Title: The Life and Death of Two Witnesses
Bible: Revelation 11:1-19
Title: The Life of Two Witnesses
Revelation 11:1-19 ‘1. And he gave me a reed like a staff, and said, 2. Do not measure the outer courts of the temple, but leave them alone, since they were given to the Gentiles, and they will trample on the holy city for forty-two months.
3. I will give authority to my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth, 4. They are the two olive trees and the two candlesticks that stand before the Lord of the earth... I will be on the road to the castle...
11. After three days and a half, breath of life from God entered into them, and they stood on their feet... When they heard it, they climbed up into the clouds of heaven... 13. Then there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell, and an earthquake Seven thousand people died in ...
14. The second woe has passed, but behold, the third woe is coming quickly. 19. Then the temple of God in heaven was opened, and in the temple the ark of the covenant of God was seen, and there were lightnings and voices and thunder and earthquakes and great hail.” - Amen.
This chapter records that at the end of the first half of the Great Tribulation, after the two witnesses finished the witnessing work and after being martyred, they were resurrected and ascended to heaven three and a half days later. I would like to examine the contents under the title of <The Life and Life of Two Witnesses>.
1. Who are the two witnesses?
2-3, ‘forty-two months’, ‘one thousand two hundred and sixty days’ (three years and six months, a Jewish month is 30 days), the duration of the two witnesses’ activities will occur in the first half of the great tribulation. Text Revelation 11:14 “The second woe has passed, but behold, the third woe is coming quickly.” After this event, the final woe is foretold. So the two witnesses are some two evangelists who will come out of the church during the tribulation period.
(1) The clothes of the two witnesses are sackcloth, so they are witnesses who cry out for repentance.
Luke 10:13 “…they must have repented already, clothed in sackcloth, and sitting on ashes”
(2) The two witnesses are ‘two olive trees’, and the olive tree is used to light the lamp. They are the witnesses who light up the dark world.
Matthew 5:14 “You are the light of the world; a city that is on a hill cannot be hidden.”
(3) ‘Two candlesticks’, since no candles were used at that time, the candlesticks are lamps.
(4) ‘Fire came out of their mouths’, the power of the message they bear witness.
Luke 12:49 “I have come to cast fire on the earth; if it were already kindled, what would I want?”
(5) He is the possessor of the power of Elijah to ‘prevent rain’ on the day of prophecy.
James 5:17 “Elijah was a man like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain, and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months.”
(6) It is the miraculous power that Moses performed in Egypt to ‘turn water into blood’.
Exodus 7:20 “...and he lifted up his staff and struck the Nile, and all the water was turned into blood.”
(7) There are no specific details ‘at any time’, but at that time he will always show power and miracles that will surprise people.
1) Various interpreters call these two witnesses Enoch, Moses, and Elijah, but there is no indication in the Bible that they will appear as witnesses of Jesus in the last days.
When I see the power of the two witnesses, I suddenly think of Moses and Elijah.
However, Moses and Elijah have absolutely nothing to do with the last days here.
①Moses was obviously dead. It was just that the angel had moved them to a place where the body could not be found. Jude 1:9 “When Michael the archangel quarreled with the devil and argued with the devil concerning the body of Moses, he did not dare to pronounce a slanderous judgment, but said, ‘The Lord rebuke you.
② Also, Elijah went to heaven in a whirlwind.
2 Kings 2:11 “The two were talking as they were walking, and a chariot of fire and horses of fire separated them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind.”
③ Also, a man named Enoch was taken to heaven by God.
Genesis 5:24 “Enoch walked with God, and he was not in the world, because God took him” (Hebrews 11:5).
2) Although it is interpreted as the church, the Old and New Testaments, or the gospel itself, it is the fact that the whole church cannot be said to be able to exert such power in view of the actions of the two witnesses. Because gifts are not universal. In particular, in ‘two witnesses’, the definite article ‘he’ (toys, το