0908 THE TWO WITNESSES

SEPTEMBER 8 = REVELATION 11

THE TWO WITNESSES

This chapter may be the most difficult one to interpret, as it includes several details that are uncomfortable and are not a part of our normal experiences. Lots of symbolism adds to the abstractions, as well.

John is told to measure the temple and the altar, with its worshipers. 

“But exclude the outer court; do not measure it, because it has been given to the Gentiles. They will trample on the holy city for 42 months.”

The outer court had always been open to Gentiles. So what does it mean that it has been given to them? And what does it mean that they will trample on the holy city? And why 42 months? 

Let’s go in reverse order: Remember how 7 is a number for completeness, a number of perfection? Seven years would be 84 months. So 42 months is half of completeness. John could have just written the number of years as 3 ½. But when we are living it, one month at a time, 42 months seems longer. So it seems like a long time, but it is an incomplete time.

What does it mean that they will trample the holy city, even though it is a long-but-incomplete time? If Revelation was written in the year 96, it was some 26 years after the fall of Jerusalem at the hands of Rome. Romans had laid siege to the city, had torn down the temple completely, had forced all Jews to leave, and had renamed the city Capitolina and the country they had renamed Palestine (taken from the word Philistine, to remove any Jewish ownership of the entire region). In short, the Romans hated the Jews. And for the time being, these Gentiles had been trampling the city for a long time. But it was not a “complete” amount of time! 

So God had allowed these pagans to have the land. You might say it had been given to them by God, in the sense that he had not stopped them in their conquest.

John was a Jew, writing to a largely Jewish readership. But in this context, he is not really talking about Jews and Gentiles, but about believers and unbelievers. And he’s not really talking about Jerusalem, but about the world system, which we are still living in, by the way. The world is being trampled by unbelievers. But it won’t be this way forever.

That was the topic of the first two verses. Then the attention shifts to two people, whom John calls “witnesses.” John says about them,

“And I will appoint my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.””

At the mouth of two or three witnesses every matter should be established. It’s found multiple times in the Bible. These two are enough to provide a majority opinion for God on earth, you might say. In any case, they prophesy for 1260 days. Guess how long that is? Three and a half years (based on Jewish calendar with 30-day months). These two might be Elijah and John the Baptist. They might be the Old and New Testaments. They might be random unnamed witnesses. 

Remember that John is writing to the persecuted church, to tell them to hang on and be faithful unto death. But these witnesses are not like the persecuted church. They are the conquerors, the aggressors, the ones who are here to carry out God’s judgment on the earth, but in the form of two humans. So they punish, they prophesy, and in the end, they are overpowered and killed. 

Their bodies lie in the public square of Jerusalem, which is called the great city, Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified. These names signify the faithlessness of the city that once had been the center of spiritual life for all Jews.

Their bodies lie there for 3 ½ days. Sort of like Jesus in the grave. But more significantly, it is half of a complete week, which happens to be 7 days. Then they are resurrected and called up to heaven.

Then, just to put a bow on it, there is a severe earthquake in the city, which destroys 1/10th of the city and 7000 people are killed (at least they weren’t Jewish!). And those who survived are terrified and give glory to God! Talk about a change in heart, compared to what those who refused to repent were doing just a couple of chapters ago.

All of that was the second woe.

And once again, as with the seventh seal, so with the seventh trumpet, all of heaven sings God’s praises. It is awesome, in the truest sense of the word, and God is glorified.

So, maybe the interpretation of the second woe is not so difficult, after all.

After all, sometimes evil wins. For a brief season, one that seems longer than it is. And sometimes God wins. For a brief season, which seems even shorter than it is. And then, those who belong to him are called up and they finally have victory. Amen.