Revelation 13 Commentary
Let’s keep pace with chapter 12, knowing that the original script didn’t have chapters or verses. These formats are later “management” structures to aid reading and referencing. We closed chapter 12 with the dragon (identified as satan) waging war against the woman’s offspring (the church). 12v17.
So the period covered is what many refer to as the church-age.
The Spirit speaks to the church in Ephesus through direct interaction with the great apostle John. But we also know the Spirit inspired another apostle, named Paul, and we have another letter delivered to the same church. The material isn’t different.
The dragon, the first beast, and the second beast. The Books of Daniel and Ezekiel have used similar symbolism quite extensively.
The dragon wages war through these beasts. These beasts represent human entities. These human entities have both administrative powers and spiritual powers.
Administrative powers can be seen in legislative structures. Laws are changed to suit satan and move people away from any semblance of obedience to Jesus. We have laws on sexuality, child upbringing, abortion, public reading of the scripture, and many others that simply don’t subscribe to the teaching of the holy script.
You need to look very hard to find individual leaders (beasts) who call fire from heaven. Probably because this statement is both symbolic and is a non-administrative power. It is a spiritual situation; we cannot see it.
Paul’s letter to the Ephesians mentions the “rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms”. Ephesians 6 verse 12.
The activities of the spiritual forces won’t be seen. So things will happen and many may categorize them as acts of nature but the saint can know better.
So the dragon is the brains behind the rulers, the authorities, the powers of the dark world, and the spiritual forces. We can see how everything is human and how everything is spiritual. We can also see how the beasts double as “rulers” and spiritual forces.
The first beast combined the features of the leopard, the bear, and the lion. It is a deliberate reference to the various world kingdoms – the Greek Empire, Medo-Persia Empire, and Babylonian Empire. Daniel 7. Somehow, this description is meant to discourage you from finger-pointing individual leaders. It also places this text within the reach of world leadership systems regardless of time and space.
The second beast has the identity of 666. You need a calculator for this function. John has used the number seven to represent the perfection of Heaven. The number 6 represents man and his imperfection. It is rarely used in the holy script. It may mean that humans can always solve this mathematical problem and find rulers, authorities, powers of this dark world, and spiritual forces in time and space.
Your own street will have a man or men marked 666 as they operate under the instructions of the dragon. If this helps our understanding of the war waged against the saints by the dragon, then let it be so.
More resources visit http://www.lovingscripture.com
LOVING SCRIPTURE 