Measuring communicates existence, ownership, and protection. The Lord is declaring to John and to us that His people will still exist in Jerusalem even as the antichrist and his followers seem to be in control of religion in Jerusalem. John measured the temple, the altar and the worshippers. There will still be a remnant of God’s people. They will worship God in Spirit and in truth and not according to the counterfeit religion of the antichrist.[1]
In Revelation 21:9-16, one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls filled with the seven last plagues said to John, “Come, I will show you the bride, the Lamb’s wife.” He carried John away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain. The angel showed John holy Jerusalem. The angel had a gold reed to measure the city. The city’s length, breadth, and height are equal. It is 12,000 furlongs or 1,500 miles on each side. The wall around the city is 144 cubits or 216 feet (roughly the height of a 20-story building) high. The city is pure gold, like clear glass.
The measuring of the temple in Revelation 11:1-2 relates to Ezekiel 40 where in the 25th year of the Babylonian captivity, the Lord took Ezekiel by His Spirit to a high mountain in Israel where he sees a city. While there, he saw a man with a measuring rod in his hand. Ezekiel watches this man throughout chapters 40-42. The man measures and gives the dimensions of the new temple.
The measuring of the temple in Revelation 11:1-2 relates to Ezekiel 40-42 where in the 25th year of the Babylonian captivity, the Lord took Ezekiel by His Spirit to a high mountain in Israel. The Lord showed Ezekiel a man with a measuring rod in his hand. This man measures and gives to Ezekiel the dimensions of a new temple. Thus, Ezekiel’s prophecy begins with the destruction of the first temple, and ends with a vision for a new temple.
In Ezekiel 13:10-12, the Lord compared the false prophets in Jerusalem to bad builders. They prophesied of peace when there was no peace. True prophets like Ezekiel warned the people of God’s judgments. In Ezekiel 10:18, the glory of the Lord departed from the temple due to all the idolatrous practices that were happening inside it.
Revelation 11:1-2, the Lord is indicating to John and to us that there will be a new temple.
In Revelation 7:14-15, an angel showed to John a great multitude of people in heaven. They came out from the great tribulation. Now, they are serving God say and night in His temple. But then in Revelation 21:22, John sees no temple in New Jerusalem “for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.”
The temple that the Lord showed John and Ezekiel may be built during the 1,000-year reign of Christ with His martyrs. The 1,000 year reign of Christ is mentioned in Revelation 20:4.
After the Babylonian captivity was over, God led and equipped Nehemiah, Ezra and many others to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. So, perhaps after the “Babylon” of Revelation 18 is destroyed, a new temple will be rebuilt in Jerusalem. During that era, as now, sacrifices for sin will be remembrances of what Christ accomplished by His death and resurrection. His one sacrifice of Himself was sufficient to remove the sins of the world. Sinners appropriate His sacrifice by believing in Him and professing Him to be their Lord and Savior. During our communion and baptism services, we remember the sacrifices Christ made for us.
The Lord’s message to John in Revelation 11:1-2 is similar to the message that He gave to Daniel in Daniel 7:25 and 12:7, and to Ezekiel in his prophecy. The Gentiles will tread underfoot that which is holy, but after 42 months, their treading will end.
Why would God show John the dimensions of a temple if He did not intend to restore it?
In Matthew 16:15-18, Jesus said that not even the gates of hell will prevail against His kingdom.
“The vision of the temple says that God has not forsaken His people and that His relationship with them will be restored and elevated to a new, never-before-conceived glory and intimacy.”[2]
Prophecies of Gentiles destroying and defiling the temple of God are recorded in Isaiah 63:18, Zechariah 12:2-3, and by Jesus Himself in Matthew 24:1-2 and Luke 21:24.
Revelation 11:3: “And I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.”
God showed John two witnesses. God empowers these witnesses. They witness for the Lord for a period of about three and half years. This is about the length of time that Jesus ministered on earth in the land of Israel during His first coming.
