Daily Devotional Thursday 13th July 2023

by William Moody

Revelation 13

The First Beast

13:1 And I saw a beast rising out of the sea, with ten horns and seven heads, with ten diadems on its horns and blasphemous names on its heads. And the beast that I saw was like a leopard; its feet were like a bear’s, and its mouth was like a lion’s mouth. And to it the dragon gave his power and his throne and great authority. One of its heads seemed to have a mortal wound, but its mortal wound was healed, and the whole earth marveled as they followed the beast. And they worshiped the dragon, for he had given his authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?”

And the beast was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for forty-two months. It opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name and his dwelling,1 that is, those who dwell in heaven. Also it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them.2 And authority was given it over every tribe and people and language and nation, and all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain. If anyone has an ear, let him hear:

10   If anyone is to be taken captive,
    to captivity he goes;
  if anyone is to be slain with the sword,
    with the sword must he be slain.

Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints.

The Second Beast

11 Then I saw another beast rising out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon. 12 It exercises all the authority of the first beast in its presence,3 and makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose mortal wound was healed. 13 It performs great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in front of people, 14 and by the signs that it is allowed to work in the presence of4 the beast it deceives those who dwell on earth, telling them to make an image for the beast that was wounded by the sword and yet lived. 15 And it was allowed to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast might even speak and might cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be slain. 16 Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave,5 to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, 17 so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name. 18 This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666.6

Footnotes

[1] 13:6 Or tabernacle
[2] 13:7 Some manuscripts omit this sentence
[3] 13:12 Or on its behalf
[4] 13:14 Or on behalf of
[5] 13:16 For the contextual rendering of the Greek word doulos, see Preface
[6] 13:18 Some manuscripts 616

(ESV)

Chapter 13 follows on from the picture of the dragon attacking the woman and her offspring in chapter 12. We have here two beasts that come on the scene, who help the dragon (the devil) as he seeks to destroy the church.

The description of the hideous dragon and this hideous beast (v1) are to seek to get across to us something of how hideous that evil is. Based on a parallel passage in Daniel 7 we can say that this beast represents political kingdoms and rulers that are opposed to the Lord (v2).

An amazing thing happens to the beast (v3) which shows the terrible persistence of evil. Evil leaders are taken down, things look good, but then another head of evil rises, as bad or worse than the first one. The period of the beast’s power is again 3 ½ years, the time from Jesus’ first to second coming. There is a call for endurance (v7-10) and the assurance of the certainty for those in the Lamb’s book of life.

The first beast is anti-God governments but the second beast (v11-18) represents false religion. The mark of the beast (v16-17) is not some bar code but rather a life moulded to the ways of this world rather than a life marked by the grace of Christ. The number of the beast 666 (v18), speaks of a life repeatedly falling short of the number of perfection which is 7.

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®),
copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.