“Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble… See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers…”
– Malachi 4: 1, 5
Background
Like the feast of Firstfruits, Pentecost is a feast of consecration. It was celebrated the fiftieth day after Firstfruits at the beginning of the summer wheat harvest. Whereas the consecration of the feast of Firstfruits consisted of barley still in its sheaf, the consecrated first fruits offering of Pentecost was of two baked loaves of wheat. The grain was threshed, ground, mixed with leaven and baked into two immense loaves of bread. These were ceremonially lifted up and waved above the altar, consecrating the entire crop to God. The large size and dual number of the loaves represented a double portion, with the theme of consecration/sanctification, in power.
This feast was called Weeks by the Jews because it was celebrated seven weeks after Firstfruits. Seven is God's number, symbolizing perfection and completeness. The seven weeks between the two feasts emphasized the completion of the consecration that began on Firstfruits. This was a time of consecration and self-denial, including fasting. According to Edersheim, “The feast of Unleavened Bread may be said not to have quite passed till fifty days after its commencement, when it merged in that of Pentecost or ‘of Weeks.’ 3
This feast became known in the New Testament church as Pentecost because the Greeks counted the time in days rather than weeks: Pentecost morning was the fiftieth day (Gr. ‘five’ – pente) after the seven-week interval between the two feasts. Jesus fulfilled this feast when the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples gathered in the upper room on Pentecost morning, consecrating them with power to witness and preach the Gospel. This single event turned a group of apprehensive followers into the most powerful continuing testimony the world has ever seen.
The theme of consecration is seen in the two sanctuary furnishings associated with Firstfruits and Pentecost. Against the right wall was the table on which newly baked and consecrated loaves were placed; the lampstand was located against the opposite wall. The large loaves of bread placed on the table were known as the bread of the Presence. They were replaced weekly, after which they were eaten by the priests. The bread was the Presence of God that sustained them, the lampstand his light on their path. Edersheim states that in both Jewish and early Christian tradition the bread was symbolic of the Messiah. Jesus is both the light of the world and the bread of life. Scripture equates bread with the life-giving word of God that illuminates the believer’s walk. “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” (Ps. 119:105)
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Revelation 11: 1-14 – The Feast of Pentecost
Theme: The Two Witnesses, Power of a Sanctified Life
In the pattern of the feasts that overlays Revelation, verses 1-14 of chapter 11 present the thematic fulfillment of Pentecost. The two witnesses are the antitype, or ultimate fulfillment, of the type of the two consecrated loaves of this feast. During the rule of the beast, the two witnesses issue the final call of repentance to Israel. They have the power to strike the earth with every manner of plague, testifying to the truth of their warnings. Their power, manifested as reprisals against the beast, prevent him from destroying Israel during their three and a half year ministry. The necessity for this is better understood in the context of history.
A Concise History of Israel after AD 70
After the destruction of the temple in AD 70, the Romans returned in force to crush the Judean revolt of AD 135. In an effort to prevent future rebellions, Emperor Hadrian exiled the Jews from the city of Jerusalem. (On a positive note, this dispersion resulted in a period of rabbinic study over the next several centuries, during which the Talmud was compiled.) With Constantine’s conversion, the capital of the Empire was transferred from Rome to Constantinople, and Jerusalem came under the authority of its patriarch, or bishop. The Jews would not return to the city for more than 300 years.
Aside from a brief 18-year period when the Persians held Jerusalem, the Holy Land continued to enjoy relative peace under Roman rule from Constantinople. This tranquility ended in AD 638, when the Muslim forces of the previously unknown religion of Islam overran the Middle East. The Muslims set about turning the city of Jerusalem into an Islamic center of worship, gaining the cooperation of the Jews by allowing them to return to the city. In 691, Muslim invaders completed construction of the Dome of the Rock on the location of the temple mount as a shrine to their god, Allah.
The Dome was intended to be more than just another shrine among the numerous Christian and Jewish edifices in Jerusalem. It was built on the location of the former temple to convey the message that Islam was the true religion, sharing a common birth with Judaism but replacing it as the final manifestation of God. Islam not only claimed to supersede Judaism, it denounced Christianity. Inscriptions on the Dome made it clear that the God of the Christians was a false god. These inscriptions affirm Islam as the one true faith and condemn the central Christian tenet that God is a triune being: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; denying Jesus’ divinity as the Son of God. The Al Aqsa mosque was later built just south of the Dome, in what had been the Court of the Gentiles.
