The Two Witnesses

Revelation 11:1-14

Immanuel – 5/8/22

The Israel that trusted in bloodlines and animal sacrifices and priests – rather than God – had become idolaters. They traded Immanuel for a house made of stone. So God has made their house desolate. Old and New Testaments testify to this. And in fulfillment of all Scripture, the Days of Vengeance came upon that very generation.

Since Revelation 6, we have been reading about the Days of Vengeance. But the rhythm of doom was interrupted twice by two interludes of salvation. In the first interlude of salvation the elect were signed and sealed, and shown worshiping God in victory – this just before the seventh seal was broken.

The second interlude of salvation is just before the seventh and final trumpet is sounded. To be more precise, the interlude comes in the middle of the sixth trumpet. We have heard the sixth trumpet begin to sound, but it has not yet finished; and right in the middle of the sixth trumpet is the interlude of salvation.

Today we begin within this same interlude of salvation; and by the end of the passage, the sound of the sixth trumpet will complete.

And it will be incredibly important for us today to remember that the book of Revelation is a particular literary style called apocalyptic. It is filled with complex prophesies, vivid symbolism, hyperbole, and layers of Old Testament images. Chapter 11 has some of the most complex apocalyptic layering and symbolism in all of Revelation.

You will need to pay close attention if you really want to understand what is going on in this chapter. I know it is going to be difficult. But remember, we are considering the very words of God: words that proceed from the most complex intellect in existence. May we submit our minds and hearts to Him today.

Purpose

Open the incredibly complex symbolism of chapter 11.

Read Revelation 11:1-14

Measure

Even though we have come to a new chapter, there is no real separation from chapter 10. When John is given a measuring rod and told to measure, it is coming from the same person that gave him a scroll to eat and a command to prophesy among the nations. The Mighty Angel, the Living Covenant, Jesus Christ, continues to speak.

And do you see that John is told to measure three things?

The temple 2. The altar 3. The people who worship

You might be tempted to think that John is told to measure the temple on earth. But remember, John has been inside of the heavenly temple for this whole vision; from the very moment he heard the words, “Come up here,” right at the beginning of chapter 4.

John was before the throne of God and the cherubim, for which the Holy of Holies is a symbol. There was a lampstand of churches and an altar of incense lifting the prayers of the saints. John also measures the altar of sacrifice, on which the blood of the martyrs has been poured. All these things are physical objects that point towards new covenant realities.

Thus the place of God’s true presence, and the place of true sacrifices offered, are to be measured. And the people of God, have we not seen them portrayed as great, uncountable multitude in chapter 7? There they rejoiced in glorious worshipped.

Ezekiel is a great help at this point. In Ezekiel chapters 40-43, just after God promises a new covenant, Ezekiel sees a vision of an angelic man measuring the temple of God. But all the measurements that are made are idealized, and thus symbolic.

What must be realized is the temple in Ezekiel and the temple in Revelation are pointing toward the spiritual realities of the new covenant – realities that John had formerly written about:

To Him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by His blood and made us a kingdom, priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. -Revelation 1:5-6

In that verse the Father is the true Holy of Holies, the Son has become the sacrifice once for all, and the elect are a kingdom of priests unto God. Are these not the three things John measured: the temple, the altar, and those who worshipped?

John, therefore, is told to measure the spiritual and heavenly temple, a temple that will come into full view at the blowing of the seventh trumpet. These are the realizations of the new covenant.

But what is the purpose of the measuring John is commanded to perform? This is an interlude of salvation. John measures the people of God to preserve them from destruction.

The same thing that happened in the last interlude of salvation. The people of God are measured, and given a symbolic number that represents the full and complete gathering of the elect: 144,000. They are signed and sealed to preserve them from the coming destruction.

The masterful artistry of Revelation, the layers, the weaving of Scripture, the powerful patterns and symmetry: is not our God gloriously wise, an intellect above all others! And we are only able to catch such a small glimpse of it, yet what a glimpse He gives us in His word!

