And I saw a beast coming out of the sea. He had ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns on his horns, and on each head a blasphemous name. 2 The beast I saw resembled a leopard, but had feet like those of a bear and a mouth like that of a lion. The dragon gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority. 3 One of the heads of the beast seemed to have had a fatal wound, but the fatal wound had been healed. The whole world was astonished and followed the beast. 4 Men worshiped the dragon because he had given authority to the beast, and they also worshiped the beast and asked, "Who is like the beast? Who can make war against him?"
This is the first of two beasts that the devil supplies with power and authority. John's de????ion of the first beast recalls language from Daniel 7, where the prophet saw four creatures: a winged lion (7:4), a bear eating ribs (7:5), a four-headed leopard with wings (7:6) and an unnamed fourth beast with ten horns (7:7). If you add up the heads, the horns, and the characteristics, this is just about exactly what John saw in his vision. In Daniel, the four beasts “are four kingdoms that will rise from the earth” (Daniel 7:17): Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome. In other words, these are what we would call secular governments. Perhaps Daniel saw them as four separate creatures because they were distinct and just beginning to emerge, whereas John saw only one (with the same qualities) because in his day only Rome was left.
One of the heads has a mortal wound that is now healed over. Although some see this as a reference to the prophecy in Genesis 3:15, that wound will never heal. It will be the final doom of the devil and all who do not follow Christ. It might be better to see this healed wound in the beast like what Lutheran pastor and professor, Dr. Siegbert Becker (1914-1984) described: “The periodic bloody persecutions of the church at the hands of the Roman government seemed to have come to an end when the Emperor Constantine was converted and Christianity became the established religion of the empire. Instead of being a persecutor of the church, the civil government became a promoter of the Christian religion. Civil government as a tool of Satan seemed to have suffered an incurable wound. But the resultant state-church system became one of history's greatest enemies of true piety and orthodox Christianity. The mortal wound was healed, and least from the devil's point of view” (Revelation: The Distant Trumpet Song p. 198-199).
People wonder, who can beat the beast? Who can resist him? This is the question that unbelievers ask as they worship government over God. The government of Rome's republic has led to many other republics with many constitutions. But although every government operates with authority given to it by God under the Fourth Commandment (and passages such as: “the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing,” Romans 13:6), yet no earthly government is protected from temptation or from the power of the devil.
The ultimate answer to the question "Who can make war against the beast?" comes in the refrain of John's vision. No matter what will happen, no matter how bad or how terrible things get, in the end, Jesus will win. Jesus' victory over the devil happened, not in some future battle, but already in the past, on the cross. Jesus' own death was the one and only payment required for our sins.
