The beasts in Revelation 13 – The dragon became enraged.
The two beasts depicted in chapter 13 of Revelation function as one system, one beast, which is the seventh kingdom serving Satan’s final effort to recover from his losses. As one system, what the beasts, described in Revelation 13, will carry out on the earth is Satan’s only hope for regaining a home for him and his followers. Humankind, while still in the Garden of Eden, gave Satan this planet as his principality and his home. He lost it because Jesus defeated Satan and overthrew him as the prince of this world. Now Satan is standing on the shore of the sea, humankind, and waiting for humankind to devise a way to install him as prince of this world again. However, the righteous in Jesus do not have to worry because God is the Only Sovereign owner and the ruler of all creation. Satan is doing his best to lead believers away from Jesus Christ. However, the yielded believers know they are secure and protected if they obey Jesus’ command to remain in him. John 15:4.
“So the dragon became enraged at the woman and went away to make war on the rest of her children, those who keep God’s commandments and hold to the testimony about Jesus. And the dragon stood on the sand of the shore.” Revelation 12:17 – 18, NET. Some translations have it, “And I stood on the shore.” However, it seems more proper to translate as above because the dragon is the subject of the last verse of chapter 12. The first verse of chapter 13 belongs to chapter 12. The New English Translation has the first line of chapter 13 as part of chapter 12. The translator’s notes in the NET Bible state that better manuscripts have it as “the dragon stood on the sand of the seashore.” The punctuation in the Greek New Testament can pose difficulty in figuring out whether the “stood” is in the first or third person. The third person, “he stood,” is probable and logical.
Nevertheless, the reader can choose one or the other in the spirit of freedom of choice. However, this author prefers that the entire first verse of chapter 13 is the end of chapter 12. Having it so preserves the subject of the last part of chapter 12. There is a legitimate reason the dragon stood on the sand of the seashore. It will become clearer as we look into the current efforts by humankind.
Continued in the ensuing blogs.
