Description of the Beast from the Sea! ?
Revelation 13:2-4
Description of the Beast from the Sea!
Revelation 13:1-4, Then I stood on the sand of the sea. And I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name. 2 Now the beast which I saw was like a leopard, his feet were like the feet of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. The dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority. 3 And I saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded, and his deadly wound was healed. And all the world marvelled and followed the beast. 4 So they worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?”
The world certainly is looking for a leader. We have such high hopes that maybe the next prime minister, maybe the next authority, monarch, or ruler somewhere in the world is going to rise to solve our problems, massive as they are.
The world is hoping that somebody might come and bring unity among the nations and give hope to hopelessness and provide security in the time of fear. The world is looking for just such a man. The fact is such a man is coming.
Satan is going to design him. Satan is going to possess him. He will embody everything the world believes it desires. He will rise to power with an authority unmatched in human history. He will bring worldwide peace and prosperity. But he will be satanic to the very heart.
In fact, this coming man will not be a solitary figure. There has never been, and there will never be, anyone like him.
Mark 13:6, For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am He,’ and will deceive many.
1 John 2:18, Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour.
Jesus said, “In the future time, as you move closer to my return, many are going to come and say, ‘I am the Messiah, I am the one you have been looking for.’”
Mark 13:21-22, “Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or, ‘Look, He is there!’ do not believe it. 22 For false christs and false prophets will rise and show signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. As we get closer to the end there will be a proliferation of satanic leaders, satanic impostors, pseudo-Christs, and antichrists.
But one of them will be the culmination of all the others. He is simply the consummate antichrist. He is the embodiment of all the satanic power in one incredible display, one final man just prior to Christ’s return to set up His Kingdom on earth.
We have been learning that this man will arrive in a period known as the tribulation, the final 7-year period just prior to the return of Christ. The antichrist begins his reign of terror at the midpoint of those seven years, and for the 3 ½ years he takes over the world and pours out the very anger of Satan against the Jews and all who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. The resulting horror, devastation, and destruction is indescribable.
The time of the tribulation that Satan selects his leader and empowers him from the abyss with some demon spirit to take over the world for Satan. The whole thing is to prevent Christ from reigning. The effort is to destroy all the Jews so they cannot come to Christ and have a Kingdom.
The effort is to massacre all who believe and, therefore, there will be none remaining in the world for Christ to have as subjects in the Kingdom He brings. We hope and rejoice in the coming of Christ, but before He comes, antichrist is coming and with him the most frightening reign of terror the world has ever known.
This is not something that God’s people are just finding out. Even when the book of Revelation was written in about 96 A.D., at the end of the first century. Already Daniel wrote very much about the antichrist in Daniel 2, 7, 8, 9, and 11 chapters.
Jesus certainly commented on antichrist as He affirmed Daniel’s description of the abomination of desolation which the antichrist will perpetrate. Paul then gave us further insight in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, which was one of the earliest of the New Testament epistles.
John himself, writing in 1 John chapter 2, discusses the reality of the antichrist spirit which is in the world. We find him first mentioned in Revelation chapter 6 as the rider on a white horse who comes to conquer. We find him again mentioned in Revelation 11:7, and there he is called the beast which comes out of the abyss, which is how he is described here also in chapter 13.
The antichrist’s spirit, the satanic efforts to destroy Christ have always been at work. Revelation 12 described that whole antichrist movement from its very beginnings. Here we come to the final expression of the antichrist attitude in Satan’s superman, this intellectual genius, outstanding orator, politician, commercial wizard, military mastermind, and power unequalled. This great religious leader who himself claims to be God, the most incredible leader ever.
We find him detailed for us in an amazing portrait that is very consistent with the words of Daniel, the words of Paul, and the earlier description of John in the very same book of Revelation. He is Satan’s supreme human instrument to destroy Israel, to prevent her salvation and Kingdom. To kill believers, to conquer
the world and to defeat Christ so that Satan can get what he wants, and that is to rule as God. Revelation 13, we meet the last evil world dictator. We look at his ancestry in verse 1. V 1, Then I stood on the sand of the sea. And I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name.
