《Commentary on Revelation (Vol. 2)》(Walter Scott)
11 Chapter 11
Introduction
Revelation 11.
JEWISH TESTIMONY AND THE SEVENTH TRUMPET.
INTRODUCTORY.
We have pointed out the mysteriousness of the Trumpets.Whatever difficulty there may be in a minute exposition of certain figures and symbols this, at least, may be granted, that the devastation of Gentile christianised lands and peoples is unmistakably graven on the Trumpet series of judgments as a whole; their general bearing, even though couched under a wealth of figure, is plain. It is the judgment of Christendom, which is in the main the subject of the Trumpets.
But now in the vision before us the situation is changed;we pass on to the ground of well-known prophecy. The Prophets and the Psalms have made us acquainted with the state of things in Judea and Jerusalem at the epoch referred to in our chapter, hence the interpretation is comparatively simple. We are on Jewish ground. But why is the interest of prophetic dealing transferred from the Gentile to the Jew, and why is Jerusalem so prominent in the vision, the centre of the situation? The reasons are not far to seek. Providential dealing with the apostate part of the Gentile world is now closing up. The government of the earth is about to be assumed openly, and it only remains to pour out under the Vials the concentrated wrath of God upon the guilty scene. But Israel is the centre of Gentile blessing and of judgment too. The course of judgment is drawing to a close. We are in the secondhalf of Daniel's celebrated seventieth week of seven years. At that time man's centre of earthly government will be Rome (Revelation 17:18). God's centre and capital seat of earthly government is Jerusalem. There are many cities of note, but in importance Jerusalem dwarfs them all."Thus saith the Lord God; This is Jerusalem: I have set it in the midst of the nations and countries that are round about her" (Ezekiel 5:5). Jerusalem is the capital of themillennial world, and the centre from whence the Lord governs the nations (Isaiah 2:1-4), "the city of the great King." When the Gentile world is brought into blessing it is not apart from but in direct connection with Israel. "Rejoice, ye Gentiles, with His people" (Romans 15:10).The settlement of the nations, the respective territory assigned to each, is in no wise dependent on conquest, or war, or purchase, but on the fiat of the Most High. When He "divided to the nations their inheritance, when He separated the sons of Adam, He set the bounds of the peoples according to the number of the children of Israel. For the Lord's portion is His people; Jacob is the lot of His inheritance" (Deuteronomy 32:8-9). The purpose of God to makeIsrael and her land the centre round which He shall gather the nations is not frustrated, but postponed. Our chapter presents the initial stages in the development of this glorious earthly purpose.
The Jews and Jerusalem are in the forefront of the prophecy, and viewed as trodden down of the Gentiles,. The circumstances in this most affecting period of their national history are touchingly described in Psalms 79:1-13.Here we have first the storm, then the calm; the agony of Israel's closing hours of unbelief are here depicted, but joy cometh in the morning, and on this latter the Hebrew prophets grandly descant.
In the beginning of the chapter we are introduced to the most familiar of Jewish imagery — the temple, altar, court, holy city, etc.
Verse 1
THE TEMPLE AND JERUSALEM.
Revelation 11:1-2. — "And there was given unto me a reed like a staff, saying, Rise and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship in it.And the court which (is) without the temple cast out, and measure it not; because it has been given (up) to the nations, and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty-two months." "A reed like a staff." The reed was a measuring instrument,{*In Ezekiel 40:3 the measuring rod is applied to the temple; then the city itself is measured (Zechariah 1:16). These both, i.e., temple and city, are for God's appropriation in millennial times. There seems two distinct thoughts connected with measuring. First, set apart for God, as in the foregoing passages; second, devoted to destruction by God, as Moab (2 Samuel 8:2), Jerusalem (Lamentations 2:8), Israe1 (Amos 7:8; ?Amos 7:9; ?Amos 7:17 ).} and is frequently mentioned by the prophets of old. The temple,altar, and worshippers measured by the Seer intimate their appropriation, preservation, and acceptance by God. An angel with a golden reed measures the glorified Church (Revelation 21:15). The Seer with a wooden reed does a like office for the temple. "Like a staff," or firm rod, signifies the strength, stability, and firmness of the emblematic action referred to.
