Today’s reading is Revelation 13.
Mimicking the Father
If we pay close attention to God’s revelation of the heavenly perspective, we can pick up what gives the dragon and the monsters such success. While in Revelation they are presented as obviously evil monsters, we cannot help but see how they parody and mimic the triune, holy God. Therein lies their deceptive danger.
Satan, the dragon is an unholy, evil parody of the Father Himself. Not that Satan can copy the power of God. But he tries. We see his attempts to copy mostly in how he relates to the sea beast. According to Revelation 13:2, the dragon gave the sea beast “his power and his throne and great authority” (ESV). Just as the Father sat the Son on His throne, the dragon provides the sea beast a throne. And because of this, the people worship the dragon and the sea beast (Revelation 13:4) in horrific mimicry of the throne scene in Revelation 4-5.
Mimicking the Son
From the above, you can likely already see the sea beast mimics God the Son. Not only does he mimic the throne scene, but even the reason he gets to be on the throne. According to Revelation 13:3, “One of its heads seemed to have a mortal wound, but its mortal wound was healed, and the whole earth marveled and followed the beast” (ESV). Even in English, hearing the head of this beast had a mortal wound, we can see the comparison to Jesus. The parallel is even more certain in Greek when we discover “have a mortal wound” in Revelation 13:3 is the same word as “slain” describing the Lamb in Revelation 5:6 and also in Revelation 13:8. In Revelation, the world is divided in two. People from every tribe and people and language and nation either worship the Lamb that was slain or worship the sea beast who was slain.
How does the beast mimic Jesus in this apparent death and resurrection? Or is it merely a mortal wound that heals? Is it one of the heads that is slain and resurrected as in Revelation 13:3? Or is it the beast itself that is wounded and then revived as in Revelation 13:12, 14, 15? In Revelation 17:7-12, this notion of resurrection repeats. The seven-headed beast “was, and is not, and is about to rise from the bottomless pit.” The seven heads are “seven kings, five of whom have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come.” The beast itself is an eighth king, but he belongs to the seven (whatever that means). Further the ten horns are also kings.
At this point, modern students start trying to figure out which kings are referred to. Of course, can we even be sure they are individual kings? We’ve seen before that “king” is sometimes used by metonymy to refer to kingdoms (recall the beasts in Daniel). Perhaps this beast which is a conglomeration of Daniel’s beasts, counts those kingdoms starting again with Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon, then Medo-Persia, then Greece, then the Ptolemaic reign, and the Seleucid reign, then Rome. Maybe we should start counting with Egypt since that was the first beast actually to attack and enslave God’s people.
If we are counting kings instead of kingdoms, we are most certainly talking about Roman kings. When we count seven Roman kings, do we start with Julius Caesar or Augustus? Do we include Galba, Otho, and Vitellius in the count? Within one year (68-69AD) each of these tried to establish himself on the Roman throne, but none of them were successful. Do their failed attempts at reign count?
Does the mortal wound refer to the death of Julius and the resurrection to the fact that Augustus, like a phoenix rising from the ashes, established the empire and the Imperial cult? Or does it refer to the death of Nero which ended the Julio-Claudian dynasty and brought the empire to its knees, while the resurrection refers to Vespasian re-establishing the empire in the Flavian dynasty? Or maybe it refers to Nero and the supposed resurrection that spread up around him. Or maybe it refers to Nero even without a redivivus myth and the fact that Domitian came along and acted against the Christians in much the same way Nero did, metaphorically seeming like a resurrected Nero.
Sorry to delve so deep on this one. But here’s the thing. When John wrote this book and the seven churches first read it, if the head representing the king who is in Revelation 17:10 referred to an actual Roman emperor, those readers would know precisely who it was. That, however, is completely lost to us. We simply have no way of knowing. If we did, then there wouldn’t be so much incredible disagreement about it.
And this brings up the perspective I think makes the most sense. Maybe it never referred to a particular emperor. Maybe the mortal wound to the beast or to its head was actually simply part of the parody of Jesus. In visionary expression, it shows further lying signs and wonders of Satan’s team. They try to copy the work of Jesus, but they fail. After all, Jesus died, rose, and ascended to the throne. His two witnesses died, rose, and ascended to heaven. The beast “was, and is not, and is about to rise from the bottomless pit,” but to what end? Not to ascension, but to “go to destruction” (Revelation 17:8). The beast mimics the Son, but is nothing more than a failed, mediocre copy. Yes, he shows signs, but they are lying and false signs as is always the case with Satan and his minions.
Mimicking the Spirit
The land beast performs signs and wonders. He gives voice to the image of the beast. He prophesies. He testifies to the sea beast. He does not point to himself, but causes folks to worship the sea beast. Finally, he marks and seals the followers of the sea beast.
If the dragon mimics the Father and the sea beast mimics the Son, the land beast mimics the Holy Spirit.
An Unholy Trinity
Satan is ultimately unoriginal. He attempts to be like God. In this, his envy becomes clear. We need to see the danger posed to us. Again, as God gives the heavenly perspective, the evil of this false trinity is obvious. If we saw this triumvirate as they are presented in Revelation, we would never be duped by them.
However, that is not how they present themselves in our experience. Instead, they mimic Father, Son, and Spirit. They disguise themselves as angels of light and ministers of righteousness (see 2 Corinthians 11:13-15). They portray signs and wonders. They speak plausible sounding rationalizations.
We should see the danger for us by seeing the danger among the seven churches. Some of them had already been deceived. Sardis had been convinced by the dragon that it was alive when it was dead. Laodicea was blind to its similarity to the beast. Ephesus didn’t know it was only a step away from compromise. Many in Pergamum and Thyatira had already bought the rationalizations.
We have only one defense. God has given us His Word. Let us read it. Let us study it. Let us become familiar with our Shepherd’s voice. Only then will we repent and hold fast as John calls us to do.
Tomorrow’s reading is Revelation 13.
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PATHS:
Discuss Today’s Meditation with Your Family
How does Revelation 13 prompt or improve your hope in God?
Read the Bible 