Revelation 12-13

What’s Happening?

The church in John’s day was being severely persecuted by Rome. In a vision of a dragon, beasts, and a newborn child, John sees the reality behind the church’s persecution. John sees a woman in labor with a dragon hungrily waiting to devour her child (Revelation 12:1-4). It uses the imagery of the ancient struggle between Satan and God’s people. In the Garden of Eden, God promised Eve a child that would defeat the serpent. God’s people, Israel, have long embodied this struggle against the dragon, waiting for the promised son to be born from them and defeat Satan. And in Mary, this child came when she gave birth to Jesus. The vision shows the resurrection and ascension of Jesus as the child is rescued from the dragon and seated on God’s throne where he rules over all nations (Revelation 12:5-6). His enthronement casts Satan, the accuser of God’s people, out of heaven and onto the earth (Revelation 12:7-9). 

After being cast out of heaven, Satan in his wrath, carries on the battle against the church represented in the woman and her offspring (Revelation 12:17).  While in heaven, Satan’s role was to accuse men before God as he judges. Now that he has been cast out onto the earth, he lies and accuses the church in an attempt to deceive and destroy them. The battle the dragon waged against the angels of heaven, he now wages against the church here on earth (Revelation 12:13-16). 

Confined on earth, he summons a beast out of the sea to fight against God’s people. The sea beast is part leopard, lion, and bear. It’s a monstrous hybrid taken from a similar vision in the book of Daniel (Revelation 13:1-2; Daniel 7:1-8). In both books, the beasts represent the power of the state and world empires, and in this case the sea beast is Rome. Their emperor, Nero, had severely oppressed the church, persecuting and killing followers of Jesus. Though Nero had died, the power behind his brutality still hunted Christians (Revelation 13:3). The church must continue to endure the beastly violence of Rome and Satan (Revelation 13:9-10).

The dragon then raises a second beast from the land who wields religious power over the earth to make them worship Rome and its emperor (Revelation 13:11-13). This land beast performs miracles on the sea beast's behalf and convinces the world to build an idol to honor Rome. The land beast then breathes life into the idol, which begins to speak and kill all who refuse to bow to it. Earlier in the book of Revelation, God identifies his people by placing a mark on their heads, and now the land beast does the same (Revelation 7:3-4). This leads to the increased persecution of the church because those who are not marked by emperor worship cannot buy or sell in the empire (Revelation 13:14-17). 

John tells us the land beast is a person who is symbolized by the number 666 (Revelation 13:18). In the book of Kings, the number 666 is the yearly revenue Solomon receives after building Israel’s temple and amassing his army (1 Kings 10:14-29). Back then, Solomon idolatrously combined the worship of God with the worship of imperial power and wealth, and that led to the destruction of God’s people. This idolatrous worship is happening again in Rome. When the name Nero Caesar is written in Greek letters, their values add up to 666. Satan is wielding the power of religion and Rome in his war against the church. And the church is called to persevere even unto death so that they might rise like Jesus and rule over the serpent.

Where is the Gospel?

Satan wielded the beastly power of empire and religion to wage war against Jesus, leading to his death. But God snatched Jesus out of the grave and set him in power over Satan, his angels, and all empires of the earth. Satan and his angels continue to deceive the world, empower the leaders of nations, and lyingly accuse the church. While the beasts may mark the church for death, Revelation has already shown us that Jesus has marked his people for life. For just as Jesus rose to power over Satan through his resurrection and ascension, every Christian who keeps themselves from worshipping the lesser kings and lesser gods of this world will reign with Jesus over them all. 

Now that the Accuser has been ousted from his heavenly role, no one stands before God to accuse us anymore. Instead, Jesus, our advocate, stands at God’s right hand interceding for us and clearing us of all the accusers' accusations (Hebrews 7:25). In Jesus, all the dragon’s accusations are proven as lies and deceptions. For we know there is no one left in heaven to bring a charge against us (Romans 8:32-39). 

All Satan can do, when he slays us through his beasts, is make us reign over him quicker. Because we have been sealed for life in Christ, instead of sealed for death in the beast, we will rise and reign with Jesus when we die. This is why the persecuted church willingly lays down their lives under the power of the beasts. Because they know they will conquer him by sharing the life and victory of Jesus as they proclaim his kingdom’s power over every nation (Ephesians 2:6-7). So, when the evil powers of this world persecute and kill us, all they are doing is placing us in authority over them when we rise to life with Christ. 

See for Yourself

I pray that the Holy Spirit will open your eyes to see the God who rules from heaven. And may you see Jesus as the one who rules over every power and raises us up to rule with him.