The Beast Out of the Sea

The Beast Out of the Sea (13:1-10)

Revelation 13:1—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.

John is seeing in the Spirit a vision of "The Beast".

The Origin of the Beast

The beast will not come from any particular place or people, but will rise up out of the sea of all humanity. The sea has to do with nations and peoples as explained in Revelation 17:15.

Revelation 17:15—And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.

The fact the beast rose up is referencing it coming into power. The beast rising to power is enabled by the great sin and rebellion in the hearts of humanity. Blame for the great corruption in the world cannot be laid on any particular nation, but all nations have facilitated this climax of evil. Satan seizes the opportunity of man's rejection of God's will and embodies evil in treacherous leaders. God allows leadership to arise that the people deserve!

Isaiah 47:10-11; Galatians 6:8; James 4:1; Zechariah 11:7-16

Zechariah 11:16—For, lo, I will raise up a shepherd in the land, which shall not visit those that be cut off, neither shall seek the young one, nor heal that that is broken, nor feed that that standeth still: but he shall eat the flesh of the fat, and tear their claws in pieces.

Where did this beast come from? Man's rejection of God as KING and their TRUE SHEPHERED.

Psalm 81:11—But my people would not hearken to my voice; and Israel would none of me.

The Description of the Beast

The Beast as a Whole

Distinct from the Dragon

The Dragon	The Beast of the Sea
Revelation 12	Revelation 13
7 heads wear crowns	10 horns are crowned
spiritual empire	physical empires

Controlled by the Dragon

There are likenesses between the Dragon and the Beast because they are both the workings of the devil. The dragon is the head of a spiritual empire while the Beast is the embodiment of physical world powers. As there is one Beast with seven heads, so the system or power at work (the dragon/satan) is still one and the same though different nations or leaders rise and fall. The Beast in this vision represents the entire history of human governments and evil that has been at work in them by the devil. The Beast is a world system of rejection of God and worship of the devil.

There will be a seventh and 'new' kingdom of the Anti-christ that will rise as the world power, but the system that drives and the rebellion that fuels will not be anything new.

2 Thessalonians 2:7-8—For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. 8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:

Having Seven Heads

Revelation 17:9-10—The seven heads are seven mountains … And … there are seven kings.

Mountains in the scriptures can be typical of kingdoms. See: Psalms 30:7; Jeremiah 51:25; Daniel 2:25.

Five Are Fallen

In the 17th chapter we read: "…Five Are Fallen…": Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, and Greece.

At this particular time John is beholding this scene, there has been five fallen.

One Is

"…And One Is…": Again, there was "one" in power at the time of John's vision—there is no question as to what kingdom it was. The Roman Empire was still in rule and power at that time.

The Other is not Yet Come

"…And the other is not yet come…". That is, the anti-Christ has not yet set up his kingdom. He is the seventh kingdom and he must continue a "short space".

He comes on the scene during the first part of the Tribulation and then in the middle of the tribulation he is slain with the Sword and resurrected to life to be the eighth which is of the seven. His resurrection restores one of the seven heads of the beast and is not a new and eighth head (the beast only has seven heads).

Rev 17:11—And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.

Who are these Seven Kingdoms? History makes it plain who the first six are: Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome. The seventh and final kingdom will be the kingdom of the anti-Christ. The beast's seven heads are seven kingdoms—seven world ruling powers. This is a full revelation of "The Times of The Gentiles"(Luke 21:24) from its beginning to its end.

"…And Ten Horns…"

Daniel 7:24—And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings…

Revelation 17:12—And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings…

These are not a description of the previous kings, but are the ten ruling powers, which will rise up after the Roman Empire.

This is in agreement with Nebuchadnezzar's dream, and Daniel's vision.

Nebuchadnezzar

Nebuchadnezzar saw a Great Image broken up into four sections and finally divided into ten toes.

Babylon: the head

Persia: the shoulders and breast

Greece: the belly and thighs

Rome: the thighs and legs and feet, then the ten toes; the ten horns of John's vision

Daniel

Daniel's vision was four wild beasts: lion, a bear, a leopard and an indescribable beast.

Daniel 7:7—After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns.

"And it had ten horns"

We can compare these to the ten toes of Nebuchadnezzar's dream and the ten horns of John's vision.

However, we see something in Daniels vision that is not seen in either Nebuchadnezzar's dream or John's vision.

"There came up among them another little horn."

John sees:

The beast itself being the "Little Horn" that comes up among the ten.

However Daniel sees:

There were three of the "First Horns plucked up by the roots."

This would indicate that Daniel saw a more advanced stage than what John declares. John saw ten horns in the 17th chapter of Revelations. This indicates that he saw them before any of them were plucked up. Furthermore at this stage they have not received their Kingdom (Rev. 17:12).

At the time that John was seeing that the anti-Christ "had not yet come" into power, was possibly just before or at, the beginning of the Tribulation. "Which received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast." The first part of the Tribulation hour.

"And Upon His Horns Ten Crowns"

They have now received their crowns and John sees the time of the ten kings reigning with the anti-Christ during the first part of the Tribulation.

For after this John sees the seventh head wounded and resurrected.

However John makes no more mention of the ten kings, but Daniel declares that three of them fall before the anti-Christ when he is resurrected from death.