Revelation 11:1-14 – It Pays to Increase Your Word Power

This passage begins with an echo of Ezekiel 40-42, when the prophet observes someone measuring the temple. Not the “real” temple in Jerusalem, but God’s ideal temple that it was based on. I won’t take the time to look at why Ezekiel saw the temple being measured, but the purpose for John measuring the temple is pretty clear here: it’s not to fit the temple with new curtains, but for its preservation and protection. This protection isn’t just for the building itself, but for the people in it. It’s an action very similar to what happen in Revelation 7:3, when God marked his people with a seal of protection before the trumpets sounded. The outer court of the temple isn’t included in the protection. It may be that it’s because this was the court of the Gentiles: people who didn’t really belong to begin with. Or, it may represent people on the fringes of faith: those whose names are on the roles but don’t really know Jesus. Or people who think they’re Christian because they come from a Christian family. That’s not good enough.

The reason for the protection is clear in the rest of this passage: the “Gentiles” (for Jews, the same thing as “the nations”) or the godless people, will rise up against God, his temple, his people, and his message. But God offers sanctuary in his sanctuary. John was told (we don’t know by whom) that these forces of opposition to God would run rampant for 42 months. That’s three and a half years, by the way. In a book such as Revelation, where numbers carry symbolic importance, three and a half years means more than that particular span of time. It’s half of 7, which is the perfect or divine number. So this is part of, or half of, God’s plan. It may look like the enemies are in control, but they’re not. First of all, God has marked a limit to how far they can go. And second, their time of power is part of God’s bigger plan.

Then, after God’s enemies have had their time to destroy and cause harm, God brings in two witnesses. They do their work for 1,260 days. If you get out your calculator, you’ll see that 1260 days = 42 months = 3 ½ years. So the perfect time of seven years is divided in half. Think of it as a courtroom trial. First the prosecution has a chance to present its case, then the defense has a turn. Or, think of Presidential debates, where the moderator works hard to ensure that everyone gets equal time. The work of the destroyers and desecrators is limited. They can’t get to the sanctuary where the numbered worshipers are. (Being counted means being protected. That’s what Jesus meant about the hairs of head being counted by God.)

These two witnesses are interesting for several reasons. First, of course, is the incredible powers that they have to breathe fire and to cause drought, and then of course is their resuscitation after being killed. But the identity of exactly who (or what!) these witnesses are is where it gets really interesting, and where their powers give us some understanding.

The witnesses were dressed in sackcloth, the traditional clothing for mourning and lamentation. They came with a message of woe and doom. They were mourning because of all the bad stuff that was going to happen. No wonder the people didn’t like them! Their association with olive trees and lampstands is also instructive. First, it brings to mind Zechariah 4, where God shows the prophet a lampstand with two olive trees. He’s told that they are “the two who are anointed to serve the Lord,” and that they declare God’s power and blessing. OK, maybe that’s not as helpful as we’d like. But they can point us in the right direction. We’ve already seen some lampstands in Revelation, which indicated God’s presence. And olive trees are a sign of life and prosperity. So, despite the sackcloth and the negative response of the people, these witnesses are good and positive.

So who exactly are the witnesses? There are bunch of possible answers to that question. And, since this is symbolic language, the real answer may be “all of the above.” The first theory about the two witnesses is that they are Enoch and Elijah: the two people in the Old Testament who were taken into heaven without dying (Genesis 5:21-24 and 2 Kings 2:11-12). The problem with this is that these two men have very little in common with each other apart from that, and Enoch is (at least for us) a pretty obscure figure. (By the way, the Roman Catholics believe that the same thing happened to Mary; they call it the Assumption. But we don’t find any hint of it in Scripture, which is why Protestants don’t share this belief.) The second theory is based on the description of the witnesses with images from Zechariah: they are Joshua and Zerubbabel, the high priest and the king in Zechariah’s time that he spoke well of. This could direct our attention to Jesus, who is our high priest and king. The fact that the witnesses were killed by their enemies but came to life after three and a half days sounds pretty similar to what happened to Jesus. The third idea, which is the one that I like the best, is that the two witnesses are Moses and Elijah. Elijah was given the power to cause a three year drought. Moses was given the power to bring plagues upon Egypt, like turning water to blood. As for the fire of destruction, we find both of those in the lives of Moses (Numbers 11:1-3 and Numbers 16:35) and of Elijah (1 Kings 18:38). And what’s so significant about Moses and Elijah? Well, Moses is known as the law-giver, and Elijah is the greatest of the Old Testament prophets (even though we don’t have a book of the Bible named after him). The law and the prophets is the full sum of the Old Testament, and is often how the Hebrew Bible is referred to (Matthew 5:17, Matthew 7:12, Matthew 22:40, Luke 16:16. Romans 3:21, and so on). Perhaps the most powerful reference is John 1:45, written by the same John who recorded this Revelation. After Philip met Jesus, he went to his friend Nathanael and told him, "We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth.” And that’s the whole point: the law and the prophets witness to Jesus. So these two witnesses are the law and the prophets, witnessing and testifying to Jesus. And why do we need two witnesses, instead of just one? Simple: the Old Testament law required the testimony of two witnesses in order for anything to be accepted or judged to be true (Deuteronomy 17:6).

So the two witnesses are the testimony of Scripture to the identity and authority of Jesus Christ. It’s a powerful witness: one that can destroy its opposition. At the same time, however, we need to avoid the danger of “Bible-idolatry.” The Bible is a reliable and authoritative witness to Jesus Christ, but it’s not the center of our faith. I always feel uncomfortable when someone describes themselves as a “Bible-believing” Christian. I suspect what they mean is that they believe the witness of the Bible, and that’s great. But when we elevate the Bible to the point where it is what matters the most to us, then we’ve replaced our Lord with the thing that testifies to him. It’s always important to remember that the only reason the Bible matters is because of the way that it connects us to God.

The power of the witnesses’ testimony only lasts so long. The power of evil (introduced for the first time here in Revelation), embodied in the beast that rises up out of the Abyss (the same one that the locust army came from) attacks and kills them. Satan does his best to destroy the power of God’s word. And this is something that we find echoed throughout history. A few centuries before the time of Christ, Antiochus Epiphanes burned the Jewish Torah scrolls. Hitler burned Bibles. When Romania was under Communist rule, there were two items of contraband that they looked for at the borders: pornography and Bibles. Evil does its best to shut up the testimony of Scripture.

For a limited period of time, God’s enemies appeared to have won. They gloated and celebrated their apparent victory. Leaving bodies unburied is a form of disgrace. And it’s one that our nation has grieved to see a couple times in the past. After the “Blackhawk Down” tragedy in Mogadishu, we were outraged to see the bodies of the fallen Marines dragged through the streets. And when the Blackwater contracted security guards were killed in Fallujah, the insurgents strung their bodies up on a bridge to belittle them.

However, their celebration was short-lived. In a clear echo of Easter, God brought life back to the slain witnesses. And like the Ascension, he brought them up into heaven. The earthquake may be a reminder of the earthquake that Matthew tells us about at the crucifixion and resurrection.

Telling the truth with get you in trouble, and God’s enemies will try to shut you down. But in the end, God protects and vindicates his own. Are you doing your best to be a witness testifying to God? If so, not all of the problems you’re facing are simply a clash of personalities or bad luck. Evil may be attacking you as well. And for a while, they may appear to win. But God has the final victory.