Revelation 13

The two beasts that are described in this chapter represent the two human and at the same time monstrous instruments, which will be used by satan in the end time. The first beast comes up out of the sea, the well-known picture of the nations (Rev 17:15; Isa 17:12; cf. Dan 7:2-3). This beast is therefore also a pagan ruler over a pagan kingdom. The second beast comes up out of the earth. The earth represents Israel. The second beast is the antichrist who will reign over apostate Israel. In these two beasts both characteristics of satan – violence and lie – are exposed (Jn 8:44). The first beast is more characterized by violence, the second by lies.

V1. Because of his plan to wage war against the rest of her offspring, the dragon stands on the sand of the seashore. Then “a beast coming up out of the sea” is described. Before the eyes of John – and through his description before your eyes too – it rises up from the sea. He sees a ruler rising up from the middle of the turbulent and unmanageable nations, out of that great mass of people. It is the same person as the person that comes up out of the abyss (Rev 11:7; 17:8). His coming up out of the abyss indicates his demonic origin. This is no one else than the dictator of the restored Roman empire, the united Western Europe.

That it is him we are talking about, will become clear from what you see further. ‘Horns’ are a picture of power. The form of that power can be derived from the ‘crowns’ that he has on his horns. This indicates that this beast has authority over royal rulers. In connection with the horns and crowns the number ‘ten’ is mentioned. By that you know that it is about ten kings (Rev 17:12; Dan 7:24). They are subjected to the rule of the beast.

John also mentions that this monster has “seven heads”. Of these heads it is said in Revelation 17: “The seven heads are seven mountains” (Rev 17:9). The question now is what the mountains represent. It is a historical fact that in the ancient days the city of Rome was known as ‘the city with the seven hills’. This makes clear that Rome is the political center of this monstrous ruler.

The seven heads, however, are not only an indication of the location where the power is seated. They also represent seven kings (Rev 17:10). That is an indication of seven forms of government by which the Roman empire has been ruled consecutively. Verse 3 expands further on that. What John also sees, is that this political power is against God and resists Him. He sees “a blasphemous name” on his heads. The beast adorns himself with blasphemous names, probably names that belong only to God.

V2. The description of the beast is not yet finished. John has more to tell. In this beast he recognizes traits of three different animals. He mentions “a leopard”, “a bear” and “a lion”. If you put Daniel 7 next to that (Dan 7:4-6), you will read that Daniel sees the same animals. Only, he sees them in reverse order. Daniel sees a lion first, then a bear and third he sees a panther or leopard. That’s because Daniel looks forward, while John looks back.

These animals represent empires. Daniel lived in the time of the Babylonian empire, represented by a lion. That empire was destroyed because the Medes and the Persians conquered the world empire. Because of the brutality with which they operated, that empire is represented by a bear. But also their government came to an end. Greece, under the leadership of Alexander the Great, conquered the empire of the Medes and Persians with overwhelming speed. Hence, the leopard is the appropriate symbol.

Daniel also speaks about a fourth beast. He says of it that it is a “dreadful and terrible and extremely strong” beast (Dan 7:7-8). Historically this beast represents the Roman empire that conquered world domination from the Greeks. Prophetically we see this empire back in the beast that John is seeing here. The beast is both the restored Roman empire and the head of that empire. This empire and this head possess all cruel characteristics of the fourth animal, in which John sees all cruel characteristics of the three animals mentioned.

Can you picture it? The beast comes up out of the sea, which means that the dictator floats to the surface. The ten kings, the rulers of different countries that together form the Western Roman empire, are inseparably connected to him. This dictator has power over them, which he exercises from Rome as his center of power. He manifests himself blasphemously and with a cruelty symbolized by the three tearing beasts described.

And who is hiding behind this, who makes sure that he becomes that mighty? The dragon, which is the devil (Rev 12:9). Here the devil grants direct authority to someone who takes this out of his hand. Of course these things can only happen, because God allows them to. And He allows them to happen because they fit into His plan. But the point is that the dragon is the inspirer of the beast. The beast has power, he reigns and has great authority because the devil has given this to him.

