Revelation 11:1-14 Preparing For The Seventh Trumpet

Woodland Hills Church of Christ

Preparing for the Seventh Trumpet

Revelation 11:1-14

Introduction: the Lamb has opened six seals of the scroll. When the seventh seal was opened, seven angels began to blow their trumpets. As each angel blew his trumpet, partial judgments were revealed upon the nation of God’s wrath. The judgments became worse and worse until people wanted to die. But in spite of these warnings, the nation being judged and the peoples of the world refused to repent of their wickedness.

In chapter 10, before the seventh trumpet sounded, we are given direct references to Daniel 12 that Israel was the object of God wrath and the judgments that were executed. Daniel had recorded that Israel’s final judgment would not happen until “times, time, and a half a time” had been fulfilled. But in Revelation 10 we learn that the time is up and there would be no more delay.

Chapter 11 prepares us for the seventh trumpet and the final judgment scene on Israel as prophesied in Daniel 12.

1. The Measuring Rod (11:1-2)
   1. You will notice the contrast between verses 1 and 2. The temple of God is to be measured while the court outside the temple will not be measured. This leads us to investigate what is symbolized by the measuring. The first hint is given in the verses themselves. The outside of the temple is not measured, but left to be trampled by the nations.
   2. The prophets use this symbolism quite often. Sometimes the measuring is for destruction and sometimes it is for protection.
      1. For example: “And I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line of Samaria, and the plumb line of the house of Ahab, and I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down.” (2 Kings 21:13). In this case, destruction is evident.
      2. However, nations/cities are also measured for protection and blessing: “And I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, a man with a measuring line in his hand! Then I said, “Where are you going?” And he said to me, “To measure Jerusalem, to see what is its width and what is its length.” And behold, the angel who talked with me came forward, and another angel came forward to meet him and said to him, “Run, say to that young man, ‘Jerusalem shall be inhabited as villages without walls, because of the multitude of people and livestock in it. And I will be to her a wall of fire all around, declares the LORD, and I will be the glory in her midst.’” (Zechariah 2:1–5)
   3. The difference in our text is obvious. The one not measured is doomed. Therefore, the one who is measured is protected in some way.
   4. Who are the one’s protected? Notice that it is the temple with its holy things. The temple parallels the Messiah’s temple that is described in Ezekiel 40-48. In the NT, Christians are described as the temple of God: 1 Cor. 3:16 “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and the Spirit of God dwells in you?”
   5. Who are the ones trampled? John records that it is the outside court, which is called the “holy city.” When Daniel was told the coming destruction of Israel, we read that the angel swore, “that when the shattering of the power of the holy people comes to an end all these things would be finished” (Daniel 12:7). Notice that the people who are shattered are called the holy people. In this case, “holy” does not represent a people who live in uprightness and purity; it is the people who had been set apart by God, but now had defiled themselves.
   6. Now listen to Jesus’ words concerning the destruction of Jerusalem: “But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has come near. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let those who are inside the city depart, and let not those who are out in the country enter it, for these are days of vengeance, to fulfill all that is written. Alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days! For there will be great distress upon the earth and wrath against this people. They will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive among all nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.” (Luke 21:20–24)
   7. Of course, we need to remember that this protection of God’s people is not meaning they are protected from persecution and physical death. That has already been made clear to us in 6:9-10.
   8. As a reminder, 42 months is symbolic of a time of tribulation and destruction. It is equivalent to “times, time, and a half a time, three and half years, and 1260 days. We will see all of these numbers used in future texts.
2. The Players in the Vision (3-8)
   1. The two witnesses:
      1. Two witnesses are identified as “the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth.” This part of the vision is explained in Zechariah 4:7 where the context is doing what seemed impossible, the rebuilding of the temple of the Lord.
         1. In Zechariah’s vision there was a lampstand being fed by two olive trees. When Zechariah asked what this was, the angel answered, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit.’” In other words, fulfilling God’s will in building God’s temple would not be dependent on human strength, but on the power of the Spirit, the power of the word of God. Cf. Matt. 16:18
         2. In Zechariah 4:13-14, Zechariah asked the angel what the two olive trees were. The answer was, “These are the two anointed ones who stand by the Lord of the whole earth.” Again, since the olive trees fed the lampstand, and the lampstand signified the power of God to rebuild the temple through Zerubbabel, we can think of the Revelation text as indicating the power of God’s word to fulfill his promises concerning the physical nation of Israel and concerning God’s true Israel.
      2. Next, we have symbolism seen in what these two witnesses do.
         1. Those who oppose them are killed by fire coming out of their mouth and consuming them.
         2. Further, they have power to “shut the sky, that no rain my fall.”
         3. Also, they have power over the waters to turn them into blood and strike the earth with every kind of plague.
