Revelation Chapter 13

VERSE 9 “If anyone has an ear, let him hear.”

IF ANYONE HAS AN EAR, LET HIM HEAR: This refrain carries us back to the messages to the seven churches (Chapters 2 & 3). It is always coupled there with (and here, no doubt, is meant to bring to mind) the words: TO HIM WHO OVERCOMES. Most of the Church has had to overcome the beast. The rewards will be stipulated to all who refer back to Chapters 2 & 3.

VERSE 10 “He who leads into captivity shall go into captivity; he who kills with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.”

This verse is a summary lesson following all of the foregoing descriptions of the beast. It is a lesson in overcoming implied in Verse 9. Its lesson is clarified by a comparison with Jer 15:1, 2.

“Then the Lord said to me, “Even if Moses and Samuel stood before Me, my mind would not be favorable toward this people. Cast them out of My sight, and let them go forth. And it shall be, if they say to you, ‘Where should we go?’ then you shall tell them, ‘Thus says the Lord:

“Such as are for death, to death;
And such as are for the sword, to the sword;
And such as are for the famine, to the famine;
And such as are for the captivity, to the captivity.”’

IF ANYONE IS FOR CAPTIVITY, TO CAPTIVITY HE GOES; IF ANYONE KILLS WITH THE SWORD, WITH THE SWORD HE MUST BE KILLED: The lesson here is one of reaping what has been sown. It is the Lord’s rule: those who favored slavery for others will be enslaved by their own devices; those who use violence or deception will be victims of the same.

HERE IS THE PERSEVERANCE AND THE FAITH OF THE SAINTS: This phrase occurs again in Rev 14:12 following the description of the decades of Babylon’s decline and fall during the harvest. The Message in both passages is clear: the saints MUST ENDURE the wait while all about them SEEMS to take so long. Both passages (Rev 13:9 and 14:8-11) describe either the promise or the fact of Babylon’s punishments.

The faith and perseverance of the saints DEPEND on their belief that this retribution WILL come. This is part of the reason for the long description in Rev 13:8. Faith in the glorious results is a mainstay.

(As explained in The Keys of Revelation)

While these words, in one sense, are a pronouncement of the law of retribution as it applies to any age, yet their insertion here is particularly directed to the saints in their sufferings during the foregoing long 1,260-year period of papal dominion.

They also allude to the Master’s own words of counsel to his followers: “Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword” (Matt. 26:52). Moreover, Verses 9 and 10 call attention to the example of Jesus as declared by the prophet: “Yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth” (Isa. 53:7).

The prediction of retributory justice had a remarkable fulfillment. At the end of this 42-month period concerning the activities of those represented by both the dragon and the beast (Verse 4), the streets of Paris and other cities of France flowed with the blood of the leaders of civil and clerical authority. The concluding statement of this exhortation, “Here is the patience and the faith of the saints,” follows the axiom “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord” (Rom. 12:19).

True Christians, whose faith could firmly grasp these assurances and who, through long-suffering continuance, could steadfastly maintain their integrity, are those “who through faith and patience inherit the promises” (Heb. 6:12).

We move on to Verse 11 and the Two-horned beast coming up out of the earth in our next post.