The Revelation 11a:

Reading #439  The second “woe”

We move now into the area of unfulfilled prophecy.  The events described in these verses are not easy to understand without a close connection with the Spirit of God whose job it is to explain them.  But if we listen well, then they make sense.  As we have found with the other “trumpets”, a knowledge of history will help as a guide to what is to happen.  The time periods should be understood as literal, because the Angel of Revelation 10:6 has told us that there is to be no more prophetic time, or day for a year explanations, after 1844.  What He did say was that we would have to repeat the message of 1844 regarding the heavenly sanctuary.  Revelation 10:11.

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Revelation 11:

1 And there was given me a reed like to a rod: and the Angel stood, saying, “Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein.

2 “But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given to the Gentiles: and the holy city [the church of God] shall they tread under foot forty-two months”.

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John was given a straight and sturdy rod and told to use it to measure (investigate) carefully the heavenly sanctuary building, the altar of prayer in it, and the people of it.  In the earthly sanctuary the only people who would be in the building attending the golden prayer altar were the ordinary priests who did things on a daily basis in and out of the first apartment.  (e.g. Mark 1:8-10).  But God says of all His people, “Now therefore, if you will obey My voice indeed, and keep My covenant, then you shall be a peculiar treasure to Me above all people: for all the earth is Mine: and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation.  These are the words which you shall speak to the children of [spiritual] Israel”.  Exodus 19:5-6.  So this instruction is for us. The second apartment was reserved for the high priest and he only went in and out of it a few times on one day of the year. For more on this click http://www.oocities.org/weprotest.geo/day_of_atonement.html

 From my library:

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Here is the work going on, measuring the temple and its worshipers to see who will stand in the last day. Those who stand fast shall have an abundant entrance into the kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. When we are doing our work remember there is One that is watching the spirit in which we are doing it. Shall we not bring the Saviour into our everyday lives, into our secular work and domestic duties? Then in the name of God we want to leave behind everything that is not necessary, all gossiping or unprofitable visiting, and present ourselves as servants of the living God.

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Here are some references to the measuring stick:

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Exodus 4:

20 And Moses took his wife and his sons, and set them upon an ass, and he returned to the land of Egypt: and Moses took the rod of God in his hand.

Job 21:

7 Wherefore [why] do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power? 8 Their seed [their children] is established in their sight with them, and their offspring [grandchildren] before their eyes. 9 Their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God upon them.  

Revelation 12:

1 And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: 

2 and she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered . . .  5  And she brought forth a Man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her Child was caught up to God, and to His throne.

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Here we can see that the “rod” that Moses carried into Egypt and which the Son of God asked him to use to indicate the removal of His protecting power over the plagues is God’s staff, His “support” for His creatures.  Yet Job thought of it as a weapon of correction and despaired that it was not used on the rejecters of God’s mercy!  In a prophecy which we will read about soon, the Son of man is said to have it to “rule” all the nations, but that “rule” is based on unselfish love, and therefore the “rod of correction and power” is love used in mercy and with a purpose.        

Thus it is written, “⁵ . . . have you forgotten how good parents treat children, and that God regards you as his children?  My dear child, don't shrug off God's discipline, but don't be crushed by it either. ⁶ It's the child he loves that he disciplines; the child he embraces, he also corrects. ⁷ God is educating you; that's why you must never drop out. He's treating you as dear children. This trouble you're in isn't punishment; it's training, ⁸ the normal experience of children. Only irresponsible parents leave children to fend for themselves. Would you prefer an irresponsible God? ⁹ We respect our own parents for training and not spoiling us, so why not embrace God's training so we can truly live?”  Hebrews 12:5-9 (MSG).

The Son of God is asking us, as He asked John, to “measure” with love and kindness the building which represents Himself, to investigate how to pray, and to look at those who are attempting to do this beside the altar of incense/prayer.  In simple words, to look carefully and lovingly at those who claim to be God’s representatives on earth today, and “judge” them against God’s standard, the Ten Commandments. 

From my library:

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That temple, erected for the abode of the divine Presence, was designed to be an object lesson for Israel and for the world.  From eternal ages it was God's purpose that every created being, from the bright and holy seraph [the highest angels] to man, should be a temple for the indwelling of the Creator.  Because of sin, humanity ceased to be a temple for God.  Darkened and defiled by evil, the heart of man no longer revealed the glory of the Divine One.  But by the incarnation of the Son of God, the purpose of Heaven is fulfilled.  God dwells in humanity, and through saving grace the heart of man becomes again His temple. 