         4. Just by these descriptions you will recognize the powers of both Moses and Elijah. these two great prophets foretold and foreshadowed both the coming of the Messiah and the coming destruction of Israel.
         5. Further, they are given this power to prophesy for 1260 days, therefore a short period of time marked by tribulation.
   2. Vs. 7: The beast from the bottomless pit makes war on the witnesses and kills them.
      1. We have been introduced to the bottomless pit before. In 9:1, 11, the king/angel over the bottomless pit appears to be the devil.
      2. In 13:1, it is the dragon that calls up the “beast” out of the bottomless pit. And it is this beast that is described in the same way as Daniel’s prophecy in Daniel 7, which is the fourth empire who reigns over the earth. Therefore, in 11:7, it is Rome who persecutes and kills the two witnesses.
      3. This is further confirmation that the “witnesses” represent the apostles and Christians who are testifying to the word of God and being killed (Cf. 6:9).
         1. Back up for a moment and see the bigger picture of the chapter: while the nations are trampling Jerusalem, Christians also are being persecuted and killed by the beast.
      4. Vs. 8: Their dead bodies are left to lie in the street of the great city, spiritually called Sodom and Egypt, “where their Lord was crucified.” This can be none other than Jerusalem.
         1. Isaiah 1:10 “Hear the word of the Lord you rulers of Sodom! Give ear to the teaching of our God you people of Gomorrah!”
         2. Jeremiah 23:14 “But in the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a horrible thing: they commit adultery and walk in lies; they strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one turns from his evil; all of them have become like Sodom to me, and its inhabitants like Gomorrah.”
         3. Ezekiel 23:19-20 “Yet she increased her whoring, remembering the days of her youth, when she played the whore in the land of Egypt and lusted after her lovers there.”
3. The Death of the Witnesses, Reaction of the World, & Resurrection (9-14)
   1. Vs. 9-10: Look at the world’s reaction to the death of those proclaiming God’s word. First, they shame them by not burying their bodies. Second, they rejoice that they no longer must deal with these people who taught them about the good news of King Jesus and warned them of judgment to come.
   2. Notice that they rejoice as if God has been defeated! This again is a reminder of Psalm 2:1-3 and Satan’s desire to overthrow God and his people through world powers. “Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying ‘Let us break their chains and throw off their shackles.’”
   3. We see this same picture in verse 18: “the nations raged but your wrath came.” Seeing these words and the words of Psalm 2, should cause us to heed Peter’s words: “…prepare your minds for action and be sober-minded…” There are many blessings God has given that we can enjoy in this life, but above all else we must live with the seriousness of our battle with the spiritual forces of wickedness and what God is doing through us.
   4. The text signals the contrast between the way the world thinks and the way Christians think. When we became Christians, we were baptized into his death. The symbol is not just death to sin, but death in the sense of how we are to live before God. Paul said, “We are always given over to death that the life of Jesus might become visible in our mortal bodies” (2 Cor. 4:11).
   5. The world sees our death as their victory, but we have faith in our resurrection and the defeat of the world. Just as the Lord used Jesus death for his victory, so our sacrifice of ourselves even unto death, signals our victory and the victory of the gospel. Thus the words of the 2nd century Christian, Tertullian, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of church.” As more and more Christians were murdered by the Roman state, thousands turned to Christ as they saw the martyrs’ participation in Christ’s triumph over death.
   6. I am persuaded, this is exactly the meaning of the resurrection of the witnesses, the 7000 killed in the earthquake, and the rest being terrified and give glory to God. The cause of Christ is “resurrected,” God begins his judgment on Jerusalem with a tenth being killed, and the rest now see God’s promises being fulfilled and are thus terrified. Giving glory to God may not mean they are converted any more than Nebuchadnezzar’s recognition of God being the most powerful caused him to give up his own idols. But for these, it is too late. The seventh trumpet will now sound.
4. Lessons for Today
   1. Notice that three types of nations are mentioned who fight against God’s people:
      1. Sodom: filled with sexual perversion
      2. Egypt: symbolic of oppression
      3. Jerusalem: rebels and murders against God and his people
   2. The two witnesses are a personification of Jesus’ picture of the churches as lampstands. In 6:9, the martyrs were killed “for the word of God and for the witness they had borne.” Over and over the visions of Revelation remind us of our identity and God’s expectation of our purpose in the world.
   3. Next, notice why the peoples of the world rejoice: “these two prophets had been a torment to those who dwell on the earth.”
      1. My first thought is, how funny that these people think that Christian’s are tormenting them! That is certainly not any Christian’s intention. But why would they see the gospel message as torment? It is because it demands a complete transformation. Christians are not allowed to live for themselves. Thus, the message is a disruption.
      2. But there is another side to this statement. Much like the Roman Empire, we live in a world where tolerance is a virtue and challenging one’s beliefs is a hate crime. The danger we face is keeping silent about the good news of our King lest someone accuse us of tormenting them. These first century Christians were so passionate about Jesus, they did not allow that fear to hinder them.

Conclusion: Remember the words of Jesus to the church in Smyrna, “Be faithful unto death.” Faithful implies a loyalty to Jesus and also a loyalty to his cause.

Berry Kercheville

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