Two Beasts
Notes
Transcript
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. 2 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. 3 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. 4 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?”
5 And the beast was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for forty-two months. 6 It opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name and his dwelling, that is, those who dwell in heaven. 7 Also it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them. And authority was given it over every tribe and people and language and nation, 8 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. 9 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.
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, 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 of 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, 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.
Still at the mid-point of the tribulation. We have here the reference to 42 months which is the same as the 1260 days and time, times and half a time. As a reminder, the two witnesses from ch11 are testifying, ministering in Jerusalem at the same time we see this unfold.
Beast coming up out of the sea. IF this is a person, many have guessed it will be one from the Gentile nations - the chaos of the sea is representative thereof. Compared to Israel, the Gentile nations were numerous and considered chaotic. Daniel’s prophecy had the beasts always as kingdoms. So there are parts of this future event unknowable for now. Daniel 7 and 11 are good OT references to what happens here. But remember some of the kingdoms Daniel wrote about have now already passed. So what John sees is in reverse order compared to what Daniel wrote, but Daniel saw it in the future and John sees those in the past.
The diadems - again the crown of the king, but not the stephanos, the victor’s crown. Because ultimately the figures in ch13 will not be victorious. But they will severely persecute and even martyr those who come to salvation during the tribulation.
This calls for faith: Faith as the foundation of the believer’s life. Faith in God’s ability, through the in dwelling of His Holy Spirit, in God’s ability to hold us and empower us for Kingdom work. For the message of the Gospel. And remember it is the HS who Jesus said He would send to comfort, to remind us of Jesus’ words, to testify to all truth, to empower and embolden us to spread the message of the gospel. But this also calls for endurance: Remember when Jesus was in the garden and asked His disciples ‘can you not pray with me for one hour?’. Endurance in our prayer life. Luke 18 again. Remembering tho, that endurance is foundational as well. It is a building block.
Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
Endurance in our outward life as well as in our prayer life. If we are not growing endurance, we lack character and hope. We always give up. (look back at the scripture)
As the vision unfolds we see the old devil attempting to create a ‘satanic trinity’. The dragon gives authority to the beast. Because of this people worship the dragon. Then the second beast rises out of the earth, giving the third entity of theIr trinity. The mortal wound, healed should be their counterfeit of Christ. All this culminates in the short-of-perfect number of 666. The number of man, not of God.
This calls for wisdom: A common misconception says wisdom comes only from making mistakes. This is a very humanistic approach. If this were so the beast would deceive all the new believers saved during the tribulation. They would have no experience (mistakes) to draw from. No, there is wisdom from a completely different source! Graduates, tune in here: If any of you lack wisdom, ask God, for He gives freely without finding fault. “God, I need your wisdom” is an example of perfect praying. It is according to His will. It is based on His desire. It is expectant of receiving.
Now this triumvirate sets itself up to be worshipped. Scripture has given us warning to protect us:
“You shall have no other gods before me.
“You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
When Jesus was driven to the wilderness to be tempted, Satan offered the kingdoms of the world if He would but bow down and worship.
And Jesus answered him, “It is written,
“ ‘You shall worship the Lord your God,
and him only shall you serve.’ ”
Neither of these scriptures is talking about the tribulation. But both are warnings against giving our affection and devotion to anything other than the Holy Trinity. You see, giving this kind of affection and devotion to our job steals worship from the God-head. Or to our kids’ recreational activities.
We said last week the enemy desires to steal, kill and destroy. He hopes to steal the worship belonging to God, both then, during the tribulation, and now. He will offer you the best counterfeits, shortcuts and lies he can muster. But whereas worshipping the one true God fills us, worshipping/chasing the counterfeits, shortcuts and lies always leaves us empty.
When we believe the lie of putting our kids’ earthly future ahead of their eternal/heavenly future, it will leave us and them empty! When we take the shortcut of shady business dealings and greed for a better retirement instead of generosity toward the kingdom of God, it will leave us empty. When we follow the counterfeit of the American dream instead of following the truth of the Word of God, it leaves us empty.
On Sunday we take the appearance of worshipping God. Maybe we do and maybe we don’t. But who do we worship the rest of the week? Simple definition of worship being when your mind’s attention and your heart’s affection are centered on Him. Does your mind and your heart center on Him on any given day? On every given day? He wants it to. He loves you infinitely and wants you to love Him back. AAMOF He may be calling you right now. Whispering into your heart to drop your pretenses and objections and allow His salvation to yours today. All you have to do is…