We have the dragon who is standing on the sand of the seashore. We see his association is with the dragon, who is none other than Satan, the great red dragon who is called the devil and Satan.
Revelation 12:9, So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
This introduces us to the ancestry of the antichrist. ➢ He is the child of Satan. ➢ He is the devil’s child. We note that while Satan is firmly planted on the sand of the seashore, he calls forth out of the sea, which represents the abyss, this beast.
A description of Satan himself back in Revelation 12:3, And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great, fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads. The ancestry of antichrist as none other than Satan himself.
The beast is both a king and a kingdom. It is an individual. Daniel, Paul, and Revelation refer to him as a man. Yet he is a man who also rules over a conglomerate world kingdom that is described as ten horns and seven heads.
These simply designate the breadth and the strength of that kingdom. The horns represent kings. Horns are symbols of strength, power, and the horns are representative of kings. Ten of them simply represent all the world of human power that will assist him.
The world is divided into ten regions, those ten regions will constitute the symbolism of these ten horns, ten kings. Ten is a symbolic number representing all the world of human power pulled together. It is not necessary to tie it only to the
ten nations of the revived Roman Empire. There were more than ten then since Rome ruled the world. We know that this kingdom will also be a worldwide kingdom. These ten kings, that the antichrist will arise.
Daniel 7:7-8 and 19-25
But in Daniel chapter 7, we see how this antichrist rises from this confederacy of all these monarchs. There is a description of a beast, the fourth beast in an image that Daniel sees there, and this beast also has ten horns.
Daniel 7:7-8, “After this I saw in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, exceedingly strong. It had huge iron teeth; it was devouring, breaking in pieces, and trampling the residue with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns. 8 I was considering the horns, and there was another horn, a little one, coming up among them, before whom three of the first horns were plucked out by the roots. And there, in this horn, were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking pompous words.
The antichrist rises out of this world confederacy of kings and in so doing disrupts three of them. We have a further description of antichrist.
Daniel 7:24-25, The ten horns are ten kings Who shall arise from this kingdom. And another shall rise after them; He shall be different from the first ones, And shall subdue three kings. 25 He shall speak pompous words against the Most High, Shall persecute the saints of the Most High, And shall intend to change times and law. Then the saints shall be given into his hand For a time and times and half a time. Somehow, he comes out of this world conglomerate represented by the ten kings. He rises out and somehow displaces three of them. He begins to speak out against the
Most High, wear down the saints. He does this for 3 ½ years. Daniel is describing for us that out of this confederacy comes this individual. In Revelation 13, this beast is described as having seven heads refers to the seven different world governments of the past.
Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome, and then the final kingdom. We will study more about this when we get to chapter 17 where that very description of the seven heads is further described. They are seven kings, five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come.
Revelation 17:9-10, “Here is the mind which has wisdom: The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman
sits. 10 There are also seven kings. Five have fallen, one is, and the other has not yet come. And when he comes, he must continue a short time. When John is writing, five of these have already come - Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece. One of them is, that would be Rome, which was in power at the time of John. One of them is yet to come, that would be the revived Roman Empire, the world empire under the antichrist.
This kingdom which this individual is synonymous with because he is the ruler of it, this kingdom embodies all the satanic power and all the demonic influence of all the evil empires of the day in which it comes. All the strength, power of all the anti-God, and anti-Christ powers of the past.
All the worst of anti-God, anti-Christ power, and influence from all human history clear to that very moment is summed up in this accumulated wickedness, force, and power of this kingdom, consummated in this one great individual.
It is the consummate wicked world empire, carrying the accumulated evil of all the empires of the past and of that very time itself and led by the consummate satanic king, the antichrist. There are many movements in the world today toward a single world. We talk about globalism all the time. It’s a very difficult
thing to pull off. There are striving extremely hard to do it, but there is that human depravity that even fights against the purposes of Satan. Satan would like to orchestrate a one-world government over which he has perfect and complete control, but he cannot even get fallen humanity to cooperate. But extensive efforts are going on to create one-world globalism.
