Free Bible Commentary
“Revelation 13:7-10”
Categories: Revelation“It was also given to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them, and authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation was given to him. All who dwell on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain. If anyone has an ear, let him hear. If anyone is destined for captivity, to captivity he goes; if anyone kills with the sword, with the sword he must be killed. Here is the perseverance and the faith of the saints.”
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Power was given to the great beast to “make war with the saints and to overcome them” (verse 7). As Jesus told Pilate before His crucifixion, “You would have no authority over Me, unless it had been given you from above” (John 19:11), likewise the Roman Empire would have had no power to harm the Lord’s saints and rule “over every tribe and people and nation” unless He had granted it from heaven. But, even though the monstrous beast looked indestructible to the inhabitants of the earth, John taught the Lord’s people that, from heaven’s perspective, it was obvious that its reign was only temporary and its days were numbered.
In verse 8 a sharp distinction is drawn between those who chose to worship the beast and those who did not. In a test of loyalty to the emperor, subjects of the empire were required to profess his deity and burn incense in his honor. But everyone who name was written “in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain,” refused to worship anyone but the great God of heaven, and they did so at the peril of possible imprisonment and even death. They took the Lord’s words of Matthew 10:34 very seriously: “He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it.”
There is some uncertainty whether the term “from the foundation of the world” should apply to “the Lamb who has been slain” or to “everyone whose name” was “written…in the book of life.” Either rendering is possible and both statements would be equally truthful (Ephesians 1:4-5; 1 Peter 1:20). God did not predetermine before the foundation of the world every individual who would be saved by His grace and everyone who would be lost, any more than Christ was literally killed before He created the earth and everything in it. But it was God’s predetermined purpose and plan that Christ would die for the sins of the world, and all who would desire eternal life would receive it through obedient faith in His Beloved Son (Ephesians 4:9-11).
Homer Hailey wrote in regard to verse 10 the following: “There are two possible interpretations of the verse: (1) The people of the world who would lead the saints into captivity shall themselves be held in the captivity and damnation of sin; and those who kill saints with the sword shall themselves be killed with the sword… (2) The saints who are destined for captivity or death shall yield. They shall not retaliate in kind, for their master had said, ‘All they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.’… They were not to resist the civil powers (Rom. 13:2; 1 Peter 2:13), but were to fight against the powers of evil with spiritual weapons (II Cor. 10:3-5; Eph. 6:10-18). Nor were they to fear them that could destroy the body, but who had no power beyond that; they were to fear Him whose power extended beyond the body to include the soul (Luke 12:4f.).” This “is the perseverance and the faith of the saints.”
Please read Revelation 13:11-14 for tomorrow.
Have a blessed day!
-Louie Taylor
