And there was given to it a mouth, speaking great things and blasphemies; and there was given to it authority to pursue its career forty-two months.
This verse hands a ruler both a voice and a clock. He may boast and blaspheme, but only for a fixed span of forty-two months — and the fact that both are handed to him is where commentators find the verse's horror and its comfort.
The beast does not generate his own authority. Earlier verses in the chapter show where it comes from.
Edward DennettNotice the repeated phrase "given to him" (vv. 5, 7). Verses 2 and 4 explain it. They remind us that the beast's power is not only handed to him — it is handed to him by Satan.
The same wording also comforts. Satan is not the last link in the chain.
Walter ScottThis dark account of satanic wickedness and human arrogance has a ray of comfort woven into its very fabric. God's beloved saints, then and now, find it in how often the words "given him" occur. Behind the Beast lies the hidden yet almighty power of Jehovah. Satan has no power in himself. All power is of God.
This verse describes speech, not action.
J. N. DarbyFirst the beast was given an extraordinary, overbearing sense of his own importance: "he spoke great things." It is not doing here but speaking in pride. It is his character, not his acts. Next come insulting words against others, flowing out of that pride — blasphemies.
That pride is aimed upward. Another writer notes that the boaster cannot escape the God he mocks.
The Christian's FriendHe will be a boaster, puffed up, like his god Satan, with the sense of his own merits and excellencies... He cannot rid himself of God, of heaven, or of the heavenly saints, but in the helplessness of his rage, glorying in his earthly supremacy, he pours out his wicked heart in insolent blasphemies.
John's beast and the little horn of Daniel's vision match point for point.
T. B. BainesThe little horn "speaks great words against the Most High" (Dan. 7:25). The beast "opens his mouth in blasphemy against God" (Rev. 13:6). The little horn's power lasts "a time, and times, and the dividing of time" (Dan. 7:25). The beast's power continues "forty-two months" (Rev. 13:5), which is only another way of saying the same period.
These months land at one precise point in prophecy.
Hamilton SmithThe forty-two months of Revelation 13:5, or three and a half years, show when the events foretold in this chapter will happen. They fall in the last half week of Daniel's seventy weeks — the period just before the appearing and reign of Christ.
The months measure a crisis, not the whole life of the empire.
Walter ScottNotice what our text states. It is not the existence of the Beast or the empire as such. It is that great crisis in its history when Satan takes possession of it — forty-two months, or three and a half years before its final destruction.
The limit itself is mercy. God does the measuring, not the persecutor.
W. W. FeredayHe who sits on the throne will never let the enemy seize the reins of government. His controlling hand measures everything that must fall on His own people, and the enemy cannot go beyond that measure. So the sufferings of the elect during the great tribulation last 1260 days (Rev. 12:6). Satan could not make it 1261, however much he wanted to.
- Given — the beast owns nothing. Someone hands him his mouth and his time, and that word is the reader's comfort.
- Given by Satan — the immediate source of his power is the dragon of verses 2 and 4, not any merit of his own.
- Given under God — behind the giver stands the almighty power of God, who checks Satan's authority and its length at His pleasure.
- Given a mouth — speech marks him first: proud boasting that spills over into blasphemy, just as Daniel saw in the little horn.
- Given a clock — forty-two months, three and a half years, the last half of Daniel's seventieth week — and not one day more.
And it opened its mouth for blasphemies against God, to blaspheme his name and his tabernacle, and those who have their tabernacle in the heaven.
The beast's forty-two months of power begin with an open mouth, not a raised sword. He aims his words at three targets: God's name, His dwelling, and those who dwell in heaven. Why does a ruler with the whole earth at his feet waste his breath on a place he cannot touch?
(Note: where the ESV says "his dwelling," older translations say "his tabernacle." The quotes below use that older word.)
The verse before gives the beast a mouth "speaking great things and blasphemies." One writer shows how the second grows out of the first:
J. N. DarbyFirst the beast was given an extraordinary, overbearing claim for himself — "he spoke great things." This is not doing but speaking in pride. It is his character, not his acts. Next come injurious words against others, flowing from that pride — blasphemies... He blasphemed the "name" of God, instead of owning its authority in the place of power he held.
His power was handed to him, and that hand-over decides where loyalty ends:
William KellyWe must acknowledge "the powers that be." But when Satan has given the beast his authority, that is another thing altogether: we owe no allegiance to Satan. In fact, Satan is the one who leads the beast on into all his own depths and heights of sin.
The dwelling he curses is not a building on earth:
L. M. GrantAs well as blaspheming God and His name, he adds the blasphemy of God's tabernacle and "those who dwell in heaven" (v. 6). It seems the tabernacle refers to God's heavenly dwelling, so this involves the Beast's bold defiance of all heavenly authority.
So who are these people in heaven? One writer names them:
The Christian's FriendThis is violent and injurious speaking against God Himself and against His heavenly saints. Those that dwell in heaven are the glorified saints. They are caught up to be with the Lord forever when Christ comes for His own, before the beast comes to power.
Satan has just been thrown out of heaven. That explains the shape of verse 6:
James BoydThe heavenly saints now have their dwelling-place in heaven. The devil has been cast down to the earth, so he is powerless to reach them. He can only open his mouth and include them in the blasphemies he utters against God.
One writer calls such cursing an honour, and offers believers the same safety now:
J. N. DarbySatan can blaspheme the saints in heaven, but he cannot hurt them... Satan can never get back to heaven once he is cast out... He will make war with those on the earth, but he cannot touch those in heaven. We belong with Christ there. We can sit in calm and peace above the devil's blasphemy, because we are with God... It is a blessed thing to be so identified with God as to be the objects of Satan's blasphemies.
Blocked above, the beast looks down:
William KellyThe beast may blaspheme the tabernacle above, and Satan may insult those who dwell there, but he can no longer even accuse them before God. So he turns to violent persecution on the earth. "And it was given him to make war with the saints" — and these saints are plainly not in heaven.
This hatred is not only for the future:
J. N. DarbyIt displays its anger towards those who dwell in heaven. It is already like this in principle. If a Christian will walk as an inhabitant of heaven, the world cannot bear him. That will be still more dreadful then.
- Pride first. His great words about himself come before his blasphemies against God. Pride is the root; injurious speech is the fruit.
- Three targets. God's name, God's dwelling, and those who live there. The blasphemy reaches for God, for heaven, and for everyone at home in heaven.
- Out of reach. The saints in heaven are beyond his hand. All he can do is open his mouth, because Satan, once cast out, never returns to heaven.
- So earth suffers. Unable to touch heaven, he turns downward, and verse 7 gives him war with the saints still below.
- Already in principle. Anyone who walks now as a citizen of heaven meets the same hatred in smaller measure. They also share the same safety, seated with Christ above the noise.