Day

Today’s Passage: Revelation 11

The interlude continues, and it gets stranger before it gets glorious. John is handed a measuring rod and told to measure the temple of God, the altar, and the worshipers. He must leave out the outer courtyard, because it has been given to the nations who will trample the holy city for forty-two months. Then two witnesses appear. They are given power to prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth, and they are called the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. Fire comes from their mouths against anyone who tries to harm them. They can shut the sky, turn water to blood, and strike the earth with plagues. They carry the authority of Elijah and of Moses. When they have finished their testimony, the beast comes up out of the Abyss, makes war on them, overpowers them, and kills them. Their bodies lie unburied in the street of the great city while the whole world looks on and celebrates and sends gifts. Three and a half days later the breath of life from God enters them, they stand up, a voice calls them home, and they go up in a cloud while their enemies watch. An earthquake follows, a tenth of the city falls, and the survivors are terrified and give glory to the God of heaven. Then the second woe passes. The seventh angel sounds his trumpet, and heaven sings the end of the whole story as an accomplished fact. God’s witnesses may be silenced and left lying in the street, but they are never abandoned. The seventh trumpet announces the final verdict in one sentence: the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ.

Revelation 11:1–6 (BSB)

¹ Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff and was told, “Go and measure the temple of God and the altar, and count the number of worshipers there. ² But exclude the courtyard outside the temple. Do not measure it, because it has been given over to the nations, and they will trample the holy city for 42 months. ³ And I will empower my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.” ⁴ These witnesses are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. ⁵ If anyone wants to harm them, fire proceeds from their mouths and devours their enemies. In this way, anyone who wants to harm them must be killed. ⁶ These witnesses have power to shut the sky so that no rain will fall during the days of their prophecy, and power to turn the waters into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they wish.

John receives a rod and an order to measure (μετρέω) metreō, pronounced met-REH-oh. Strong's G3354, to measure, to mark out as one's own. Metreō means to measure, to take the dimensions of a thing with a rod or a line. In the Greek Old Testament it is the workaday word for exactly that. The prophets put it to other work. When Ezekiel is shown a man with a measuring reed going over the temple, nothing is being built. The measuring itself is the message. God takes possession of a house that had been left desolate. When Zechariah sees a man going out with a line to measure Jerusalem, the angel stops him and promises that the city will be too full for walls and that the LORD Himself will be a wall of fire around it. In prophetic language, to measure is to lay claim, to number, to say this is Mine and I have counted it. John is told to count the worshipers as well as the building. He is not doing architecture. He is being shown that God knows the size of His own congregation, down to the last name, and has drawn a line around it. The outer court is left unmeasured because it is given over for a season to be trampled. A believer standing in a hostile world needs both facts. What can be trampled will be trampled. What God has measured is His and stays His. . The instructions divide in two. Measure the temple of God, the altar, and the worshipers. Leave the outer courtyard unmeasured. That distinction shapes the whole chapter. If you catch it here, you will not be frightened by anything that follows. An inner reality belongs entirely to God. An outer reality will be trampled. Both are true at the same time.

Forty-two months, and then 1,260 days. The text gives both figures without explaining them, and readers have understood them variously. Some take them as an actual measured period. Some view them as a symbol for the whole age between our Lord’s ascension and His return. Some see a specific past crisis. This study takes no side. Either way, both figures are fixed. The trampling has a number of months attached to it. The witnessing has a number of days. Nothing here runs on at the discretion of the enemy. The two spans are also the same length. The trampling and the testifying happen together. The church receives a season of witness alongside every season of opposition.

Next are the witnesses themselves. They wear sackcloth, the dress of mourning and of a preacher calling for repentance. That detail establishes their tone. They are not celebrities. They come in the clothes of grief, the way prophets always have. They are identified by a picture: “the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth.” Zechariah had seen a lampstand of pure gold with two olive trees beside it, fed by a pipe of oil that never ran dry. When he asked what the olive trees were he was told:

"So he said, “These are the two anointed ones who are standing beside the Lord of all the earth.”" Zechariah 4:14 (BSB)

An olive tree beside a lampstand exists to keep the light burning. That is the entire job. The great word of that vision in Zechariah is the one every servant of God has had to learn the hard way. The work goes forward by the Spirit of the LORD, not by might and not by power. Before you learn what these witnesses can do, you learn where the oil comes from. Their power is not their own.

