Revelation 11:1-14

We are in-between the trumpet announcements of the 6^th and 7^th angels.  The references in this chapter to forty two months (11:2) and one thousand two hundred and sixty days (11:3) are 3½ years.  We believe this puts us in the last half of the seven year tribulation period, the time of great tribulation after the abomination of desolation spoken of by Jesus (Matt. 24:15,21).  There is a pause to reveal what else is happening as the terrible judgments have unfolded.

·        Rev. 11:1-14 reveals how God calls men to Himself during this time.

·        Rev. 12 gives special attention to Israel’s restoration.

·        Rev. 13 identifies the antichrist and his false prophet, the final enemies of Christ and the saints.

·        Rev. 14:1-13 speaks of the final preaching of the gospel.

·        Rev. 14:14-20 then brings us to the final judgment(s).

Today’s passage revolves around Jerusalem, the city called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified (11:8).  It is Sodom because of its extreme wickedness; it is Egypt because they have gone back to the unsatisfying life of bondage.  There is a temple for worship (v1) but the city is controlled by the Gentiles.  It is the time Jesus spoke of as the times of the Gentiles when Jerusalem would be trampled underfoot by the nations (Luke 21:24).

In the city are two witnesses for God who are protected (sealed) by God.  They have miraculous powers to deal with those who try to harm them.  Their most powerful testimony comes when the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit (perhaps Abaddon/Apollyon, a demonic being referred to in Rev. 9:11) kills them.  Everyone on earth is able to see their dead bodies and will rejoice.  But then they will also see as, after three and a half days, they are resurrected and ascend to heaven; then they will fear.

Who are these witnesses?  Some think Enoch and Elijah, or Elijah and Moses.  But in Zechariah 4 the prophet sees a similar vision of two lampstands and olive trees who are the anointed ones who stand beside the Lord of the whole earth (Zech. 4:14).  He seems to be speaking of the King and High Priest.  Perhaps these two witnesses who have a similar description (11:4) are the governmental (descendant of David) and priestly (descendant of Aaron) leaders of Israel.

What is even more amazing is the effect of their ministry.  By an earthquake a tenth of Jerusalem falls and seven thousand are killed.  But the rest (in Jerusalem, the Jews) were afraid and gave glory to the God of heaven (v13).  Could this be the one day spoken of by Zechariah (3:9; 12:10f) in which God would remove the iniquity of that land, enabling them by the Holy Spirit to know Christ?  It fits perfectly with the finishing of the mystery of God in this portion of Revelation.  And how fitting that the resurrection of these witnesses brings it about, reminiscent of the resurrection of the One they pierced!