God designed that the temple at Jerusalem should be a continual witness to the high destiny open to every soul.  But the Jews had not understood the significance of the building they regarded with so much pride.  They did not yield themselves as holy temples for the Divine Spirit.

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He had said this of Himself many centuries before.  “You son of man, show the House to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities: and let them measure the Pattern [of My life]. And if they be ashamed of all that they have done [are repentant], show them the form of the house, and the fashion thereof, and the goings out thereof, and the comings in thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the laws thereof: and write it in their sight, that they may keep the whole form thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and do them”. Ezekiel 43:10-11.  But we have to be careful how we do this.  See note 1.

The courtyard, which represents the earth, John was to ignore and leave to those who either reject or neglect the God of heaven, and so should we.  (See Note 4, John 17:14-16.)  As Jesus said, “Let the dead bury the dead”, which means we should let the people of the world get on with their religious and civil ways and concentrate on understanding and spreading the true gospel which should be centred in the services of the second apartment.  See Daniel 8:14.

Then John was given a time period!  Forty-two months is three and one half years.  There is no indication here when it would begin; therefore we can have no knowledge of when it will finish.  There is no starting date because it depends on Christians doing their part in God’s work, for “all things are now ready”.  Luke 14:17.  The “harvest is overripe”.  Revelation 14:15, margin.

However, during that time the church of God is to be persecuted with the second persecution.  Remember these words?

“I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them [for 1260 years, from 538AD – 1798];

 [1]  until the Ancient of days came [in 1844.  Since then there has been relative peace, but the war will start up again during the loud cry],

 [2]  and [it will last until] judgment was given to the saints of the most High, [then peace will reign again for 1,000 years until the final attack on God’s people];

 [3]  and [it will only stop when] the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom [the new world]”.  Daniel 7:21-22.

Click here for more on the second persecution:

http://www.oocities.org/weprotest.geo/BibleReadings/daniel/reading_417_dan_11c.html

We are being told that there will be a terrible time of persecution during a period of three and one half years, similar in principle to that which occurred over the 1260 years from 538AD – 1798, and during which the people of God looked as though they were being defeated.  Here is where history can help us.  If we would like to know something of the future terrors, we can see just such a situation in the past.  There has been one nation, at one time in history, which has had such an experience.  In Roman Catholic France during the years 1793 to 1797 there was a period of three and one half years called “The Reign of Terror”, as part of the French Revolution.  In 1840-44 that incident of history was still very fresh!  For an in-depth study on that, try:

http://www.oocities.org/weprotest.geo/BibleReadings/revelation/french_revolution.html

What we should also see in that article is what it will be like for the people of the nations in the period leading down to the close of probation for the world, and understand why the Son of God has not allowed it to happen without a clear warning from us, and we are sealed to live through it.  Revelation 7:3.

God describes it in this way:

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Revelation 11:

3  “And I will give power to My two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth”.

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So bad is this to be that God’s eternal Witnesses will be very sorrowful during this second “woe”.  “One thousand two hundred and sixty days” is also three and one half years, so the Spirit is talking about the period of Gentile [unbelievers] ascendancy!  During that time the witnesses will be working, for the gospel is to be preached in all the world, but not many will choose it permanently.   

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Revelation 11:

4 “These [witnesses] are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth [Psalm 119:105]. 5 And if any man will hurt them, fire proceeds out of their mouth, and devours their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed.

6 “These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will”.

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He doesn’t leave us to guess who the Witnesses are.  See note 2 for an explanation from the Old Testament.  As we have seen in the past, the power of the Holy Spirit is the word of God (and we are to live by every word, Deuteronomy 8:3), and here we are being directed to the Old and the New Testaments.  What is being described is a time when the Bible and its believers (Jew and Christian) will be “clothed in sackcloth” because it and they have been turned away from by the rejecters of God’s mercy and grace, and left desolate, as their Master had been in the past. “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you that kills the prophets, and stones them which are sent to you, how often would I have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, and you would not [let Me]! Behold, your house is left to you desolate”.  Matthew 23:37-38. 