They wield remarkable power. Fire from their mouths devours anyone who tries to harm them. They can shut the sky so no rain falls. They can turn water into blood and strike the earth with plagues. That is Elijah’s drought and Moses’ plagues placed into two pairs of hands. These two carry the authority of the Law and the Prophets in the last hour of their testimony. The fire proceeds from their mouths. Their weapon is a word. Jeremiah was told long before that God would make His words in the prophet’s mouth a fire. This is that promise standing up and walking. As long as their commission lasts, nothing can stop them.

Revelation 11:7–10 (BSB)

⁷ When the two witnesses have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the Abyss will wage war with them, and will overpower and kill them. ⁸ Their bodies will lie in the street of the great city—figuratively called Sodom and Egypt—where their Lord was also crucified. ⁹ For three and a half days all peoples and tribes and tongues and nations will view their bodies and will not permit them to be laid in a tomb. ¹⁰ And those who dwell on the earth will gloat over them and celebrate and send one another gifts, because these two prophets had tormented them.

The war begins at a moment verse seven fixes in its first four words: “When the two witnesses have finished their testimony.” The timeline does not hinge on a mistake. It does not wait for their protection to fail or for the enemy to grow strong enough. It waits until they have finished. The beast cannot touch them for one moment before their work is done. When their work is done, God permits it. That is the order of things. It has comforted martyrs for twenty centuries. No servant of God is ever taken early. The fire from their mouths did not run out. The commission was completed.

Here the beast enters this book for the first time, coming up out of the Abyss. Chapters ahead will have a great deal more to say about him. When we get there, we will teach what the text teaches. We will not tell you who he is. Christians have named candidates in every generation for two thousand years, always with confidence and always wrongly. Hunting for a name causes readers to miss what John is actually showing you. There is a real and organized hostility toward God in this world. It makes war on those who witness (μάρτυς) martys, pronounced MAR-toos. Strong's G3144, a witness, one who testifies to what he has seen. Martys is the everyday Greek word for a witness, a man who stands up in court and says what he saw. It carried no religious weight. It was a legal word. The Law of Moses had made the number two famous, since a matter was established by the testimony of two or three witnesses. That is why there are two here. Something then happened to this word inside the Christian church, and the history of it is written into our own language. Many of those who stood up and said what they had seen of Jesus were killed for saying it. Martys came to mean one who dies for the testimony. Our word martyr is that Greek word, carried over intact. That tells you what the early church expected of itself. Telling the truth about Christ in a hostile world costs, and the early believers made no attempt to hide it. This book has already given the title to Jesus Himself, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead. He testified, He paid with His life, and He rose. Every witness after Him walks that same road in that same order, and none of them walks it alone. to Him, and it is sometimes permitted to win.

Then comes the indignity. John leaves the details bare. Their bodies lie in the street. They are not buried or covered. They are left out in public where every passerby can look. For three and a half days the peoples and tribes and tongues and nations come and stare. No one is permitted to lay them in a tomb. To the ancient mind, that was the deepest insult available. Leaving a body unburied declared it worthless. It said the man’s very existence deserved no dignity at all. The world throws a holiday over it. They gloat, they celebrate, and they send one another gifts. John tells us exactly why: “because these two prophets had tormented them.” Their crime was that their preaching stung. They told the truth and the truth made people miserable. Nobody sends gifts for a preacher who never troubled anyone. There is a hard word here for those who want the world’s approval and God’s service at the same time. There is a gentler word for anyone who has ever been despised for saying what Scripture says. The world’s relief at your silence is not evidence that you were wrong.

