Whoa, Woe: Daily Thoughts from Revelation (Revelation 11:1-14)

We are still looking at the seven trumpets that announce and send judgment on earth from God. Six of the seven have already sounded, the last three also being described as “woes” and the second woe (6th trumpet) taking up much description before the third woe or seventh trumpet is sounded.

Here, description of the second woe continues.

Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff, and I was told, “Rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there, but do not measure the court outside the temple; leave that out, for it is given over to the nations, and they will trample the holy city for forty-two months. And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 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 would harm them, fire pours from their mouth and consumes their foes. If anyone would harm them, this is how he is doomed to be killed. They have the power to shut the sky, that no rain may 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 kind of plague, as often as they desire. And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that rises from the bottomless pit will make war on them and conquer them and kill them, and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city that symbolically is called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified. For three and a half days some from the peoples and tribes and languages and nations will gaze at their dead bodies and refuse to let them be placed in a tomb, and those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and make merry and exchange presents, because these two prophets had been a torment to those who dwell on the earth. But after the three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood up on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them. Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here!” And they went up to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies watched them. And at 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 has passed; behold, the third woe is soon to come. (Revelation 11:1-14 ESV)

The measuring of the temple of Jerusalem (which has been rebuilt prior to this period) is a measurement for protection.  Whatever is left out of that measurement will suffer trampling by the nations (non-Jews, Gentiles).  The court outside the temple area in Jerusalem was a court where Gentiles would be allowed.  God will allow Gentiles to trample the holy city for three and a half years (42 months, 1260 days figuring on 30 day months, or the times-time-half a time measurement). This occurs at the breaking of the covenant with Israel by the man of lawlessness or the antichrist (Daniel 9, 2 Thessalonians 2, Revelation 13), the very covenant he originally established. It was a deceitful covenant.

The two witnesses are described as olive trees and lampstands like Zerubbabel, the political leader, and Joshua, the priestly leader, in the period after Israel’s return from exile mentioned in Zechariah 3&4.  Zerubbabel and Joshua were used by God then to help rebuild the temple. This is the temple that Herod renovated in Jesus’ day and that was destroyed in A.D. 70.

These two witnesses are protected by God for three and a half years, and are able to bring judgment on their foes, wielding power like Elijah and Moses.  But when God allows, the beast of the bottomless pit, identified in chapter 13 as the Satan-empowered leader who seeks world domination, will be able to kill them and all the world will rejoice.

They will lie in the streets of Jerusalem (depicted as immoral as Sodom or Egypt), but after three days God will resurrect them.  He will cause them to ascend to heaven while those who rejoiced over their deaths watch.  Then He will send an earthquake that devastates a tenth of the city of Jerusalem and kills 7,000 people.  The survivors will give God glory for this.

In all this “second woe” we see that God continues to give a witness to the world for any who would repent.  The 144,000 Israelites are likely part of this witness, and these two witnesses may be two from that number.  God gives unbelievers every chance to come to Him.