NT Text: Revelation 13:4
OT Source(s):
Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type: Allusion
Connection Method(s): Contrast + Longitudinal Theme
Significance: The world's worship of the beast — "Who is like the beast, and who can wage war against it?" (tis homoios tō thēriō kai tis dynatai polemēsai met' autou) — is a demonic parody of the Song of Moses in Exodus 15:11: "Who is like you among the gods, O LORD?" (mi-khamokhah ba'elim YHWH). The structural parallel is exact: the rhetorical question asserting incomparability. In Exodus, this question celebrates YHWH's unique power demonstrated in the Red Sea deliverance; in Revelation, the same question-form is blasphemously redirected to the beast. This ironic inversion is one of Revelation's most powerful literary strategies: the beast system imitates and parodies the true God, substituting counterfeit worship for genuine doxology. The allusion signals to John's readers that the world is singing the wrong song to the wrong god — a decisive indictment of imperial cult worship as a satanic counterfeit of Exodus faith.