The Beasts of the Bible
There are 3 primary beasts mentioned in Revelation.
The first and most terrifying beast is the one seen in Revelation 12:3 the great red dragon with its seven heads, ten horns and seven crowns.
This beast could be described as a culmination of kings in one big heap, one disguise, it is really the re-incarnated Lucifer, the Devil, the Evil one, the Man of Sin manifested.
It is also described like this:
Another sign appeared in the sky: a huge fiery red serpent with seven heads, ten horns, and seven crowns on its heads.
It is a fiery, it is red. It is a dragon. It has seven heads [seven kingdoms], ten horns [ten kings] Seven crowns [seven rulers of renown]. It is of high interest to this study.
The dragon is clearly the Devil, who is powerless to do his destruction without assistance! Remember, he lost the war in heaven and has been hurled down to earth, where he knows that he needs real help to get his ugly job done. His job of deceiving every person on earth if that was possible.
His goal is set:
His tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that he might devour her child the moment it was born.
Most commentators believe this baby is Jesus Christ, the Son of God and born into the Jewish nation, represented by the woman. I agree with this view, as it was most important in history. The most important event in history with regard to our salvation.
Second beast: This is described as .
The beast that I saw was like a leopard. Its feet were like bear's feet, and its mouth was like a lion's mouth. The dragon gave it his power, his throne, and complete authority.
Let’s analyse this man:
A leopard is swift and cunning.
A bear’s feet are large, so we might say he has a good plate of meat on the ground, a big patch of territory. Think about presidents and leaders who have gained ground in our world. Working quickly like a fast leopard and covering much ground. This is the type of person referred to here.
His speech is loud and demanding, like a lion’s mouth. He is the chosen one, the Messiah of the Dragon.
Consider outspoken leaders of countries who love to listen to their own sounds. Unfortunately they mesmerise listeners for bad.
Who is the second beast of Revelation?
I cannot say exactly who this prophet of the second beast is, but we will find out when our main character is revealed. That is the one to watch dear friend.
Red Flag:
The one we are watching has some kind of life threatening injury, even death itself, so mark this man. Listen carefully when leaders of strong and big countries speak. Their words are lethal and can be inspiring for their cronies, in a negative way to outsiders. We only need to see a movie of Hitler and how he mesmerised his crowd with a formidable power. Now it makes goose bumps pop on people’s arms and their hearts fail. This is a man of divisive lusts. One who divides people for his own ego. A possible description is a narcissist. One who is totally in love with his own image.
Well, he has all the right attributes and must be of the right lineage as well. To top it off he has had a fatal injury from which he has recovered, so it is like someone who has been raised from the dead! Does this remind you of someone else? These are red flags to pinpoint the actual Beasts of Revelation.
Beast number 3 is described like this:
Then I saw another beast, coming out of the earth. He had two horns like a lamb, but he spoke like a dragon.
Because of the signs he was given power to do on behalf of the first beast, he deceived the inhabitants of the earth. He ordered them to set up an image in honour of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived. This is referring to beast number 2 above. The beast was wounded by the sword and yet lived. A sword was used by Peter to cut off an ear. It is a dangerous weapon, sharp and unassuming. Could this person be injured seriously, cut to his heart, and lived?
Who are these beasts?
The Ultimate Beast: Number One, Uno, first etc!
He is the biggest and worst beast of all!
The beast that you saw existed once, but is no longer, and is going to crawl out of the bottomless pit and then proceed to its destruction. Those living on earth, whose names were not written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world, will be surprised when they see the beast because it was, is no longer, and will come again. [ISV Standard, 2008] This is describing the instigator of beasts, the one who has grown enormous through the ages. Let’s find out where he came from, which is terribly interesting these days, with numerous documentaries on television showing famous people’s lineages etc! Here is one more:
Mark Nine: The Beast in Genesis
The Garden of Eden Succumbs
Back there in the beautiful garden of Eden, we meet face to face the beginning of the beast’s dire strategies. He meets our first mother, Eve (Mother of all the living).{7} He speaks to her in a very interesting way, with promising words that will be proved to be sugar coated lies.
The beast, disguised as a beautiful footed serpent said:
"You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. Genesis: 3:4...
This is the original manifestation of the Beast of Revelation who looks like a Serpent, a dragon and an animal in disguise.