Here you see a great contrast between the beast and the Lord Jesus. Once satan offered the Lord Jesus all kingdoms to take them out of his hand (Mt 4:8-9). But the Lord refused it. He did not want to anticipate God’s time to become King. He wanted to receive the kingdom and the power out of God’s hand (Dan 7:13-14; Psa 2:8). For Him, that meant humiliation and the death on the cross. It is important for you too not to seek any favor in the world. Satan loves to give that to you. In that way you can escape suffering. If satan approaches you with such temptations, then respond like the Lord Jesus (Mt 4:10).

V3. Then John sees that one of the heads of the beast was as if it had been slain. This is to indicate that the Roman empire has perished and disappeared. From history we know that in the year 476 the Western Roman empire at that time was inflicted with a fatal blow. Rome was then conquered by barbarian Germanic tribes. What John saw at the moment he was watching – he saw it around the end of the first century – was still future. It would happen in a few centuries.

But to God the future has no secrets. He informs us about things happening in the future as far as He considers them to be of importance for us to know. He does not do that to satisfy our curiosity, but that we may live our lives accordingly (2Pet 3:11-12). Therefore God shows to John, and to you, what more is going to happen.

Then John sees that the fatal wound was healed. To John that was in the nearby future, but in the distant future. It’s what we see happening in our days! To us it is the nearby future. A restoration of the Western Roman empire is taking place before our eyes. But watch carefully: this happens by the power of satan! This restoration does not happen through a new conquest with violence, but through diabolic inspiration and deliberation. John sees how this restoration stirs up admiration and adoration from the world.

V4. People will be aware that the dragon, which is satan, has given this empire its power. They hate God that much, they have been alienated from Him in such a way, that they worship the dragon as their god in an open, general and limitless admiration. They will also worship the beast. They provoke and blaspheme God by crying out statements about the beast that belong to God alone (cf. Exo 15:11; Mic 7:18). To them, no one compares to the beast and no one can compete against the beast to defeat him. That will be the result when Europe becomes one whole.

In case you may be excited about the one Europe, I hope that, because of what God’s Word says here, this turns into cold shivers running down your spine. You will now be well aware that satan is the origin of it and that it ends up in worshiping satan! That with the referendum about the European constitution on June 1, 2005, many Christians in the Netherlands have voted ‘against’, does not necessarily reflect their opinion of Europe. The argument that mattered most to vote ‘against’ was that in that constitution no reference to God and the Jewish Christian roots of the European Union had been written down. In case that had happened, then the Christians probably would have plainly voted ‘for’! That is staggering.

Now read Revelation 13:1-4 again.

Reflection: What is astonishing about the beast?

V5. Just as satan has given to the beast ‘his power and his throne and great power’ (verse 2b), he also gives the beast “a mouth”. He, so to speak, makes the beast his mouthpiece. Therefore, what the beast says is only bragging and blasphemous language. His bragging language has no limit. He boasts about himself to the people and prides himself that all improvement is because of him. To God he balls his fists and taunts and curses Him.

But a limit is places on the performance of the beast. He is given “forty-two months”. That is the period that you have already come across earlier (Rev 11:2) and that you have learnt to know as the period of the great tribulation of three and a half years. During that time he will rage uninhibitedly (cf. Dan 8:24) both against God and those who dwell in heaven and to the saints on earth.

V6. It is not only that the beast lacks the appropriate reverence to God. Whenever the beast opens his mouth against God, it is to rage against Him and to express his contempt for Him. He can only insult and sneer about the Name of God. He despises God to the depth of his being. The words he uses are not mentioned. I think that the words you sometimes hear around you and which fill you with disgust are dwarfed by what the beast will spew out.

And not only God and the Name of God are the target of his blasphemous language. He also directs his evil mudslinging against “His tabernacle”. By this the church is meant, in which God as in a tabernacle will dwell among people on earth forever and ever (Rev 21:2-3).

Finally, he directs his slander against the rest of the citizens of heaven. You can think of all believers who do not belong to the church.

