The Two Witnesses - Revelation 11:1-14
INTRODUCTION:
As we enter the Scriptures this morning I will admit that this chapter is not an easy chapter, but I am going to do my best to explain it to you. If you read many commentators, you can find almost as many interpretations and opinions on this chapter as there are commentators. But like we learned in Sunday School this morning, the commentators are not inspired like the Words of the Bible and so we will use God’s Word to try and make sense of God’s Word.
This was the reason I had our Scripture reading this morning from Daniel 9, this passage in the closing verses speaks of the 70th week of Daniel, which other places in Scripture call the tribulation. The tribulation or the 70th week of Daniel is a seven-year period following the resurrection and rapture of the church in which God judges the earth, this seven-year period is divided into two periods of three and a half years each. The first three and half years are called the tribulation and we have been reading of the judgments of God during this time in the seal and the trumpet judgments, the second three and a half years are called the Great Tribulation and the judgments from God intensify and the focus turns especially on Israel. As we come to our passage this morning we must determine if what is John is recording is in the first 3½ years or the second 3½ years. I have my opinion which I will teach and give you my reasons, but it is only an opinion and I do not believe we can know for sure because it is not clear from the text.
Again, our Scripture passage for this morning is the second part of the interlude that we began looking at last week in chapter 10. This interlude comes between the sixth and seventh trumpet judgments or the second and third woe judgments. Let’s pray and then get into God’s Word.
--PRAY--
SCRIPTURE:
Turn in your Bibles to Revelation 11:1-14, our Scripture passage for this morning. Please stand if you are able for the reading of God’s Word and follow along as I read.
Revelation 11:1-14,
“Then there was given me a measuring rod like a staff; and someone said, ‘Get up and measure the temple of God and the altar, and those who worship in it. Leave out the court which is outside the temple and do not measure it, for it has been given to the nations; and they will tread under foot the holy city for forty-two months. And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for twelve hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth.’ These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. And if anyone wants to harm them, fire flows out of their mouth and devours their enemies; so if anyone wants to harm them, he must be killed in this way. These have the power to shut up the sky, so that rain will not fall during the days of their prophesying; and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood, and to strike the earth with every plague, as often as they desire. When they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up out of the abyss will make war with them, and overcome them and kill them. And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which mystically is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified. Those from the peoples and tribes and tongues and nations will look at their dead bodies for three and a half days, and will not permit their dead bodies to be laid in a tomb. And those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and celebrate; and they will send gifts to one another, because these two prophets tormented those who dwell on the earth. But after the three and a half days, the breath of life from God came into them, and they stood on their feet; and great fear fell upon those who were watching them. And they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, ‘Come up here.’ Then they went up into heaven in the cloud, and their enemies watched them. And in that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell; seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven. The second woe is past; behold, the third woe is coming quickly.” (Revelation 11:1–14, NASB95)[1]
MEASURING THE TEMPLE (Revelation 11:1-2)
Last Sunday as we came to the end of chapter ten John was told that he was to prophesy again concerning many peoples and nations and tongues and kings. His role as a prophet was not over, he must continue to record what he sees and hears. When John took the little scroll, and ate it he became an active participant in the vision he was seeing, and he continues to be an active participant as he is given a measuring rod or reed. The Greek word translated “measuring rod” refers to a reed-like plant that grows in Israel in the Jordan Valley and can grow as high as 15 to 20 feet. It is hollow, but rigid enough to be used as a walking staff and pieces of it were shaved down to be used as pens. Because they were long and light weight they were ideal for measuring rods. John is given one and told to measure the temple and the altar and the worshippers. This measuring was not to find out the physical dimensions as none are given. So what was the importance of John making these measurements? Since John’s measurements included the worshippers this measuring shows ownership, defining the borders of God’s possessions. It is best to see this as God measuring off Israel for salvation and His special protection, preservation and favor. The prophecies that John is still to prophesy will distinguish between God’s favor for Israel and His wrath on the world.
John is told specifically what he is to measure. The Greek word translated temple does not refer to the entire temple complex, but only to the temple building which housed the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies. The altar is most likely the brazen altar, located outside the inner sanctuary of the temple in the courtyard and this courtyard is where the worshippers would have gathered. Only the priests were allowed to go into the Holy Place. These worshippers in John’s vision are the remnant of believing Jews worshipping God during the Tribulation.