The temple, the altar, and the elect are measured by John to distinguish their spiritual realities as true, as pure, as holy, as eternal. Though judgement and destruction are coming, these three will endure into eternity: The Ancient of Days, the Lamb who was slain, and the glorious kingdom of priests. Here is found the true Israel of God, the temple where the Spirit dwells, the new covenant reality to which the old covenant always pointed.

But John was not permitted to measure everything.

Read vs 2

Once again, we are confronted with profound layering.

Gentile Trampling

The court outside of the temple had a name, every Jew would have known that name: The Court of the Gentiles. Jesus tells John not to measure this court, or as we read it in verse 2, leave that out. The Greek word is “ekballo.” It is also translated as “cast out” or “drive out.”

This same word is used another time; and it links Jesus, judgement, and the Court of the Gentiles.

And [Jesus] entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and He overturned the tables of the money-changers…saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.” -Mark 11:15,17

The Jews had turned the Court of the Gentiles into a shopping mall. Where God had intended the nations to come and worship, the Jews had transformed into a place of profit.

In Revelation, this Court of Gentiles that the Jews had commandeered for their own greed, is now entirely given over to the Gentiles – this time not for worship, but for destruction. As Jesus said:

“When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has come near…for these are the days of vengeance, to fulfill all that is written…Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.”

-Luke 21:20,22,24

The very place that the Jews had trampled underfoot, denying international worship, was given to the Gentiles to trample underfoot – judgement for covenantal disobedience. And in 70 AD, the Romans, and their many Gentile allies, broke into the Court of the Gentiles and brought utter desolation.

But that was the climax of a longer war: a war that began in 66 AD, about 3.5 years earlier. For 3.5 years the Gentiles reaped destruction upon the Promised Land and Jerusalem. Hundreds of thousands of Jews were slaughtered. More were taken as slaves.

Though there is a corresponding 3.5-year period where Gentiles bring judgement to Jerusalem, that is less important than understanding Revelation’s symbolism.

3.5 years is the same amount as 42 months. It is the same amount as 1,260 days. It is a period of time meant to illicit a whole flurry of Biblical references. There were 3.5 years of drought in Elijah’s day (James 5:17). Daniel prophesied that the Greeks would defile the temple for 3.5 years (Daniel 7:25). Jesus’ earthly ministry lasted 3.5 years, at the end of which He was shamed and killed.

3.5 years is a broken 7. Where seven is symbolic of perfection, completion, wholeness; 3.5 is symbolic of the triumph of the wicked. But it is a short and temporary period. The wicked appear victorious only for a moment, but God always reveals His definitive victory and mighty power in the end.

That’s what we see in Revelation. Though the wicked appear victorious, it is only for a short while. God will always prove victorious! And in Revelation, when God reveals His victory, it is through the new covenant and the full establishment of His kingdom!

Again, 3.5 year is the same as 1,260 days, which we see in verse 3.

Read vs 3-4

Two Witnesses

Who are these two witnesses? There are some characteristics that will help us identify them. First, they are clothed in sackcloth. Wherever we see that used in Scripture it is a symbol of woe and deep repentance.

In fact, if you remember our context in Revelation, we are in the middle of three woes declared upon Apostate Israel. Therefore, the two witnesses testify to the Jews need to repent, or face covenantal woe.

Every one of the 1,260 days of judgement is meant to be a blazing reminder of Israel’s history. After all this time, should they not realize that God was judging them? And had not God proven again and again, that if His people humbled themselves, and pray and seek His face and turn from their wicked ways, then He would hear from heaven and forgive their sin and heal their land (2 Chronicles 7:14)?

But these were not God’s people. The testimony of the two witnesses are proof of this – evidence leading to condemnation.

In verse 4, the two witnesses are identified as two lampstands and two olive trees. This is a reference from a vision God gives Zechariah. Zachariah says,

I see, and behold, a lampstand of all gold, with a bowl on the top of it, and seven lamps on it…and there are two olive trees by it, one on the right of the bowl and the other on its left. -Zechariah 4:2,3

Zechariah is then told that the lampstand is a symbol of Joshua, the priest, and the olive trees are a symbol of Zerubbabel, the king. Of these two, God says:

“These are the two anointed ones, who stand by the Lord of the whole earth.”

