REVELATION 13
This chapter shews us the two great forms which the power of evil will take during the last half-week of Daniel’s seventy weeks. It is by these two beasts, that those who dwell upon the earth will be deceived, and the saints persecuted and slain. There will be a great political power, seconded and supported by a religious power. The beast of verse 1 is the revived Roman Empire or its head, and the beast of verse 11 is the antichrist.
The first beast rises out of the sea — an unsettled and unordered state of things; it will be such conditions that will give opportunity for the revival by Satanic power of the Roman Empire. At present the powers that be are ordained of God. Consequent upon the failure of Israel, God ordained that earthly government should be found in four successive Gentile empires — the Babylonish, the Medo-Persian, the Greek, and the Roman — as made known prophetically in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of the great image (Daniel 2). The unity of the Roman Empire has long been broken up, and men might doubt that it would ever be found in existence again. But it will come up out of the abyss, and have its power from the dragon, so that when it appears no allegiance or respect will be due to it from the saints.
It has “seven heads” — a terrible kind of perfection,
for it has “upon its heads names of blasphemy”. Its perfection of deliberative capacity to carry out its designs is characterized by blasphemy. Its executive power is set forth in its ten horns. It has a certain resemblance to previous empires (compare Daniel 7); I suppose it will gather up and combine in itself the evil features that were seen in them. It appears as having had a deadly wound which had been healed. The Roman Empire has had a deadly wound; it would hardly be thought possible that its imperial supremacy could ever be restored. The spread of democratic principles would seem to have put a revival of imperialism out of the question. But I believe that the forces which work in the direction of anarchy will give occasion to the return of imperialism. When everything is unsettled and in confusion the whole earth will be ready to welcome the advent of a power that appears to be strong enough to bring chaos into order, and which appears able to exercise a control that brings about unity and efficiency. And — what is infinitely sadder to think of — an apostate world will be ready to do homage to a power that blasphemes God and persecutes His saints.
The extraordinary way in which the Roman Empire will appear again will make the whole earth wonder. They will do homage to it, and to the dragon who gives it authority. The only ones who will not do homage to this blasphemous imperial power will be God’s elect, those whose names have “been written from the founding of the world in the book of life of the slain Lamb”.
The first beast in Revelation 13 is the “little horn” of Daniel 7, where we find details as to his coming up, and subduing three kings; but in this chapter he is [p. 145] seen as having acquired all the power of the ten horns. He is seen here in the full development of the power and great authority with which the dragon will invest him.
The beast will open “its mouth for blasphemies against God, to blaspheme his name and his tabernacle”. There is something blessed conveyed even in this, for it is the proof that God’s Name will still be here in testimony, and His tabernacle will still overshadow His saints with its protection. If His Name and His tabernacle had disappeared from the earth there would be no object in blaspheming them. Then the beast blasphemes “those who have their tabernacle in the heaven”. I think this indicates that there will be those in that day who will maintain faith’s ancient confession of being “strangers and sojourners on the earth”, and who will be prepared to lose their lives here in view of a dwelling in the heaven. A place in the kingdom on earth will be the portion of those who are carried right through the tribulation under the protection of God’s tabernacle. But the saints against whom the beast makes war, and whom he overcomes, will have “a better, that is, a heavenly” portion. The beast may overcome them, in the sense of being able to kill them, but morally they gain the victory over him (chapter 15: 2; 20: 4).
Thus some saints will be carried through to be a testimony to the protection of God’s tabernacle here; others will not get deliverance here, but will be conscious that their tabernacle is “in the heaven”. Satan is ever intensely hostile to the thought of man having a present dwelling in heaven. He does not so much oppose the thought of men going to heaven when they die, because that does not make men “strangers and sojourners on the earth”. But he blasphemes “those who have their tabernacle in the heaven” now because Christ is there, and who are conscious that heaven is their present place of dwelling according to divine purpose and calling.
Verses 9 and 10 warn the saints of that day against the use of any human or fleshly power in their own defence. To suffer patiently, even as the slain Lamb did, was their calling. “Here is the endurance and the faith of the saints”. It is a warning equally applicable to ourselves.
