Study No. 11 – Measuring the Temple and the ministry of Two Witnesses.
Revelation Chapter 11:1-15
Some important review points:
So here is where we begin in this study:
Re 10:5 And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven,
6 And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer:
7 but in the days of the sounding of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, the mystery of God would be finished, as He declared to His servants the prophets.
Notice three things here:
However, the author of the Revelation, Jesus, wants to show us something else before he describes the events surrounding the blowing of the seventh trumpet.
So we are now taken back to just before the mid-point of the tribulation.
John has been seeing many visions so far in our study of the book of Revelation. And, mostly he has just looked. In the last chapter he was included in a vision. He was told to go up an angel and take the book of his hand and eat it.
Here once again, John is told to do something. Take a measuring rod and measure the temple.
Rev 11:1-2
I wonder what was going through John’s mind at this point?
(“What? Why do I have to do this now? Why don't I get to know about the seventh trumpet? Why do I have to wait? .... Measure what? The temple? The Romans destroyed it, its not there anymore. But what's this? Wow .. there IS a temple!”)
Twenty five years earlier the Romans had destroyed Jerusalem and the temple. Jesus predicted in Matthew 24 that not one stone would be left standing upon another that would not be thrown down. And that happened in 70 AD.
So what temple is it that John is told to measure?
Answer: It would have to be a future temple.
Has the temple ever been rebuilt since 70 AD? No, it hasn’t. But Jesus said in Matthew 24 that in the end time someone would place the abomination of desolation in the temple. Paul said in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 that ‘the man of sin’ would sit in it and claim to be God. So this ‘future’ temple is what we call ‘the Tribulation Temple’. This is not to be confused with the Millennial Temple. There are many old Testament prophecies regarding the millennial temple. All of those references imply that it is a holy temple built by and for the Lord and will be used throughout the millennium.
The temple John measures is a tribulation temple.
Why is he told to measure it and what is the significance?
Our attention is drawn to some key phrases:
- Measure the temple, altar AND those who worship there.
- Do not measure the outer court … an area that Gentiles were permitted to use.
What we see here is God drawing our attention to some purely Jewish individuals. God sees their worship. This is very similar to what we read about in Acts. Only there it is the reverse. There Cornelius, the gentile, had been praying. God saw it and responded by sending Peter there to tell him words of salvation. It was a good thing that Cornelius was praying. But it was not enough. He needed to understand the gospel of Jesus Christ and be saved.
Here in Revelation we have a group of Jews worshipping at an altar. I will add an opinion of my own here; I think that they are excited Jews. For over two thousand years they have had no temple. The temple was the only permitted place to offer blood sacrifices. They have been deprived of that. If my understanding of Daniel is correct, the anti-christ … the false messiah will appear to the Jews (they will at first not see him as false) and he will make it possible for them to have a temple. The Jews will see it as the millennial temple. They will be thinking of the many Old Testament prophecies regarding the millennial temple. I think they are excited Jews.
But John is asked to do some measuring. Why? Throughout the bible this action symbolised a ‘marking off’. Measuring and area to mark it off for something special. Sometimes areas were measured and marked off for destruction. Sometimes God had an area marked off to indicate possession or ownership. That seems to be the case here.
Zec 13:7 ¶ "Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, Against the Man who is My Companion," Says the LORD of hosts. "Strike the Shepherd, And the sheep will be scattered; Then I will turn My hand against the little ones.
8 And it shall come to pass in all the land," Says the LORD, "That two-thirds in it shall be cut off and die, But one- third shall be left in it:
9 I will bring the one-third through the fire, Will refine them as silver is refined, And test them as gold is tested. They will call on My name, And I will answer them. I will say, ‘This is My people’; And each one will say, ‘The LORD is my God.’"
John is asked to mark off this group. One third of Jews are being marked off … for protection. Why? Because they are the ones who caught God’s eye. They were worshiping. They are not Christians. But they are far more than just an ethnic Jew. They are serious God seekers.
They are in a temple that is about to be desecrated by the antichrist. They are about to be shocked. They are about to find out … this man is not Christ after all.
Jesus spoke about this:
Mt 24:15 "Therefore when you see the ‘abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place" (whoever reads, let him understand),
16 "then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.
17 "Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house.
18 "And let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes.
19 "But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days!
20 "And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath.
21 "For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be.
We turn our attention to the ministry of the two witnesses. Who are they? We are not told, but there are hints.
Verses 3-14
Their ministry lasts for 3 ½ years, which means they start their ministry about the time the third or fourth seal is opened and it continues right to the opening of the sixth seal and even beyond that … right up to the opening of seventh seal.