Consequently, we may expect increasing and less subtle promotion of one-world throughout our society from the highest levels of government to the classrooms of our youngest children. There are obvious moral consequences to finding one world. An integral part of the new global education is to force students to recognize that there are other ways of thinking. It is essential to globalism.
The most dangerous part of global education will fall in the area of religion. It is especially in this area that the planners realize they must eliminate prejudice, and they must introduce tolerance for all beliefs. The new curriculum in public schools calls for teaching not religion, which is forbidden, but teaching comparative religion, which is a way of teaching tolerance of all viewpoints.
Teachers cannot even suggest that one religion might be wrong and another right. That would be against all the rules. One’s choice of religion does not really matter since nothing is right and nothing is wrong, the concept that is now being called values clarification. It is going to be necessary to create globalism to eliminate dogmatism to eliminate truth.
John sees this image of a one-world government to be embodied in this one individual. There are ten crowns, ten diadems on these horns, which again indicate the regal dominion and earthly sovereignty of this confederacy.
Then also on the heads were blasphemous names. World emperors have often usurped divine titles as if they were God, his majesty, the king, high-and-mighty this and that, holy-and- sovereign etc. They even demand that they be worshiped as God, such as the Caesars, Nebuchadnezzar, and many others.
This will embody all the blasphemy, all the false claims to deity, and all the temporal sovereignty of all the monarchs and rulers of the past antichrist and his kingdom will be characterized by blasphemy.
1. Antichrist authority. V 2, Now the beast which I saw was like a leopard, his feet were like the feet of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. The dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority. As John is looking at this vision, he sees that this beast, this monster that comes up out of the abyss with these ten horns and seven heads, ten crowns and blasphemous names, also bears the likeness of a leopard and a bear and a lion.
An extraordinarily complex beast. Through the years of studying prophecy there has been many attempts to interpret. It is complexity of it.
What is this point of these animals?
Daniel 7:3-7, And four great beasts came up from the sea, each different from the other. 4 The first was like a lion, and had eagle’s wings. I watched till its wings were plucked off; and it was lifted up from the earth and made to stand on two feet like a man, and a man’s heart was given to it. 5 “And suddenly another beast, a second, like a bear. It was raised up on one side, and had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. And they said thus to it: ‘Arise, devour much flesh!’
6 “After this I looked, and there was another, like a leopard, which had on its back four wings of a bird. The beast also had four heads, and dominion was given to it. 7 “After this I saw in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, exceedingly strong. It had huge iron teeth; it was devouring, breaking in pieces, and trampling the residue with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns.
When Daniel had his vision and God showed him the four great world empires to come, which would be Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. God then, in Daniel 7, made those four world empires bear the image of animals, certainly the first three were common in the land of Palestine.
The same three animals that are described in the book of Revelation. Why does Daniel describe the Babylonian kingdom like a lion? Because of its fierce consuming power.
Why does he describe Medo-Persia as a bear? Because of its ferocious strength and might and stability.
Why does he describe Greece as a leopard? Because it moves swiftly and rapidly across the earth, particularly under the conquering of none other than Alexander the Great.
The images of those animals, which by the way were common in Palestine: A bear, a mountain lion, and a leopard they give some dramatic emphasis to the character of the nations that are being shown to Daniel in the vision.
The fourth beast is an indescribable one. The fourth beast is Rome. The Daniel 2 image of the statue where the final form, Rome, again, was iron and it had the ten toes which are parallel here to the ten horns in this comparative image.
Revelation 13 we see again those same animals which were common to that part of the world, and that is why they are used. The leopard, the bear, and the lion, but this time they are all embodied in the one beast. ➢ The power of Babylon in its greatness is there, ➢ The strength and stability, fierceness of Medo-Persia is there, ➢ The swiftness and alacrity and speed of Greece is there.
This final form of world government, a revived Roman Empire that proceeds out of the old location of Rome to cover the globe embodies all the fierceness of all those prior world kingdoms.