And don’t think that the beast speaks out this slanderous talk in a back room. His blasphemous expressions which he slings at God and the citizens of heaven will happen publicly and serve as an entertainment. With intense pleasure, people will observe his performance and his audacious language through television and the Internet. Everything he says and does is to propagandize his program. The intention of this program is nothing more than to turn people against God, to throw God off His throne. Time will tell that his propaganda will succeed, and that his program will have a dramatic ending.

V7. The beast, inspired by satan, can do nothing against all who dwell in heaven but open his mouth to spew out his hatred against them. But there are also some “saints” on earth. On them he can vent his diabolical killing intent, having given air to all pent-up feelings of hatred by hurling them to heaven. He is given the opportunity to make war with those who out of faithfulness toward God did not hoot along with the apostate mass as in a carnival procession.

The saints are not only saints by name, but also in practice. A saint or holy one is one set apart for God. That there is mention of ‘making war’, means that he takes this fight very seriously, as if the faithful saints are the most dangerous enemies of the nation that have great power. He uses everything at his disposal, because he wants to eliminate them root and branch, to the last man. And he seems to be successful. He overcomes them. This victory grants him international authority. Countries outside the restored Roman empire, i.e. the united Europe, will open themselves for his ideas and advices.

In his blind insanity, he does not know that this victory involves only the body. The saints were strengthened by the words of the Lord Jesus concerning that. He told them that they did not need to fear (for the beast), for only the body can be killed (Mt 10:28). In Revelation 20 you see them again. They sit on thrones and reign with Christ for a thousand years (Rev 20:4). In that way you will certainly be encouraged by the words of the Lord Jesus and by what you will share in the future, to endure the suffering that you experience sometimes.

V8. Because of all the accomplishments of the beast, all who dwell on the earth will worship him. The admiration for the beast will have no limits. The expression “who dwell on the earth”, indicates that it refers to people who have deliberately settled with heaven. Their lives have, like the lives of animals and the beast, no broader horizon than the earth and is totally and exclusively connected to the earth.

Of these people, another particular qualification is given. Their names are not written “in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain”. The absence of their name in that book has dramatic consequences. The short time of their praise of the beast will be followed by an everlasting weeping and gnashing of the teeth because of the pains caused by the flames of eternal fire.

Noteworthy still is the expression “from the foundation of the world”. You may remember the expression “before the foundation of the world” (Eph 1:4). That expression is used for those who belong to the church. They were chosen even before the creation of the world. That is because the church is of heavenly and eternal origin. But there are also believers who do not belong to the church. They are believers from Israel and the nations in the periods before and after the stay of the church on earth. They connected with the earth and in that way with God’s plans from creation (Mt 13:35; 25:34).

There is a great contrast between those who dwell on the earth and the book of life. Those who live on earth are attached to the earth with heart and soul. The earth is their life. With them there isn’t any thought of God and heaven. That makes them living dead (Eph 2:1-2). If they do not repent they will be in the second death forever and ever (Rev 21:8).

The opposite is the book of life. That book is connected to the Lamb That was slain, which indicates that the Lamb was in death. The Lamb had entered death to give life to all who believe in Him. The name of everyone who believes in Him is in the book of life. The book is His, He keeps it. The names of all worshipers of the Lamb are in it, not one is missing. The names of all worshipers of the beast are removed from it, not one appears in the it.

V9. I hope you have an ear to hear and let yourself be warned. You have just watched together with John the beast coming up. You have heard his blasphemous language and seen his murderous occupations. The mass hysteria that will be caused by his appearance and performance among all people that dwell on earth has been clearly presented to you. You have been a witness of the rise of the world government and the world religion. It is not about something that might happen at a time in the distant future, but about events that increasingly recognizable today. You wouldn’t want to say that this is a ‘far from my bed show’, would you? It is extremely topical for you as well. Don't be fooled.

V10. The description of this beast concludes with pointing at the principle of repayment (cf. 2Thes 1:6-7). This should serve as a consolation for the saints and stimulate them to persevere. They may know that the one who throws them in prison will end up in the prison himself; and he who kills them with the sword will also be killed with the sword (Jer 15:2; 43:11). God will make sure that every crime that has been done to His saints will be repaid righteously. Until that moment comes, the saints must persevere in their faith. They can trust that God, Who then has not visibly intervened, will soon do so.

