
Words verses 5 and 6
War verses 7 thru 10
So, let us jump into chapter 13 beginning with verse 1
The wonder
“And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.”
Is this beast a man or a political system that is destined to be a world-wide empire? While many scholars are divided over this, there are some who believe like I do that this has a double meaning. It is both. The political is a product of the beast and the beast personifies the system.
We also have double meaning where it speaks of the seven mountains in chapter 17:9. It speaks of both the beast and a location.
However, here in chapter 13 we see a beast rise out of the sea, this is showing that the beast will come from the gentile nations. This is of course the anti-Christ. Earlier I had said that it is possible that this anti-Christ will be Judas reincarnated. We know that Judas was a Jew when he was on the earth. However, if, and when, he is resurrected, he will be whatever he is resurrected to be.
The seven heads represent seven mountains, but also seven kings or kingdoms, which we will see in chapter 17. The seven heads and ten horns along with the ten crowns on his heads also show that this is a system of government that will prevail in this time of Great Tribulation.
By joining with the anti-Christ, these ten groups of nations will be blaspheming God and Jesus.
this will be both in words and deeds.
As we noted in chapter 12, there were seven world kingdoms, five had already fallen. Those five were the Egyptian, Assyrian, Babylonian, Medes and Persian, and the Greek. The sixth was the Roman empire which was of the seven and will be the eighth.
As was noted before, seven heads represent not only seven mountains but also seven kings or kingdoms. In this instance, the seven heads are seven kings. This would mean that the eighth king (chapter 17:11) would be of the seventh kingdom, or the revived Roman Empire. His kingdom would be nothing but the revived Roman Empire but it was a new kingdom.
The mere fact that this personage is as a beast shows us something about his character. God does not see him as a man, made in the divine image, but as a wild animal, under the control of Satan. He is a man, but he is energized from hell, for that is where he came from.
The ten horns represent ten kingdoms (Daniel 7:24 “And the ten out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise. And another shall rise after them; and he shall diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.”
He shall lead a revived Roman Empire before taking over as world dictator. All nations will no doubt admire and thank him for the “peace” he has achieved, not realizing the sorrow and destruction he will bring to the world.
Verse 2 “And the beast that I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.”
This beast that had the characteristics of a leopard, bear and lion, reminds us of the four beasts Daniel saw in his dream in chapter 7. Daniel saw a lion (Babylon), a bear (Media-Persia) a leopard (Greece) and a terrible beast (the anti-Christ). This final world empire, the revived Roman Empire, will be rooted in all previous empires and unite in their evil power. Added to the ferocity of these beasts will be Satan’s own power and authority.
The second wonder Verse 3
“And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed; and all the world wondered after the beast.”
There are two possible explanations for this verse and they are:
1. That this man, the anti-Christ that receives this deadly wound to his head, is clinically dead but not dead in the sense that his soul has left the body. He then is put on life-support and kept alive artificially which is done a lot these days. After his deadly wound is tended to, he is resuscitated and again regains life as we know it. It is during this time that Satan enters him and takes over his spirit and soul.
2. Since Satan has no power to heal, God heals this man to fulfill his will for this time of Great Tribulation. This anti-Christ has a time and place to meet his doom and it is not here and not the way that God ordained.
Some commentators seem to think that this is speaking of the Roman Empire that was wounded unto death and is now being resurrected. The only problem with this is that the Roman Empire was not defeated by any other empire, but crumbled from within. It also says in Revelation 13:14 that this wound was caused by a sword. Even if this sword was a symbol of war, as stated, Rome was not conquered by war. So, the wound to Rome was not caused by a sword.
The worship Verse 4
“And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?”
The words Verses 5 and 6
“And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.”
Jesus spoke and still speaks gracious words of salvation, and men turn a deaf ear; but they will listen to the blasphemous words of the beast. The world will not worship the Christ, but they will bow down to the anti-Christ. Isn’t it strange that people will not worship God and Jesus but will worship the Dragon, Satan? It is also strange that people will not receive the truth but will believe a lie and the Liar. They are rejecting real life, life that only the Holy Spirit can give, Spiritual life and condemning themselves to death, the second death which is the Lake of Fire.
There are people today that blaspheming God, the church, and Christians. It is no wonder that after the church is raptured, that this will increase at an alarming pace. Even with all this blaspheming going on there will still be people get saved by the grace of God. Truth will always win. It cannot be stopped any more that the Lord God can be prevented from performing His will.
The war Verses 7 thru 10
“And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all the kindreds, and tongues, and nations. And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. If any man have an ear, let him hear. He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity; he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience, and the faith of the saints.”
These verses show the universal power that is given to this anti-Christ. It will seem as though he has won, however, those that do not follow him, those that are written in the book of life of the Lamb will be given the ultimate victory. Those that do are the ones that will face ultimate defeat.
There has been much controversy over whether the “Lamb’s Book of Life” is the same as the “Book of Life.” We do not have the time to go into that at this particular portion of scripture, but perhaps when we get to Revelation chapter 20, we will take that matter up.
Verse 10 shows that justice will reign when Christ returns.
Now let’s look at the second character or personage in this chapter. This is a separate person than what we have read about in the first nine verses. The first was from the sea, and this is from the earth.
Verse 11 “And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.”
From this it can be gathered that he was a religious character whose role was to support the political ruler, the first beast.
Verse 12 “And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.”
The fact that he has the same power as the first beast is no wonder due to the fact that this power comes from the same source, Satan. We have heard the adage, Never let a good crisis go to waste” and that is what we see here. The deadly wound that was healed gives this false prophet, as he is named later, the opportunity to demand that the entire population of the earth worship this first beast, the anti-Christ. There has been much speculation on who this false prophet may be, and such speculation can be quite distracting to the much needed work of the church. However, we will try to answer much of this later in chapters 17 and 18.
Verse 13 “And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men,
Verse 14 and deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.”
First, we note that this false prophet performs miracles such as making fire fall from the sky. This is an imitation of the miracle performed by Elijah on Mount Carmel. It is also in answer to the two witnesses that have performed miracles also.
Then he uses these miracles to verify that he is some religious person that is qualified to speak on behalf of the anti-Christ. This he does to deceive the people and have them make an image of and to the beast, the anti-Christ.
Then in verse 15 we see that he had power to give life to this image.
“And he had power to give life unto 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.”
Here again, we note that only God has the ability to give life. We also know Satan does not have the power to give life to an inanimate object. So, this must be an illusion of life and speaking. This could be accomplished in many ways, Animatronics, or robotics. He also had the power to issue an edict that everyone not worshipping the beast, or his image would pay with their lives.
These last three verses go together, so we will read them as one thought.
“And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom, Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.”
There has been much speculation on what the number 666 relates to, and what this mark of the beast is. Since the bible doesn’t tell us, we won’t add to that speculation. We could spend much time on this topic, and not prove anything.
The important thing to remember is that God has sealed all of His own with the Holy Spirit. We also have seen in chapter 7 that 144,000 were sealed in their foreheads by God, setting them apart for His service. Now we see that those that are dedicated to Satan are also sealed in their foreheads or in their hands for his service and worship.
What we as a church need to be telling the lost is that they will either worship Satan and live for a short time and lose their souls forever in the Lake of Fire, or be saved today and remove any possibility of facing that terrible time. Yes, they will be able to buy food and other necessities, but they will lose their souls for it.
We do not have much time left to warn people. We need to remember that the church today is the watchman on the tower on guard against danger. If we fail, we will have to answer for our neglect.