Revelation 13:1-10 – November 9

God, please give us a fresh revelation of Jesus Christ as we study the book of Revelation!

We’ll be studying Revelation through the end of November. Please feel free to read and journal with us as often as you can, with the goal of getting to daily time at the feet of Jesus. For this study, we are using Beth Moore’s “Here and Now…There and Then” lecture series and study guide on Revelation as a resource, so you may see it referenced occasionally.

You can read the NIV version of today’s reading below or your favorite Bible version then spend some time meditating and journaling on the reading, letting God speak to you through it. We encourage use of the SOAP method of Bible study as you grow in your relationship with God. Check out the What’s SOAP tab above for more info. Also, below today’s reading is a SOAP journal entry from our team to help dive into God’s Word. And we encourage you to share your SOAP journal entry, prayer requests, or questions in the Comments section on our website.

The Discover One Thing main website continues to follow the Life Journal Reading Plan which covers the whole Bible in one year. Click HERE to check out today’s Discover One Thing post.

Revelation 13:1-10 – The Beast out of the Sea

13 The dragon stood on the shore of the sea. And I saw a beast coming out of the sea. It had ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns on its horns, and on each head a blasphemous name. ² The beast I saw resembled a leopard, but had feet like those of a bear and a mouth like that of a lion. The dragon gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority. ³ One of the heads of the beast seemed to have had a fatal wound, but the fatal wound had been healed. The whole world was filled with wonder and followed the beast. ⁴ People worshiped the dragon because he had given authority to the beast, and they also worshiped the beast and asked, “Who is like the beast? Who can wage war against it?”

⁵ The beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise its authority for forty-two months. ⁶ It opened its mouth to blaspheme God, and to slander his name and his dwelling place and those who live in heaven. ⁷ It was given power to wage war against God’s holy people and to conquer them. And it was given authority over every tribe, people, language and nation. ⁸ All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast—all whose names have not been written in the Lamb’s book of life, the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world.

⁹ Whoever has ears, let them hear.

¹⁰ “If anyone is to go into captivity,
    into captivity they will go.
If anyone is to be killed with the sword,
    with the sword they will be killed.”

This calls for patient endurance and faithfulness on the part of God’s people.

 

Patient Endurance and Faithfulness | Becky Newman

Scripture

Revelation 13:10b

Observation

Ok, I was having a really hard time understanding the last several chapters and at what time in this all will there be no believers left in the world (a question that came up during moms group last Thursday), mostly because I assumed Revelation was written in chronological order. I’m sure Beth Moore has the answer, but God does not want me using that crutch right now so He made all of her DVDs not work on my player. On a God-nudged hunch, I googled it and discovered it likely is not in chronological order, so having a timeline might help me out a bit, if there weren’t so much dispute over what the timeline is! Today’s reading focuses on the beast, or antichrist, who was given the right by God to exercise authority for 42 months. 42 months is also the same period as the Great Tribulation (Daniel 9:27), so today’s reading is likely also describing this Great Tribulation period that ends with Jesus’ return (described by Jesus to his disciples in Matthew 24:15-31). In fact, reading today’s scripture along with Matthew 24 is very helpful in understanding this period of time from the believer’s perspective and the timeline. Jesus makes it all so easy to understand! Look, Jesus even spells out the sixth seal (Revelation 6:12-24) in Matthew 24:29 and the angels and the trumpet stuff in Matthew 24:31! One commentary I found indicates the following scriptures all describe the Great Tribulation period: Revelation 6:7-10:7 (fourth through seventh seals, six angels and trumpet calls), Revelation 11:1-19 (two witnesses and seventh angel and trumpet), Revelation 12:6-14:20, Daniel 12:11-12.

Application

I feel like the last half of verse 10 is speaking to me about patient endurance and faithfulness to keep studying Revelation. It’s taking a lot of brain power, but when I seek, You are always faithful! And You always point me to Jesus!

Prayer

The beast is not someone I want to be here to experience, but if You have other plans, please give me some of that patient endurance and faithfulness, and I probably need some every day of my life outside of the Great Tribulation too. Thank You for Your little revelations to me every time I seek You through this study! And thank You for Your Word, Jesus, who simplifies it all into something I can understand.