The Jews were initially supportive of the arriving Muslims, believing that their former troubles at the hand of the Romans were at an end. They saw the defeat of the Christian Gentiles by the sons of Ishmael as a sign of the end of the age and embraced Muslims as friends. However, things did not turn out quite as rosy as the Jews expected. After an initial honeymoon period, they came to understand and then formally reject some Muslim beliefs. The Muslims responded by rejecting the new friendship and thereafter faced toward Mecca instead of Jerusalem during prayer. They treated Jews and Christians alike as Dhimmis, second-class citizens, though recognizing them as “People of the Book.” Because of this, the death sentence automatically applied to members of other faiths was not imposed on Christians and Jews as long as they submitted to Islamic law and paid their taxes. If they didn’t, they would be killed or sold into slavery.
Around the turn of the first millennium, several crusades were launched by the Roman Catholic Church to retake Jerusalem. The crusaders were eventually driven out of the holy land, but not before a deeply ingrained enmity developed between the Christian and Muslim worlds. The land of Israel, no longer a nation, remained under Muslim rule. Jerusalem was firmly established as an Islamic Holy City, with a shared heritage among Jews and the few remaining members of Christian religious orders, who lived as submitted minorities in Jerusalem or in scattered settlements.
The Jews came back into possession of the land following World War II. This was due to a deal struck during the World War I between a cash-starved Britain and a small cadre of Jewish financiers interested in re-establishing a Jewish homeland. The day after Israel declared its status a nation, it was invaded by five aligned Muslim countries. Most of the Palestinians left before the invasion, believing they would be able to return after a quick Arab victory. However, they Muslim invaders were driven off, and the Palestinians decided not to return. Israel was able to expand its small territory each time it was attacked over the next few decades.
A generation later, a Palestinian homeland movement developed, after subsequent attacks by bordering states failed to defeat Israel. This movement was dedicated to retaking the land by political as well as revolutionary means. The Palestinians agitated for a right to self-rule and demanded the “right of return” for all Palestinians who fled when control of the land was transferred to the Jews.
From its inception, the Palestinian movement (PLO) has worked to undermine and subvert the state of Israel, a goal fully supported by Israel’s Muslim neighbors. In 1987 and again in 2000, the Palestinians launched intifadas, or uprisings, designed to lead to the establishment of Palestinian control over the West Bank and Gaza strip. These were led by Islamic jihadist organizations intent on terrorizing the Jews into submitting to demands for an independent state of Palestine, with Jerusalem as its capital. They relied on garnering financial support from the Muslim world, bringing political pressure to bear in the United Nations and world press, and conducting suicide bombings and rocket attacks. These were designed to inflict mass civilian casualties and maximum psychological and political pressure on the Israeli government. Israel responded by bulldozing suicide bombers’ homes, carrying out selective assassinations of terrorist leaders, and building a very long wall to reduce terrorist attacks.
Although the Palestinians are not well received by their host countries in the Middle East, these countries actively support their goal of returning to Palestine and destroying the Jews. One reason for this is the Islamic principle of “waqf.” Once Muslims have conquered a territory it is submitted to Allah, belonging forever after to Islam. With the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, the Muslim Middle East was faced with the unthinkable reality of losing ‘their’ country of Palestine. Additionally, the Jews are a hated race according to the principles of Islam. The small state of Israel was and still is viewed as a blasphemous dagger in the heart of the Middle East, an insult to every Muslim believer. To retake lost Muslim lands, Islam endorses a ‘take no prisoners’ conquest by violent Jihad, or holy war. This is why many of Israel’s Muslim neighbors continue to deny her right even to exist as a Middle East state. Under Islamic law, any peace treaty made with Israel is temporary, and can only be used as a tool of deception to strengthen the Muslim military position for the eventual conquest of Israel.
This dedication to retake the land of Palestine for Islam still drives the Muslim ‘street’ in the Middle East today. It is this dynamic that makes peace between Israel and her neighbors impossible, regardless of how many concessions Israel makes. The few Muslim countries that are not publicly committed to the destruction of Israel are those whose governments are pro-western for reasons of economic and internal security. These governments walk a razor’s edge to keep the hatred of their Muslim populations against Israel from igniting protests that would signal the end of their regimes. Other Muslim countries maintain a neutral public stance towards Israel while privately funneling large sums of money from oil revenues to terrorist organizations inside its borders, even offering large financial rewards to the families of successful suicide bombers.
The popular perception is that the situation in the Middle East is some sort of Biblical blood feud between Arabs and Jews, but this is not the case. The conflict is not one of nationality, but of religion. Iran, one of the principal backers of terrorism and currently the most vehement and vociferous enemy of Israel, is Persian, not Arab. Turkey is also Muslim, but its people are Turks, not Arabs. The common bond of Israel’s enemies is the religion of Islam. The Muslim world looks forward to the day when Palestine will be returned to Muslim rule and the Jews driven into the sea.