Quite a bit of attention is given to their ministry.
ii. They bring judgments from God onto the earth – again, much like Moses but in a much larger way. The judgments they bring sound very much like the judgments that take place when each angel sounds a trumpet. My guess is that these judgments are one and the same as the ones mentioned at the sounding of the trumpets.
[1] Jude 1:9 Yet Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil, when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, "The Lord rebuke you!"
Revelation Chapter 11:1-15
Some important review points:
- John, having been somehow transported up to heaven, has been given the privilege and responsibility of seeing future events and then recording them in the book we call The Revelation.
- The future events agree with Daniel’s account of a future seven year period of events (called Daniel’s seventieth week) which marks the end of man’s rule on this earth and the beginning of the rule of Jesus for a thousand years on earth.
- The seven year future period is often simply called ‘the Tribulation’.
- So far John has seen a scroll, sealed with seven seals, about to be revealed by Jesus. As each successive seal is broken, and the scroll is unrolled up to the next point (or seal). Each time John has seen a vision of something happening on earth.
- John has also seen angels coming forward and blowing trumpets. Each time a trumpet is sounded; John sees events happening on earth. The difference between these events and those mentioned as each seal of the scroll is opened is this: The scroll simply records events happening in earth - while the trumpets reveal events that God is causing to happen on the earth during the same time that the other events are taking place
- John tells us about other sets of events that begin to happen at some point in the tribulation but he gives them to us separately from the seals and trumpets because they start at some point in the tribulation but they span right through a number of the seals, continuing even right to the end of the tribulation. One of these events which span through the opening of several seals and the sounding of several trumpets is the sealing of the 144,000 Israelites.
- In a past study we read that trumpets number 5,6, and 7 were more severe that the first four. In fact they are called ‘Woes’.
So here is where we begin in this study:
Re 10:5 And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven,
6 And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer:
7 but in the days of the sounding of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, the mystery of God would be finished, as He declared to His servants the prophets.
Notice three things here:
- the Angel points attention to the sounding of the seventh trumpet.
- In the following verses, actually not until chapter 11:15 … the seventh trumpet still hasn’t sounded.
- the angel also brings our attention to the ‘finishing of the mystery’.
However, the author of the Revelation, Jesus, wants to show us something else before he describes the events surrounding the blowing of the seventh trumpet.
So we are now taken back to just before the mid-point of the tribulation.
John has been seeing many visions so far in our study of the book of Revelation. And, mostly he has just looked. In the last chapter he was included in a vision. He was told to go up an angel and take the book of his hand and eat it.
Here once again, John is told to do something. Take a measuring rod and measure the temple.
Rev 11:1-2
I wonder what was going through John’s mind at this point?
(“What? Why do I have to do this now? Why don't I get to know about the seventh trumpet? Why do I have to wait? .... Measure what? The temple? The Romans destroyed it, its not there anymore. But what's this? Wow .. there IS a temple!”)
Twenty five years earlier the Romans had destroyed Jerusalem and the temple. Jesus predicted in Matthew 24 that not one stone would be left standing upon another that would not be thrown down. And that happened in 70 AD.
So what temple is it that John is told to measure?
Answer: It would have to be a future temple.
Has the temple ever been rebuilt since 70 AD? No, it hasn’t. But Jesus said in Matthew 24 that in the end time someone would place the abomination of desolation in the temple. Paul said in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 that ‘the man of sin’ would sit in it and claim to be God. So this ‘future’ temple is what we call ‘the Tribulation Temple’. This is not to be confused with the Millennial Temple. There are many old Testament prophecies regarding the millennial temple. All of those references imply that it is a holy temple built by and for the Lord and will be used throughout the millennium.
The temple John measures is a tribulation temple.
Why is he told to measure it and what is the significance?
Our attention is drawn to some key phrases:
- Measure the temple, altar AND those who worship there.
- Do not measure the outer court … an area that Gentiles were permitted to use.
What we see here is God drawing our attention to some purely Jewish individuals. God sees their worship. This is very similar to what we read about in Acts. Only there it is the reverse. There Cornelius, the gentile, had been praying. God saw it and responded by sending Peter there to tell him words of salvation. It was a good thing that Cornelius was praying. But it was not enough. He needed to understand the gospel of Jesus Christ and be saved.
Here in Revelation we have a group of Jews worshipping at an altar. I will add an opinion of my own here; I think that they are excited Jews. For over two thousand years they have had no temple. The temple was the only permitted place to offer blood sacrifices. They have been deprived of that. If my understanding of Daniel is correct, the anti-christ … the false messiah will appear to the Jews (they will at first not see him as false) and he will make it possible for them to have a temple. The Jews will see it as the millennial temple. They will be thinking of the many Old Testament prophecies regarding the millennial temple. I think they are excited Jews.