One other interesting note, They are given in reverse order in verse 2. ➢ In Daniel it is lion, bear, leopard. ➢ Here, it is leopard, bear, lion.
- The reason is Daniel was going from Babylon to Medo- Persia to Greece because he was on the front end of it.
- John in seeing the image is going from where he is back from Greece to Medo-Persia to Babylon.
They are simply placed in reverse order. When Daniel described the world empires they were to come. When John describes them, they have already come and gone. To everyone in the land of Palestine in Daniel’s time and in the time of the writing of Revelation, these animals would combine all the symbols of speed, ferocity, power, strength, tenacity, ravenous appetite, and devouring.
They would sum up everything that was wicked, evil, rapacious, vicious, and frightening. They are all embodied in this final form of world government, which was depicted by the Roman power which was in Daniel’s vision in chapter 7 an indescribable beast even then, and it is equally indescribable here.
That fourth beast, that unique one that doesn’t have an animal name, was something beyond even an animal, and here in its final form it is still beyond that though it encompasses all the worst of those beasts. John is looking at the consummate vicious, frightening empire.
Satan, then, who is the god of this world brings into one all the fierceness of the others, all the powers of dominion, to form a world government to stop Jesus Christ. All headed up in this one individual called the antichrist.
V 2, The dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority. The weird and wild messiah of the devil, somebody called him, has great power. That is talking about sheer force. He really cannot be halted. God steps back and lets him run amok.
There is no human element to stop him.
What about the holy angels? They are called off. The Lord Himself lets them run their scope. Not only do they have force but throne, that’s regal dominion. They are absolutely in charge. This is not just a rebel army.
This is not a coup being pulled off from the ranks. These powerful demon spirits who have infested the world have immense power and they wield it from regal dominion. “And great authority.”
- They have a right to act.
- They have freedom to act,
- They have no accountability,
- They have no restraint.
No one is stopping them from doing anything that they want to do.
2 Thessalonians 2:7, For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. All restraint is gone. All the demons of the universe are on the earth for the first time in human history. Out of the pit they have come, freed from their bindings at the Euphrates, the 200 million and the ones in heaven cast down to the earth. They are all here and free to act, and God restrains absolutely nothing. At the same time, they are creating their fury, harming people, and killing people. The first batch of them that come out of the pit can only harm, the next wave of them can kill.
At the same time God is wreaking havoc by pouring out the fury of a collapsing universe on the heads of those in the world. The holocaust is unimaginable. What is the circumstance that allows this man to rise? How does he rise to this place of power?
There need to be certain conditions to make this happen. People will be looking for a leader. A dictator never thrusts his rule upon the people from the top down without some provocation. Inevitably a man rises to this kind of rule because of chaos.
When the chaos gets so bad and there are no answers and no solution, you have the perfect situation for leadership to develop. That is true in any kind of leadership. ➢ Leaders are born in a crisis. ➢ Leaders rise during the unsolvable problems.
➢ Leaders come to the top when there are no solutions. It is in the frightening and horrible chaos of the world that this man is able to rise, empowered by Satan and seize authority during emergency.
So successful will his coup be that men will be thrilled by his masterly genius. Accept the principle that only an imperial form of government will be able to give them lasting peace. They will throw democracy. They will throw aside their freedoms just for peace.
This man will come on the scene at the beginning of the tribulation, and he will bring peace, which tells us that before that happens, there is going to be utter worldwide chaos. That would mean that when the church is taken out of the world, it will most likely be in a time of great chaos.
Germany in the 1930’s Hitler did not just pop up out of nowhere. He did not come from the top down. He came from the bottom up.
Why? Because people in Germany in the 1930 were in economic despair.
- They were in spiritual despair.
- There was political chaos.
- They were experiencing economic depression.
Small businesses were collapsing all over Germany one by one in every city.
Millions of people were out of work. It was a desperate time, and people were looking for somebody to lead them out. Hitler knew the mood of the people and the strategy of the moment. Adolph Hitler started out as a lowly corporal, worked his way up in the Reichstag until he was at last in charge of everything. He emerged from absolute and utter obscurity to become the central figure in the world and himself demon possessed.