"Rise and measure." The Seer had been a passive yet deeply interested spectator of the scenes witnessed under the previous Trumpets, but now that Israel, his own nation, is in question he is commanded to "rise." He is roused into activity by the divine mandate. It is more than a mere question of posture.
The temple, the altar, the worshippers, all are measured.Christian worship comes in between the suspension of Jewish worship in the past and its resumption in the future. Christians have no place of worship on earth;they enter no earthly temple. The holiest in the sanctuary above is their one and only place of worship (John 4:21; John 4:23; John 4:24; Hebrews 10:19-22); their sacrifices are praise to God and practical benevolence to men (Hebrews 13:15-16). But this is very different from Jewish worship both in the past and in the future. A temple and altar are essential to Jewish worship. While for the force of the figure it is not essential to suppose the existence of a material temple then in Jerusalem, yet prophecy demands the erection of a stone temple, and the reconstruction of the Jewish polity, both secular and religious, during that deeply solemn period between the Translation (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17) and the Appearing (Jude 1:14-15).
The Jews as a nation are restored in unbelief both on their part and on that of the friendly nation who espouse their cause (Isaiah 18:1-7). They then proceed to build their temple,{*The following are the material temples referred to in the Word of God: Solomon's (1 Kings 7:1-51), destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, 588 B. C. Zerubbabel's (Ezra 3:1-13; Ezra 6:1-22)pillaged and dedicated to the heathen god Jupiter by Antiochus Epiphanes, 168 and 170 B.C. Herod's (John 2:20), reconstructed and almost rebuilt in a style of surpassing magnificence, commenced in the year 17 B.C. Antichrist's (2 Thessalonians 2:4).to be built by restored Judah. Christ's millennial temple (Ezekiel 40:1-49), entirely new,grand and capacious. In all, five temples. The Church (1 Corinthians 3:16) and thebodies of believers (1 Corinthians 6:19) are each spoken of as the temple of God. Jerusalem is the only city on earth where a temple of stone is divinely sanctioned.The force of the word "temple" in Revelation 7:15 is that a vast crowd of worshipping Gentiles are recognised; probably these may pray and worship in the literal millennial temple then "a house of prayer for all peoples" (Isaiah 56:7).} and restore, so far as they can, the Mosaic ritual.God is not in this Gentile movement for Jewish restoration, which is undertaken for political ends and purposes. But amidst the rank unbelief of these times there shall be, as ever, a true, godly remnant, and it is this remnant which is here divinely recognised. Gentile oppression and Jewish national apostasy but bring into bold relief the faithful and consequently suffering witnesses of that day,the closing hours of the unbelieving nation's history. "The temple of God" is so termed, because He owns and accepts the true worshippers found therein. The altar refers to the brazen altar which stood in the court of old. It signifies the acceptance of those who in faith draw nigh to it, of course, as ever, on the righteous and holy ground of sacrifice. As to the moral value of the terms the "temple" would express the worship, and the "altar" the acceptance of the godly remnant of Israel. The unmeasured and rejected court given over to the Gentiles signifies the apostate part of the people, the mass in outward religious profession abandoned by God to the nations, who will wreak their vengeance on the guilty people, spite of the promised assistance of the Beast (Isaiah 28:17-22). The "Court" signifies Judaism in alliance with the Gentiles,and that in its most corrupt and apostate character.
Verse 2
JERUSALEM TRODDEN DOWN.