The saints see in faith the good outcome for themselves and the repayment for the oppressors. They cannot answer the brute violence of the beast with violence. By themselves they are defenseless and helpless. But they have a source of power that works totally differently. The source of their power is the faith in God that He will make an end to the authority and power of the beast.

In that awareness they persevere in their faithfulness to God, even if it may cost them their freedom or even their life. Their life is not in the hand of the beast, but in the hand of the almighty and faithful God. That goes also for you when you face resistance in your bearing witness for the Lord. If you have that trust you will not give up your testimony, but persevere in it.

Now read Revelation 13:5-10 again.

Reflection: What aspects of the beast’s exercise of power do you already recognize in society?

V11. Then before the eyes of John a second beast appears. It is not a twin brother of the first beast, but another beast. It looks different and it does different things. But you will see that these two beasts get along very well. This beast does not come up out of the sea, like the first one, but “coming up out of the earth”. With ‘the earth’ is meant, in contrast to the sea, a more or less ordered society. It seems to be about Israel.

I think so because the description of this beast shows that it is an imitator of the Lord Jesus. When John sees the horns he must think of a lamb. In the book of Revelation the Lamb is always the Lord Jesus. And who is the great imitator of the Lord Jesus other than the antichrist? He it is of whom the Lord Jesus said to the unbelieving Jews that someone would come in his own name and that they will receive him (Jn 5:43). This also means that the antichrist will be a Jew. Israel will never receive a stranger, a person who does not belong to the Jewish people, as their king. It must be someone from among their own people.

Because of his horns this false messiah makes one think of a lamb. But he speaks “as a dragon”. His language reveals him. Therefore the sheep that belong to the Lord Jesus will certainly not follow the antichrist. The sheep do not listen to the voice of the stranger (Jn 10:5). They know the voice of the good Shepherd and therefore they will follow Him (Jn 10:4). This is also a touchstone for you. If you hear a voice that you do not recognize as the voice of the Lord Jesus, you must not to listen to it.

V12. There is a great closeness between the two beasts. But that closeness is not one of equality. In fact, the second beast is walks on the leash by the first beast. When the second beast exercises his power the first beast is obviously present. The second beast, the antichrist, has control by the grace of the first beast. He is not able to operate on his own, but is dependent on the first beast. The first beast, the dictator of the restored Western Roman empire, the united Europe, determines and ensures the way in which the antichrist exercises his power. This is the result of the covenant that apostate Israel under the leadership of the antichrist, the false messiah, will make with the first beast. Isaiah calls it ‘a covenant with death’ (Isa 28:15; Dan 9:27).

The second beast, like all earthlings, also has a limitless admiration for the first beast. That admiration is so great that he makes every effort to ensure that everything and everyone on earth will worship the first beast. The cause of worship is the healing of the deadly wound of the first beast. In the description of the first beast you have learnt that this healing refers to the restoration of the Western Roman empire, that has become visible in the united Europe. With this compulsion to worship the first beast, the second beast makes himself known as a spiritual leader both of apostate Judaism and of apostate Christianity. It is his goal to make an end to all worship of the Father and the Son.

V13. His strategy is that of lying, deception and imitation. He performs all kinds of impressive signs. What you see is not to be denied. At least, that is what many people will believe. But mind you that images may be manipulated. Another deceptive factor is that you do not get to see the whole story. When two people have seen something and make a report of it, you can still get two totally different reports. The devil is the great manipulator and a master in telling half-truths. Therefore do not let yourself be dragged by stories and movies of so called great signs that are ascribed to God.

It is a characteristic of the end time that spectacular things happen. The origin of that is not God, but the devil (2Thes 2:9). Here you see that the beast even “makes fire come down out of heaven”. Everyone sees that it comes from heaven, from God … it seems. But it is a trick of the devil who tries to give the impression through this false prophet that a true prophet is at work here. His performance is an imitation of what Elijah did several times (1Kgs 18:38; 2Kgs 1:10,12). The word “even” indicates that it could possibly be his most deceptive craftiness. With him making an appeal to the Bible people would say that a person who could ‘even’ do that, must surely be the true Messiah.