The temple that John is to measure will be built in the early part of the first half of the tribulation. Our Scripture reading in Daniel 9 says that he (referring to the Antichrist) will make a firm covenant with the people of Israel for one week, which refers to this seven-year period of tribulation, the covenant terms will allow the Israelites to rebuild the temple and they will have relative freedom to worship the Lord during the first 3½ years of the tribulation.
John is told to not measure the court outside the inner court where the temple building and the brazen altar are. This outer court is what is known as the court of the Gentiles. Gentiles could not go beyond this court, in New Testament times the Romans gave the Jews the right to execute any Gentile who went beyond the court of the Gentiles, for to do so would defile the temple. John was told not to measure this area because it was given to the nations, and John is further told that the nations will tread under foot the holy city for 42 months. 42 months is 3½ years and corresponds to the second half of the seven-year tribulation, the part called the Great Tribulation in which the Antichrist will seek to rule the world and exterminate the Jewish people. In these first two verses God is marking off for Himself a remnant of faithful Jews.
THE TWO WITNESSES (Revelation 11:3-6)
John then records for us the ministry of the two witnesses. We are not told who is talking to John in this passage, but verse 3 indicates that these words come from God, the New American Standard Version says, “And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for twelve hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth.” (Revelation 11:3, NASB95)[2] The Lord Jesus Christ will be the One who raises up these two witnesses. The word “authority” is not in the Greek, this was added by the translators, the Greek says, “And I will grant to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy…” I believe that they will receive authority and power from God to carry out their role as witnesses and prophets, but I believe what is being said here is that God will give them the words that they are to prophesy. They will be as the prophets of old receiving a direct revelation from God to deliver to the people. These two witnesses will warn of the judgment to come and will proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Who are these two witnesses? There has been much speculation as to who these two are, I believe it is clear that it is two individuals endowed with special authority and power from God and their ministry will last 1260 days, again a 3½ year period, so for half of the seven-year tribulation. John does not give us the identity of these two, but because they are able to shut up the sky so that it does not rain and because they can turn water to blood and strike the earth with every plague whenever they want, many believe that these two witnesses are Elijah and Moses because Elijah stopped the rain from falling in Israel for 3½ years; Moses turned water into blood and brought many other plagues on the land of Egypt. Others believe that these witnesses are Elijah and Enoch because these two men did not die, but were taken directly to heaven without dying. Others believe that these are two men that God raises up during the Tribulation to carry out this ministry.
John only tells us that they are two olive trees and two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. The two olive trees are a reference to a prophecy in Zechariah 4:1-14 where the prophet Zechariah sees two olive trees beside a lampstand pouring their oil into a basin that feeds the lamps on the stand. The two olive trees represented two men that God had raised up to rebuild the temple, they were empowered by the Holy Spirit represented by the oil. John is saying in the same way, God has raised up these two witnesses to perform a specific task for God, to warn of His coming judgment and to proclaim salvation in Christ through faith, they too are empowered to carry out this task by the Holy Spirit and they are lampstands shining in a dark world with the good news of Jesus Christ. Giving man one more chance to repent and turn to Christ for salvation by believing that Jesus Christ’s death paid the penalty required for their sin, that He was buried, and that He rose from the dead triumphant forever over sin, Satan, and death. These two witnesses stand as those who proclaim that the true Lord of the earth is returning to claim and take back what is His.
John states that these two witnesses will prophesy for 1260 days, as I already said this is 3½ years. Is this the first half of the Tribulation or the second half? I believe God will raise up these two prophets in the first 3½ years to be a witness to the world. They will be prophesying as the temple is built, they will be prophesying as the sacrificial system begins again. Why do I believe that this is during the first half of the tribulation? I have several reasons, I will just give you two now and we will return to this question later in the text: (1) John uses two different numbers to describe 3½ years, first he speaks of 42 months in which the nations will tread under foot the holy city, but the 1260 days are the days in which the witnesses will prophesy, why the difference unless he was making a distinction between the two periods of the 7-year period. (2) If this period of the witnesses was during the second 3½ years, or what is called the Great Tribulation, then at the end of that time the Lord Jesus would return and set up His kingdom and destroy His enemies, but we have a lot happening after this passage where does that fit, unless the witnesses are in the first period and the days of the sounding of the seventh trumpet is the last 3½ years. These are the first two reasons that I believe the witnesses are prophesying during the first 3½ years of the tribulation.
