The State as Serpent: The Beast from the Sea Text: Revelation 13:1-10
Introduction: Decoding the Monsters
The book of Revelation is not a locked room with the key thrown away. It is not a series of inscrutable riddles designed to frighten us with images of helicopters and barcodes two thousand years after the fact. It is a revelation, an unveiling, of Jesus Christ. And it was written to be understood by first-century Christians who were about to be thrown into the teeth of the meat grinder. John tells them plainly that these things must "shortly take place." To argue that he was really talking about the European Union or a computer chip in Brussels is to make John a liar and to render the book useless to its original audience.
We must therefore read this book with first-century eyes, grounded in the Old Testament Scriptures that John quotes and alludes to on every page. When John sees a beast, he is not inventing a monster out of whole cloth. He is drawing directly from the prophet Daniel, for whom a "beast" is a persecuting, pagan empire. This is apocalyptic literature, which means it is highly symbolic, but the symbols have referents. They point to real things. The symbols are the political cartoons of the first century, and if you know the players, the cartoons make perfect, devastating sense.
In our passage today, we are introduced to one of the central villains of the drama: the beast from the sea. This chapter is about the unholy trinity. In the previous chapter, we met the dragon, who is explicitly identified as Satan. Here, that dragon deputizes two agents to carry out his war against the woman and her seed. The first is this beast from the sea, representing raw, persecuting, imperial power. The second, which we will get to later, is the beast from the land, representing corrupt, apostate religion that serves the state. This is the unholy trinity: the dragon (anti-Father), the sea-beast (anti-Son), and the land-beast (anti-Spirit). It is a satanic parody of the Godhead, and its purpose is to demand and receive the worship that is due to God alone.
What we are about to see is the anatomy of tyranny. It is a portrait of how the devil uses the civil magistrate, the state, to crush the people of God. And the specific historical embodiment of this beast, the one John's readers were facing, was the monstrous, blasphemous, and murderous Roman Empire.
The Text
And the dragon stood on the sand of the seashore. Then I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads, and on his horns were ten diadems, and on his heads were blasphemous names. And the beast which I saw was like a leopard, and his feet were like those of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. And the dragon gave him his power and his throne and great authority. And I saw one of his heads as if it had been slain fatally, and his fatal wound was healed. And the whole earth marveled and followed after the beast. And they worshiped the dragon because he gave his authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast, and who is able to wage war with him?” And there was given to him a mouth speaking great boasts and blasphemies, and authority to act for forty-two months was given to him. And he opened his mouth in blasphemies against God, to blaspheme His name and His tabernacle, that is, those who dwell in heaven. And it was also given to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them, and authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation was given to him. And all who dwell on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain. If anyone has an ear, let him hear. If anyone is destined for captivity, to captivity he goes; if anyone kills with the sword, with the sword he must be killed. Here is the perseverance and the faith of the saints.
(Revelation 13:1-10 LSB)
The Dragon's Deputy (vv. 1-2)
The scene is set with the dragon, Satan, waiting on the shore.
"And the dragon stood on the sand of the seashore. Then I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads, and on his horns were ten diadems, and on his heads were blasphemous names. And the beast which I saw was like a leopard, and his feet were like those of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. And the dragon gave him his power and his throne and great authority." (Revelation 13:1-2)
The sea, in Old Testament imagery, represents the Gentile nations, the tumultuous, chaotic world outside the covenant people of Israel. So this beast is a Gentile political power. Its description is a mashup of the four beasts Daniel saw in his vision (Daniel 7). Daniel saw a lion (Babylon), a bear (Medo-Persia), a leopard (Greece), and a terrifying fourth beast with ten horns (Rome). John's beast combines all of them. This tells us that Rome, the beast of John's day, was a culmination of all the pagan, persecuting empires that came before it. It was the apex predator of godless states.
The seven heads and ten horns connect this beast directly to the dragon in chapter 12. This is Satan's creature. The state, when it steps outside its God-ordained limits, becomes a draconic monster. The heads are identified later as seven mountains, a clear reference to Rome, the city famously built on seven hills. They are also seven kings, or emperors. The blasphemous names on its heads refer to the Roman imperial cult, where emperors like Nero and Domitian demanded to be worshiped as "Lord and God." This was a direct, blasphemous assault on the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
And lest we miss the point, John tells us plainly where this beast gets its authority. "The dragon gave him his power and his throne and great authority." All political power is delegated. The question is, from whom? God establishes civil government for the punishment of evil and the praise of good (Romans 13). But when a government becomes a terror to the good and a praise to the evil, it has switched allegiances. It is no longer a minister of God, but a minister of the dragon. This was Rome. Its power was immense, its throne was global, but its authority came from the pit.
The Counterfeit Resurrection (vv. 3-4)
Next, John sees a bizarre and blasphemous parody of the gospel.
"And I saw one of his heads as if it had been slain fatally, and his fatal wound was healed. And the whole earth marveled and followed after the beast. And they worshiped the dragon because he gave his authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, 'Who is like the beast, and who is able to wage war with him?'" (Revelation 13:3-4)
One of the heads, one of the emperors, received what appeared to be a fatal wound, but it was healed. Many commentators, myself included, see this as a reference to the turmoil surrounding the death of Nero. Nero, the sixth head, committed suicide in 68 A.D., plunging the empire into a chaotic civil war. The year 69 A.D. was the "Year of the Four Emperors." It looked as though the empire might tear itself apart. But then Vespasian emerged, stabilized the empire, and the beast "lived." The Roman system survived its "fatal wound," and the world marveled. They saw this resilience as a sign of divine power.
