The Beastly Rising

       The supplemental vision we see next in Rev. 13 is the instant replay of the rise of the Gentile coalition that we saw in the overview. It is the beastly coalition that goes to make war against Israel. It has ten horns and seven heads. Once again we know this is the final manifestation of the oppressors because it has the ten horns that represent the ten toes on the feet of Nebuchadnezzar’s statue of the times of the Gentiles.
         In this more detailed supplemental, we find that the  seven heads are marked by a blasphemous name (remember Mr. Big Mouth from Daniel?). John notes that the beast is like a  leopard, with the feet of a bear, and a mouth like a lion. This Spirit-inspired wording is meant to connect us back to Daniel 7, which just so happens to describe four beasts stirred up from the sea by the four winds of heaven.
         Daniel explains that “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. 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!’ “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” (Dan. 7:4-6).
          “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” (Dan. 7:7). It is this fourth beast to whom the dragon gives his power, his throne, and great authority for 42 months (3½ years) (Rev. 13:2, 5).
         When Mr. Big Mouth, aka the Antichrist, opens his mouth in blasphemy, notice whom he scorns and speaks against (v. 6). He not only blasphemes against God, but also His tabernacle (His presence), and those who dwell in heaven—Christ and His Body now seated as the heavenly court! Again, this confirms that the Church remains in heaven. We don’t have to come back to the earth to establish God’s rule. After all, in our own time, Satan influences our world affairs from the heavenlies (Eph. 6:12).
           Again, John diligently records that this beast is granted to make war with the saints to overcome them. This confirms that John is seeing the onset of the 3½-year war for Jerusalem.
            End-Time Lesson: This chapter is a good example of one of the pointers we gave at the start of this series about understanding apocalyptic writings—that is, the use of hyperbole. Before we get more details about this beast in the next few chapters, we need to highlight several examples of this hyperbole here. Verses 3 and 8 say that all the world marveled, followed the beast, and worshiped the beast. Yet we know Israel doesn’t because the beast makes war against her! We also know from Dan. 11:44 that “news from the east and the north shall trouble him; therefore he shall go out with great fury to destroy and annihilate many.”
          Clearly not all of the world is under the sway of the beast. The hyperbole is simply used to show that this is a big deal. The idea is similar to when Jesus would say, “Truly, truly I say to you…” to draw attention to the key point He was about to make.
          So far we’ve seen the Dragon and the Antichrist. The rest of chapter 13 describes the third person of the counterfeit trinity—the False Prophet rising up from the earth. He is the one who calls for the people to worship the image of the beast and to receive the mark of the beast that is required in order to buy and sell wherever the Beast is ruling. Again, we know he does not rule everywhere.
          The number of the beastly trio is 666. Six is the number of this fallen world, subject to the weakness of mankind’s sin. The beastly kingdom is empowered by the fallen Dragon kicked out of heaven. It includes the Antichrist who rejects not only Jesus the Son of God, but also God the Father, for if you reject the Son, you automatically reject the Father (1 Jn. 4:3).
          The Antichrist epitomizes the religion of humanism, where every person is their own god. Each person determines how they want to live. Ironically, the one who rejects all religion then insists that his image be worshiped. This is because the beast also includes that epitome of the false prophets who speak apart from the Word of God.