-Zechariah 4:14

The God of all the earth, with an anointed king and priest. There is something much bigger here – something symbolic is happening. To understand that we must go back to Mount Sinai, and the beginning of God’s covenant with Israel.

“If you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” -Exodus 19:5-6

For the second time, the symbolism of chapter 11 is pointing towards the new covenant glory written of in chapter 1.

To Him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by His blood and made us a kingdom, priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. -Revelation 1:5-6

God made covenant with Israel to create a kingdom of priests unto the nations. It was never about the Jews only. God’s plan was to extend the covenant to the nations through the Jews. But the Jews continually made it about themselves, in the same sort of way that we all continually bend everything towards selfish ends. Sinful man could not meet the terms of the covenant.

So God had a plan, for the fullness of time, to send His Son, the God-Man, to perfectly fulfill every word of the law and every covenantal expectation. And with His last breath, Jesus said, “It is finished” (John 19”30). Jesus did what no sinner could do. The old covenant was perfectly fulfilled in Christ. He has become the new covenant.

Jesus [is] the guarantor of a better covenant. -Hebrew 7:22

[Christ] came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to you who were near. For through Him [Jews and Gentiles] both have access to in one Spirit to the Father. So then, you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being our cornerstone. -Ephesians 2:17-20

Do you see, Jesus is the new and living covenant. Through Him a kingdom of priests is made of both Jews and Gentiles. All are welcome so long as they turn from their selfish ways and believe in Christ!

But, we have still not answered the question: who are the two witnesses? For more clues, let us continue reading.

Read vs 5-6

These two witnesses seem to have the power of Moses and Elijah. Both Moses and Elijah had their enemies consumed by heavenly fire. Elijah shut the sky, for 3.5 years, and brought a drought upon his enemies. Moses commanded the waters of Egypt to turn to blood.

Moses and Elijah were such powerful and prominent figures in the old covenant that they themselves became symbols. Moses symbolized the law of God. Elijah symbolized the prophetic words of God. The Bible often refers to the entire witness of Scripture as the Law and the Prophets. Moses and Elijah are symbols of all of God’s word, as revealed in the Old Covenant.

We are now ready to identify the two witnesses. They are not Joshua and Zerubbabel, nor are they Moses and Elijah. These are all symbols – symbols of a kingdom of priests as revealed in the Law and the Prophets – as foreshadowed in the Old Covenant. They always testified to a greater reality.

In other words, the two witnesses are symbols of whole prophetic witness of Scripture: a witness fulfilled in Christ. Through Him the old covenant mysteries have been revealed. Or as John is told later in Revelation,

The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. -Revelation 19:10

The two witnesses have to prophesy, and Jesus is the final prophetic fulfillment. To reject Christ is to reject all the prophetic words that pointed to Him. There is no longer any excuse.

But Apostate Israel wasn’t making excuses. They were resorting what they had so often resorted to: murder. They murdered the prophets. They murdered their Messiah. They were murdering His followers. And all that innocent blood, and all those prophetic calls to repent and believe, had stacked up against that wicked generation. For the Messiah Himself had said:

“I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town, so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on [the land], from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. Truly I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.” -Matthew 23:34-36

The people of God who lived in covenant faithfulness – who were persecuted and martyred – were a testimony against those who lived in covenant unfaithfulness.

But why, you may ask, does the Mighty Angel of Revelation call only for two witnesses? Why personify the whole testimony of Scripture as two witnesses? Because in calling for two witnesses, God was demonstrating His covenant faithfulness, even as Israel broke covenant.

“If there is found among you, within any of your towns that the Lord your God is giving you, a man or woman who does what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God, in transgressing his covenant…you shall stone that man or woman to death…On the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses the one who is to die shall be put to death.” -Deuteronomy 17:2,5,6

God’s wrath was not being poured out arbitrarily! All Scripture, the Law and the Prophets, stood as two symbolic witnesses, testifying against first century Israel. They were supremely guilty and deserved death. They had taken their role as a kingdom of priests unto the nations, and turned it into an abominable means of self-righteousness. Now God has brought the nations against them; His hammer of judgement.