This is a counterfeit resurrection. Christ was truly slain and truly raised, securing our salvation. The beast appears to be slain and appears to recover, securing the world's damnation. And what is the result? Worship. But notice who they worship. They worship the dragon for giving power to the beast, and they worship the beast itself. This is the essence of all pagan statism. Men worship raw power. They see the state's ability to survive and conquer, and they are awestruck. Their hymn is not "Who is like the Lord?" but rather "Who is like the beast?" Their faith is not in the God who parts the Red Sea, but in the state that has the biggest army. They ask, "who is able to wage war with him?" It is a rhetorical question. The beast seems invincible. This is the lie that every tyrant wants his people to believe.
The Blasphemous War (vv. 5-8)
The beast is then given a specific mandate and a specific timeframe.
"And there was given to him a mouth speaking great boasts and blasphemies, and authority to act for forty-two months was given to him... And it was also given to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them... And all who dwell on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain." (Revelation 13:5, 7-8)
The beast's primary activities are blasphemy and persecution. It blasphemes God, His name, and His dwelling place, which John clarifies is "those who dwell in heaven." This means the church. The state blasphemes the church when it claims for itself the authority and prerogatives that belong to Christ's kingdom.
And it is given authority to act for "forty-two months." This is not a random number. It is the same period as the 1,260 days the woman is nourished in the wilderness and the time, times, and half a time from Daniel. It is a limited period of intense persecution. And we can identify this period with historical precision. Nero launched the first great Roman persecution of the church after the great fire of Rome in November of 64 A.D. That persecution raged until his death in June of 68 A.D. That is exactly forty-two months. John is telling the saints that this horrific persecution under Nero, this beastly onslaught, is not random. It is measured. God has given the beast a leash, and it is exactly forty-two months long.
During this time, the beast is permitted to "make war with the saints and to overcome them." This refers to physical overcoming. Christians were martyred. They were arrested, tortured, and killed. From a worldly perspective, the beast was winning. But this victory was temporary and superficial. And it served a crucial purpose: to distinguish between true believers and false ones. "All who dwell on the earth will worship him." This refers to the "earth-dwellers," a technical term in Revelation for unbelievers, those whose loyalties are tied to this passing age. But there is a remnant that will not bow the knee. Who are they? They are those whose names were written "from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain." Your perseverance in the face of persecution is not ultimately dependent on your grit. It is dependent on God's eternal decree. Your name was written in His book before the beast ever rose from the sea.
The Call to Perseverance (vv. 9-10)
John concludes this section with a sober exhortation to the saints.
"If anyone has an ear, let him hear. If anyone is destined for captivity, to captivity he goes; if anyone kills with the sword, with the sword he must be killed. Here is the perseverance and the faith of the saints." (Revelation 13:9-10)
This is a call to listen carefully. What John is about to say is the key to enduring what is coming. He quotes from Jeremiah 15:2. The principle is this: you cannot fight the beast on its own terms. You cannot take up the sword against the Roman legions. God has appointed this time of judgment. If He has destined you for martyrdom ("if anyone kills with the sword"), then you will be killed with the sword. If He has destined you for imprisonment or exile ("to captivity he goes"), then that is your lot. This is not fatalism; it is faith in the sovereignty of God over even the most horrific circumstances.
The beast's power is the sword. But the Christian's power is "the perseverance and the faith of the saints." We conquer not by fighting, but by faith. We overcome not by killing, but by dying. The beast overcomes the saints physically, but the saints overcome the beast spiritually, by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony, loving not their lives even unto death (Rev. 12:11). The beast wins the battle, but loses the war. Every martyr's grave is a seed. Every act of faithful endurance is a victory that the world cannot understand. Rome is now a museum. The church of the martyrs is a global kingdom.
Conclusion: The Beast is Dead, Long Live the Beast
The beast of Revelation 13 was the Roman Empire. Nero was its sixth head. That persecution lasted forty-two months. These things have happened. This is not our future; it is our past. But we would be fools to think this makes the passage irrelevant. Solomon tells us there is nothing new under the sun. The beast is dead, but the spirit of the beast is not.
Every state, in every age, is tempted to become a beast. Every government is tempted to overstep its bounds, to demand ultimate allegiance, to offer a salvation of its own making, and to persecute the church of Jesus Christ which insists that there is another King. The names and the flags change, but the blasphemous tune remains the same. Whether it is called Caesar, or the Fuhrer, or the General Secretary, or "the common good," the beast always rises from the tumultuous sea of human affairs and demands worship.
And so the call to the saints is the same in every generation. We must not be surprised by persecution. We must not be intimidated by the raw power of the state. We must understand that our security is not in political maneuvering or in the Bill of Rights, but in the Book of Life. Our names are written there, in the blood of the Lamb. The beast has a sword, and it has a timeframe, both given to it by our sovereign God. But we have a promise, and it is an eternal one.
Therefore, when the beast roars, when it speaks its great boasts and blasphemies, we must not marvel. We must not ask, "Who is like the beast?" We must, with the perseverance and faith of the saints, stand and declare, "Who is like the Lord?" For the beast's throne is temporary, but the throne of the Lamb is forever.