# 04 2022 Dev. Rev.13:8. The Beasts! Read all of Rev.13 first. We invite you into God’s space, to read and think about His Word, to interact with it. This is God’s Story. How will His Story shape your own? All passages are taken from the NIV.
Rev 13:8 “All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast- all whose names have not been written in the Lamb’s book of life, the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world.”
Intro. This vision that John sees is put into the words of men so that those who believe will understand by the power of the Holy Spirit. What is being described here is from eternity to eternity. God, who is outside of time, operates in the eternal present, represents to us what is about to happen in time, as long as time lasts.
Rev.13 is defined by the last verse of Ch.12:17 “Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring—those who keep God’s commands and hold fast their testimony about Jesus.” If you want to read the foil, the counter to Rev.13 read Rm.13.
Vs.1-10“The dragon stood on the shore of the sea.” (the sea, seen here as the governing powers of the world) John sees a beast coming up out of the waters gradually. Fictional language is used to describe the beast; it looks much like the dragon. It also had characteristics like the the four beasts (kingdoms) Daniel saw in his vision (Dan.7).
It is given power and great authority for forty-two months: authority to wage war against God’s holy people and over every tribe, people, language and nation. One of its heads “had a fatal wound, but the fatal wound had been healed.” There are different thoughts on the wound but this is conflict between God and Satan, the wound is caused by Christ on the cross. All people worshiped the dragon and the beast, but not whose names have been written in the book of life. The last two verses of this section gives us a warning and a rundown of what is and has been happening throughout all of history. There will be suffering, captivity and death, physically and mentally, “This calls for patient endurance and faithfulness on the part of God’s people.” That is what we observe throughout history.
Vs.11-18 “Then I saw a second beast, coming out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb, but it spoke like a dragon.” This beast is the foil, the counter to Jesus, it looks harmless, benevolent, but is a deceiver. It speaks like the dragon. It is given power and authority to deceive the religions of the world, while the first beast is to influence the governments of the world. None of this is in the future, although there is a slow increase of intensity which has been going on throughout history. Think about before the flood, the slavery in Egypt, the Roman Empire, what the church became before the Reformation, Hitler, Stalin, China today. Which way do you think our present government is leaning today? Where is the church heading today?
The second beast is to mark all humanity “on their right hand or on their foreheads”, they are marked but the people of God are sealed. There is a big difference, the marked can buy and sell, enjoy life on earth, “they have their reward,” but the sealed will enjoy eternal life. Praise be to God! V.18 throws us a curve: “Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. That number is 666.” # 6 is not # 7 the perfect number. The dragon, Satan, has reached for God, to be like Him, no, not like Him, but to be above God. Satan is a created being, a powerful, but a fallen being who has failed and lost his position in heaven. Man is also created but in God’s image, also fallen, but followers of Jesus are a new creation. Humans who love and trust God will be like God in the sense that they will rule with Him and judge fallen angels with Him. Praise be to God!
© cgvanwyk, all rights reserved
Heavenhigh 