The two witnesses in Revelation are symbols of the whole prophetic witness against Israel. They symbolically speak their testimony before Apostate Israel is sentenced to death. What woe!

Read vs 7-8

A Rising Beast

Verse 7 begins with, when they have finished their testimony. The witnesses have spoken and no power on heaven or earth was able to stop them. The enemies of God are condemned.

And then emerged another terrible enemy of God that gets mixed into this whole apocalyptic mess.

Here is the first mention of Revelation’s infamous beast. No matter how you read Revelation, everyone understands the beast as a symbol. This is the same beast that appears in Daniel.

In Daniel chapter 7, Daniel receives a vision of four beasts. Each one of these four beasts represents a kingdom. The first beast is Babylon, the second is Medio-Persia, and the third is Greece. But the fourth beast was more mysterious and more terrible than all the rest. Daniel records:

I desired to know the truth about the fourth beast, which was different from all the rest, exceedingly terrifying, with its teeth of iron and claws of bronze, and which devoured and broke in pieces and stamped what was left with its feet. -Daniel 7:19

This beast is Rome. It has devoured every empire before it, breaking them into pieces. And Revelation 11:7 says that the beast of Rome had come from the abyss. Satan was Rome’s real Caesar. Remember what happened when the second woe began, the same woe we are still in the middle of?

An army – driven by demons – had come to destroy Jerusalem. That army was Rome. The beast from the abyss is Rome. The exceedingly terrible beast of Daniel 7 is Rome. And its many boots that stamp all that is left, have come to trample underfoot that once holy city. The Roman armies deliver the second woe to Jerusalem.

But a few years earlier, almost imperceptibly, a greater kingdom emerged under the Roman nose. The Messiah had appeared and inaugurated the kingdom of God. For as the fourth beast devours, the kingdom of God was prophesied to emerge.

As I looked, this horn [of the beast] made war with the saints and prevailed over them, until the Ancient of Days came, and judgement was given for the saints of the Most High, and the time came when the saints possessed the kingdom. -Daniel 7:21-22

Is that not incredibly similar to Revelation 11:7? The beast makes war with the saints, or with the two witnesses, and the beast prevails over them, killing them. The saints are the true heralds of the Law and the Prophets, and they preach Christ crucified and risen.

The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. -Revelation 19:10

And here we can see that the two witness speak not only against Apostate Jerusalem, but also against the beast that is Rome. For Rome would have them worship their King as a god, but the elect will not bow their knee.

You see, even the testimony of the church is wrapped into the symbolism of the two witnesses. Peter – the apostle to the Jews, and Paul – the apostle to the Gentiles, were both persecuted by the Jews and were both killed by Rome. Not only them, but Apostate Jerusalem and beastly Rome were first in making war against Christians. They delighted in their state sanctioned persecutions and killings of these Jesus followers.

You’ll hear much more about this as we get into the third and final part of Revelation, beginning in chapter 12.

Though they were allied in persecuting the saints, Rome and Jerusalem were pitted against one another. The Jews had revolted, Rome had responded, and as we saw earlier, in 66 AD the Jewish Wars began.

By 70 AD, Rome had surrounded Jerusalem. They had come to the source of all these troubles; to bring an end to this city and the pathetic God worshipped there. But how foolish was this beast! Rome had not arrived at the house of God. They have come to Sodom and Egypt.

What has been inference for four chapters is now explicitly stated in 11:8. Jerusalem, where Jesus was crucified, was cursed as Sodom and Egypt. Yahweh is not worshipped there, but false gods made with human hands – gods of religion and self-righteousness. This was a doomed and pagan city.

In Revelation we have read about water turned to blood, plagues of darkness, demonic locust, famine and death, hail and fire and brimstone. All of these were divine judgements that God rained upon Sodom and Egypt. And all of these were given to Israel as covenant curses.