The city is named in an odd way, “figuratively called Sodom and Egypt”, and then located, “where their Lord was also crucified”. Readers understand that description differently, and we will leave it open. Sodom is a name for corruption. Egypt stands for the house of slavery that would not let God’s people go. The phrase refuses to let any city congratulate itself based on a holy history. A place can hold the right buildings and the right memories and still behave like Sodom and Egypt. The last clause puts the witnesses where every faithful servant belongs, in the same street as their Lord. They are killed where He was killed. That is a statement of fellowship.

Revelation 11:11–14 (BSB)

¹¹ But after the three and a half days, the breath of life from God entered the two witnesses, and they stood on their feet, and great fear fell upon those who saw them. ¹² And the witnesses heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Come up here.” And they went up to heaven in a cloud as their enemies watched them. ¹³ And in that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city collapsed. Seven thousand were killed in the quake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven. ¹⁴ The second woe has passed. Behold, the third woe is coming shortly.

Verse eleven opens on a but, the word this book keeps in reserve for exactly such moments. “But after the three and a half days.” The party is still going on. The bodies are still in the street. Then the breath of life from God enters them. The phrase is deliberately ancient. It is the breath God breathed into the first man’s nostrils in the garden. It is the breath Ezekiel prophesied to in a valley of dry bones, when a whole army stood up on its feet. John uses the same posture. They stood on their feet. God has done this before, and He is not out of breath.

A loud voice from heaven says two words, “Come up here.” They go up in a cloud while their enemies watch them. The world had gathered to see them shamed. The world is still standing there when God vindicates them. He does not slip them out the back door. The same eyes that gloated over the bodies watch them rise. There is a principle in that sequence running through the whole Bible. God’s vindication of His servants is public. He is in no hurry to do it privately. He answered the cross with an empty tomb in the same city, before the same authorities.

Then comes the earthquake. A tenth of the city falls, and seven thousand are killed. Something happens next that has not happened before in this book. Back in chapter nine, after far worse judgments, the survivors refused to repent. Here “the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.” Readers differ over whether that is genuine repentance or the panic of people who finally recognize a greater power. The text leaves the precise spiritual state unstated. The phrase “gave glory to God” is language Scripture normally uses for true turning, and the arithmetic has shifted. In chapter nine, a third died and none repented. Here a tenth dies and the rest give glory. Whatever else this scene is, it is the first time in the trumpet cycle that the terrible things achieve the intended result. The survivors had just watched two executed men stand up alive in front of a celebrating crowd. That sight put glory to God in their mouths.

The watchman’s voice returns, counting: “The second woe has passed. Behold, the third woe is coming shortly.” One more.

Revelation 11:15–19 (BSB)

¹⁵ Then the seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and loud voices called out in heaven: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He will reign forever and ever.” ¹⁶ And the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God, ¹⁷ saying: “We give thanks to You, O Lord God Almighty, the One who is and who was, because You have taken Your great power and have begun to reign. ¹⁸ The nations were enraged, and Your wrath has come. The time has come to judge the dead and to reward Your servants the prophets, as well as the saints and those who fear Your name, both small and great—and to destroy those who destroy the earth.” ¹⁹ Then the temple of God in heaven was opened, and the ark of His covenant appeared in His temple. And there were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and a great hailstorm.

Six trumpets have sounded since chapter eight. Every one of them brought trouble: hail and fire, a burning mountain in the sea, a star called Wormwood, darkness, locusts, and an army past counting. The seventh sounds at last. It does not bring an eighth disaster. It brings a shout. Loud voices in heaven declare one sentence: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom (βασιλεία) basileia, pronounced bas-il-EH-ah. Strong's G932, kingship, royal rule, kingdom. Basileia means kingship, royal rule, sovereignty. It also refers to the territory such rule covers. The announcement focuses on who sits on the throne before it addresses real estate. This was the word constantly on the lips of the Lord Jesus. He came into Galilee preaching that the kingdom of God was at hand. He taught His disciples to pray Your kingdom come. He told a Roman governor that His kingdom was from another place. Heaven does not say the kingdoms of this world have been destroyed. It says the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord. The world is changing hands. This is the same earth God made and called good, coming back under its rightful King. The verb sits in the past tense. It has become, spoken while chapters of trouble still lie ahead in the book. Heaven is so certain of the outcome that it sings about it as finished. That is the tense a Christian is entitled to live in. of our Lord and of His Christ, and He will reign forever and ever.”

