Day 249, Revelation 11 
During the final days of the final days, Jerusalem, referenced in
this chapter as "the holy city" and "Sodom and Egypt"
(11:2, 8), will be trodden underfoot by the nations for forty-two months, or
exactly three-and-a-half years (11:2). Due to a prophecy in the ninth chapter
of Daniel that leads many to believe that the end times' tribulation lasts seven
years, the three-and-a-half years mentioned by John is often thought to be the
last half of seven years of tribulation. But no one really knows for sure.
We are introduced today to "two witnesses," prophets whom
John wrote will prophesy for exactly 1,260 days in Jerusalem, clothed in sackcloth (11:3). If we
divide 1,260 by the number of days in a Jewish
year---360---we discover that 1,260 days is exactly 3 1/2 years also. We don't know,
however, if the 3 1/2 years in which Jerusalem is trodden underfoot
by the nations is the same 3 1/2 years that the two witnesses
prophesy there.
We are also not told the identities of those two prophets. Some
speculate that they are Enoch and Elijah, two Old Testament prophets who never
died. Yet nothing is said about the two reincarnated witnesses being
Old Testament men. I happen to be flying home from Texas as I write these
words, and while I was there I met a man who believes that he is Elijah and
that he is one of those two witnesses. I was not convinced, however.
God refers to those witnesses as the “two olive trees and
two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth” (11:4). That
doesn't help us much! We find something similar in the fourth chapter of
the Old Testament book written by the prophet Zechariah, who saw (about
six-hundred and fifty years before John's vision) his own vision of two
olive trees and a lampstand (Zech. 4:1-4, 11-14). Zechariah was told that the
two "olive branches" were "two anointed ones who are standing by
the Lord of the whole earth" (Zech. 4:14).
Regardless of what we don't understand about them, it is quite clear
that God will grant those prophets incredible powers by which they will be able
to kill those who oppose them and make life even more miserable for everyone on
the earth. They will surely call the world to repentance, but their preaching
will apparently be fruitless. After three-and-a-half years of ministry, they
will be slain by a "beast that comes up out of the abyss" (11:7), who
will later be revealed to us as the antichrist.
The demise of those two prophets will make world headlines, and
everyone will celebrate, thinking that their problems are finally over. The
party, however, will last for just three-and-a-half days, because the dead
bodies of those two prophets will be resurrected as they lie on Jerusalem streets
and then be taken up to heaven. That event will doubtlessly be broadcast around
the globe as well. Yet there will be no revival. Rather, there will be an
earthquake in Jerusalem that will kill 7,000 people.
When God removes those two prophets, it would seem that all hope of
mercy on the earth departs with them. The seventh angel sounds his ominous
trumpet, over which there is reason to rejoice in heaven, for the inhabitants
there know that God will soon judge the dead, rewarding the righteous and
destroying the unrighteous (11:18). And then He will reign over all the earth.
These future events are sure to come, and they could occur within
your lifetime if you eat healthy!
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