1 These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. 5 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. 6 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. 7 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, 8 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. 9 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, 10 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. 11 But after the 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. 12 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. 13 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.
14 The second woe has passed; behold, the third woe is soon to come.
Comment: In Revelation chapter one, the ‘lampstands’ represent the leaders holding up the churches which give the glorious light of the gospel to the world. There were seven of them holding up seven churches. The messages were only extremely laudatory to two of them – Smyrna and Thyatira, although all of them were given the way to change from self destruction to victory! In the Bible oil is very often used as a symbol for the Holy Spirit and if, there are two faithful witnesses spoken of here, they will be empowered by the the Holy Spirit. They, themselves, becoming like olive trees dispensing truth and wisdom and power to the local churches! The two witnesses present a powerful message and God protects them, shooting fire and destroying anyone who seeks to exterminate them! They have great powers over natural events even turning water to blood (as occurred in the Egyptian plagues) and many other plagues. Satan arises from his pit and kills them! Presumably embalmed their bodies lie in the city where Jesus was Crucified (Jerusalem) for several days (does this represent three and a half years a substitution of thinking with which we have already met!) – The wickedness of sexual depravity and power, here rampantly evident, represented by Sodom and Egypt! People rejoice that God’s two appointed witnesses are dead! But the witnesses are resurrected and taken into heaven!
Ch 9:12 reads ‘The first woe has passed; behold, two woes are still to come.’ Here we read in Ch 11:12 ‘The second woe has passed; behold, the third woe is soon to come.’ Has the straight line from woe one to woe three been an open ended loop, starting before woe 2 was completed, giving us more detail about the ‘rapture’?
1 Thess 4: 15-16 – For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.
Prayer: Help me to live expectantly and faithfully awaiting Your sure return.