Revelation 11:2. — "The holy city shall they tread under foot forty-two months." Jerusalem is here as elsewhere spoken of in its sacred character as "the holy city" (see Nehemiah 11:1; Nehemiah 11:18; Isaiah 52:1; Daniel 9:24, etc.). She is to be trodden under foot for an exactly defined period, forty-two months. This denomination of time is elsewhere spoken of as 1260 days (Revelation 11:3; Revelation 12:6), a time, times, and half a time (Revelation 12:14), It is also referred to in Daniel 9:27 in the expression, "The midst of the week." Now these periods refer to the last half-week of seven years of Daniel's prophecy (Daniel 9:24-27).{*See separate article. "The Celebrated Prophecy of the Seventy Weeks."}
The forty-two months during which Jerusalem is trodden down, trampled upon by the Gentiles, are months of thirty days each, thus corresponding to the 1260 days of sackcloth testimony borne by the two witnesses or prophets. Jerusalem's coming hour of agony is limited to forty-two months.She will have to drink the cup of the Lord's fury, and drink it for 1260 days. The Gentiles will tread down the people as mire in the streets (Isaiah 10:6, etc.). Even those nations which at first politically befriended the Jew will turn round and glut their vengeance on the restored nation."They," Judah restored by Gentile intervention, "shall be left together unto the fowls of the mountains, and to the beasts of the earth: and the fowls shall summer upon them, and all the beasts of the earth shall winter upon them" (Isaiah 18:6). Thus the Gentile enemies of Israelare let loose upon the people of Jehovah's choice, then in open idolatry and apostate from God and truth (Matthew 12:43-45). "The last state of that man (Judah) is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation" (v. 45).
Verse 3-4
JEWISH WITNESSES.
Revelation 11:3-4. — "And I will give (power) to My two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred (and) sixty days, clothed in sackcloth. These are the two olive trees and the two lamps which stand before the Lord of the earth." The worshippers in the temple are a distinct company from the witnesses in the city. The worshippers and the prophets respectively set forth the truths of priesthood and royalty which unite in Christ in His millennial reign, "He shall be a priest upon His throne" (Zechariah 6:13); of this the witnesses testify.
On the question of the number of witnesses{*"I concur with Lowman, Newton, Woodhouse, Cunningham, and others in the opinion that we are to understand by the two witnesses a competent number of faithful servants of Christ." — "Notes on the Apocalypse." — Burder.} conjectures innumerable have been advanced, such as the two Testaments,the law and the Gospel, Huss and Jerome, the Waldenses and the Albigenses, etc. Others with more show of reason, and with an apparent sanction of Scripture, suppose that Moses and Elijah are the two witnesses, quoting Malachi 4:1-6 in proof of their contention.{*It was an ancient idea that some of the old prophets would reappear before the Second Advent of the Messiah. "As to the persons of these witnesses for the faith, it may be assumed as certain, as all the ancients allow, that the prophet Elijah is one of them, since the opinion was widely prevalent that he, having been carried up to Heaven without dying, would return at the time of the Messiah, or as His forerunner according to Malachi 4:5. The ancients generally suppose the second to be Enoch, especially because it was assumed of him, according to Genesis 5:24, that he was received up to Heaven whilst still alive." — "Bleek's Lectures on the Apocalypse." page 252.} "Remember ye the law of Moses My servant" (v. 4) would not imply a personal presence of the great lawgiver in the scenes of the last days; whereas verse five does seem a very express declaration that the distinguished prophet has again to reappear in Palestine: "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord." A full and adequate testimony is the thought purposely intended in the number of the witnesses. It seems to us that a larger number than actually two is called for in the solemn crisis before us,also that verse eight supposes a company of slain witnesses. But the point is immaterial. Jewish law, and here we are in the midst of Jewish circumstances, called for two witnesses to give competent evidence (Deuteronomy 17:6; Deuteronomy 19:15).Two angels bore testimony to the resurrection of the Lord (John 20:12), and two men to His ascension (Acts 1:10).
3. — "I will give." The Revised Version, Tregelles, and others omit the interpolated word "power." The sense of the passage requires a word for its completion, and hence the translators of the Authorised Version rightly enough inserted in italics in the text, "I will give power unto My two witnesses." Power or efficacy is imparted to the testimony of the witnesses. Such seems the obvious sense of the passage as demanded by the context.
