Friday, December 11 –
Welcome to the end of the
workweek. In our reading today, we read beyond
the chapter, from Revelation 10:1 – 11:14.
Please read the passage and come back to think some more about it.
As you can see, Revelation has its challenges in trying to understand what John
is witnessing. As we came to the end of
chapter 9, we also had come to the end of the 6th trumpet. Once
again, as John had seen at the end of the sixth seal, there is a pause, an
interlude, before the 7th trumpet is sounded. The interlude contains two scenes. In chapter
10, we witness an angel with a scroll of seven thunders, which is given to John
to eat. In chapter 11, John is given a
measuring rod and talked about two witnesses, or prophets, who would testify
to the earth until they were killed by the Antichrist. Both of these serve the purpose of reminding
us that the Tribulation is under God’s control, and he knows how to accomplish
His will in these final judgments.
The primary theme in both
chapters is prophecy. Revelation 10
describes the prophecy as coming from a scroll handed to John by an angel –
“Then I saw another mighty
angel coming down from heaven, wrapped in a cloud, with a rainbow over his
head, and his face was like the sun, and his legs like pillars of fire. He
had a little scroll open in his hand. And he set his right foot on the sea, and
his left foot on the land, and called out with a loud voice, like a lion
roaring. When he called out, the seven thunders sounded” (10:1-3).
The scroll contains “seven
thunders”, which is now the fourth set of sevens in this book. We do not get to see what the seven thunders
are because John is told “do not write them down” (10:4). This seems confusing until we realize that
the angel is coming from God and is delivering to John something he is not
wishing to be made known at this time.
The angel “raised his right hand to heaven and swore by him who lives
forever and ever…He is the creator of heaven and earth…that there would be no
more delay…and the seventh trumpet would make the mystery of God fulfilled”
(10:5-7). The prophecy of the little scroll has to do with the seventh
trumpet that is yet to be sounded. When
the seventh trumpet is sounded, the final judgments (seven bowls, chapter 11 –
16) will begin.
While this all still sounds
cryptic, we’re beginning to see – faint as it is – a light at the end of the
tunnel. John Walvoord explains the
“mystery of God”: “This mystery had been previously announced to God’s
prophets. The reference, therefore, is not to hidden truth but to the
fulfillment of many Old Testament passages which refer to the glorious return
of the Son of God and the establishment of His kingdom of righteousness and
peace on the earth. While God’s purposes are not necessarily revealed in
current events where Satan is allowed power and manifestation, the time will
come when Satan no longer will be in power and the predictions of the Old
Testament prophets will be fulfilled. At this point it would be wise to recall
Revelation 6:10, where the Tribulation martyrs cried out, “How long, O Lord,
holy and true, will You refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those
who dwell on the earth?” The mighty angel of Revelation 10 announced that God’s
response to those prayers will soon come to an end. The final number of the
redeemed will be fulfilled and the judgment of the wicked will be complete”. [1]
The angel gives way to the
voice from the throne, who in quick succession gives him three commands: “Then the voice that I had heard from
heaven spoke to me again, saying, “Go, take the scroll that is open in the hand
of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land.” So I went to
the angel and told him to give me the little scroll. And he said to me, “Take
and eat it; it will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be
sweet as honey.” And I took the little scroll from the hand of the angel
and ate it. It was sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it my
stomach was made bitter. And I was told, “You must again prophesy about
many peoples and nations and languages and king” (10:8-11).
This event is fulfilling the prophecy of Ezekiel 2:8 – 3:4, where the Prophet Ezekiel was told to eat the
scroll. The scroll contained messages of
judgment which is why it was both sweet and bitter. This was a dividing point in the book as John
realizes that God is moving towards much more severe and decisive judgments
before the end comes. The picture is
worth thinking through. We live in a
world that is moving steadily away from God’s ways, truth, life. To share the Gospel with someone is not
always easy. While we are not eating
scrolls, we are reading, praying, worshiping God, and it is sweet to our
souls. Yet, the reality of final
judgment, the separation of believers and unbelievers, heaven and hell, are
not things easy to comes to grip with.
They are all sweet to the believer but bitter to those who we wish would put their faith in Christ as
Savior and Lord. The communion we have
with God reminds us that we don’t have any answers – except Him.
As the chapter turns, John sees
the second part of this interlude in God’s continuing command to “rise and
measure the temple…but not the outer court (Gentile court)” (11:1 – 2). Interpretations of this section vary
widely. The numbers of forty-two months
and 1260 days make for much speculation.
What makes this difficult is the mention of the Temple. John wrote this book in the mid-90 a.d.
period when Domitian was Emperor and Empire-wide persecution had broken out
against the church. The Temple had been
destroyed over twenty-five years before when the soon-to-be Emperor, Titus, had
marched his army of soldiers into Jerusalem and destroyed
the city, along with the Temple. It is
the reason why we only see a Western Wailing Wall when we visit Jerusalem
today.
The number, forty-two months,
had been the time between the beginning of the Jewish revolt in 66 a.d., and
the destruction of the Temple in 70 a.d.
