In his vision, John has been commanded by God to prophesy about many peoples and nations and languages and kings. His vision continues with John being given an “executive summary” of all the things to come in Chapters 12 through 20:
“Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff, and I was told, ‘Rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there, but do not measure the court outside the temple; leave that out, for it is given over to the nations, and they will trample the holy city for forty-two months. And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth’” (Rev 11:1-3).
Just as the prophet Ezekiel was charged to measure the remains of the temple after its destruction in Ezekiel Chapters 40-43, John is charged to do the same for the temple destroyed by the Romans in 60 A.D. The measure of the temple itself will involve the remaining outline of the four walls, using the measuring rod he has been given. But he is also to measure the altar, which was the only thing located inside the sanctuary. He is also to measure the worshipers themselves – that is, the capacity of worshipers who will one day restore the temple.
God then summarizes what will happen before the temple can be rebuilt. The unbelieving nations will completely destroy the entire holy city of Jerusalem over a period of 42 months. During that assault, God has chosen two witnesses who will prophesy throughout the same period, in perfect unity with God:
“These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. And if anyone would harm them, fire pours from their mouth and consumes their foes. If anyone would harm them, this is how he is doomed to be killed” (Rev 11:4-5).
Here we have direct confrontation, between the two witnesses acting in perfect unity with God and with each other, while facing hordes of invaders in complete disunity from God. The invaders are warned through the witnesses that they will die if they try to harm the witnesses:
“They have the power to shut the sky, that no rain may fall during the days of their prophesying, and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague, as often as they desire. And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that rises from the bottomless pit will make war on them and conquer them and kill them, and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city that symbolically is called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified. For three and a half days some from the peoples and tribes and languages and nations will gaze at their dead bodies and refuse to let them be placed in a tomb, and those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and make merry and exchange presents, because these two prophets had been a torment to those who dwell on the earth” (Rev 11:6-10).
I am reminded of a football player who viciously crushes an opponent and then taunts him while he writhes on the ground in pain – until he is ejected from the game and never allowed to play again, in disunity from the game of football:
“But after three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood up on their feet, and great fear fell on 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, and their enemies watched them. And at that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven. The second woe has passed; behold, the third woe is soon to come” (Rev 11:11-14).
Dancing on the political grave of a hated politician is also disunity from God, as is chanting dirty slogans. Beware the earthquake and the advance of another woe!
Hurry back for Part 6 and the blowing of the seventh trumpet!