Now when we say beast here we mean ‘it was not human flesh’ but another kind of creature. It was visible in the form of a serpent, but even so, it was not a serpent, but took on the guise of a serpent to fool darling ignorant Eve. Where was Adam?
Thinning the shoots or having an afternoon nap among the reeds? Adam had named all the animals and would have recognised this animal in disguise. He wasn’t there to hear the voice of a serpent talking to his beloved wife, Eve. She was caught out unawares and took the bait. No warnings were given to her and she (woman) has since then been branded as inferior to Adam. (Sorry good guys) But, you can see this even in Scripture, not a word about how old Eve was when she died, who the first female child was, and no early records of their births, deaths similar to the male counterpart. (Genesis 5) Tubal-Cain had a sister named Naamah is the only generic female mentioned without judgement on her character. (Genesis 4:22) Of course, these are depicted as the leaders of their clans or tribes, and territories, so Naamah may have stood out as a leader or co-leader of a family clan and territory? The Bible does not explain why this is so. (Editor)
And so we know what happened after that. Adam and Eve were chased out of the garden, never to return; guarded by an angel with a flaming sword, and I mean it was flaming with fire, not an abusive term. “That flaming sword,” was enough to put Adam and Eve off for the rest of their natural lives. They possibly suffered what we now know as Post Traumatic Syndrome Disorder today.
Also, they could have passed this on to their offspring. (Editor)
The encounter in the Garden of Eden was the first of its kind, and the beast was revealed to a woman. How fitting that our Lord Jesus Christ, the absolute opposite of this snake in the grass, should meet with a woman who had been a rather sinful person until she met Jesus. How God works is astonishing. The first woman was deceived by a serpent in strange clothing, and the first person to see Jesus in his ‘new clothing’ an eternal body, was a woman. That was Mary Magdalene,{8} if you remember.
I think it is worthy of note.
I can hear your questions; where did that serpent hail from? Was he created by God in the Garden? It was not the serpent that was the problem, but the one who inhabited its skin. That was an angel who was created by God at some unknown time outside our timeframe, so we call it in eternity or before time. In Job 38:4 -7 it says, “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? …6: What supports its foundations, and who laid its cornerstone, 7, as the morning stars sang together, and all the angels shouted for joy.”
We can see that there were angels present before the world was created, when time did not yet exist. We can assume Lucifer was already created, so existed before human beings were created on earth.
Beautiful Beast Created by God!
God created angels to serve Him, and if you recall, the angels rebelled and took up arms against God. The primary leader of these angels was one called Lucifer, the Devil, Satan and other vile names. But, this angel was also known as an Angel of Light! And also called the Son of the Dawn! Just read what Isaiah says about this being:
Angel of Light. How you have fallen from heaven, you morning star, son of the dawn! How you have been cut down to the ground, you conqueror of nations!
(Isaiah 14:12 )
How you have fallen from heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations!
He was a covering angel, a protector of the Garden of God. The Garden of God is the Garden of Eden where Adam and Eve lived.
The LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the East. That's where he put the man whom he had formed. [God’s Word translation] (Genesis 2:8)
Did Adam and Eve see this angel in his role of protector?
We do not know, but we know that this angel was very beautiful. Let’s look at the book of Ezekiel to get a bigger picture of what Lucifer originally looked like:
This is his description in Ezekiel: [World English Bible translation]
You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone adorned you: ruby, topaz, emerald, chrysolite, onyx, jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and beryl. Gold work of tambourines and of pipes was in you. In the day that you were created they were prepared. (Ezekiel 28:13)
Can you imagine Satan looking this good?
Well, this is what he had before he fell down. He was not happy with his lot; his shining beauty and his beautiful sounds [tambourines and pipes were in him - wow!]
He must have also sounded very musical as well as being beautiful. There is nothing nicer to the soul than a beautiful sounding voice. He had it all! As we know, he, Lucifer, took up arms against God and will end up in the Lake of Fire for his final long days in eternity. (Revelation 20:10)
This personality who was so wonderful, deteriorated into a terrorising beast who opposes everything that gives glory to God, and who receives due punishment. (Revelation 19:20)
You thought, "I'll go up to heaven and set up my throne above God's stars. I'll sit on the mountain far away in the North where the gods assemble.” (Isaiah 14:13)
We can find out that the sides of the North are the Lord’s habitation (Psalm 48:2)
This has a inferred meaning as it was the site of King David on earthly soil.
