Author: Hollisa Alewine

In the last episode, “How Far Gone is the Night?”, we put forward a prophetic verse from Isaiah to help us understand the final beast kingdom. Here it is in its couplets:

“The pronouncement concerning Edom:

One keeps calling to me from Seir,

‘Watchman, how far gone is the night?

Watchman, how far gone is the night?’

The watchman says, ‘Morning comes but also night.

If you would inquire, inquire;

Come back again.’” (Is 21:11-12)

This is important because the last beast performs his deceiving signs “in the presence of the first beast.” The first beast is Babylon. This explains why Babylon the Great is “fallen, fallen.” The image of the beast King Nebuchadnezzar set up for the nations to bow down and worship was one image. Because Daniel had interpreted his gold-silver-bronze-iron dream of the image as the successive beast empires, the King of Babylon thought by forming the image ALL of gold, his kingdom would endure forever. He thought all he needed to do was bring in representatives from all the nations to bow to it. Of course, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego would not bow, and the king temporarily repented. He’d have to be turned into a crazy beast to be completely broken (Da 4:33).

Likewise, in Revelation, human beings who will not repent or who will only repent superficially and worship the image of the beast will be completely broken. If Babylon the Great falls, then all the beast empires fall with it, including its systems among the nations of the world upon which the iron-and-clay feet stand. From the Babylonian head to the Persian chest to the Greek lower torso to the Red Roman iron legs, the Beast will fall. It is empires and nations, yet ONE image, which helps us to understand how the last beast’s signs are performed in the presence of the first. The feet don’t rome too far from the head. Sorry. Couldn’t resist a pun.

Edom is Rome, the last beast kingdom, and its feet are standing upon the earth mixed with the clay, the peoples of the earth. It will be shattered by the Stone of Israel, and all the beast kingdoms that attached to the golden head of Babylon will fall. The night watchmen, who represent those skilled in knowing the times and seasons that turn in their cycle, are experts in the moedim. The moedim were set in place on the fourth day of Creation when the sun, moon, and stars were put in their place “for the sake of the moedim,” often translated as “seasons.” The night watchmen watch these stellar movements every “night,” or exile.