In Luke 10:1, Jesus sent His disciples out two by two. In Matthew 18:16, Jesus told His disciples, “In the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established,” which is a quote from Deuteronomy 19:15.
In Ezra 6:14, long ago, God prospered His people in Jerusalem through the witness of His servants Haggai and Zechariah: “So the elders of the Jews built, and they prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah...”
The two witnesses in Revelation 11 prophesy to uproot unbelief and plant faith in God.
They wear sackcloth. Sackcloth is symbolic of lamentation, mourning and woe. Like the prophets who went before them, and like Jesus, these two witnesses mourn for people who reject truth and embrace lies. They witness for Jesus, but their listeners hate and reject them.
Revelation 11:4: “These are the two olive trees and two lampstands standing before the God of the earth.”
God relates the two witnesses to olive trees and lampstands. Olive trees live longer than other trees. The oil for anointing people and the oil used to keep lamps burning was made from olives. Oil and fire are symbolic of the Holy Spirit.
In Zechariah 4:2-3, God gave Zechariah a vision of two lamps filled continuously with oil from two olive trees. They are continuously supplied with power by the Holy Spirit.
In Zechariah 4:14, the Lord says, “These are the two anointed ones, who stand beside the Lord of the whole earth.” Jesus Christ (the Word of God) and the Holy Spirit best fit this description. Anyone who is a faithful witness for God will have a relationship with Jesus the Word of God and will be filled, led and empowered by the Holy Spirit.
In Revelation 1:20, Jesus called His churches lamps.
Revelation 11:5: “And if anyone wants to harm them, fire proceeds from their mouth and devours their enemies. And if anyone wants to harm them, he must be killed in this manner.”
According to 2 Samuel 22:8-9, when God is angry smoke goes up from his nostrils and a devouring fire from His mouth. God embodies this visual via His two witnesses.
In Psalm 68:2, David prayed, “As smoke is driven away, so drive them away; as wax melts before the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God.”
In Numbers 16:28-35, Moses said, “Hereby you shall know that the Lord has sent me to do all these works; for I have not done them of mine own mind. ... And there came out a fire from the Lord and consumed the 250 men...” In 2 Kings 1:10-12, “Elijah answered and said to the captain of 50, if I be a man of God, then let fire come down from heaven, and consume you and your 50. And there came down fire from heaven and consumed him and his 50.”
Moses and Elijah are symbolic of the Law and Prophets. They are types of Christ and the Holy Spirit. Jesus is the Word of God and the Holy Spirit is the power of God.
In Hosea 6:5, God said to Hosea, “I hewed them by the prophets. I have slain them by the words of My mouth: and Your judgments are as the light that goes forth.”
In Jeremiah 5:14, the Lord told Jeremiah, “I will make My words in your mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.”
God’s Law slays us. It tells us that we are sinners against God. It tells us we deserve to be sentenced to hell forever due to our sins against God and against humanity. We are criminals.
Billy Graham preached, “The cross is offensive because it says that we are sinners in need of a Savior who saves us by His grace.” To be saved by grace means to recognize that there is nothing we can do to save ourselves. We must receive Christ and all that He has done for us as a gift from God. We cannot earn or merit Christ. We receive Him unworthily, but gladly.
“You contribute nothing to your salvation except the sin that made it necessary.”[3]
We, who believe in Jesus Christ, witness for Him. After His resurrection, Jesus told His disciples, in Luke 24:48, “You are witnesses of these things.” And in Acts 1:8; He said, “You shall receive power, after that the Holy Spirit is come upon you: and you shall be witnesses for Me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”
In Acts 2:3-4, when the Holy Spirit baptized the disciples, divided tongues as of fire sat upon each of them, “and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.”
In Acts 2:32; 3:15; 13:31, the disciples identified themselves as witnesses of Jesus.
