Revelation 13:5 Commentary and Bible Study

To the beast is given a mouth and it is allowed to continue to speak for forty-two months, the same symbolic period as the three and a half years or 1260 days, standing for the entire gospel age. The beast will continue to be a source of trial to the church until the end of the world, and God warns us that we should not hope for relief until the Lord returns.It was given a mouth to speak great things, boastful things spoken against the Lord and his word. It speaks of its accomplishments and of its earthly glory. How is it able to get away with such sin without being instantly destroyed? It is given permission to speak. Even Satan must obtain permission to carry out the evil he wishes to do. Why does God grant permission? We cannot say in any one case, but in general he allows evil to do its worst so that it cannot complain that it was defeated with one hand tied behind its back. God’s triumph over evil must be complete. No one can then say that Scripture was exaggerating in speaking of the sinfulness of sin. So when we hear men speak of human achievements whilst giving no credit to God, when we hear authorities boasting and expressing no thankfulness to God for all his gifts to them, we do not despair. This will be allowed to go on only for a limited time. It will be allowed until the end of the age when that great swelling mouth will be called to give account.It is permitted also to blaspheme the name of God. This is a source of great offence and pain to the true children of God. It distresses them greatly that the world can decry God and the beast not be judged instantly. Is the Lord not the Almighty to whom the nations are as the drop of the bucket? Why does he not put a stop to such an outrage? God’s people must be content with the explanation that he allows this for a limited time and will act against the beast when he is ready. These blasphemies leave the church in no doubt as to the character of the beast. The world blasphemes when it makes laws of its own which overturn the principles of God’s law. The world launches an attack on marriage, and minimises the value of human life. It usurps the place of God by claiming an authority over the human conscience, and commanding men how to worship or forbidding them to worship at all. God’s tabernacle is heaven, God’s dwelling place. That is very important to us. Government, world government, will on the whole, whatever it claims, be secular and materialistic. Here one of the purposes of the beast is to deny the afterlife and spiritual things: accountability to God, everlasting existence.