But John is asked to do some measuring. Why? Throughout the bible this action symbolised a ‘marking off’. Measuring and area to mark it off for something special. Sometimes areas were measured and marked off for destruction. Sometimes God had an area marked off to indicate possession or ownership. That seems to be the case here.
Zec 13:7 ¶ "Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, Against the Man who is My Companion," Says the LORD of hosts. "Strike the Shepherd, And the sheep will be scattered; Then I will turn My hand against the little ones.
8 And it shall come to pass in all the land," Says the LORD, "That two-thirds in it shall be cut off and die, But one- third shall be left in it:
9 I will bring the one-third through the fire, Will refine them as silver is refined, And test them as gold is tested. They will call on My name, And I will answer them. I will say, ‘This is My people’; And each one will say, ‘The LORD is my God.’"
John is asked to mark off this group. One third of Jews are being marked off … for protection. Why? Because they are the ones who caught God’s eye. They were worshiping. They are not Christians. But they are far more than just an ethnic Jew. They are serious God seekers.
They are in a temple that is about to be desecrated by the antichrist. They are about to be shocked. They are about to find out … this man is not Christ after all.
Jesus spoke about this:
Mt 24:15 "Therefore when you see the ‘abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place" (whoever reads, let him understand),
16 "then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.
17 "Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house.
18 "And let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes.
19 "But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days!
20 "And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath.
21 "For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be.
We turn our attention to the ministry of the two witnesses. Who are they? We are not told, but there are hints.
Verses 3-14
Their ministry lasts for 3 ½ years, which means they start their ministry about the time the third or fourth seal is opened and it continues right to the opening of the sixth seal and even beyond that … right up to the opening of seventh seal.
Quite a bit of attention is given to their ministry.
- Their identity: They are ‘symbolised.’ They are called lampstands. They are called Olive trees.
- Some have said they represent the church and Israel. Why? Because churches are depicted in Revelation 1 as being lampstands. (Seven of them, remember?) And the Olive tree reference may go back to what Paul in Romans 11 said about the Jews being a tame olive tree … were broken off because of unbelief and the gentiles, the wild olive tree, were grafted in. I think there is a lot of validity in this.
- Some have said this is a resurrection of two prophets from the past, namely Moses and Elijah. These two, you remember, appeared to Jesus on the mount of transfiguration and spoke with Jesus about his upcoming death. Peter and two others caught the tail end of this phenomenon. What other thing is significant about these two? Elijah had a judgmental ministry for three and a half years. Elijah did not die in the normal sense, but was seen taken up into the air in a fiery chariot and a whirlwind. Moses, though he did die a normal death, was buried by God. Jude refers to a dispute between Michael the archangel and the devil over his body.[1] This view makes some sense but also has some problems. Why would anyone who has tasted heaven, ever want to come back here? And in the end of the tribulation they get killed … how do you kill someone with a heavenly body? And if ‘not dying’ is what marked Elijah as special … what about Enoch. He never died. Why not bring him back as one of the witnesses?
- Some have said they must be two unique individuals, specially chosen for this job.
- Their ministry
- It is 42 months long. This is three and a half years. Because it ends right at the end of the tribulation period, we know that their ministry is during the last three and a half years, and not the first.
- To whom do they minister? Not to the Jews who are told to flee from Jerusalem/Judea. We will read more about them in chapter 12. They flee to a special location and are protected there for the 3 ½ year time known as the GREAT tribulation. Are the two witnesses responsible for bringing the 144,000 Jews to Christ? Possibly.
- What kind of ministry do they have? It does not seem to be a ministry based on compassion. Jude 1:22 On some have compassion, making a distinction, 23 and some save, snatching them out of the fire with fear, hating even the clothing stained by the flesh.
ii. They bring judgments from God onto the earth – again, much like Moses but in a much larger way. The judgments they bring sound very much like the judgments that take place when each angel sounds a trumpet. My guess is that these judgments are one and the same as the ones mentioned at the sounding of the trumpets.
- They are ‘invincible’ until the completion of their ministry. The same is true of you as a believer ... does God have a purpose for you in this world? Are you attempting to know what His purpose is for you? Are you faithfully trying to 'get it done'? God will not allow you to die until the mission He has given you to do is finished. When the ministry of the two witnesses is finished, they are overpowered and killed. This is not to be seen as a failure. The world, however, sees this as a victory and they celebrate.
- Their bodies are resurrected after 3 ½ days. That is, just before the sounding of the seventh trumpet … at the very moment that ‘the sky rolls back like a scroll’ – at the end of the period of time marked by the opening of the sixth seal.
[1] Jude 1:9 Yet Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil, when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, "The Lord rebuke you!"