February 25 - The Two Witnesses (pt. 4)

February 25 – The Two Witnesses (pt. 4)
Revelation 11:7-14

“Now when they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the Abyss will attack them, and overpower and kill them. Their bodies will lie in the street of the great city, which is figuratively called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified. For three and a half days men from every people, tribe, language and nation will gaze on their bodies and refuse them burial. The inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them and will celebrate by sending each other gifts, because these two prophets had tormented those who live on the earth.

But after the three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and terror struck those who saw them. Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, "Come up here." And they went up to heaven in a cloud, while their enemies looked on.

At that very hour there was a severe earthquake and a tenth of the city collapsed. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the survivors were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.

The second woe has passed; the third woe is coming soon.”

When they finished their task, their testimony – the beast that comes up from the Abyss killed them. The Greek word ‘therion’ means a beast of prey – one with a ravenous appetite, a cunning of unreasoning violence that acts according to its own cruel nature. We have just met the antichrist and his first task is to destroy God’s witnesses. This is the first of thirty-six references to the Beast in the Revelation.

After killing them, he leaves their bodies out in the open for everyone to see. To the Jews, this was unimaginable desecration. The Torah requires burial as quickly as possible, generally the same day as death. An international celebration commences and we find that people are exchanging gifts due to these deaths. One of the commentaries I read likened this to our celebration of Christmas. As much as we love to exchange gift at Christmas, this hardened society will do so to celebrate the death of the witnesses who had tormented them.

The celebration is short-lived – only 3 ½ days (there’s that number again).

God responds! He breathes life back into them and they stood on their feet. John’s readers would have remembered the story from Ezekiel 37:10 when the army of dry bones rose up to prophesy. He called the witnesses up to heaven in a cloud which we saw in Acts 1:9 as Jesus was taken into heaven.

At that very moment, there was a severe earthquake. We also saw one of these appear at the moment when Jesus died (Matthew 27:51). Do you realize that the largest fault line runs right through Israel? The Jordan River lies on it and it is called “The Great Rift Valley” going from the Sinai Peninsula down to Mozambique in Africa. It is an immense fault. When God uses earthquakes to shake His people up, He knows full well that He planted the Israelites in a land sitting on top of this fault.

Seven thousand people (there’s that number again) were killed and survivors recognized God for who He is and gave Him glory.

This is the second woe – the third is coming.