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Revelation 11: 1-14
Then a reed was given me to serve as a measuring rod; and a voice said, “Rise, and measure God’s sanctuary—and the altar—and count the worshipers who are in it. But as for the court which is outside the sanctuary, pass it over. Do not measure it; for it has been given to the Gentiles, and for forty-two months they will trample the holy city under foot. And I will authorize My two witnesses to prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.
“These witnesses are the two olive-trees, and they are the two lamps which stand in the presence of the Lord of the earth. And if any one seeks to injure them—fire comes from their mouths and devours their enemies; and if any one seeks to injure them, he will in this way certainly be killed. They have power given to them to seal up the sky, so that no rain may fall so long as they continue to prophesy; and power over the waters to turn them into blood, and to smite the earth with various plagues whenever they choose to do so.
And when they have fully delivered their testimony, the wild Beast which is to rise out of the bottomless pit will make war upon them and overcome them and kill them. And their dead bodies are to lie in the broad street of the great city which spiritually is designated ‘Sodom’ and ‘Egypt,’ where indeed their Lord was crucified. And men belonging to all peoples, tribes, languages and nations gaze at their dead bodies for three days and a half, but they refuse to let them be laid in a tomb. The inhabitants of the earth rejoice over them and are glad and will send gifts to one another; for these two Prophets had greatly troubled the inhabitants of the earth.”
But at the end of the three days and a half the breath of life from God entered into them, and they rose to their feet; and all who saw them were terrified. Then they heard a loud voice calling to them out of Heaven, and bidding them come up; and they went up to Heaven in the cloud, and their enemies saw them go. And just as that time there was a great earthquake, and a tenth part of the city was overthrown. 7,000 people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of Heaven.
The second Woe is past; the third Woe will soon be here.
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Revelation 11, verses 1-14 Commentary
v. 1 Then a reed was given me to serve as a measuring rod; and a voice said, “Rise, and measure God’s sanctuary —and the altar—and count the worshipers who are in it.” One of the requirements of God’s justice is that two witnesses must prove the truth of any serious charges before judgment can be executed. Examples are found in both the Old and New Testaments. Genesis 19 records the investigation of the two angels who personally confirmed the wickedness of Sodom before God destroyed it. This principle was codified in the Law and carried into the New Testament church. (Deut. 17:6, Mt. 18:16) The two witnesses fulfill this requirement so judgment can proceed, observing all that transpires during the rule of the beast.
Additionally, John now becomes an active participant in events, serving as a witness himself. In the case of Solomon’s temple after the return of the exiles as well as in the plans for Ezekiel’s temple, the temple must be measured before it can be rebuilt. Measuring the temple is in fact only undertaken when there is a need to rebuild it. John’s task is consistent with the temple’s destruction two decades before he received his vision. In confirming the need to rebuild the temple, John acts as a witness to God’s first century judgment against Israel and her leaders for the blood of Jesus and the prophets. (Mt. 23:35-37, Lk. 21:22) The fact that priests and Levites were the only worshipers allowed in the Sanctuary confirms that the leadership of Israel was held accountable in this judgment. Since “judgment must begin at the house of God” (1Pet. 4:17), John confirms that the way is now clear for God to judge the Gentile world for the blood of his saints, the “many peoples, nations, tongues, and kings” of chapter 10.
v. 2 “But as for the court which is outside the sanctuary, pass it over. Do not measure it; for it has been given to the Gentiles, and for forty-two months they will trample the holy city under foot.” John is being told that judgment will not proceed against the kingdom of the beast until it has run its three and a half year course. Because the temple cannot be rebuilt until it has been completely measured, there is also an implication here that the temple will not rebuilt until the rule of the beast has come to an end.
The forty-two month time frame is consistent with every reference in Daniel and the book of Revelation to the length of the end times’ tribulation. Daniel describes this three and a half year period as “a time, times, and half a time,” or ‘one year, plus two tears, and a half year.’ In early church history, even in Gnostic writings, there was no indication that the book of Revelation might cover more than three and half years. 4
v. 3 “And I will authorize My two witnesses to prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.” Tribulation comes on the whole world, affecting Gentile and Jew alike. It will be a time of testing designed to bring many to repentance; for Israel, it will be a time of preparing their hearts to receive Jesus as their Messiah. God sends the two witnesses during the tribulation, not to judge Israel, but to turn their hearts back to him.
