THE THIRD WOE: THE BEAST FROM THE SEA

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Then the dragon took his stand on the shore beside the sea.

Then I saw a beast rising up out of the sea. It had seven heads and ten horns, with ten crowns on its horns. And written on each head were names that blasphemed God. This beast looked like a leopard, but it had the feet of a bear and the mouth of a lion!

And the dragon gave the beast his own power and throne and great authority.

I saw that one of the heads of the beast seemed wounded beyond recovery—but the fatal wound was healed! The whole world marveled at this miracle and gave allegiance to the beast. They worshiped the dragon for giving the beast such power, and they also worshiped the beast. “Who is as great as the beast?” they exclaimed. “Who is able to fight against him?”

Then the beast was allowed to speak great blasphemies against God. And he was given authority to do whatever he wanted for forty-two months. And he spoke terrible words of blasphemy against God, slandering His name and His dwelling—that is, those who dwell in Heaven. And the beast was allowed to wage war against God’s holy people and to conquer them. And he was given authority to rule over every tribe and people and language and nation.

And all the people who belong to this world worshiped the beast. They are the ones whose names were not written in the Book of Life that belongs to the Lamb who was slaughtered before the world was made.

Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand.

Anyone who is destined for prison will be taken to prison. Anyone destined to die by the sword will die by the sword.

This means that God’s holy people must endure persecution patiently and remain faithful.

Revelation 12:18, 13:1-10

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

At the end of Revelation, chapter 12, we see an angered Satan, pictured as a great dragon, try and attack and kill the woman, representing Israel, by spewing a flood of water from his mouth. This attempt was thwarted by the mighty power of God which caused the earth to open up and swallow up the river that gushed from the devil’s mouth. This allowed the woman (Israel) to escape to wilderness where the scriptures say she will be protected for three and a half years, the calculation of “a time, times, and half a time”, the period of the great tribulation. This incensed Satan even more and he “declared war against the rest of her (Israel’s) children—all who keep God’s commandments and maintain their testimony for Jesus” (Vv. 13-17).

This war begins as we turn the page to chapter 13 and two beasts we will see Satan use for his intended evil purposes. We’ll look at the first of these beasts in today’s message, the one that emerges from the sea. Look at again at this passage:

Then the dragon took his stand on the shore beside the sea.

Then I saw a beast rising up out of the sea. It had seven heads and ten horns, with ten crowns on its horns. And written on each head were names that blasphemed God. This beast looked like a leopard, but it had the feet of a bear and the mouth of a lion!

And the dragon gave the beast his own power and throne and great authority.

I saw that one of the heads of the beast seemed wounded beyond recovery—but the fatal wound was healed! The whole world marveled at this miracle and gave allegiance to the beast. They worshiped the dragon for giving the beast such power, and they also worshiped the beast. “Who is as great as the beast?” they exclaimed. “Who is able to fight against him?”

Then the beast was allowed to speak great blasphemies against God. And he was given authority to do whatever he wanted for forty-two months. And he spoke terrible words of blasphemy against God, slandering His name and His dwelling—that is, those who dwell in Heaven. And the beast was allowed to wage war against God’s holy people and to conquer them. And he was given authority to rule over every tribe and people and language and nation.

And all the people who belong to this world worshiped the beast. They are the ones whose names were not written in the Book of Life that belongs to the Lamb who was slaughtered before the world was made.

Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand.

Anyone who is destined for prison will be taken to prison. Anyone destined to die by the sword will die by the sword.

This means that God’s holy people must endure persecution patiently and remain faithful. 12:18, 13:1-10

Now, this isn’t the first time we have seen this beast in the scriptures. For in the eleventh chapter of this book, we were briefly introduced to it. You may remember that it emerged to attack and kill the two witnesses who were sent by God to deliver His prophecy to the earth (Vv. 4-7).

