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:
First 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:
We 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:
As 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:
This 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:
The 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:
Satan 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:
The 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:
It 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.
And there was given to it to make war with the saints, and to overcome them; and there was given to it authority over every tribe, and people, and tongue, and nation;
This verse says two things about the beast. God lets him fight His people and beat them, and God gives him authority over every nation on earth. That raises two hard questions: how can God allow His saints to lose, and who are these saints?
The phrase "it was given" repeats through this whole passage. One writer finds real comfort in that.
This dark account of satanic wickedness and human arrogance has a ray of comfort woven into its very fabric for God's beloved saints, both now and then. It lies in how often the words "given him" appear. Behind the Beast lies the hidden yet almighty power of Jehovah. Satan has no power in himself. All power is of God… A storm once lashed the Sea of Galilee into fury to sink the boat that carried the most precious cargo that ever sailed: Christ and His disciples. That power had its source in the divine Sleeper resting in the back of the ship. For the moment Satan was granted authority over the elements of nature. This was to show us that his power, and how long it lasts, is controlled and checked by God at His will and pleasure (Matthew 8:23-27).
One writer points out what is new here.
"Also it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them." Some are killed — for example, the two witnesses. This could never have happened before. God never allowed the saints to be overcome. All who dwell on the earth are swayed by this power except those chosen before the foundation of the world. These do not worship the beast, the vessel of Satan's authority.
To "conquer them" does not mean the beast kills every believer. God has a purpose in the defeat itself.
The saints the beast will wage war against are the ones named in the previous chapter (Revelation 12:17). In this, as in everything else, he is only Satan's instrument. God allows them to be overcome (compare Matthew 24:9-10). Not all of them, as we learn later, but many. He does it to test their faith and to purify His people in the furnace of affliction.
One writer marks off who they are, and who they are not.
This man will not make war with Israel, but "with the saints" — those in the Tribulation Period who will be awakened to take a stand for the living God (v. 7).
Another writer describes their witness.
The saints in these times are not like the seven thousand silent witnesses in the prophet's day. They are all Elijahs, bold and uncompromising in their testimony.
Commentators differ on how far this authority reaches. Some read it as worldwide:
The empire may cover any amount of territory in the future. Even so, the authority of the Beast seems unlimited in its range and reach, since it takes in "every tribe and people and language and nation" — the four divisions of the human race. Countries and peoples outside the Roman empire will yet be found under its powerful influence and authority.
Others read it more narrowly. Grant says the authority "speaks particularly of the Western nations which willingly submit to him." Russia and Assyria, the king of the north, will not join that coalition.
The next verses give the practical instruction. One writer explains why the saints needed it.
This warning is meant above all to guide the saints. From the wickedness of the beast and his alliance with the dragon, they might well conclude that they were free to resist him… Their place was not to take the sword in their own defence. If they did, what would the result be? Whatever their character, and whatever the beast's, God would still hold to His principles. They must expect what they tried to inflict.
Later in the book the same people appear again — and the scoreboard reads the opposite way.
These conquerors have "gotten the victory over the beast." What a change! Seen from man's side, the beast had made war with them "and overcome them." Seen from God's side, they have "gotten the victory over the beast." On earth the cry is, "Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?" In heaven the song is, "Who shall not fear you, O Lord, and glorify your name?" God is always victorious in the end, and so are those who trust Him.
- Given — God hands the beast every power he holds. Behind the visible tyrant stands the almighty God. That repeated word "given" is the comfort buried in the verse.
- Allowed — God permits His saints to be beaten. He had never allowed that before. He does it to test their faith and purify them.
- Awakened — these saints turn to God during that time. They take an open stand, bold as Elijah rather than silent.
- Restrained — their calling is not armed resistance. Those who take the sword must expect the sword; their place is patience and faith.
- Reversed — heaven reads the beast's conquest as the saints' victory. God wins in the end, and so do all who trust Him.
and all that dwell on the earth shall do it homage, [every one] whose name had not been written from [the] founding of [the] world in the book of life of the slain Lamb.
At the height of the beast's power the whole world bows to a man, and only one thing marks off those who do not. That mark is a name in the book of life, and it raises two questions: who are the people who "dwell on earth," and what does "the foundation of the world" describe?
The worship is not partial. One writer names the only exception, and an old Roman practice behind it:
Except for God's chosen ones, all men will also worship the beast — all who dwell on the earth. This expression now loses its special moral meaning and will include everyone within this sphere except God's people. It will only be the revival of the old Roman custom of paying homage, and offering incense, to images of the emperor.
Commentators differ here. The writer above reads the phrase as everyone left on earth. Another draws a sharper line, and sees the same drift already at work:
There is a fixed difference between the nations at large in the world and "those that dwell on the earth." The first is the broader term. The second means the narrower group, whose earthly character is more settled. They had heard and hated the heavenly testimony of Christ and the church. They might still keep the names and the forms, but hearts that had turned away deliberately preferred earth to heaven... Never since the gospel was first preached have men been more thoroughly settling down in the effort to make earth their paradise. One lack accounts for it all: Christ is not everything, and the heart is divided between the first man and the Second.
The ESV reads "before the foundation of the world" here; the translations these writers use read "from." The time phrase belongs to the writing of the name, not to the Lamb's death, and a parallel verse settles it:
Carefully keep in mind that "from the foundation of the world" belongs not to "slain," but to the writing of the name. The Lamb was not slain from the foundation of the world, though the eternal purpose was there. But the name was written from the foundation of the world, in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain. Compare Revelation 17:8, where the omission of the slain Lamb makes the true connection plain and certain.
Another writer allows one sense in which the popular reading is harmless, while still refusing it as a translation:
There is no such thing in Scripture as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Revelation 13 says, "Whose names are not written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb slain." If people only mean that the Lamb was slain before the world in the counsels of God, that is fine. But it is true in no other way.
The two words are not interchangeable. The difference marks off two groups of God's people:
"From" the world's founding does not mean the same as "before" it. Some saints are kept from yielding to the Beast at the close of the age. Their name was written from the foundation of the world in the slain Lamb's book of life. But the phrase used in Ephesians 1:4, as in 1 Peter 1:20, is pointedly different. As Christ was foreknown and loved by the Father "before" then, so God chose us who now believe. He chose us in Christ "before" the world's foundation, to be holy and blameless before Him in love.
The book carries the slain Lamb's name, and that ownership brings two guarantees:
The book of the Lamb slain means that only those whose sins have been washed away by the precious blood of Christ will have their names written in that book. Second, being written from the foundation of the world speaks of God's unchangeable eternal counsel. We know that counsel will stand forever.
Not every "book of life" in Revelation is the same book. That difference turns this verse into a comfort:
"The book of life" in Revelation 3:5 is not the same as the one in Revelation 13:8. In 3:5 it is profession, which may or may not be real... But in chapter 13:8 every name recorded was that of a true believer. The names were written from the foundation of the world, and so before the course of human responsibility began. God knows the end from the beginning, and so He wrote each name in letters that cannot be erased.
- Written, not slain. The time phrase governs the writing of the name, not the Lamb's death. Revelation 17:8 drops "of the slain Lamb" and proves it.
- Written when. "From" the world's founding is deliberate, and differs from the "before" of Ephesians 1:4 and 1 Peter 1:20.
- Written by whom. The book belongs to the slain Lamb, so only the blood-cleansed are in it. God's unchangeable purpose keeps it standing.
- Written, so unerasable. Revelation 3:5 is the register of profession, where names may be struck out. This book is the record of reality, where none is.
- Written, so unbowed. The whole world worships the beast. The only ones who refuse are those whose names were written.