Revelation 13:10, commentary and pictures

The verse foretells retributive judgment in kind upon the power that led others into captivity and killed with the sword, whose forty-two months are the 1,260 prophetic days or years from 538 to 1798 during which it oppressed God's people through the union of church and state. That prediction was fulfilled in 1798 when the French army took the pope captive and deprived the papacy of its persecuting strength, receiving the deadly wound by which it ceased to be upheld by civil power as judge of heretics. The captive pope was Pius VI, led to Valence in France, confined in the tower overlooking the Rhone, and dying in that confinement, as marked by his memorial in the cathedral there. The leopard-like beast from the sea is the papacy, upheld by many peoples, nations and tongues, inheriting the power of Daniel's four beasts and acting with the dragon's power, seat and authority in trampling God's law and making war with the saints to the close of time. In the certainty of this retribution lies the patience and the faith of the saints, who endure in loyal obedience to God's commandments and the faith of Jesus through the coming persecution over worship, when apostate Protestantism as the image of the beast seeks civil power to enforce Sunday observance as a counterfeit Sabbath against God's Sabbath seal.

Beast's Captivity Foretold Fulfilled

The leopard-like beast rising from the sea is the papacy, an earthly government especially engaged in trampling upon God's law and persecuting His people and carrying its war forward to the close of time. The sea stands for peoples, multitudes, nations and tongues, showing that many nations upheld it, and its features connect it with the four empires of Daniel's four beasts, whose successive imperial power it inherits. It acts as Satan's agent with the dragon's power, seat and authority, as pagan Rome before it openly represented the dragon, while the later two-horned beast carries on the same opposition with Satan's power revealed by its dragon-like speech and its enforcement of worship through deceptive miracles.

The verse foretells retribution in kind, that the power which led others into captivity would itself go into captivity and which killed with the sword would be judged in the same manner. Its forty-two months are the same period as Daniel's time and times and the dividing of time, 1,260 prophetic days or years from 538 to 1798, during which it oppressed God's people. That persecution arose from the union of church and state, destructive to both civil government and the church, under whose dominion of Rome God's faithful witnesses were tortured and slain for more than a thousand years.

The prediction was fulfilled in 1798, when the French army took the pope captive and the papal power received its deadly wound. The papacy was thereby deprived of its strength and forced to desist from persecution, marking the loss of its persecuting power after exercising it for 1,260 years. It was no longer recognized by civil power as sponsor of the nations' faith and judge of heretics, and at that same time another power with lamb-like horns was seen coming up.

The pope noted in the prophecy is Pius VI, who was taken captive and died in captivity, and his captivity and death was the receiving of the deadly wound in history. He was carried captive to Valence, France, and confined in the tower there where he could look upon the waters of the Rhone overlooking the river, and he died in that confinement. His memorial stands in the cathedral at Valence, with his bust above and his heart encased beneath in the marble monument.

The verse reveals the judgment appointed to be executed in the great day upon the apostate power against the law of God that deceived the inhabitants of the earth and caused them to believe fatal lies presented as truth. That power blasphemes God and heaven, makes war with the saints and overcomes them, holds power over all kindreds and tongues and nations, and is worshiped by all on earth whose names are not in the book of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. In the certainty of this retribution in kind lies the patience and the faith of the saints, who rise with loyalty to proclaim the third angel's message when God's law is made void, despised and frowned upon by priests and rulers.

Last-Day Worship and Endurance

Revelation 13 describes the beast and its image, whose decree enforces the worship warned against by the third angel. The image is apostate Protestantism seeking civil power to enforce its beliefs, and worship of the beast and its image stands contrasted with keeping God's commandments and the faith of Jesus. Worshipers receive the mark in forehead or hand, where the forehead means the mind and belief and the hand means power or compelled action. The mark is a counterfeit Sabbath, the first day of the week, opposed to God's Sabbath of creation, which is the sign and seal of His authority and power. God's servants are sealed in the mind, not by compelled worship, keeping His commandments and the Sabbath even while suffering persecution for it, and when wrath falls on those enforcing the beast's mark its true importance will be exposed.

The chapter lays out in clear lines the position of God's people for this time in regard to Sunday laws. It applies to a coming persecution over worship in which every person must choose between worshiping God and honoring the false sabbath enforced by the beast. A prominent last-days power changes the Sabbath to Sunday and uses human authority and tradition to weaken obedience to God's law, and God's people are to stand firmly in the faith and honor the Sabbath of creation. That power will compel worship of the beast by requiring observance of the false sabbath through Sunday laws, with churches and the world united in trampling God's commandments, and Satan works through both church and state in this opposition. Those who refuse and remain loyal to God and the seventh-day Sabbath will face persecution, imprisonment, threats of death and death itself.

Revelation 13:4-18, including this verse, reaches its final fulfillment in the last days when Satan appears with great power and heavenly glory as an angel of light and claims to be Lord of the whole earth. He declares the Sabbath changed from the seventh to the first day, and as lord of the first day presents this spurious sabbath as a test of loyalty to him. This fulfillment is to be studied together with all of Revelation 14, especially the warning against worshiping the beast and his image and receiving his mark in forehead or hand.

Here is the patience and the faith of the saints: their endurance and loyal obedience under pressure as the remnant who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ in the dragon's war against them. That message of the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, made prominent by the Lord's watchmen, brings those who renounce the world and receive Christ into covenant relation with God and His family with names in the Lamb's book of life. Making that message prominent stirs Satan to anger and moves the backslidden church and professing Christians inspired by him to intense opposition. Those who endure to the end shall be saved, gaining victory over the beast, his image, his mark and the number of his name, to stand on the sea of glass with the harps of God singing the song of Moses and the Lamb, the company who ride on the high places of the earth and are fed with the heritage of Jacob.

The verse is a warning to every son and daughter of Adam, repeated over and over, revealing what will surely take place in the great worldwide conflict over the Sabbath question in which all the world will act a part. It is for all who live in the last days and must be read carefully and prayerfully to be understood, as part of the prophecies of Revelation 12 to 18 now being fulfilled and of the last message of warning all are to hear. It belongs to the third angel's message, which combines the first and second and binds them to the closing scenes, pointing to the great last warfare between those who keep God's commandments and those who make void His law, calling for lifting the standard of truth and declaring the last message of mercy while others teach fables to counteract it. It is to be read with Revelation 12:17, Revelation 14:10-13 and Revelation 17 as God's warning of perils before His people, showing things that will be in the last days and a people working counter to God. It belongs to the connected sequence of Revelation 13 and Revelation 14:1-5 leading to the complete redemption of the 144,000 who gain victory over the beast and its image.