A POWERFUL PAIR OF WITNESSES (PART 2)

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Now when they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the Abyss will attack them, and overpower and kill them. Their bodies will lie in the public square of the great city—which is figuratively called Sodom and Egypt—where also their Lord was crucified.

For three and a half days some from every people, tribe, language and nation will gaze on their bodies and refuse them burial. The inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them and will celebrate by sending each other gifts, because these two prophets had tormented those who live on the earth.

But after the three and a half days the breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and terror struck 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, while their enemies looked on.

At that very hour there was a severe earthquake and a tenth of the city collapsed. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the survivors were terrified and gave glory to the God of Heaven.

The second woe has passed; the third woe is coming soon.

Revelation 11:7-14

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

In the interim period between the sounding of the sixth and seventh trumpets with their associated judgments, we find an event in the eleventh chapter of Revelation, one involving “two witnesses” sent from Heaven to earth by God. In yesterday’s message, we saw where the arrival of these two entities fulfilled the prophecy given by the Old Testament prophet, Zechariah.

You’ll remember that the two witnesses were dispatched to Jerusalem where they were to prophesy for 1,260 days while dressed in sackcloth (v.3). This coincided with the period of time that the holy city would be under the siege of persecution from the Gentiles (v.2). The scriptures tell us that these two witnesses were not sent by God without a defense mechanism for we read where they both could emit “fire” out of “their mouths” that would consume “their enemies”. They also possessed the power to “shut up the heavens” so there would be no rain as they were “prophesying”, to “turn the waters into blood”, and to “strike the earth with every kind of plague as often” as they liked.

So what would happen to them at the end of the 42 months of prophesying?

We find out in today’s passage and the rest of this message, the second and last of this short series. Look again at the Word of God in Revelation 11:

Now when they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the Abyss will attack them, and overpower and kill them. Their bodies will lie in the public square of the great city—which is figuratively called Sodom and Egypt—where also their Lord was crucified.

For three and a half days some from every people, tribe, language and nation will gaze on their bodies and refuse them burial. The inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them and will celebrate by sending each other gifts, because these two prophets had tormented those who live on the earth.

But after the three and a half days the breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and terror struck 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, while their enemies looked on.

At that very hour there was a severe earthquake and a tenth of the city collapsed. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the survivors were terrified and gave glory to the God of Heaven.

The second woe has passed; the third woe is coming soon. Vv. 7-14

At the beginning of Revelation, chapter 9, we read that the fifth trumpet was sounded, sending a star falling from Heaven to earth. This “star” believed to be a fallen angel, had a key that was used to open “the Abyss” which unleashed scorpion-like locusts and five months of torment and torture on all the people of the earth except the 144,000 who had been marked for protection by God.

Well, as we see in chapter 11, the scorpion-like locusts weren’t the only dangers lurking in the Abyss for after the two witnesses finish their prophesying, we read where a beast will emerge, attacking, overcoming, and killing them. “Their bodies will then lie in the public square of the great city where Jesus was crucified, the city which will also bear the figurative names of “Sodom and Egypt”. For three and a half days, the bodies of the two witnesses will remain unburied as “some from every people, tribe, language and nation will gaze on their bodies and refuse them burial”. Further, the scriptures tell us that the “inhabitants of the earth will gloat over” their killing and “celebrate by sending each other gifts”, overjoyed that the “two prophets” were no longer bringing torment on “those who live on the earth”.

This celebration was short lived because we read where God sent “the breath of life” into His two messengers, resurrecting them and bringing “terror” to “those who saw them”. And with that, “a loud voice from Heaven summoned the two prophets, saying, “Come up here” and so they did, ascending to “Heaven in a cloud” as “their enemies looked on”. Their sky gazing was abruptly interrupted by chaos as a “severe earthquake” struck Jerusalem, causing “a tenth of the city” to collapse and killing “seven thousand people”.

As for the survivors, they were left “terrified” and immediately “gave glory to the God of Heaven” but any sense of peace they felt was about to end. For in tomorrow’s message, we will see the judgment, “the third woe”, is unleashed when the seventh trumpet sounds.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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