You Need Endurance and Faith (Rev. 13:1-10)

[Sung Psalm: 44]

In Revelation 13 we will hear about two beasts – one from the sea – and the other from the land.

"The depiction of the two beasts in chapter 13 is based in part on Job 40-41, which is the only OT description of two Satanic beasts opposing God...One is a land beast to be slain by God with a sword. The other is a sea dragon who conducts a war waged by his mouth...

The Job text alludes to a primordial defeat of the dragon by God (40:32 LXX), but also implies a yet future battle (40:19). which is necessitated by the sea beast's continued attitude of defiance...[Jewish] tradition held that on the fifth day of creation God created Leviathan to be in the sea and Behemoth to dwell on land. These two beasts were symbolic of the powers of evil and were to be destroyed at the final judgment." (Beale, 682)

While we have largely forgotten about this; previous generations did not.

Indeed, back in the 17th century, an English philosopher wrote a book about this. Thomas Hobbes wrote his famous "Leviathan" about the Beast that rose from the sea – a political power that none could resist. Indeed, when you look carefully at how John describes his Leviathan in Rev. 13, Hobbes is eerily accurate!

And as we face the Beast – as we face the Leviathan of our own day – we need patient endurance – we need faith!

We need to remember that God is the one who governs all things...