Morning Light – Revelation 13: The Beast, the False Lamb and 666

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Today: [Revelation 13:] The Beast, the False Lamb and 666. When Satan falls to earth in Revelation 12, he rises as the Beast in Revelation 13. Events begin to accelerate as global deception, and the universal spiritual seduction of mankind takes on an intensity never before seen in history.
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[Rev 13:1-18 KJV] 1 And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. 2 And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as [the feet] of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority. 3 And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast. 4 And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who [is] like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him? 5 And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty [and] two months. 6 And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven. 7 And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. 8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. 9 If any man have an ear, let him hear. 10 He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints. 11 And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. 12 And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. 13 And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, 14 And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by [the means of] those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live. 15 And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. 16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: 17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. 18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number [is] Six hundred threescore [and] six.
Chapter 13 opens with John standing on the sea in a vision. What does the sand represent? Jesus made the following statement in the Gospel of Matthew:
[Mat 7:26-27 KJV] 26 And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: 27 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.
Thus we understand the context of this vision is those who have heard the truth of the gospel yet who on the shifting sands of their own choosing. Who are these that build on the sand? We universally look at this saying of Jesus and apply it to the individual (or in microcosm). What if we zoom out and look at this verse in the macrocosm (i.e., from the scope of human history)? If you give thought to where our Bible originated you have to look to the Arabian peninsula, to Egypt, modern-day Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey. These nations are fiercely anti-Christ in their sentiments today, but in ancient times these were the nations from whence the texts of the book of the Bible sprang. Every story and ever setting in scripture comes from this land area that now completely rejects Christ. These are the sand-seed nations. Where does the term sand-seed arise?
In the book of Genesis Abraham was informed that his seed would be as the sand of the sea (Gen. 22:17); the dust of the earth (Gen. 13:16); and as the stars of the heavens (Gen. 15:5). These are three people groups that sprang from Abraham and are the people of Israel (the star-seed); the people of the Arabian Peninsula (the sand-seed people) and the people of Northern Africa (the dust-seed people).
Because John stands on the sand, we may construe what is unveiled to be concerning the geopolitical unfolding of apocalyptic events as they relate or at least originate on the Arabian Peninsula or among the sand-seed nations.
John sees a beast rise out of the sea. The sea according to Isa. 57:20 is the sea of lost humanity. We are not sure who this beast is, but we do see a description that may give us clues. The beast has seven heads and ten horns with blasphemous names written upon each of the seven heads. The body of the beast is like a leopard a bear with teeth of a lion. In giving some thought to the lion, the bear, and the leopard we can make these observations:
Alexander the Great is portrayed as a leopard in Dan. 7:6. The bear speaks of Gog and Magog – the ancient name for what we now identify as the former Soviet Union. What of the lion? The two most prominent nations that consider the lion a national symbol are the UK and Iran. On the Arabian Peninsula where this vision originates and wherein vision John sees himself standing we would point to Turkey (connected by geography with the ancient empire of Alexander); The lion (being Iran, the rider with a bow but no arrows in Rev. 6:2); and the Russia (a major state sponsor of terrorism and the Muslim nation-states).
This then is a coalition of anti-western and anti-Christ nations that receive their power directly from the dragon who is Satan himself. Make no mistake about it these nations represent an axis of evil setting themselves and our God and His Christ as surely as Nimrod pitched war against God in Gen. 11 when he built the tower of Babylon. What is to be their end? Jesus declared it in Matthew 7:26-27: these nations knew the gospel. From their peoples the scriptures originated yet they have rejected the truth of God and as Jesus says of the house on the sand “great will be the fall of it…” Always remember when looking at these things that we are looking at what happens to the losing team. We are unafraid because the overarching revelation is that of the triumph of God in Christ.
Verse three describes one of the seven heads of the beast being wounded and then healed. This could be a very public assassination attempt against the likes of Putin, Hassan Rouhani (president of Iran) or the current Ayatollah (Ruhollah Khomeini), or Recep Erdogan of Turkey. Whichever this wounded and then healed head might be the result afterward is the world seeing him as a supernatural figure so much so that he is worshipped.
Because this person now receives reverential adulation as a supernatural figure v. 5 says he is given a mouth. In other words, this is his moment when the entire world wants to hear what he has to say, and he takes the advantage to push a narrative of blasphemy and an anti-Christ agenda. He will be openly anti-Isreal and anti-Christian. He will declare open warfare in the cultural context and in a conventional war against nations and peoples representative of Isreal and Christianity. As a Christian nation, the United States will be in his crosshairs.
His prominence will be such (v. 8) that everyone whose name is not written in the book of life will worship him. Now think about that statement. The description is speaking about all that dwell upon the earth and then divides them between Christian and non-Christian. That then constitutes in one verse the strongest case for suggesting that the church, the community of the redeemed will be in the earth.
It is essential to bear in mind that this comes after the events of Rev. 12 and the sun-Clothed woman. There has been a remarkable spiritual upgrade for the people of God, and as a result, Satan himself is evicted from the realm formerly occupied by demonic princes and principalities, and he has come down to earth with great wrath against the woman (the church). The outworking of that wrath is what we see in chapter 13. In chapter 12 Satan is cast down to earth, and in chapter 13 he arises from the sea as the Beast, and all that detestable creature represents.
In v. 10 we see a strong warning to the saints during this time. He that kills with the sword must be with the sword killed himself. The early church was not an activist church nor an insurgent church. We are wrong to adopt survivalist or militia agendas as though we are going to take up arms against the anti-Christ influences in the earth. The patience of the saints in v. 10 is the unwillingness to resort to political machinations or armed resistance against the work of Satan and those influenced by him. Remember the warning of Zech. 4:6 that “it’s not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit saith the Lord.”
John then sees a second beast who looks like a lamb but speaks as a dragon. This is the counterfeit Christ. He looks like the Lamb on the Throne, but his working is from the depths of darkness and depravity to seduce and deceive all those on the earth who do not bear the redemptive seal of Christ upon their hearts. For a time all humanity and both the Muslim and the Jewish peoples outside of a New Birth experience will be utterly deceived. In the midst of this, the lamb figure causes a statue or image of the earlier beast to come to life in front of all the world. It will be a sleight of hand beyond anything the magicians of this world have ever done. In the awe of that moment, the lamb figure strikes, demanding total allegiance and submission in spiritual matters, in cultural issues and in economic affairs among men even to the point that it will be impossible to buy and sell without paying blasphemous homage and worship to these Anti-Christ figures. What of the mark of the beast? It is the number 666. Six is the number of man. 777 is the numeric value of Jesus’ name. Many have tried to name this person but the essential understanding of what these three sixes represent. 6 is the number of man. 3 is the number of completion, and 100 is the number of fullness. These events and people with this number attributed to them speaks of the depravity, rebellion, and blasphemies of men coming to fullness in the earth and complete degradation to the point that God says “enough is enough” the time of the Gentiles and in fact the time of the rule of man on the earth is up and a new tenancy of Christ Himself over all the earth is about to begin.