(3) The blasphemies of the beast--13:5-10. 1. And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies--13:5. With malignant satisfaction and gloating over the success of the conquests, the beast proclaimed an impious profanation against God-- to blaspheme his name. The emperor not only opposed God, or spake derogatorily of God, but he blasphemed--desecrated the name, Jehovah, which was held in the ultimate degree of reverence by the Hebrews: “ I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac and unto Jacob by the name of God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them” -- Exodus 6:3. This was God’ s name--my name, the text says, and was indicative of the attributes of eternal and immutable self-existence: I AM THAT I AM-- Exodus 3:14. It was this eternal and almighty name which was with arrogant imperial defiance blasphemed, assuming for himself the attributes and prerogatives of God and commanding the worship of the emperor by all the world. The Jehovah passage of Exo 6:3 is one of sublimity. It is God’ s own declaration of omnipotent majesty. Moses stood before Jehovah in awe, and all men should stand in His august presence now, and should so honor Him in prayer, “ Who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honor and power everlasting.” Such sublime attributes forbid the lately modern forms of praying in degraded terms of familiarity with God--addressing God as if He were man, as one would address a human father. It is being said that to employ Thee and Thou in prayer is archaic and obsolete, and the sophisticated approach to God is to fling you into the face of his Divine Presence. But thee and thou are not obsolete in sacred literature, in poetry and in music. Shall the worshipper be more reverent in song than in prayer? These very proper words of address are current in sacred use in our literature, and are entirely literary in reverent character, and to replace Thee and Thou with you in songs of praise to God would be degrading to the “ psalms, hymns and spiritual songs” that we sing in “ making melody with the heart unto God” --and it is just that degrading to prayer. Try it on such songs as “ My Faith Looks Up To Thee, Thou Lamb Of Calvary” and “ How Great Thou Art, How Great Thou Art” --and feel the difference! And in the experiment, try reading the Lord’ s prayer of Joh 17:1-26 substituting the you for Thee and Thou--read it and wince! God is Jehovah, the great I AM, and to address Him in the common pronoun you is a degrading familiarity with God that is inexcusable. In prayer the reverent prostrated petitioner before His Throne should never talk down to God--prayer talks up to God. The Lord’ s command to call no man Father upon this earth prohibits addressing men as God, and it conversely forbids speaking to God as if He were man. The name Jehovah forbids familiarity. This humble writer could never bring himself to the point of addressing God in prayer in the common term you. “ And God spake unto Moses, and said unto him, I am the Lord: and I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them.” The descriptions by Paul, in 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4, of the sacrilegious assumption of divine exaltation by the emperor for himself, parallels the visional representations of the same thing by John in Revelation. The Thessalonian passage refers to “ that man of sin . . . the son of perdition, who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.” This passage as a reference to emperor Nero could not be made more obvious without actually calling his name; but for either Paul or John to mention the name of the living emperor in such connections would have accentuated the persecutions all over the empire--hence, the code language of these descriptions of verses 5 to 10. 2. And power was given unto him to continue forty and two months--13:5. Here is the third repetition of the thousand two hundred and threescore days of chapters eleven and twelve; and, as previously commented, it embraces the exact mathematical period from the date of Nero’ s order to Vespasion for the invasion of Judea to the fall of Jerusalem. This was the period of time assigned to the emperorbeast for the accomplishment of the destruction of Jerusalem and the obliteration of the Jewish state.