The Little Book of the Revelation - Sixteenth in a series

The Day and Hour, known only by the Father (Mat 24:36), arrive now for the witnesses.

• For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. (1 Cor 15:22)

• VERSE 11
  And after the three days and a half the breath of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them that beheld them.

Could the three and a half days epitomize the three and a half years of the Great Tribulation that has now ended? The witnesses are in view of people, tribes, nations, (vs 9) who feel great fear at the spectacle of dead men resurrected though not yet taken up to the heavens.

• VERSE 12
  And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they went up into heaven in the cloud; and their enemies beheld them.

Is this the promised Resurrection of the dead, after which the living shall also be changed in the twinkling of an eye? (1 Cor 15:52) Or, is it only the raising of two men who are real people, who are not symbolic of all Christians? We will find out in the by-and-by.

• VERSE 13
  And the same hour was there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand: and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven.

The remarkable message of this verse is that some, a remnant, feared God and gave him glory when the two witnesses were resurrected. And this occurred “the same hour”, suggesting a co-temporal event.

Could it be that this passage describes an awakening of hearts by the Holy Spirit, an irresistible grace, yet assisted by the two witnesses? Might this verse mark the salvation of the remnant, also defined as the ‘144,000’? The Jews about whom Paul prophesies in Romans 11:25? Are they the ones who were providentially blinded until the fulness of the gentiles be come in?

If so, are they in Jerusalem geographically or symbolically? Will this remnant also now rise to meet the Lord in the air? (1 Thess 4:17)

In this line of thought, the resurrection occurs ‘mid-tribulation’, that is, after the Great Tribulation that fell on the saints of God and before the much Greater Tribulation that will fall on those who despise the Lord. Simultaneously, at the midpoint, the second woe is ended.

• VERSE 14
  The second woe is past; and, behold, the third woe cometh quickly.

The earthquake and death toll described in Revelation 11:13 are not massive (as also noted in Post 7). They are minor events when compared to the time when Jerusalem, “the great city” of Revelation 16, will be split into three parts in the seventh bowl judgment. (Rev 16:19).

So, it is doubtful that they define “the second woe.” What then, does?

The third woe comprises the seven bowl judgments, so it would seem that the second woe relates to the end of any prospect for salvation.

It is not so woeful that an earthquake has toppled a tenth of the city or that seven thousand have perished; it is dreadful and a shock that there is now no more hope of salvation. The door to the ark has been shut.

The Little Book showed us a panorama of God's mercy to his covenant peoples— the ‘grafted in’ Christians and the root, the Jews, as they have reached across the generations and centuries, drawing each other to Christ, from the sanctuary of his temple to the streets of their call to go to all the world, and to the Jew first.

The sounding of the seventh trumpet in verse 15 marks the time of ressurection:

• And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever. (Rev 11:15)

Paul speaks about a last trumpet in his letter to the Corinthians.

• Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. (1 Cor 15:51-52)

The many mysteries of the Revelation are beyond our ability to fully discern. It is wonderful that we have an outline and knowledge of our destiny in Christ.

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