Regarding the Jews in the last effort it is written:

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Romans 11:

24 “For if you [Christians] were cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and were grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree [the Son of God]: how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?  25 For I would not, brothers [and sisters], that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. 26 And so all [spiritual] Israel shall be saved: as it is written, ‘There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: 27  for this is My covenant to them, when I shall take away their sins’.”

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Both testaments are witnesses also to the plan of salvation. The types, sacrifices, and prophecies of the Old point forward to a Redeemer to come; the Gospels and Epistles of the New tell of He who has come in the exact manner foretold by type and prophecy. 

It is the two testaments of the Son of God and the prophecies within them that are being described as “living” beings, because as Jesus said, “Search the scriptures [the OT]; for in them you think you have eternal life: and they are they which testify of Me”.  John 5:39.  Paul spoke of, “Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain”.  Philippians 2:16.  Living humans normally work with the scriptures, but here they are being personalised and shown to us as having a life of their own, alongside their speakers.  Jesus told us, “It is the Spirit that quickens [makes alive]; the flesh profits nothing: the words that I speak to you, they are spirit, and they are life”. John 6:63.  Those who “hurt” them will find, like Satan at Calvary, that their efforts will rebound on themselves.

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Revelation 11:

7 “And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit [Satan through the 8^th head of his beast] shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them. 8 And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called “Sodom” and “Egypt”, where also our LORD was crucified [aka Great Babylon, or, the whole world, Revelation 16:9].

9 And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and a half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves. 10 And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth”.

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Here it seems that at (or near) the end of the three and one half years of bitter opposition, the truths of the Bible will be entirely rejected by all of the people in the world, leaving those who trust in their LORD to regard the scene with amazement and fear.  The rebels will rejoice because they no longer feel the pangs of conscience which the Spirit has hitherto been able to bring to their attention, as Ahab did when he confronted Elijah. [1 Kings 18:17-18.] 

They will still have the physical Book (in fact many will be using it in their religions), but they will have absolutely no comprehension of its real meaning, for probation will have closed for all who are alive on earth, saint and sinner.  God speaks sadly of that time in note 3.

But the joy of the rejecters won’t last long, although it will seem endless to the saints of God.

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Revelation 11:

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In the “earthquake” which takes place at that time, all the usual law and order of the world will disappear, for that is how the Spirit often describes the breakdown of human government.  One of the ten toes of the image in Daniel 2 (the iron and clay, or, the unions of church and state groups) will collapse completely (it’s not important which one), but the other nine will still be there in full force at the second coming.  The figure of 7,000 dying in the catastrophe is similar to God’s declaration that He had 7,000 men who had not bowed the knee to Baal in Elijah’s time – it is a symbolic number to denote the whole.  1 Kings 19:18; Romans 11:4. 

There will be a great convicting power when the Son of God arrives and resurrects His people, and the living rebels will reluctantly admit that He and His word were correct.  Seeing that event will remind the rebels that the word of God is always right in the end, but that will not make them change their minds.  However, we can read about that next week.  

Bye for now,

Ron

Some of the comments in these readings are adapted from books in my library.     No recognition is given because they are not intended as authorities, but are used because they express my understanding clearly.    All the ideas expressed in these readings, right or wrong, are my own.

Some of these readings are available at http://www.oocities.org/weprotest.geo/BibleReadings/books_index.html

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Note 1.  From my library:

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If the church on earth is to resemble a temple, let it be built according to the pattern shown in heaven and not according to man's genius.  The invention of man often counteracts the working out of God's plans.  The golden measuring rod has not been placed in the hands of any finite man or any class of men, whatever their position or calling, but is in the hand of the heavenly Architect.  If men will not meddle with God's plan, and will let Him work upon minds and characters, building them up according to His plan, a work will be accomplished that will stand through the severest of trials. [We are to investigate, but not to control.]   Back

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Note 2.

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Zechariah 4:

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Note 3.

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Isaiah 13:

6 Howl you; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty. 7 Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man's heart shall melt: 8 and they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travails [in childbirth]: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames.

9 Behold, the day of the LORD comes, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and He shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it [by letting them have their own way, Revelation 6:14-17].  

10 For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine. 11 And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.

12 [On the other hand] I will make a [Christian] man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir.

13 Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of His fierce anger [His utter helplessness].   Back

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Note 4.  In the world, but not of it:

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John 17:

14 I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 15 I pray not that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil [of it]. 16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.   Back

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