The three-and-a half-year period of the end times’ tribulation is variously listed as 1260 days, forty-two months, or “times, time and half a time.” Commentators generally agree that Scriptural descriptions of prophetic days are based on a thirty-day month, or 360-day year. While the 1260 days given to the two witnesses may appear at first to be the same amount of time as the forty-two months for the Gentiles trampling Jerusalem (and the rule of the beast), the two time frames are not identical. The forty-two months denote the passage of a full three and a half years. The length of the testimony of the two witnesses is therefore slightly shorter than the time of the beast’s rule, since the man of lawlessness kills the two witnesses just before Christ’s return. Daniel chapter 12 also indicates a slightly longer allotment of time for the kingdom of the beast than 1260 days noted here for the two witnesses. 5
v. 4 “These witnesses are the two olive-trees, and they are the two lamps which stand in the presence of the Lord of the earth.” This verse identifies the two witnesses, first encountered in the book of Zechariah. The prophet was shown a vision of a lampstand. Unlike the candlestick in the temple, this one had an olive tree on either side of it, providing a continuous natural supply of oil to keep the lamps burning. His curiosity aroused, Zechariah asked the angel what he was seeing. The angel replied with a two-part riddle.
Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, “This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts. Who art thou, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain: and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it.” Zech. 4:6-7
Not understanding the angel’s answer, Zechariah rephrases his question, asking the angel about the olive trees.
Again I asked him, “What are these two olive branches beside the two gold pipes that pour out golden oil?” So he said, “These are the two who are anointed to serve the Lord of all the earth.” Zech. 4:14
The angel responded to Zechariah’s second question by telling the prophet that the olive trees are anointed to serve the “Lord of all the earth.” The use of this title implies that these two anointed ones serve in earthly matters, identifying them as men rather than angelic beings. They are in fact the two witnesses of Revelation 11. To identify who they are, the angel’s first answer needs to be examined in the light of Scripture. The first witness is identified by the following verse.
Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord Almighty. Zech. 4:6
This describes an incident in the life of Elijah that occurred just after he had slaughtered 400 priests of Baal and fled from the wrath of Jezebel into the wilderness. (1Ki. 19) Elijah journeyed south to Mount Sinai and hid in a cave. The Lord told him to go outside, because his Presence would pass by. Even though a mighty wind, an earthquake, and a fire struck the mountain, the Lord was not in any of these things. Finally, The Lord’s Presence came in “a small still voice.”
The lesson for Elijah was that the things he accomplished for God did not come from the exercise of great power, but through the ministry of God’s Spirit. God’s power is in his holiness, which can be just as effective in a whispered word as it is in acts of great power. Prophecy confirms Elijah as one of the two witnesses: “See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before the great and dreadful day of the Lord.” (Mal. 4:5) Jesus confirmed that Elijah would precede his return: “To be sure, Elijah comes, and will restore all things.” (Mt. 17:11)
The second part of the riddle identifies the second witness: Who art thou, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain; and he shall bring forth the top stone with shoutings of Grace, grace, unto it. (Zech. 4:7) The question: “Who art thou?” is a rhetorical marker indicating that the angel has finished describing the first witness. In colloquial language it might be phrased: “And who is the second guy?” The picture of a mountain is a familiar Old Testament image of the strength and (usually) righteousness of an individual. Like Elijah, this individual is a man of righteousness, likely to be a prophet. Then, in the Hebrew language of word pictures, the angel describes a scene in which the one who was once a mighty mountain disappears, becoming a level plain.
The Hebrew word for before, in “before Zerubbabel,” is paw-neem. Although the angel’s symbolism is geographic in the sense of a mountain becoming a plain, the primary definition of paw-neem is related to time. Since Zerubbabel is a direct ancestor of Jesus, the angel is describing an individual in the line of the Messiah existing prior to Zerubbabel. The angel confirms the Messianic lineage forward from Zerubbabel. He would “bring forth” the Messiah, the capstone of the Messianic line, who would redeem humanity through the covenant of grace: “grace, grace, unto it.”
The question is which one of Jesus ancestors is being described? Scripture records only one ‘great mountain’ in the Messiah’s line before Zerubbabel, and that is Enoch, a prophet who received amazing revelations of the future. Jude’s epistle quotes from the Book of Enoch, and even confirms him as a prophet: “Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied… ‘See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones to judge everyone…’” (Jude 1:14-15) The angel’s riddle describes Enoch as “a mountain becoming a plain,” a graphic picture of Enoch’s disappearance from the earth when God took him to heaven (Gen. 5:24). Enoch and Elijah are the only two men recorded in Scripture who were so righteous that they did not die. At the end of the age these two men will return to earth as the two witnesses of Revelation 11 to face a martyr’s death, fulfilling the Scripture: “…man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment…”
v. 5-6 “And if any one seeks to injure them—fire comes from their mouths and devours their enemies; and if any one seeks to injure them, he will in this way certainly be killed.” They have the power to seal up the sky, so that no rain may fall so long as they continue to prophesy; and power over the waters to turn them into blood, and to smite the earth with various plagues whenever they choose to do so. The two witnesses are given extraordinary power over the elements for two reasons: first, as a testimony to Israel of the truth of their words, and second, to prevent the antichrist from destroying Israel and stopping them until they have fulfilled their ministry. Like John the Baptist, their ministry will be a call to repentance in preparation for Christ’s return. Israel’s tribulation under the rule of the beast will provide the pressure that causes Israel to heed their warning to repent, preparing them to recognize and accept Jesus as the Messiah.