V14. You see how people who do not want to have anything to do with the Bible, who only live for the earth, are a prey of his supernatural manifestations. The religious feeling of man is a perfect work place for demons. People who live without God will link themselves to something that is beneficial for them, whether in a financial sense, or in the sense of a spiritual boost. They admire others for their own benefit. They are not aware of them delivering themselves directly to the instruments of satan. Satan gives the antichrist the ability to perform deceptive signs. Those signs happen in the presence of the (first) beast. They happen to his glory and honor.

The religious influence gained by the antichrist through his signs is now so great that he considers the time ripe to erect an idol to the first beast. Therefore he gives the order to make such an idol. Here is mention of the erection of “the abomination of desolation” (Mt 24:15; Dan 9:27; 12:11). Again, reference is made to his revival after the mortal wound. That must be enormously impressive. That is something you are observing more and more already now, as Europe becomes more and more one empire.

V15. The deceitful power of the antichrist is so great that it seems as if he brings the image to life. Satan enables him to give breath to the image. But breath doesn’t mean life. Only God can give life. The impression that the image is alive, arises because it speaks. The voice is of course that of a demon that perfectly imitates a human voice. This speaking makes the deception complete.

The apostate Jews may think that they have to do with an image of the true God. They have always been taught that idols do not speak (Psa 115:3,5,7; 135:17). A speaking image, therefore, they believe in their foolish blindness, cannot be an idol. Masses of people will fall down to worship the beast. Worship of the beast determines life or death. He who does not worship will be killed (cf. Dan 3:5-6).

V16. Although the people have been deceived, they have voluntarily bowed down before the beast. They have chosen for the beast. But with their choice for the beast they lose their freedom at the same time. They have fallen under the spell of a power from which they cannot free themselves. The beast empowers his control over the people and brings them to an absolute connectedness and subjection to himself. No one escapes from that. It does not make any difference whether you are a small citizen or a great minister, for he is the big chief. It also does not matter whether you are rich or poor, for you cannot buy it off. Nor does it matter whether you are a free man or a slave, for you have lost your freedom.

Everyone is forced to visibly express his loyalty to the beast. To this end, the beast will give a perceptible mark “on their right hand or on their forehead”. The ‘right hand’ refers to deeds. In that way the beast confiscates everything that each person does. Everything will contribute to the power and glory of the beast and his empire. The ‘forehead’ is the center of the thoughts. Through indoctrination, all people will serve the cause of the beast out of full conviction.

With the development of technology, applying the mark will be a simple operation. We are on the threshold of the era that will be ruled by the beast. If not God’s Word and His thoughts revealed in it govern your hand and your thinking, sin and finally the antichrist will do it. Let this warning sink in carefully.

V17. Through this mark, the beast controls the entire economy. Whoever does not surrender himself with skin and hair to the beast is economically a pariah, an outcast from society. To this test the faithful will be exposed in all severity. Because of their refusal to have the name or the number of the beast applied on their body, they will not be able “to buy or to sell”. Starvation is imminent.

V18. Due to the crafty and deceptive character of the beast, his proposals for applying the mark will be presented credible. People who accept the mark being applied, think that in that way they act wisely. But they act foolishly. The faithful, on the contrary, receives wisdom from God to unmask the beast. To do that he has to use his understanding, which is the insight given by God. In that way he will be able to calculate the number of the beast.

A lot of attempts have made to calculate the number, but all of them have a different outcome. That proves that we are not able to calculate it today. That is not necessary yet, because that time has not come yet. Only when the church has been raptured, that time has come. In that time the wise men and those who have understanding will be able to calculate the number. It is anyway clear that six is the number of man. That is called here in threefold form, 666, the number of the beast. Man has become equal to the beast here, the absolute nadir of the degeneration of man.

Now read Revelation 13:11-18 again.

Reflection: Mention the characteristics of the antichrist.