Satan’s Strategy (Revelation 13)

Big Idea: Satan seeks to destroy Christian faith through both forceful government persecution and subtle cultural pressure to compromise, so stay faithful to the end.

You’ve probably heard of The Art of War, an ancient Chinese military treatise written by Sun Tzu, a Chinese general, military strategist, and philosopher. It's believed to have been written around 500 BCE. The book consists of 13 chapters, each focusing on different aspects of warfare and military strategy. It talks about strategy and planning, leadership, deception, and more.

Despite its age, it’s a book that’s still influential today. It’s studied in military academies, business schools, and leadership programs worldwide. One of its key insights is this: "Know your enemy and know yourself, and you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.” Knowing your enemy's strengths, weaknesses, motivations, strategies, and resources helps you prepare for victory.

Last week we looked at Revelation 12. Here’s what we saw last week:

• We’re at war. We're living in a spiritual war zone. Revelation 12 reveals the hidden truths of our daily lives, much like a movie where the plot becomes clear.
• Satan (the dragon) is especially fierce now because he realizes he has already lost due to Jesus' victory and that his time is limited. Think of him like a defeated enemy making his last, desperate attacks.
• Despite the battle, we're on the winning side. We are protected by God even in difficult times, and Jesus has already secured the victory through his death and resurrection.

Having lost his war against Jesus, Satan now unleashes his rage on God's church. Like a predator changing targets, he sets his sights on those who follow Christ. Satan is waging a war against God's people, but his defeat is certain, so stay faithful to the end.

But here's what we need to understand: When Satan stalks God's people, what's his game plan? What weapons does he use? What's his endgame?

In other words, if we're going to stand firm in this battle, we need to know: What's the enemy's playbook and strategy? Chapter 13 delivers precisely that. Chapter 12 provides an overview of Satan's war against God's people, while chapter 13 focuses on how this battle plays out through two main figures in the dragon's army. Chapter 12 reveals the spiritual war in heaven, while chapter 13 brings it to earth, introducing Satan's two main agents of chaos.

Here they are:

The First Beast: Political Power Gone Wrong (13:1-10)

In verse 1, John sees a beast rising from the sea. In the Bible, the sea is always a place of evil and chaos. So this is not good.

But verse 1 would also ring a bell. This is not the first beast to rise from the sea in Scripture. This vision builds on Daniel's earlier vision from Daniel 7, over 600 years ago, where he described “four great beasts coming up out of the sea, each different from the others.”

In Daniel 7, the beasts that come from the sea are governments. Daniel sees four earthly kingdoms in succession which are followed by the establishment of an everlasting kingdom. These were the governments from the Babylonian kingdom in Daniel's time to the Roman Empire in John's time.

How does this first beast of Revelation 13 relate to the four beasts of Daniel? It’s like a composite of all the beasts that Daniel mentions.

So what exactly is this beast? The clue lies in verse 1. It wears royal crowns, symbolizing governmental power as noted in Scripture. Both Daniel and Revelation use beasts to represent something specific: political powers that fight against God and attack His people. Consider the history of empires: Egypt enslaving God's people, Assyria conquering Israel, Babylon exiling Judah, followed by Persia, Greece, and Rome. Each demanded complete loyalty. Each punished those who wouldn't bow. And this pattern continues today—any government that demands the allegiance only God deserves, and crushes those who refuse. This is the beast.

Look at what this beast is like in Revelation 13. It’s fearsome and blasphemous (13:1). But it’s also powerful (13:2). It mimics Christ both in its exercise in power, in coming back to life from a mortal wound in verse 3, and in the praise it receives in verse 4. By the way, I think this beast coming back to life represents how persistent this beast is. It keeps coming back even when it looks like it’s gone. It keeps reemerging.

This beast blasphemes and declares war on God’s people, according to verses 5 to 7. According to verse 7, it has some authority for a period, which I believe refers to the church age between Christ's ascension and his return. This beast will wage war against the church, and those whose names are not written in the book of life will go after this beast.

Verses 9 and 10 bring the point home: God’s people will endure opposition from this beast. They will be jailed and killed. But God’s people are called to endure despite this opposition.

What does all of this mean? Revelation is telling us that one way that Satan will war against God’s people is through evil governments.

Is this a future evil government during the end times, or are we experiencing it now? I believe this is something that will occur in the end times, yet we are also experiencing it now. 1 John 2:18 says, “Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour.” 1 John 4:3 says that the spirit of the antichrist, which denies Jesus, is in the world already. 2 John 7 says, “For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist.”

Look around. There’s a spirit of rebellion against Christ everywhere in our culture. Our world is filled with a mindset that stands against everything that Jesus represents. This anti-Jesus attitude runs deep, including in some governments. And Satan will use these governments to wage war against God’s people.

Please hear what I’m saying. I am not saying that government itself is evil. In Romans 13, Paul explains that government authority is given by God, that it serves good, and that Christians should obey it. But here we get the other side of the picture. As David Campbell writes: “This does not suggest that all human governments are evil. It does mean that the devil is continually trying to influence them in that direction. Sadly, he often succeeds.”

Government is good, but Satan likes to take what is good and use it for his own purposes. Satan can take governments and weaponize them against Christians.

In John's time, Christians encountered temples and shrines dedicated to emperors, like a large statue in Ephesus, and suffered economic repercussions for refusing to worship.

