What is the significance that the beast's fatal wound was healed in Revelation 13:3?

(Vv. 3, 4) From Revelation 17:9-10 we learn that the seven heads not only set forth seven mountains but also "seven kings," or forms of government. John sees one of these heads wounded to death, doubtless setting forth the destruction of the imperial power of Rome which, we know from history, has led to the break up of the Roman Empire as a world-wide political power for many past centuries. From this Scripture, and Revelation 17, we learn that this empire will be revived as set forth by the deadly wound being healed. This revival will be a wonder to all the world and call forth its admiration for a power with which no other power can be compared, and with whom none will dare to make war. Nevertheless, to praise and laud this empire will in reality be worship to the devil.

But though that wound seemed to be unto death, it was healed notwithstanding. "I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed." That is, at the period of which the vision speaks, the Roman power is to be consolidated afresh: not as formerly, with God's good hand over it and controlling all, whatever might have been the ways of individual emperors; but all is abandoned to the will of the beast as the immediate instrument of Satan. Satan can no longer accuse the saints before God, but now he is at work on the earth to produce open blasphemy against God. And this is first done by means of political influence. There is the Roman empire reorganised, and the imperial power revived, and a head over it that gathers everything under his own control, so that all the world wonders after the beast to whom the dragon had given his power, and throne, and great authority. In the next verse we have not merely this; but "they worshipped the beast saying, Who is like the beast? and who is able to make war with him?" (verse 4.)

If you take Revelation 13 you get the details of this beast. "And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority" (v. 2). There I get the direct authority of Satan. The saints of the Most High did not take the kingdom then: we shall be caught up and be entirely out of the way of that power of evil. "And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed; and all the world wondered after the beast" (v. 3). I do not doubt that we get here the imperial head once destroyed but now revived. "And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast; and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?" (v. 4). That is, the direct power of Satan, as dominant, is publicly owned, and the Roman Imperial beast thus restored carries all the world enthusiastically after it. "And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven" (v. 5, 6). Mark here, he cannot touch them in heaven, but he blasphemes them. Satan had been cast out, he was no longer an accuser, and those above he can only blaspheme. There will be some who will have a place in heaven, and whose hearts are weaned from earth, whom he will injure. Those whom he can hurt and kill will be taken up, or they would have lost earthly blessings by their faithfulness, and not get heavenly ones. Such there will be, who refuse to worship him. But this is a detail into which I do not enter here, as our subject is the Gentile powers and their judgment. But "all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb that was slain" (verse 8 - for such I have no doubt is the true force of the passage). Complete power (only God preserves a remnant) is in the hands of Satan and his instruments.

This head will then be wounded to death, evidently when the general anarchy takes place at the time of the sixth seal (Rev. 6:17). Many governments will be overthrown before the middle of Daniel's “week” (the Tribulation Period) and this head will be among them, being wounded to death. In other words he will totally lose his authority. The wounded head being healed indicates a striking recovery of his power which causes all the world to wonder. He apparently will bring a semblance of restored order and peace out of the chaos of anarchy, and thus be acclaimed as a great world leader.

Just as the Roman Empire will revive from a virtual deadly wound received many centuries ago, so at about the middle of the Tribulation the seventh head will revive from a deadly wound only a short time after it is inflicted on him. This seems to be the reason we are told that “the beast that was and is not, is himself also the eighth, and is of the seven” (Rev. 17:11). When he first arises at the beginning of the seven years of the Tribulation, he is the seventh head; then when revived about the middle of that time-period he is called the eighth. All the world wonders at his power in bringing back the ten kingdoms under his control and establishing apparent peace out of chaos. However, his power is satanic, and therefore people worship both the dragon and the Beast (v. 4). It is not necessary to suppose that they realize they are actually worshiping Satan, but it is he who gives authority to the Beast, and people will give the Beast a place of greatest preeminence, for they will consider him the most formidable power on earth.

In these early verses we pass almost insensibly from the kingdom to the remarkable man in whom the dominion is to be headed up. When we read of one of the heads of the beast being wounded "as it were" to death, we think of it as figuring the empire. The deadly wound is healed in the surprising uprising of the beast energized by the devil; and now the beast figures the imposing individual, who will wield the power of the Empire in the last days. The word, "seat," in verse 2 is really "throne." Solomon, we may remember, inherited from David a throne that came from the hand of God, and there was added to him riches and power from the same hand. This individual will accept all from the hand of the devil.