“Another beast” rises out of the earth. He makes his appearance in ordered and settled conditions, and has a resemblance to Christ. “It had two horns like to a lamb”; “and it works great signs”; it appears to have convincing credentials; and all its influence is to bring men to worship the first beast and its image, and to carry a mark indicative of their allegiance to him. This is a religious head, establishing its influence by signs, so that men may become worshippers of the first beast, and carry his moral impress. He causes “even fire to come down from heaven to the earth before men”, and he causes an image of the beast to be made, and gives breath to it, and sets it up to be worshipped, and causes “that as many as should not do homage to the image of the beast should be killed”. This corresponds in measure with the image which Nebuchadnezzar made (Daniel 3), but accompanied by supernatural signs which deceive those that dwell upon the earth. Indeed nothing could be more solemn than to see that the same words are used of the antichrist in 2 Thessalonians 2: 9 — “power and signs and wonders” — which are used in Acts 2: 22 of the witness which God gave to the Lord Jesus.
[p. 147] I have no doubt that this second beast is “the king” of Isaiah 30: 33; Isaiah 57: 9; Daniel 11: 36; one who will “come in his own name”, and who will have his seat in Jerusalem; the antichrist who will deny the Father and the Son; and “who opposes and exalts himself on high against all called God, or object of veneration; so that he himself sits down in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God” (2 Thessalonians 2: 4).
So that we see in this chapter a great political power of Satanic origin and character, and then a great religious power which acts in support of the political power, and which “spake as a dragon”. Though it may pretend to be like Christ, its utterances are diabolical. These are powers which are soon to appear on the stage of the world’s history. It is not impossible that both the beast and the antichrist may be alive on earth now, though not to be manifested until after the assembly has been translated.
All this has a voice for us, because the principles which will be fully developed in these two beasts are working in the world today. Paul tells us that “the mystery of lawlessness already works” (2 Thessalonians 2: 7); and John says, “According as ye have heard that antichrist comes, even now there have come many antichrists, whence we know that it is the last hour” (1 John 2: 18). The principles which will be embodied in the first beast are abroad in the political world, and the spirit of antichrist is abroad in the religious world. We have to see that we do not fall under the contamination of these subtle influences of evil. One cannot but notice that the conditions of the industrial world, both on the side of employers and employed, tend to the formation and recognition of combinations which make it more and more difficult for those who remain [p. 148] outside them. There is not yet, thank God, the mark of the beast, but men are being familiarized with the principle on which his kingdom will be ordered.
When these principles are fully developed no one will be “able to buy or sell save he that had the mark, the name of the beast, or the number of its name”. There will be no civil or religious liberty, no freedom of conscience; every one must carry on his “right hand” or upon his “forehead” the mark of the beast. He must be openly identified in his working ability or in his personal character with the beast. The dragon’s purpose in this policy, which will be carried out by his two representatives on earth as far as possible, will be to blot out from the face of the earth every trace of testimony to God or to His Christ. He will not succeed, and he will only have “a short time”.
Those “that dwell on the earth” are a moral class. Paul speaks of those that “mind earthly things” as being “the enemies of the cross of Christ” (Philippians 3: 18, 19), and he contrasts them with those whose “commonwealth has its existence in the heavens”. Those that dwell on the earth are content to have their portion there without God and without Christ, and those who are in this attitude of mind will be ready to do homage to the first beast, and to be deceived by the second, and even to do homage to the dragon.
Difficulties will increase if we are left here, but divine resources and compensations will be better known. Those going on with God will prove what He can be to His tested and suffering people. A conscious link with Christ in heaven will keep our spirits in separation from the evil principles which are at [p. 149] work here. God may allow us to be found in circumstances which will teach us the value of the Psalms. That is, to find resource in God in presence of much external difficulty, whilst preserving in mind and affection the spirit of the present period of grace, and the spirit of sonship in relation to God. The Psalms will be the comfort and support of faith in a day when extreme pressure will come upon the people of God. And in proportion as saints of the assembly feel the pressure of things they will be qualified to sympathize with the suffering remnant. The elders will have priestly interest in the oppressed saints on earth, and sympathy with them as having known suffering themselves.
One would expect, too, that as outward pressures increase, saints will be more drawn together in mutual affection and care. So that if some are deprived of the means of getting a living there will be a readiness to care for them. Love amongst the children of God is God’s mark. The mark of the beast is soon going to characterize the world, but the mark of God — the divine nature in activity — is to characterize the saints.
May we be increasingly exercised to carry that mark. “The number of the beast” will be understood by the wise when he appears, but until he does appear speculations are not of much value.