Revelation 11:6: “These have power to shut heaven, so that no rain falls in the days of their prophecy; and they have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to strike the earth with all plagues, as often as they desire.”
The Lord gives these two witnesses power to stop the rain from falling, power to turn water into blood, and power to strike the earth with plagues.
In 1 Kings 17:1, Elijah told the ungodly king of his nation, “As the Lord God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.”
Jesus verified in Luke 4:25 that during “the days of Elijah... the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was great famine throughout all the land.”
James mentions this miracle in James 5:17-18, “Elijah... prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.”
The two witnesses of Revelation 11:3 prophesy 1,260 days which is three years and six months.
The two witnesses “have power to shut heaven, so that no rain falls in the days of their prophecy.” Mark 4:39-41 indirectly states that the power to stop storms comes from Jesus. Jesus delegates His power and authority to His two end times witnesses.
In Exodus 7:17-19, God commanded Moses to strike a river with a rod. Then, He commanded Aaron stretch the rod over streams, rivers, ponds and pools of water in Egypt. When Moses and Aaron obeyed God, the waters turned to blood.
In Psalm 2:9 and Revelation 2:27, the Lord speaks of breaking and ruling the nations. He speaks of breaking them as pottery breaks when struck with a rod of iron. Revelation 12:5 and 19:15 speaks of Christ ruling all nations with a rod of iron. In Jeremiah 18:1-10, the Lord told Jeremiah as a potter destroys and reuses the clay of a pot that did not come out right, so He can destroy a nation and rebuild it. In Jeremiah 1:10, God described the prophet’s ministry as uprooting and rebuilding. He uproots unbelief and lies, and plants faith and truth.
In Revelation 11:6, the two witnesses “strike the earth with all plagues, as often as they desire.”
In Genesis 12 and 20, God struck Abimelech’s household with diseases.
In Exodus 4:6, God made the hand of Moses turn leprous and then healed it. In Numbers 12, God gave Miriam leprosy and then healed her. In 2 King 5:27, after God healed the leprosy of Naaman, He placed his leprosy on Elisha’s servant Gehazi for being dishonest and exploitive.
In Exodus 7–12, God stuck Pharoah’s kingdom with ten plagues. The plagues on the earth mentioned in Revelation 8–16 are some of the very plagues God struck upon Egypt.
In Numbers 11, 14, 16, 25, the Israelites experienced plagues due to rebellion, complaining, and idolatry. For example, the plague that followed Korah’s rebellion killed 14,700 people.
In 1 Samuel 4:8, the Philistines expressed their fear of the God of Israel when they said, “Woe to us! Who will deliver us from the hand of these mighty gods? These are the gods who struck the Egyptians with all the plagues in the wilderness.”
How did the prophet Daniel pray when he realized his nation was being judged by God?
In Daniel 9, when Daniel perceived from God’s Word to Jeremiah that 70 years must pass before the desolations of Jerusalem would end, he pleaded to the Lord for mercy. He fasted and put on sackcloth and ashes. He confessed the greatness, faithfulness and love of God toward those who keep His commandments. He confessed that Israel had acted wickedly and rebelliously. He confessed that “the curse and oath that are written in the Law of Moses... have been poured out upon us.” He asked the Lord to turn away His wrath. He said, “For we do not present our pleas before you because of our righteousness, but because of Your great mercy.”
The truth that the two end times witnesses speak along with the signs and wonders that they do will frustrate and anger the people who hate God and do not want God to exist. In my next article, which covers Revelation 11:7-14, we will learn how the world responds to God’s gracious overtures of kindness to help them believe in Him and be saved.
[1] Notes from Adrian Rogers sermon
[2] GotQuestions.org
[3] Jonathan Edwards expressed this exact concept—that our own actions and the very things we bring to God only serve to condemn us—throughout his actual writings. But this quote is attributed to pastor Jonathan Gibson as an adapted summary of Edwards’ view on grace.
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