The days of their testimony are carefully numbered.Theirs is not an intermittent testimony, but is continued daily till the allotted period is exhausted, not, however, a day longer. It will be observed that the 1260 days come short of three years and a half by seventeen and a half days. At the close of the period indicated the seventh Trumpet sounds, the Tribulation ends, the power of the Beast to further persecute God's saints abruptly terminates (Revelation 13:5).
. — "Clothed in sackcloth" would express the afflicted condition of the witnesses (Joel 1:13; 1 Kings 20:31;Jeremiah 4:8).
"These are the two olive trees and the two lamps." Why are the two prophets so peculiarly designated? The undoubted reference is to Zechariah 4:1-14. The olive,vine, and fig trees have each its distinctive signification. The olive is testimony (Romans 11:1-36). The vine fruitfulness (John 15:1-27). The fig Israel nationally (Luke 21:29). The witnesses in Jerusalem are termed "olive trees," because in that day they represent the testimony of God, and maintain prophetically the royal and priestly rights of the Messiah. They are also termed "the two lamps," for the light of the Spirit is in them. Their testimony is of no uncertain character, for it is carried on in the clear light of God. God is with them spiritually and in power.
But, further, the witnesses are said to "stand before the Lord of the earth," not God, as in the Authorised Version.There is One and only One Who has right and title to all here below. Jehovah, the Saviour of Israel, has in Himself an indisputable right to the earth. It belongs to Him. The right is denied, of which the resistance and conflicts of apostate Jews and Gentiles detailed in the Apocalypse are the sorrowful witness. The prophets stand before the Lord of the earth; they know in whose presence they are, and they endure as seeing Him by faith, Who to mortal sight is invisible.
Thus, then, the witnesses, be they two or many, prophesy uninterruptedly for an exact 1260 days. Their office and the sorrowful circumstances under which their testimony is carried on are signified in their clothing of sackcloth. Their testimony is one of power, and also one of spiritual light in the midst of the gloom which settles down like a funeral pall over the guilty city of Jerusalem, the guiltiest city on earth.
Verse 5-6
MIRACULOUS POWER OF THE WITNESSES.
Revelation 11:5-6. — "And if anyone wills to injure them, fire goes out of their mouth, and devours their enemies. And if anyone wills to injure them, thus must he be killed.These have power to shut the Heaven that no rain may fall during the days of their prophecy;{*Elias-like (James 5:17-18).} and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood,{*Moses-like (Exodus 7:17).} and to smite the earth as often as they will with every plague." We have had the concentration of light and power in the witnesses; now they are empowered to protect themselves and accredit their mission to the"rebellious" of Israel (Psalms 68:18) by inflicting signaljudgment on their enemies, and by exhibiting signs of a supernatural kind. None, be they high or low, are beyond the reach of judgment. Death is the certain portion of those who "wills to injure" the witnesses. No doubt the testimony will be received by some, perhaps by many (Daniel 12:3); others, and by far the greater number,proudly and disdainfully reject the message; while another class will seek to injure (not hurt as in the Authorised Version) the witnesses by violence or calumny. On these last stern judgment is executed, not on the mass, but individually, as the opposition to the witnesses assumes a violent character. Now grace works in saving the souls of men, then judgment is active in clearing the earth of Christ-rejecting sinners. The difference of the dispensations must not be overlooked. The principle is illustrated in the two Psalms (22 and 69). In the first part of both Psalms we have the sufferings of Christ. But in the former the effect of His sorrows is blessing even to the ends of the earth and for all time to come (vv. 22-31); whereas in the latter judgment is invoked on those who contributed to the anguish of the suffering Saviour (vv. 22-28). Christ sufferedfor sin (Psalms 22:1-31) and also for righteousness (Psalms 69:1-36).When the day of grace has run its course the day of vengeance surely follows.