From that position of power, which he gained because of the chaos, he plunged the whole of Europe into his bloody reign of terror which was a preview of what it will be like on a worldwide scale when the antichrist comes.
One greater than Hitler will arise out of the chaos that will prevail in the world and be a man of marvellous appearance, ability, and indescribable magnetism. Problem is he will be possessed and indwelt and moved by a demon out of the abyss. He will have great authority. The world will give the authority for all of it into his hands.
2. Approval. V 3, And I saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded, and his deadly wound was healed. And all the world marvelled and followed the beast.
How will he become god to the world?
How will he get so much power? They are going to be amazed, astounded. They are going to follow him.
Why? One of his heads is as if it had been slain and his fatal wound was healed. The word “slain” here is the very same word used back in
Revelation 5:6, And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent out into all the earth. John saw there a lamb standing as if slain, and that is the Lamb of God.
This empire, one of its heads is going to bear a mortal wound. The scar that would indicate a mortal wound.
Revelation 13:12, And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence, and causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. A fatal wound that was healed.
Revelation 13:14, And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived.
Revelation 17:8, The beast that you saw was, and is not, and will ascend out of the bottomless pit and go to perdition. And those who dwell on the earth will marvel, whose names are not written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world, when they see the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.
Revelation 17:11, The beast that was, and is not, is himself also the eighth, and is of the seven, and is going to perdition.
This shows us clearly that this beast receives a mortal wound. V 3, And I saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded, One of the heads had a mortal killing wound.
What does this mean? There are two options to choose from. The first is that it refers to one of the kingdoms that was destroyed and comes back.
If we interpret it that way, then it would be that the head that was wounded would be the head representing the empire of Rome. Rome was the sixth, the one that was when John was writing, which was devastated and destroyed. The Roman Empire was shattered, but it comes back to life.
That is the amazing miracle, the revival of the Roman Empire. That is the thing which amazes the entire world, that this man can rise to re-create this confederacy of Rome, this revived new Roman Empire. From the great power exhibited in the New Europe, from the evidence of his immense ability to lead there.
What makes it difficult, it makes a lot of sense to interpret it that way because it is just one of the heads that has been slain, but when you go to those other passages, you have the individual himself being slain. Then we have him coming up out of the abyss.
Where did we start this chapter? We started it with the devil standing on the seashore and this beast coming up out of the abyss.
Another option
The antichrist goes through the first part of the tribulation and is killed. The man at that point is a great world leader, but he comes back to life. Only after he comes back to life, he has more than a great world leader. He is now empowered by a demon from the abyss.
Or he does not really come back to life because he only faked a death, but he deceived the whole world. Whether it is the revival of the old Roman Empire and the man’s ability to pull together the terrible discordant countries of Europe.
Or it may well be that this individual deceives the world in some fake death. I have a tough time believing that this man will actually die and be raised from the dead because Satan can’t do that. But I do not want to say it cannot be done because if God chooses to do it, it can be done.
2 Thessalonians 2:9, that the antichrist will win the world over because of his power and his signs and then this, his lying wonders. His power, his signs, and his lying wonders. Will there be an assassination of this world ruler who has reached the apex of power and then a resurrection?
Some people have said through the years that they think it’s going to be a resurrected Judas.
Why do they say that? Because Judas is also called son of perdition.
John 17:12, While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.
The title of antichrist in is also perdition.
2 Thessalonians 2:3, Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition,
But frankly that could be a title given to any unbeliever. Some say it is Judas because he was the only man called diabolos.
John 6:70, Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?”
The only man he ever called a devil.
Luke 22:3, Then Satan entered Judas, surnamed Iscariot, who was numbered among the twelve.
Satan entered into Judas. Satan could enter into anybody. Satan entered into Ananias and Sapphira. What would be the point of a resurrected Judas? Nobody would know it was a resurrected Judas because nobody knows what Judas looked like. That wouldn’t be anything.