Fast forward to our verses in chapter 13 and the beast emerges as a representative of Satan who will “wage war against God’s holy people” so “to conquer them”. Note he was “given authority to rule over every tribe and people and language and nation”.  With this, you would have thought the people of the world would be terrified but the scriptures tell us that “the whole world marveled” at what they witnessed and pledged their “allegiance to the beast”. And if that wasn’t bad enough, we read where “all the people who belong to this world” chose to worship “the dragon (Satan)” as well as “the beast”, praising the devil “for giving the beast such power”, quoted as saying:

“Who is as great as the beast? Who is able to fight against him?”

It should come as little surprise that these words were proclaimed by the “ones whose names were not written in the Book of Life”. It’s an unbelievable celebration of utter evil but then again, we need to remember that these are indeed a depiction of the end times, and we are left with little doubt as to why the Lord would put an end to it.

Well, the empowered, worshiped beast will waste no time beginning its wicked work. For we read where Satan enabled it to “speak great blasphemies against God” under the freedom to do whatever it “wanted for forty-two months”, which is three and a half years or a time, times, and half a time. The “terrible words of blasphemy against God” included “slandering His name and His dwelling” which included “those who dwell in Heaven”.

Tomorrow, we’ll see a second beast join in, an accomplice provided by Satan to assist the first but before I move onto that, I want to touch on one other important thing regarding the make-up of this beast from the sea. Here’s what we learn about its characteristics:

Then I saw a beast rising up out of the sea. It had seven heads and ten horns, with ten crowns on its horns. And written on each head were names that blasphemed God. This beast looked like a leopard, but it had the feet of a bear and the mouth of a lion!

I saw that one of the heads of the beast seemed wounded beyond recovery—but the fatal wound was healed!

Now, let’s go back to the Old Testament and this vision of Daniel found in the seventh chapter:

Earlier, during the first year of King Belshazzar’s reign in Babylon, Daniel had a dream and saw visions as he lay in his bed. He wrote down the dream, and this is what he saw.

In my vision that night, I, Daniel, saw a great storm churning the surface of a great sea, with strong winds blowing from every direction. Then four huge beasts came up out of the water, each different from the others.

The first beast was like a lion with eagles’ wings. As I watched, its wings were pulled off, and it was left standing with its two hind feet on the ground, like a human being. And it was given a human mind.

Then I saw a second beast, and it looked like a bear. It was rearing up on one side, and it had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. And I heard a voice saying to it, “Get up! Devour the flesh of many people!”

Then the third of these strange beasts appeared, and it looked like a leopard. It had four bird’s wings on its back, and it had four heads. Great authority was given to this beast.

Then in my vision that night, I saw a fourth beast—terrifying, dreadful, and very strong. It devoured and crushed its victims with huge iron teeth and trampled their remains beneath its feet. It was different from any of the other beasts, and it had ten horns. Vv. 1-7

It’s very interesting to note that the beast emerging from the sea in John’s vision includes the characteristics of each of the beasts that Daniel saw. We read in Revelation 13 that the beast of the sea had “seven heads and ten horns, with ten crowns on its horns” and it had “names that blasphemed God” which were “written on each head”. We read where the “beast looked like a leopard, but it had the feet of a bear and the mouth of a lion” connecting it to the vision of Daniel as we continue to see how connectional the Word of God is from the Old to the New Testament and even within each of these testaments. Finally, the scriptures tell us that one of the beast’s heads “seemed wounded beyond recovery” but miraculously “the fatal wound was healed”, speaking every more to the power the beast possessed, a power that would allow it to heal if wounded.

Indeed, the earth was in for a terrible three and a half years but we read where those who belonged to Jesus, “the Lamb who was slaughtered”, those who were counted as “God’s holy people” were encouraged to “endure persecution patiently” and “remain faithful”. For Jesus would soon return to establish His kingdom on earth before bringing it and its people to judgment.

Until then, the Lord speaks to His readers at the end of this passage saying, “anyone with ears should listen and understand”. Through this message and the ones yet ahead, we'll do just that.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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