Sunday School Notes: Revelation 17:11-14

¹¹ And the beast that was and is not, it is an eighth and is of the seven, and it departs unto destruction. ¹² And the ten horns that you saw are ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom, but they receive authority as kings with the beast for one hour. ¹³ These have one purpose, and their power and authority they give to the beast. ¹⁴ They shall make war with the Lamb but the Lamb will be victorious over them, for he is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those with him are called and elect and faithful.

If the description of the beast as “was, is not, and is coming” was confusing, now the beast is described as an “eighth of the seven.” That is to say, it is an eighth king, but it is of the seven we just discussed. I take this to mean the beast is a king that represents all the other kings. Since the seven “kings” are seven heads of the beast, that would make sense. But what is this vision communicating to us? Why is the beast an eighth?

We’ve noted before how the beast is the false Messsiah, a parody of Christ. In chapter 13, one of the beast’s heads received a mortal wound but was restored, mirroring Jesus’s death and resurrection. The beast also receives worship, and a second beast performs signs and wonders to draw people to the beast. With that in mind, the significance of the beast being the eighth after seven may point, again, to the beast being a false Messiah, parodying Jesus’s resurrection. Jesus died on the sixth day, lay in the tomb on the seventh, and rose on the first day of the week–effectively the eighth day. Hence the beast is the resurrection and summation of the seven kings who preceded it. The beast is the final manifestation of godless authority and power on the earth. But unlike Christ, who was raised as the conquering king, the beast’s resurrection is to ultimate destruction.

The angel tells John that the beast’s ten horns are ten kings who haven’t yet received power, but will rule with the beast for an hour. Are these ten literal kings who ruled during John’s time, or ten literal kings to come? As we discussed with the seven kings, it’s possible these may relate to literal kings, but we mustn’t forget the symbolism employed in these visions. Especially when the visions make use of numbers that have had symbolic meaning previously in Revelation. In 12:3, the dragon is said to have ten horns, as does the beast in 13:1 and 17:7. The “horn” was commonly employed as a symbol of power. In those passages we are told that a great amount of power resides with Satan and the beast. This is the power behind the godless rulers and kingdoms throughout history. The use of the number ten serves to amplify the amount of power and influence these creatures have. Rather than looking for ten literal kings in a single moment in time, these ten kings are representative of powerful kings throughout the world. The fact they have yet to receive kingdoms suggests this is speaking of a time to come, which fits with the idea of an escalation in the degradation of society prior to Christ’s return. I wouldn’t rule out there being ten literal kings/kingdoms at some point, but it’s more important to see the symbolic significance rather than get hung up on literal quantities.

Their authority with the beast will last “one hour.” An hour is the shortest named time span in Scripture. There are no minutes, seconds, or milliseconds. If a writer wants to use a measure of time shorter than an hour, he needs to use a fraction of an hour (e.g., the silence in heaven for “half an hour” in Revelation 8:1). Simply, the angel is telling us that this coalition rule will last for a short period of time.

The nature of this coalition is hinted at in verse 13: all ten kings have a single purpose with the beast, and to that end they devote all their resources to the beast. What is that purpose? To do battle against the Lamb. However, this will not go well for them. The Lamb will be victorious, and it won’t even be close. After all, the Lamb is King of kings and Lord of lords. [Note: the angel is speaking of Jesus in terms that would hardly apply to one who was simply a prophet. And while language like this might have been used of earthly rulers in the past, these terms are used of Jesus not only with regard to kings and kingdoms, but also the beast.]

We’ve mentioned many times that Revelation is a letter of encouragement to a persecuted church. And what better encouragement is there than the final point at the end of verse 14? The people of God, those who have remained faithful throughout their trials and persecution, who have been willing to suffer for Jesus and wear his name even when it costs them everything, those are the people who stand with the victorious Lamb. No matter how much the battle seems like a lost cause, it isn’t. God is at work bringing judgment, and the battle will be won to the glory of Christ and his bride, the church.

We’ll begin with verse 15 next time…