"Here is the mind that hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth. And there (or, they) are seven kings." The double force of the symbol has been already touched on. "The five are fallen, the one is, the other did not yet come." That is, the sixth head (reigning in that day) was the imperial form of government. Can anything of the sort be plainer? It is a time-note of signal value. The seventh should follow for a little; and the seventh was in one respect to be an eighth. "And the beast which was, and is not, even he is an eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into destruction." If in one sense an eighth, in another sense it would be of the seven; "eighth" perhaps, because of its extraordinary resurrection character, yet "one of the seven" because it is outwardly a head of rule again. This explains the wounded head that was afterwards healed. It is of the seven in that point of view, because it is old imperialism; but it is an eighth, because it has a diabolical source and strangely new character when raised up again. There never had been anything of the kind before.

When John wrote, the fourth Beast was in power; but the prophet was given to see that out of a state of political convulsion, just before the last three years and a half, and connected with Satan's expulsion from heaven by the power of God, a Beast rises up out of the sea answering to the old Roman empire. That is, there will be a state of total confusion in the west, and an imperial power will rise up. "And I saw one of its heads as wounded to death; and its deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast." There are sufficient grounds for gathering that the wounded head was the imperial form of power. After having been long extinct, it reappears in the latter day. But there is a great deal more than simply the revival of imperialism, which draws out the astonishment of the world. They had thought it all over with the Roman empire. They could easily understand a new empire; a French, or a Teutonic kingdom, or any other of large space and population; but the revival of the Roman empire will take the world by surprise. The grounds of this assertion, however, depend on Rev. 17, which will appear in its place. Vers. 5, 6 define its character and duration.

Rev. 13:3. — “And one of his heads (was) as slain to death, and his wound of death had been healed; and the whole earth wondered after the beast.” Here we have the political death and resurrection of the Beast. The wounded head and the Beast are evidently identified. It was the Beast in its imperial head that was slain. The empire ceased to exist A.D. 476. The world-wide dominion of the Caesars has lain in the iron grip of political death from that date till now. But God in His providence will call the empire again into being, out of a scene of revolutionary passion and conflict, like that out of which the empire of the first Napoleon arose — out of the sea (v. 1). “His wound of death had been healed.” The Seer views it as an accomplished fact, referring, we take it, to the statement in verse 1. But his resurrection, as also his presentation to the world, is connected with his satanic revival in the midst of the week (Dan. 9:27). The historical rise and continuance of the Beast precedes, or at least is coincident with, the seven years’ treaty with Judah. The satanic revival (Rev. 13:2; Rev. 17:8) is in the last half of that prophetic week of seven years. “The whole earth wondered after the beast.” The Beast will present a picture hitherto unknown and unseen, one unexampled in the history of the race. A human power endowed with satanic energy, openly defying God, and invested with the royal power and world-wide authority of Satan will engage the rapt gaze of the whole earth. It will marvel at the sight. We see no reason to limit the phrase “the whole earth.” The revival of the empire must be a matter of interest to all embraced within its range and influence. The authority of the dragon and his far-reaching influence go beyond the geographical limits of the ten kingdoms. The Beast to whom Satan delegates his authority exercises a commanding influence all over the earth, reaching even to the limits of heathendom.

The head "wounded to death," then, would seem to be the seventh, that is the last form which the empire took before its overthrow. From that time till now it disappears from view. But the wound is healed, and all the world wonders. The long-vanished empire revives, the lineal heir of the varied forms of Roman dominion, and becomes the theme of universal amazement, its head being endowed by Satan with all the power and dignity and authority which as god of this world he is able to bestow. Thus we learn the deeply solemn fact that the last form of Gentile dominion will rise from the bottomless pit, will bear the dragon's form, and will sit upon the dragon's throne. It will have a Satanic origin, possess a Satanic character, and exercise Satanic power.

Now these questions will be satisfactorily answered by other Scriptures. We turn to Revelation 13, and read of a wild beast which the prophet sees arising from the sea. It partook of the characteristics of the three foregoing beasts of Daniel 7, but it has another added, which was, that the dragon gave him his power, and seat, and great authority; this it had not before. It had seven heads and ten horns — seven forms of government, and ten divisions in its administrative power. John saw one of its heads wounded, as it seemed, unto death, and the deadly wound was healed. There is no doubt but that this head was its imperial form, which has long ceased to exist: some think for ever — that the wound was unto death. But the apparently deadly wound was healed, and all the world wonders; and they worship him, and, through him, Satan, who had given him his power, and seat, and great authority; and they say, "Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?" This is clearly the little horn of Daniel 7, for the same doings are attributed to him. But we have in Revelation this added — that he was the full expression and instrument of Satan when revived; for (as in Daniel 7:25) we read that there was given him a mouth speaking great things, and blasphemies; and power was given to him to make war forty and two months (three and a half years). He blasphemes God and His tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven, "the saints of the heavenlies;" and makes war with the saints on earth, and overcomes them — we know from Daniel 7 until what time.