These two witnesses will be clothed in sack-cloth a heavy, rough cloth worn in Bible times as a symbol of mourning, distress, grief, or humility. Their sack-cloth will show that they are humble servants of God, and that they are mourning for the unbelieving world, they also will be mourning the soon desecration of the temple, the oppression of Jerusalem, and the rise of Antichrist.
John tells us that their message of judgment will be punctuated with signs and plagues. First, they will be supernaturally protected by God. No one will be able to harm them or stop them from proclaiming their message until it has been fully delivered. There will be those who will be opposed to them and try to harm or kill them, but John says that if someone seeks to harm them fire flows from their mouths and devours their enemies, this is the way anyone will die who tries to harm or hurt them. This will be the first sign, they are supernaturally protected by God to carry out their task. Here we find another reason, I believe that this is the first 3½ years. In the middle of the seven-year covenant that the Antichrist has with Israel Daniel says that he (the Antichrist) will break his covenant with Israel, he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering, and he will set up an idol of himself in the temple and proclaim himself to be god. If the witnesses were still around, then he would have to kill them to do this in the temple and they would devour him with the fire flowing from their mouth. This is the third reason I believe the witnesses were prophesying during the first half of the tribulation.
John goes on to describe the signs and plagues that accompany these two prophets to verify their message of judgment. First, they will shut up the sky so that it will not rain for the 1260 days that they are prophesying. A drought like no other drought will take place on the earth for 3½ years which will mean the devastation of crops, livestock and even human life. Not only will they shut up the sky so that it does not rain, but they will have power over the remaining waters of the earth to turn them to blood, and to strike the earth with every plague, as often as they desire. Their message of warning of coming judgment will be punctuated with examples as they turn water into blood and bring other plagues on the earth, there will be no doubt that these prophets are from God as those that dwell on the earth are tormented by the plagues brought on by these witnesses. It will be like what was suffered by Pharaoh and the Egyptians in the days of Moses and Aaron when devastating plagues were brought upon the nation of Egypt until is lay in utter ruin when Moses and Aaron and the children of Israel marched out of the land of Egypt, God liberated them from the bondage of Egypt by breaking Egypt and destroying them. The plagues brought on the earth by these two witnesses will only be a preview of what is coming as the seventh trumpet is sounded and the bowls of God’s wrath are poured out upon the earth.
CONCLUSION:
I am going to stop here in the end of verse 6 this morning, I know that we will go way over time if I start the next paragraph of verses. It is a little short this morning, but I do not want to keep you way past twelve and that would be the case if we went on. We will finish up verses 7-11 next week.
What do we learn from these first six verses? First, we learn that God is not yet finished with the nation of Israel, they have a future in which their Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ will reign over them in Jerusalem. God always preserves for Himself a remnant of those who are faithful to Him, not only does He preserve them, but He will protect them and will show His special favor to them. We will see as we continue through the book of Revelation how God does this in the midst of His wrath being poured out on the earth.
Second, we see that God always leaves a witness on the earth. When Jesus Christ returns to take the church to be in heaven with Him before the tribulation begins, it will seem that there is not witness left on the earth, but God will seal the 144,000 Israelites who will act as a great missionary force in the world, but He will also raise up His two witnesses to warn the world of the coming judgment on sin and to proclaim forgiveness of sin through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Maybe you are here this morning and you have never experienced God’s forgiveness, maybe you have attended this church for a long time, but you have never agreed with God that you are a sinner in need of His forgiveness, you now realize that Jesus Christ is the only way that you can be forgiven and be made right with God. You believe that Jesus Christ died paying the penalty for your sin, that He was buried, and three days later rose from the dead proving that His death was the only payment acceptable for sin. You can do this in the quietness of your own heart, but do not keep your forgiveness a secret, share it with someone, share it with me, I would love to rejoice with you.
If you are a believer in Christ already, you have a responsibility to be sharing Jesus Christ and His love and grace with those around you. Salvation will happen during the Tribulation, but it will be much better to escape that time by going to heaven before it begins. Paul said that today is the day of salvation, we must share it with those around us.
[1]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. La Habra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[2]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. La Habra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995