The Beast and his mark is the focus of this study as our 18th stop in our journey through Revelation brings us to the 13th chapter and its infamous images. A recording of this will be available on the Shofar Durbanville Youtube channel.
Political satires like Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, Orwell’s Animal Farm, or even cartoonists like Zapiro, comment in their own generation on the need for renewal of human society and government in particular. Using creative and often comical images it portrays the politics and people of its day to show the flaws in ideology and society at large. Apocalyptic literature like Daniel, Ezekiel, and Revelation had this same purpose and pattern in its call for reform of God’s people and government in its day.
Revelation 13 opens with John standing on the sand by the sea where he saw Christ standing as Sovereign over land and sea (10:2). In this way he reminds the readers that whatever happens in the land or sea is within Christ’s control.
The First Beast: Political Power. Then he sees a beast like a lion, leopard and bear combined rising out of the sea having seven heads, ten horns and crowns (like the Great Red Dragon in the previous chapter who gives him strength) – having a blasphemous name on his head (13:1-2). This image is an allusion to Daniel 7 – a reference to the four successive empires of Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome. The Beast in Revelation 13, looking like a combination of these four beasts, hints to the Roman Empire of its day, but also represents every other human government that opposes Christ.
The Beast is an image of anti-Christ government. Although the word anti-Christ does not appear in Revelation, John writes about it in his epistles. “The world is passing away… it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour. “ (2:17-18) Fifty years earlier, Paul also wrote about anti-Christ government already at work in the world (2 Thessalonians 2:7, 8-10). Examples of these range from Pharaoh to Alexander the Great, Nero to Domitian, Ganges Khan to Napoleon, Stalin to Hitler, Mao to Castro, and Mugabe to Kim Jong Un. The pages of history are filled with the blood from the oppressive regimes of the Beast.
What do we learn about this Beast of human government? It is said to have full strength and great authority given to him. It speaks blasphemies (13:1,5), implying it defames God and exalts itself to god-like status. It gets its power from Satan himself (13:2). Its rule is characterised by intimidation, conquest and carnivorous violence (13:2, 10). It has the power to revive itself after defeat (13:3). Christ permits this beast to yield his authority for “42 months” during which it will wage war against the Lord’s servants (13:8) – implying the redemptive period from Christ’s resurrection to his return (as discussed in a previous post).
The way this beast wages war against the church is through intimidation, leading to suffering and death (as in the church at Smyrna, 2:8-14) or seduction, leading to cultural compromise (as in Laodicea, 3:14-22).
The Second Beast: Seductive Ideology. A second beast coming out of the land is introduced, likened to the Lamb in that it looks like a lamb but roars like a dragon (compare 13:11 with 5:5-6). Here the relationship between the first Beast and the second Beast alludes to the relationship between Him who sits on the throne and the Lamb in that the second Beast yields the authority of the first Beast and causes all to worship him (13:12). This second beast performs great signs and deceives many, telling people to worship the first Beast….
[Read the full commentary of Revelation in Faithful to the End]
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