Read Revelation 11:1–14
Questions from the Scripture text: What was John given (Revelation 11:1)? To measure what three things? What was he to leave out (Revelation 11:2)? Why? What would the nations do? For how long? To whom would the Angel give His power (Revelation 11:3)? What would they do? For how many days? In what attire? As what are the two witnesses described in Revelation 11:4? Before Whom do they especially stand? Over what is He called “Lord” here? What proceeds from their mouth (Revelation 11:5)? What does it do to their enemies who want to harm them? How sure is this to happen? What powers do they have by their prophesying (Revelation 11:6)? When are these preachers permitted to be killed (Revelation 11:7)? How? Who will gloat over them (Revelation 11:9-10)? Why? According to whose example (Revelation 11:8)? For how long? But what will happen then (Revelation 11:11)? With what effect upon those who see them? What do the prophets hear in Revelation 11:12? From where? What does it say? What do they do? Who sees this? What happens at that time on earth (Revelation 11:13)? And what falls? With what effect on how many? And what effect on the rest? What do they finally do? What does this conclude (Revelation 11:14)? What is now coming quickly?
What is the story of the age during which demonic hordes have been permitted to wreak havoc upon the earth? Revelation 11:1–14 looks forward to the hearing of God’s Word, publicly read, in the holy assembly on the coming Lord’s Day. In these fourteen verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that the story of this age has not been so much those things that warn about the wrath, but the power of the gospel that urges us to flee the wrath to come.
In the face of the demonic hordes of the fifth and sixth trumpets, chapter 10 gave us a heavenly perspective on the power of Christ to reign, and His assignment to His servants to preach. Now, in Revelation 11:1–14, John sees the same thing from the vantage point of the earth.
There is an emphasis upon measurement here (Revelation 11:1). Everywhere in the New Testament, the new temple of God is the church. By the time that the early church unanimously tells us that Revelation was written, God had used Rome to destroy Herod’s temple. Is God’s establishment on earth destroyed? Not at all! It’s measure is far greater than it had ever been before Christ. This is just as we would expect under the gospel.
God knows the “measurements” of the nations as well (Revelation 11:2), but they are not the focus of the history between the two comings of Christ. They tread God’s holy city—not, now, the earthly Jerusalem of Revelation 11:8, but the true Jerusalem, the church, which the Spirit also calls the Israel of God (cf. Galatians 6:16). The full Israel, including the fullness of the spared remnant and the ingrafting of the remnant from the nations. The time between Christ’s comings is focused upon the gathering in of the fullness of this remnant (cf. Revelation 6:11), not so much upon those who hate them and reject their witness.
The number “two” is very important here. Just as it is used for completeness by the idea of “doubling” in Hosea 10:10 (of the completeness of Israel’s sin) and Isaiah 40:2 (of the completeness of Christ’s atonement), so also it is used here of the completeness of the church’s preaching. Note that the preaching of John (cf. John 10:11) and other specifically sent servants (cf. Romans 10:14–15) is testimony. They are called “witnesses.” This is not witness or testimony about their experience. It is bearing witness to Jesus Christ Himself (cf. 1 John 1:1–3).
The number “two” is also important here by way of halving. Forty-two months, and on thousand two hundred and sixty days, are both half of seven years. The Lord often highlights how He is shortening days of hardship and grief (cf. Matthew 24:22). In this case, what is being shortened is the church’s persecution (Revelation 11:2), as well as her grief in preaching the gospel to a world in desperate need of repentance (Revelation 11:3). It is useful for gospel-preachers to learn here that, though the mode of our evangelism with respect to Jesus is joy over Him, the mode of our evangelism with respect to the spiritually dead is with grief over them. Warning the dead to flee the wrath to come is something to be done “in sackcloth.”
The Lord also shortens the days in which the world appears to have defeated the church and her preaching of the gospel. Each preacher is assigned by God specific length of life, and only when his work is done, is the enemy permitted to send him to glory (Revelation 11:7). This is also true of periods of revival and reformation, which have had a specific length of time, before the world arises in the spirit of Jerusalem (Revelation 11:8) and rejoices (Revelation 11:9-10) over what they think is the demise of the church, and the true faith (what we would call the Reformed faith, since the use of that word in connection with the 16th century revival). But, they are terrified, again, when gospel preaching is revived (Revelation 11:11-12). The Lord shortens the days of darkness that come between these revivals. The time between the comings of Christ centers upon His sovereign work in saving through the preaching of the gospel.
While the nations rage, and reject God and Christ, and rejoice whenever the gospel seems silenced and the church seems dead, they are not the true power of the age. The preaching of the gospel comes with the same power now as in the days of Elijah (Revelation 11:6a) and Moses (verse 6b). It is the preaching of the gospel that shakes the earth (Revelation 11:13a—and heaven, too, cf. Hebrews 12:25–27) and either kills or gives life (Revelation 11:13b).
The first two woes, the fifth and sixth trumpets, have highlighted demonic activity on the earth as a reminder that God’s wrath, Christ’s wrath, is coming. But the interlude in chapters 10–11 have reminded us that the story of this time period is not the activity of those demons, but the reign of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the conquering ministry of the gospel throughout that period (cf. Revelation 6:2)!
Dear reader, there is a temptation to think that the story of our life and our day is what the powers of hell are doing, or what the powers of the world are doing. But, the story of your life and our day is especially what Christ Himself is doing through His powerful gospel, and how you are responding to it. This ought to bring comfort and conviction, and enable you to “overcome.” This has been the primary applicational response throughout Revelation. Overcome! Overcome in the way that we will especially read about when we come to Revelation 12:11. Overcome by the blood of the lamb and the word of your testimony. And, when the days of your witness in this world are completed, overcome by loving not your life, even unto death.
When you think of “witnessing,” about Whom are you giving witness? How do the numbers in this chapter help you think more correctly, believingly, and healthily, when the days of suffering or spiritual decline seem to you to be too long? How do the last several chapters help you think about the primary story of your life, and of the world in this age?
Sample prayer: Lord, we see how very much Your Word teaches us to focus upon Your church, and her witness to Christ, in this age. Forgive us for how we have failed to have the same focus! And forgive us, for when our hearts have not had the grief of sackcloth over the woe of an unbelieving world under the wrath of God. Grant that we would have confidence in Your exercise of Your own power through the preaching of the gospel. Forgive us for when we have been fearful and anxious and unbelieving before the world. Grant that we would overcome by the blood of the Lamb, and the word of our testimony, and that we would love not our lives, even unto death, we ask through Christ, AMEN!
Suggested songs: ARP2 “Why Do Gentile Nations Rage” or TPH389 “Great God, What Do I See and Hear?”