Furthermore, if the resurrection occurs then it must occur at the halfway point, not the beginning. So, whoever this person is, he has already immensely gained power in the world to bring peace at some level in the very first of the seals that is opened in Revelation 6.
We see him conquering and bringing peace. There is a satanic ruse pulled off whereby he supposedly rises from the dead. V 14, And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived.
The false prophet who comes alongside the beast deceives those who dwell on the earth.
But notice that he deceives those who dwell on the earth because of the signs which it was given to him to perform in the presence of the beast. Maybe one of the deceptions is that this individual is back to life.
Who knows whether it is real or not? It could be fabricated in many ways. If nobody else could do it, then Hollywood can! There is going to be amazement and it’s going to bring him worldwide acclaim as he rises from the dead. He demonstrates his ability to bring back a whole empire.
The whole earth was amazed, fascinated, and he will immediately become the idol of the world. Attractive, brilliant, charming, strong, handsome, astounding powers, they are so traumatized, and they follow him. Paul describes something of that following.
2 Thessalonians 2:10-11, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11 And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, Maybe what is false is that resurrection.
But they believe it because they reject the truth, and he becomes the recognized leader of the world. 3. Worship. V 4, So they worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?”
The fascination turns to worship.
2 Thessalonians 2:4, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. He is not content with acclaim, but worship. He is not content with respect, he wants reverence. He is not satisfied to be hailed and heralded, he wants to be worshiped.
The witless people who will not love the truth of the gospel to be saved are deceived to the point where they worship this man as if he were God. In doing so they worship the dragon because he gave his authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast.
In worshiping the beast, they would up be worshiping the one who gave his authority to the beast, namely the dragon. They become a worldwide group of Satan worshipers.
Do they know it? Some may, but probably most don’t. I do not think this is talking about in the end time there is going to come worldwide overt Satan worship. There will be worldwide worship of this man which in effect is Satan worship.
Some of them may truly worship Satan. Paul condemns the Corinthians for their engagement in any of the idol feasts that were going on in their culture because he says the things the gentiles sacrifice to their gods, they sacrifice to demons. They did not realize it, but they thought they were worshiping an idol. They were worshiping a demon and so it is here.
These people who think they are worshiping this man are really worshiping Satan because he is the one who gives all the authority to this man. Worship is really the enterprise of the false prophet who is the cohort of the beast. He will be introduced to us down in verse 11.
V 11-12, Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon. 12 And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence, and causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.
His job is to make the whole world worship this man. V 15, He was granted power to give breath to 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.
What we have here is some kind of fake man that is only an image but somehow is given a voice, so people think he is alive. But it is the task of the false prophet to make the beast believable as a resurrected God. As many as do not worship the image of the beast are killed.
The worship is enforced by the second beast, called the false prophet. He is further discussed in this book. What they say to show the complete and total devotion they have to the beast. “Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?”
What is the significance of such a statement?
Exodus 15:11, “Who is like You, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like You, glorious in holiness, Fearful in praises, doing wonders?
Psalm 35:10, All my bones shall say, “Lord, who is like You, Delivering the poor from him who is too strong for him, Yes, the poor and the needy from him who plunders him?”
Isaiah 40:18, To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare to Him?
Isaiah 40:25, “To whom then will you liken Me, Or to whom shall I be equal?” says the Holy One.
Isaiah 46:5, “To whom will you liken Me, and make Me equal And compare Me, that we should be alike?
Micah 7:18, Who is a God like You, Pardoning iniquity And passing over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? All throughout the Old Testament, it has been common to say, in worship to God, “Who is like you? Who is able to wage war with you?”
What we have here is mocking language. What you have here is evidence of the blasphemy that is indicated back in verse 1.
They are saying is that “You are God, you take over for God,” and they are blaspheming God. The name Michael means “who is like God.” They are playing off Michael’s name in a blasphemous way. After studying all this for the past two weeks, you get sick of it.
I wanted to get away from this antichrist to the true Christ. True Christ came humbly to help the poor, needy, sick and forsaken to the kingdom.