Today, this takes place in places like North Korea, where Christians face imprisonment, torture, and even death for their faith. It happens in countries like Afghanistan and Iran, where converting to Christianity can be a death sentence. In India, Christians face harassment from misused anti-conversion laws, and attacks on churches and believers are increasing.

Closer to home, this can take place as governments redefine morality in issues like euthanasia, abortion, gender and sexuality. But as Matt Chandler points out, the goal of this beast isn’t just to imprison or to kill us. According to verse 4, it’s to get us to worship the beast.

It simply wants us to worship the state, to pull our loyalty away from Jesus and put it on something that cannot ultimately help us or save us. This is his game, and he’s good at it.
I can only imagine the Dragon’s pride toward this beast. He has easily ripped us to pieces over the past few years. The pressure to pick a political side is nearly impossible to avoid in the current cultural environment…
The first beast is exceptional at drawing our allegiance away from Jesus and putting it on a political party or politician.

Governments can be beneficial, but they become dangerous when they neglect accountability to God, distort morality, or try to take on God's role. Our allegiance is never to any government. We worship the Emperor of emperors, the King of kings. We belong to him; other kings may rage, but we bow only to one King.

What’s Satan’s strategy? He will use governments to come after Christians by either persecuting them or drawing our allegiance away from him. That’s the first way that Satan comes after us, but there’s a second:

The Second Beast: The Ideology that Supports It (13:11-18)

Then we meet a second beast rising from the land. This creature is part of an "unholy trinity" along with the dragon (Satan) and the sea beast (political power), now adding the land beast. While it looks like a lamb - reminding us of Jesus, the true Lamb of God - its dragon-like voice reveals its true nature. Don't be fooled by its appearance. This deceiver performs miraculous signs with one goal: to trick people into worshiping the first beast. He imitates God’s power, just like the Egyptian magicians imitated Aaron’s power.

Here’s the part you’ve been waiting for. These verses mention the mark of the beast and 666.

Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name. (3:16-17)

The mark of the beast! What is this? Back then, people were sometimes marked with tattoos: slaves, for example, or soldiers. Those marks have to do with identity. To whom do you belong? In Revelation 14:1, we see that the Lamb puts his mark on his people. He claims ownership of them. Revelation is pointing out that we either belong to the Lord or to the beast. There is no middle ground: we either belong to the beast or to God. The beast will demand loyalty, and we will pay if we don’t give the beast that loyalty, but we can’t. Our loyalty belongs to God alone.

This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666. (13:18)

Let's tackle the famous number 666. Many scholars believe it's using something called gematria - an ancient code system where letters have number values. Think of it like a secret message: if A=1, B=2, and so on, you could write numbers that actually spell words. Both Jews and Romans used this system.

When you convert the Hebrew letters for 'Nero Caesar' into numbers, they total 666. Why Nero? Although he was dead when Revelation was written, he became a model of a cruel ruler who persecuted Christians. It could be that Revelation is saying, "Watch out for leaders like Nero—they'll keep coming."

But we should be cautious here. While this explanation makes sense, it requires some mathematical gymnastics to make the numbers work perfectly. There's another way to understand it:

Six is one less than seven, and seven is the number of incompleteness. Six is one less than complete: almost there but falling one short…
Why then these three sixes, 666? Because three is also the number of completeness. Three sixes imply that the beast is completely incomplete…
The counterfeit unity wants to be God but never makes it. Always falling short—666. (Darrell Johnson)

What's this second beast all about? Let's follow the clues:

First, it's a master of deception. It mimics Jesus but serves Satan. While the first beast uses brute force, this one uses lies and manipulation. It deceives people, creates 'holy' images for worship, and controls buying and selling with its marking system.

Throughout history, this beast has taken different forms. In John's day, it looked like emperor worship and trade guild requirements. Later, it appeared as state religions propping up dictators, or ideologies like Communism and Nazism demanding total devotion. Think of Saddam's statues or Mao's propaganda posters—all demanding worship of human power.

But today? It's often more subtle. As Nancy Guthrie points out, it might look like:

• Being forced to support causes that conflict with our faith
• Facing pressure to display symbols that contradict our beliefs
• Having our business targeted for holding Christian values

The beast's offer remains the same: "Play along and prosper." It promises networking opportunities, social acceptance, job security, and material comfort. The price? Just a small compromise of your faith.

This beast represents the cultural and religious systems that encourage people to follow human authority rather than Christ.

Here’s the big idea I’m trying to get across: Satan seeks to destroy Christian faith through both forceful government persecution and subtle cultural pressure to compromise, so stay faithful to the end.

Make no mistake—we're in a battle. Our enemy has two weapons: the hammer of government power and the whisper of cultural pressure. One forces, the other seduces. One threatens, the other tempts. Both aim to make us compromise our faith.

Satan hasn't changed his playbook. Whether it's ancient Rome or modern times, his strategy remains the same: conform or pay the price.

What's Satan's ultimate goal? It's simple—he can't stand to see you:

• Loving Jesus with your whole heart
• Following Jesus no matter the cost
• Worshipping Jesus instead of this world's idols
• Standing firm in faith until the end

So let's do exactly what Satan hates and what God deserves.

And what is God calling us to do? Revelation 13:10 makes it crystal clear: "This calls for patient endurance and faithfulness." Don't cave to government pressure. Don't give in to culture's seductive whispers. Keep your eyes on Jesus and stay faithful to the end. He is worth it. He alone is worthy of our worship.