The LORD’s home reaches up to the heavens, while its foundation is on the earth. He draws up water from the oceans and pours it down as rain on the land. The LORD is his name!
(Amos 9:6)
So, Lucifer was keen to muscle in to the Lord’s abode. Many people groups have experienced this type of terrorism - the losing of their habitation to intruders and killers, robbers and murderers. We could spend all day hearing of heartbreaking stories even today.
We can see by this verse that the Devil, Satan, Lucifer, the Beast, Dragon, or whatever you call this privileged, nasty creature, wanted more: Lucifer wanted to be higher than God.
This attitude is revealed in the testing of Jesus Christ, when the Devil came to tempt Jesus and showed Jesus the kingdoms of the world: And said to him, All these things will I give you, if you will fall down and worship me. [American: King James translation version] (Matt 4:9)
If you were born beautiful, rich, privileged or come from a proud family take care not to follow this kind of attitude before God. There is nothing wrong with being beautiful and gifted. It is the attitude of a person that matters to God.
God alone is to be worshipped, and if we read carefully we will see that Jesus Christ is the creator of the world.
How can we be better than our maker? It is like a knitted cardigan saying to its knitter,
‘I’m in charge of everything you wear’.
It’s preposterous and ridiculous at the least.
Delusional at its core.
Sadly, many have tried to be greater than God and every time they have been pulled back down to a very low level. Remember the old saying, Pride comes before a fall. (Proverbs 16:18)
A typical incident recorded in Scripture about pride is the story of Nebuchadnezzar, when he became proud and thought he had built his kingdom alone. Daniel’s records go like this:
The word concerning Nebuchadnezzar was fulfilled; and he was driven away from mankind and began eating grass like cattle, and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven until his hair had grown like eagles' feathers and his nails like birds' claws. At the end of the seven time periods, I, Nebuchadnezzar, looked up to heaven, and my mind came back to me. I thanked the Most High, and I praised and honoured the one who lives forever, because his power lasts forever and his kingdom lasts from one generation to the next.[New American Standard and God’s Word translations used here’] (Dan 4:37)
Mark of The Beautiful Beast
From the beginning of his creation, Satan had one objective: to rule everything and everyone. To become like God, no, even better than God Himself, who had created him. How arrogant he must have become!
You are the anointed cherub that covers; and I have set you so: you were on the holy mountain of God; you have walked up and down in the middle of the stones of fire (Ezekiel 28:14)
Not only was Lucifer a covering or protecting angel on the Holy Mountain of God, he was perfect in all his ways.
Your behaviour was perfect from the time you were created, until evil was found in you [God’s Word Translation, 1995] .
What happened to make this beautiful creature so ugly?
Sin or iniquity was found in him. What type of sin? Let’s look for that
"By the abundance of your trade you were internally filled with violence, And you sinned; Therefore I have cast you as profane From the mountain of God. And I have destroyed you, O covering cherub, From the midst of the stones of fire.” (Ezekiel 28:15,16)
We can see that this verse indicates that the Covering Cherub sinned by the excesses of his trade, resulting in internal violence, therefore he was thrown from the mountain of God. This analogy is immediately referring to the King of Tyre, who obviously had the same interests as the fallen Covering Cherub, was possibly possessed by the Evil One and given an insatiable appetite for goods, plunder, people, whatever he could trade in Tyre.
For us, it is a lesson about greed, wanting more than our share, wanting more than we have always longing for some ‘other little thing’.
Cheating other people or leaving them short to supply our own greed could also be similar to this event. Let us think carefully about this aspect of greed. Best advice is to get the Lord’s views on it. (Pray)
Eventually we will be pulled up by the Lord for these types of activities and we will pay dearly. In this case, the King of Tyre lost his royal place and was finished as a ruler. Notice that arrogance becomes worse and worse if it is not checked, and eventually it leads to disaster.
“When Ithobal was reigning in Tyre it was besieged for thirteen years by Nebuchadnezzar, (Babylon) Josephus reported this from Philostratus,,, “{9}
Lucifer is also guilty of the most serious of crimes.
Isaiah puts it like this regarding the King of Babylon:
You thought, "I'll go up to heaven and set up my throne above God's stars. I'll sit on the mountain far away in the North where the gods assemble. {10}
For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them into gloomy dungeons to be held for judgment…(2 Peter 2:4)