Two Witnesses

Reflections on Revelation 11:1-6

After eating the little book, John is given a measuring rod and told to measure the temple, altar, and those who worship there.  This vision assures John that even in this time before the blowing of the seventh trumpet, God has marked off an area which is safe from harm.  That area is described as God's temple, the altar, and all who worship at the temple are measured and protected.   As John made clear in the introduction when he called the saints of Asia Minor a kingdom and priests (1:6), the temple imagery is symbolic.  The temple is not the earthly temple where God's glory dwelled for a time, but it is the heavenly one not made with hands where God continues to dwell.  That the altar is included in being measured reminds us that the protection symbolized by the measuring is spiritual and eternal rather than temporal and physical, for under it are the souls of those who were slain for the word of God (6:9).  Those who have been slain or who worship there cannot be separated from the love of God (Romans 8:35).  They have nothing to fear from those who can kill only the body, for they cannot destroy the soul (Matthew 10:28).

On the other hand, the court outside the temple, which John is not to measure, is trampled by the nations for forty-two months.  This area is also called the holy city because the saints dwell there as long as they are in their mortal bodies.  This part of the vision explains why the saints suffer until the seventh trumpet is blown.  Just as the court outside the earthly temple was given to the nations to walk upon it, so the whole earth is trampled by the nations.  The saints suffer even while protected for eternity because they prophesy in the "outer court" or "holy city" which the nations trample and desecrate for forty-two months.

Forty-two months is the "time, times, and half a time" during which the power of God's holy people on earth is "broken" in Daniel 12:7.  (Three and a half "times" equals three and a half years; three and a half years with twelve months in a year equals forty-two months.)   In Revelation, the forty-two months is the entire time the message of Christ is proclaimed from the ascension of Christ (Revelation 12:5-6) until his second coming (Revelation 13:5 with 19:11-20).

During a period of 1,260 days (which is equal to the forty-two months with thirty days in a month), two witnesses prophesy in the outer court. Just as Jesus sent his disciples two by two so that their testimony might be verified, so God's living saints are pictured here as two witnesses.   They prophesy for 1260 days in sackcloth because they know the terrible destruction that awaits the nations which reject the word of Christ they proclaim.  Nevertheless, their testimony cannot be destroyed.  God defends their testimony with plagues and drought and fire from heaven just as he defended the words of Moses and Elijah so that a remnant of all nations might be saved by God's mighty power.