That one sentence answers every question the six trumpets have raised. Who is running this world, with its plagues and its armies and its street parties over dead prophets? He is. He rules really and finally and forever. Every empire that ever trampled a holy city held its power on a lease, and the lease is up. Heaven uses the singular, “the kingdom of the world”, treating all the rival powers of history as one kingdom in different costumes. Now that one kingdom has one King. And He will reign forever and ever. No successor, no decline, no faction, no end. Six trumpets of trouble lead exactly here.

The twenty-four elders come off their thrones. They have thrones of their own, and they fall on their faces. That is the only sane response when the true King takes His power. Their song has three movements. First, thanksgiving: “We give thanks to You, O Lord God Almighty (παντοκράτωρ) pantokratōr, pronounced pan-tok-RAT-ore. Strong's G3841, Almighty, the One who holds all things. Pantokratōr is built from pas, all, and a root meaning to hold or to have strength. It means the one who holds all things in his grip, the ruler of everything. It appears nine times in Revelation and rarely anywhere else in the New Testament. The Greek translators of the Old Testament used it to render the great Hebrew title LORD of Hosts, the God with armies at His command. When the elders address the Almighty, they sing the oldest name Israel had for God as a warrior and a King. They sing it at the exact moment He takes His power. A phrase also drops out of their address. Everywhere earlier in this book God is described as the One who is and who was and who is to come. Here the third clause is gone. He is no longer “to come.” He has arrived. He has begun to reign. The future tense has nothing left to do. Their verb is give thanks. They thank Him as people do who have waited a very long time and have just watched a promise land. A Christian on this side of the trumpet can learn to sing that ahead of time. , the One who is and who was, because You have taken Your great power and have begun to reign.”

Second, the reckoning: “The nations were enraged, and Your wrath has come.” The rage of the nations is an old fact. The elders quote a song the church already knew by heart:

"Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together, against the LORD and against His Anointed One:" Psalm 2:1–2 (BSB)

In vain, says the psalm. The whole point of Psalm 2 is that the One enthroned in heaven is unbothered by the conspiracy of kings. Revelation 11 is that psalm coming true. All the fury of the nations felt enormous to a church being fed to the empire’s machinery. It turns out to have been a tantrum against a settled decree.

Third, the accounting. “The time has come to judge the dead and to reward Your servants the prophets, as well as the saints and those who fear Your name, both small and great.” Two things happen at once. There is judgment, and there is reward. The reward comes to a broad list: prophets, rank-and-file saints, and “those who fear Your name”. Then comes the clause that ought to make every unremarkable believer look up: “both small and great”. Nobody in that congregation gets overlooked because their service was too obscure to notice. Then the final line: “and to destroy those who destroy the earth.” Every ruin any tyrant ever made will be answered. Read it soberly. These are real people under real judgment. John does not gloat. Read it without softening it, either. A God who lets the destroyers destroy forever would not be good.

The last verse lands like a thunderclap. “The temple of God in heaven was opened, and the ark of His covenant appeared in His temple.” A Jewish believer felt the weight of that. The ark had been out of sight for six centuries, lost when Jerusalem fell. Even when it stood in the holy of holies, only one man went in, once a year, with blood. Now the sanctuary is thrown open. The ark of His covenant stands where anyone at all can see it. God’s covenant, the promise He swore to His people, is not lost, hidden, or forgotten. It is no longer behind a curtain. The chapter that began with a measured temple on earth being trampled ends with the true temple in heaven standing wide open. Then lightning, rumblings, thunder, an earthquake, and hail. In this book, those elements form the signature of the God who came down on Sinai. He is the God who keeps every word He ever gave His people.