“Measuring of the temple” described in verses 1-2 is
a message in symbol. “The two witnesses” described in verse 3 onward is a message
in parable. What about the two witnesses? John is not talking about two persons
witnessing for God in tumultuous times (referred to as 1260 days). He was really
talking about the church and her prophetic witness. John took the vision of Zachariah
4 and liberally used it to fit what he wanted to say. Here the one
lampstand described by the prophet Zachariah becomes two here, and they are synonymous
with the two olive trees. The emphasis
is that the church’s power and authority for effective witness lies in the
Spirit of God.
Judging from John’s description of the witnesses, he
probably had in mind as a backdrop two great heroes of old – Moses and Elijah. In
their ministries, we saw great signs. They both had great authority from God
and stood up against kings whom they were each confronting. They both demonstrated
signs and wonders to prove the power of God. In Elijah, the heaven was shut up
and it brought a drought upon the land. In Moses we saw the water of River Nile
turned into blood. The message is that the church with its prophetic witness
stood in the tradition of Moses and Elijah. Like them, the church will perform great
signs granted by God and in so doing, will torment the people who refuse to
believe in their message. The climax of it all will be the church being martyred
at the hand of the monster from the Abyss.
Who is “the monster” and where is “the great city”
mystically called Sodom and Egypt, where the Lord was crucified? They will be
revealed in the later chapters of the book. Suffice to say that the “monster” here
refers to the power of the pagan empire represented by the Romans and the mystical
city is Rome. John’s point is this: the church, though protected by God and
given a mission to bear prophetic witness, will also have to go through suffering
and death. But like the Lord Jesus, through their suffering and death, they
will be the ultimate prophetic sign for the world to be brought to glorify God.
How would all these come together? For the duration
of three and half year days the world will celebrate her seeming victory over
the church. Their refusal to allow proper burial for the two witnesses is a
symbol of the scorn that the world will show to the church that has urged them
to repent. And just when the world is rejoicing and celebrating, God will act. Like
the vision described in Ezekiel 37, God will once again breathe into the valley
of dry bones, the church, and bring dead corpses to live again. What will also
happen is described in verse 12. The vision recorded in Daniel 7 will come to
pass. God’s people will also be going to heaven on the cloud. Here the church
will be vindicated after the martyrdom and will complete the prophetic witness.
And the world looking on will be converted.
Verse 13 leaves us with no doubt of the mercy of
God. In describing those who are terrified and gave glory to God, John is telling
us that people will come, trembling in fear, genuinely to honor God and to give
Him glory. In the judgement of Sodom and Gomorrah, God would have spared them if
He had only found ten righteous people (Genesis 18:32). However, instead of the
whole city being destroyed like the scene in Genesis, here only one tenth of
the city will fall. The other ninth tenth will be saved. This is to show how merciful God is. And again
through Elijah, when God was judging wicked Israel, 7,000 who refused to bow their
knees to Baal were preserved. But now the opposite is seen, only 7,000 are
killed and the great mass of the people saved. Here we catch a glimpse of God’s
mercy again. God may grieve over the corruption of the world, but He is bent on
rescuing and restoring it. And He does so through the faithful death of the
Lamb, and also through the followers of the Lamb and their martyrdom.
Today, God still loves everyone in the world and
wants them to be rescued. The church is God’s occupational force on earth now.
And we, members of the church, are soldiers enlisted in this army to carry out
this rescue operation in the world. Let’s be sure to be about doing our task!
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