v. 7-10 “And when they have fully delivered their testimony, the wild Beast which is to rise out of the bottomless pit will make war upon them and overcome them and kill them. And their dead bodies are to lie in the broad street of the great city which spiritually is designated ‘Sodom’ and ‘Egypt,’ where indeed their Lord was crucified. And men belonging to all peoples, tribes, languages and nations gaze at their dead bodies for three days and a half, but they refuse to let them be laid in a tomb. The inhabitants of the earth rejoice over them and are glad and will send gifts to one another; for these two Prophets had greatly troubled the inhabitants of the earth.”
The dark power of the antichrist will let him know when the time of the two witnesses has been fulfilled. Once he knows he can defeat them, he will do so at the first opportunity, since possession of Jerusalem and destruction of the Jews are by then his remaining unfulfilled goal. Due to the plagues the two witnesses inflicted on the earth, they are objects of universal rancor, so their death becomes an occasion of worldwide celebration. The reference to Jerusalem (where their Lord was crucified) as Spiritual Sodom and Egypt conveys a sense of the moral corruption and worldliness of Israel in the last days, reinforcing the necessity of repentance.
v. 11-13 But at the end of the three days and a half the breath of life from God entered into them, and they rose to their feet; and all who saw them were terrified. Then they heard a loud voice calling to them out of Heaven, and bidding them come up; and they went up to Heaven in the cloud, and their enemies saw them go. And just as that time there was a great earthquake, and a tenth part of the city was overthrown. 7,000 people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of Heaven.
Old Testament prophets were often called to demonstrate future events in a physical manner. The three and a half days that the two witnesses lay in the street before they come back to life may be viewed as a prophetic demonstration of the coming resurrection of the martyrs at the end of the three and a half years of the antichrist’s rule. The world is terrified at their resurrection because it fears immediate retribution for their death. This will occur, but in God’s timing. The most important result is that this event, and the earthquake that follows, convicts Israel of God’s power to judge and to save, causing the nation to acknowledge God as the sovereign ruler of the world. This conviction sets the stage for the mass conversion of Israel at Jesus’ return shortly afterwards.
v. 14 The second Woe is past; the third Woe will soon be here. The first woe was the plague of scorpion-tailed locusts announced by the fifth trumpet. The second woe, precipitated by the sixth trumpet, unleashed a great war with much suffering and loss of life. The two witnesses are included in the sixth trumpet woes because of the plagues they send against mankind. The seventh trumpet heralds the three and a half year rule of the antichrist over the earth.
Chapter Notes:
3.Alfred Edersheim, The Temple, Eerdman Publishing Grand Rapids MI 1982, p. 269
4.A three and a half year end times’ tribulation is still the interpretation of the traditional Pre-millennial position. According to Dwight Pentecost in Things To Come (Zondervan Pub. Grand Rapids MI 1958, revised 1976 p. 391), the belief in a literal three and a half year tribulation was held with unanimity by the early church. Numerous Jewish and shared Jewish-Christian non-canonical texts, such as Enoch, 4 Esdras, Assumption of Moses, Ascension of Isaiah, Psalms of Solomon, and Baruch confirm this. This view again became dominant with the return of the literal method of interpretation arising out of the Protestant Reformation. Although Daniel 9 is often cited as supporting a seven-year tribulation, critical analysis of this passage does not support this conclusion. (See Daniels 70th Week.pdf
5.Daniel 12 indicates that the end times’ tribulation period will consist of 1290 days rather than the 1260 ascribed to the two witnesses here. This is likely due to the inclusion of an (extra) intercalary month required every third year to rectify the discrepancy between the shorter lunar calendar and the 365 day solar calendar. Daniel 12 also describes an extra 45 days past the 1290 days (1335 days). This appears to coincide with the celebration of the feast of Purim, and may reflect the time required for the saints to completely eradicate the beast’s followers from the nations.
Revelation 11: 1 - 14
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