For Jerusalem has stumbled, and Judah has fallen, because their speech and their deeds are against the Lord, defying His glorious presence. For the look on their faces bears witness against them; they proclaim their sin like Sodom; they do not hide it. Woe to them! For they have brought evil on themselves. -Isaiah 3:8-9

Do you see how Scripture testifies against first century Jerusalem?

Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened, as it is written, “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear, down to this very day.” -Romans 11:7-8

Read vs 9-10

In history, and in Scripture, it is a humiliation for a person’s body not to be buried. In fact, Jewish law prevented this from happening. But the symbolic bodies of the two witnesses are exposed for 3.5 days. Again, a period of time where it appears that the wicked have triumphed. But it is a short time.

Rome brought out the family, they partied with friends, as Christians were thrown in theatres and torn apart by wild beasts. Jerusalem smugly mocked through their relentless persecution of Jesus followers. All thought they were bringing an end to prophetic witness of Jesus Christ. Symbolically speaking, they rejoiced over the dead bodies of the two witnesses.

Read vs 11-12

Victory

Again the symbolic number of 3.5 – the broken 7. It is a time where the enemies of God appear to have victory, but it is a short time after which God shows who is truly victorious.

And what is the victory being symbolized in these two verses? It is tying up the very many threads woven into chapter 11. Remember, the two witness symbolize the whole prophetic witness – of Scripture, of the gospel of Jesus Christ. What appeared to be dead will conquer the world!

They proclaim the gospel of Jesus, the fulfilment of the Law and Prophets, the new and living covenant.

And this gospel has disarmed the enemies of God and put them to open shame.

Follow me in this. The prophetic authority of Scripture comes from God. Where does God dwell in Revelation? Not in a temple of stone, but in a spiritual temple. The elect also dwell in the same spiritual temple. The whole testimony of Scripture is therefore found in the mouths and the hearts of the elect, of those who belong to God, of those in which the Spirit of God dwells.

Through resurrection the two prophetic witnesses, the lampstands and olive trees, a king and a priest, have now become a kingdom of priests unto God. They are the spiritual dwelling place of God. They are Jew and Gentile. The old and new covenants are their possessions. By their union to Christ, the elect are what was originally measured in this chapter: the temple, the altar, and the people.

You yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

-1 Peter 2:5

There you see it: the temple, the altar, and the people. The elect of God have become all of these things in Christ. He is our refuge, our sacrifice, and our door into God’s family. This is the new covenant.

As the two symbolic witnesses are raised and ascend into heaven, they symbolize Christ and His church.

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God…For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. -Colossians 3:1,3

Even when we were dead in our trespasses, [God] made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved – and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. -Ephesians 2:5-6

This is the fulness of the deeply layered symbolism: the two witnesses are the whole prophetic testimony of Scripture. And the two witness are the people of God – those that have hoped in the new covenant and those that have received it.

And when all of this is realized in spiritual realities, rather than earthly temples and altars and bloodlines, then those corrupted things in Jerusalem have forever ended.

Read vs 13

After chapters of building, and so much woeful anticipation, the end of Jerusalem comes like a passing shadow. A tenth of the city falls. You know how much of the city of Jerusalem the temple complex occupied? A tenth. This is a symbolic way of saying the temple is destroyed.

And the 7,000 that died? This is a reversal of the 7,000 faithful in Elijah’s day. Elijah once feared that he was the last one who followed God; but God comforted him by revealing a remnant of 7,000 faithful ones. It was a symbolic number then, and it is a symbolic number here.

Instead of a faithful remnant, these are the wicked and doomed ones that have survived all previous seals and trumpets and woes. The last holdout. They are like the Texans, and the temple is their Alamo. The Romans rumble in like an era ending earthquake, and all is fallen. Jerusalem is like Sodom, like Egypt; and has become just as much a desolation. Like a passing shadow, Jerusalem vanishes away.

In speaking of a new covenant, He makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away. -Hebrews 8:13

Read vs 14

The sixth trumpet began with a demonic Roman army laying siege on Jerusalem. It ends with the destruction of the temple. It was the second woe.

As we will see next week, with the third woe and the seventh trumpet, the new temple and the new kingdom and the new covenant come streaming down upon the earth.