Many argue that this is what Daniel, the Prophet, had foretold in his
prophecies in Daniel 9:26-27. Jesus had
also spoken of similar things in Matthew 24:15-26. This has caused some to argue that a new
Temple will be built sometime in the future in Jerusalem before these events
unfold. Others have argued this is to be
viewed figuratively, as the Church. In
68 a.d. a number of Jewish Christians fled Jerusalem to Pella to escape the
coming Roman armies. Pella was to the
north of Jerusalem, across the Jordan River in the area called the Decapolis (ten
cities). There, they were kept safe from
the Roman destruction that fell on Jerusalem, but not forever. By the late ’90s
Rome had note of who they were. The text
now adds another interesting detail –
“And I will grant authority to
my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.”
These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before
the Lord of the earth. And if anyone would harm them, fire pours from
their mouth and consumes their foes. If anyone would harm them, this is how he
is doomed to be killed. They have the power to shut the sky, that no rain
may fall during the days of their prophesying, and they have
power over the waters to turn them into blood and to strike the earth with
every kind of plague, as often as they desire" (11:3-6).
We have to remember that the
book of Revelation has many mysteries.
Much of the book is written with Old Testament references that would
have made sense to the early believers, but not much sense to the Roman
officials. The judgments that have been
announced are yet to come, but God in his grace is still reaching out to a world
that is rejecting him. The two witnesses
are intriguing to try to name. Some have
referred to them as Moses and Elijah, as they had been with Jesus on the Mount
of Transfiguration (Matthew 17). The
second part of their revelation is that they are linked together as two
olive trees and two lampstands (11:4).
Those distinctive things correspond to the prophecies in the Old
Testament of Zerubbabel and Joshua in Zechariah 4:13-14, who, interestingly
enough were told by God to finish building the Temple that had been destroyed
by the Babylonians.
We can make many speculative
assumptions, but we must not miss the point that their charge was to proclaim
the Gospel, preach the word of God to a people who rejected it. Like Elijah who prophesied against Israel’s
Baal worship and “shut the skies so that no rain fell”, and Moses, who had
power over the waters to turn them into blood and to strike the earth with
every kind of plague” (11:6), they were powerful in their work. Yet, John sees that it will not last, and
eventually the Beast, or Antichrist, will stop them and kill them (11:8). I wonder – out-loud here – if we are not
seeing the church as the two witnesses?
The role of Moses was as a leader who received revelation for the
nation as a “Kingdom of Priests” (Exodus 19-20). The role of Elijah was to prophesy against
the idolatry of the nation, and the nation that was threatening Israel –
Assyria. Both men were Prophets who were
powerful in their time, but ultimately both could not achieve what was needed. John had already heard of the church as “kingdom
and priests” two times (1:6, 5:10), and he will hear one more time in
20:6. The mystery of the lampstands
(1:20), was that it represented the Church.
While much of this is unknown, even speculation, it transcends any one
period – but still relating to the Churches John was writing to during
Domitian’s persecution. The end of time
will result in a full-on assault of the Beast, the Antichrist, against the
church’s testimony – it has happened since its beginning.
The persecution against the
church is a victory for the world, which defies the truth of God’s word. Like Jesus, the prophets are killed and the
bodies lay in the street of “the great city” for three and one-half days
– a sign of victory for the unbelieving (11:8-10). What is this great city? Some see it as Rome, some as Jerusalem, and
others as both. Regardless, after three-plus days, God will breathe life into the bodies and they will stand to their
feet in resurrection victory and ascend to heaven (11:11,12).
The interlude ends when the
hour of future judgments begins to return with an earthquake – eerily similar
to an earthquake that accompanied Jesus’ resurrection. “And at that hour there was a great
earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell. Seven thousand people were killed in
the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of
heaven. The second woe has passed; behold, the third woe is soon to come”
(11:13-14).
What do we make of this? Is this in the past? Yes. Is this in the future? Yes. John is writing to seven churches who are
going through intense persecution. They
have seen the fury of Rome as it obliterated Jerusalem twenty-five years
before. Yet, they also know that many of
the Christians then were whisked away to a place of safety while violent mayhem
destroyed the city. Now in the present
persecution, the Church is also being threatened – especially to be silent,
passive, withdrawn. Yet the church is
witnessing the Gospel, even in the face of the threat of death. This is the first century’s history and the
second century’s, the third’s, fourth’s and on throughout time and age. It will be the end of times when we see it
all over again. Are we in it? Every generation of Christian leaders has
believed they were in the final generation before Christ would come. I have felt it myself. What makes prophecy so unique is its "now" and "not yet" dimension. Some things have happened, and some are yet future.
The church lives on, through
persecution, the assault on its Jesus’ way, truth, life. In 1949 the Communists took over China, threw
out the Missionaries it did not kill, and shut down the Churches, throwing the
Chinese leaders into prison labor camps. At the time China had about one-hundred
thousand believers. There was no
communication between Christians on the outside with the Church in China for
over 24 years. There was concern that
the Communists had destroyed the church and killed off the believers. In 1973, Richard Nixon made a surprise visit
that began an “open door” between China and the U.S. Mission agencies began to reach out to find
out what had happened to the one-hundred thousand Christians who had been left
behind, closed off to the world for those years. They discovered the Church in China had grown
to over twenty million believers!
It was in the second century,
at the height of new persecution against Christians, the great theologian
Tertullian (who I named my dog after), wrote to the Roman Emperor at the time,
and spoke the famous words that have served be truth throughout the Church’s
history – “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.” And so, it is true today.
Peace
[1] John Walvoord, Revelation, page 954. In Chuck Swindoll’s commentary, Insights on Revelation, page 157
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