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Revelation 11
7 When they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up out of the abyss will make war with them, and overcome them, and kill them. 8 Their dead bodies will be in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified. 9 From among the peoples, tribes, languages, and nations people will look at their dead bodies for three and a half days, and will not allow their dead bodies to be laid in a tomb. 10 Those who dwell on the earth rejoice over them, and they will be glad. They will give gifts to one another, because these two prophets tormented those who dwell on the earth.
Their dead bodies will be in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt
God, the nations have come into your inheritance. They have defiled your holy temple. They have laid Jerusalem in heaps. They have given the dead bodies of your servants to be food for the birds of the sky, the flesh of your saints to the animals of the earth. Their blood they have shed like water around Jerusalem. There was no one to bury them.
We have become a reproach to our neighbors, a scoffing and derision to those who are around us. How long, Yahweh? Will you be angry forever? Will your jealousy burn like fire? Pour out your wrath on the nations that don't know you; on the kingdoms that don't call on your name; For they have devoured Jacob, and destroyed his homeland.
Don't hold the iniquities of our forefathers against us. Let your tender mercies speedily meet us, for we are in desperate need. Help us, God of our salvation, for the glory of your name. Deliver us, and forgive our sins, for your name's sake.
Why should the nations say, "Where is their God?" Let it be known among the nations, before our eyes, that vengeance for your servants' blood is being poured out. Let the sighing of the prisoner come before you. According to the greatness of your power, preserve those who are sentenced to death. Pay back to our neighbors seven times into their bosom their reproach with which they have reproached you, Lord. So we, your people and sheep of your pasture, will give you thanks forever. We will praise you forever, to all generations. (Psalms 79:1-13)
Thus says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel: Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat meat. For I didn't speak to your fathers, nor command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices: but this thing I commanded them, saying, Listen to my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people; and walk you in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.
But they didn't listen nor turn their ear, but walked in their own counsels and in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward. Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt to this day, I have sent to you all my servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them: yet they didn't listen to me, nor inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff: they did worse than their fathers.
You shall speak all these words to them; but they will not listen to you: you shall also call to them; but they will not answer you. You shall tell them, This is the nation that has not listened to the voice of Yahweh their God, nor received instruction: truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth.
Cut off your hair, Jerusalem, and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on the bare heights; for Yahweh has rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath. For the children of Judah have done that which is evil in my sight, says Yahweh: they have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to defile it. They have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I didn't command, nor did it come into my mind.
Therefore, behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that it shall no more be called Topheth, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of Slaughter: for they shall bury in Topheth, until there be no place to bury. The dead bodies of this people shall be food for the birds of the sky, and for the animals of the earth; and none shall frighten them away. Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride; for the land shall become a waste. (Jeremiah 7:21-34)
This passage only confirms what we have been seeing in previous lessons concerning the nature of the testimony of these two witnesses. They represent the old paradigms of tradition developed throughout the entire Old Testament period called the Law and the Prophets that still permeates our thinking today despite the far surpassing glory of the testimony of Jesus about God's heart.
This and other passages give us God's perspective on our forms of religion, our stubborn resistance to the radical truth that Jesus brought to light, in our tenacious efforts to mingle the new with the old. It may sound extreme for God to say that we have set abominations in the temple of our own heart to defile it, yet from heaven's perspective our forms of religion are a revolting stench as compared with heaven's atmosphere of pure, unaffected sacrifices of praise. The harsh ways used to raise our children in effect burn them in the fire of our own passions, because we imagine that God uses the same manipulation of fear and punishment that we use to whip our children into conformity. Celebrations that give us pleasure in the name of God are not rooted in genuine appreciation for His radical kind of love we can experience in Christ, but more often are means of medicating us with temporary pleasures in our worship practices as we imagine they make God feel good too.
God says all of this will be caused to cease, just as the testimony of these two witnesses will be put to death by the beast who comes from the abyss. The next verse tells us that their dead bodies will lie unburied in the street for 3½ days. That is highly significant and relates directly to this issue as we shall soon see. But first let's look at another passage that brings hope to our desperate situation, again in a message sent by God through one of His prophets. This will be expanded further as we look at what happens next to these two witnesses.
Then he said to me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are clean cut off. Therefore prophesy, and tell them, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, my people; and I will bring you into the land of Israel. (Ezekiel 37:11-12)
Here are more passages that alert us to the nature of the demise of these kinds of witnesses.
Justice is turned away backward, and righteousness stands afar off; for truth is fallen in the street, and uprightness can't enter. Yes, truth is lacking; and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. Yahweh saw it, and it displeased him that there was no justice. (Isaiah 59:14-15)
The larger context in Isaiah 59 provides similar insights that also confirm what we are discovering about the nature of these witnesses. I highly recommend reading the whole chapter to discern the context of what this is really saying.
the street of the great city
Streets are the passage ways, the commonly shared roadways that facilitate travel and communication among various peoples. Control over the streets is part of how we perceive the nature of the society in charge of a city. Streets are also often where trading takes place in the sale of goods. Streets are an important part of the makeup and functionality of a city and usually reflect the disposition of those who live nearby.
The highways are desolate. The traveling man ceases. The covenant is broken. He has despised the cities. He doesn't regard man. (Isaiah 33:8)
Justice is turned away backward, and righteousness stands afar off; for truth is fallen in the street, and uprightness can't enter. Yes, truth is lacking; and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. Yahweh saw it, and it displeased him that there was no justice. (Isaiah 59:14-15)
Damascus has grown feeble, she turns herself to flee, and trembling has seized on her: anguish and sorrows have taken hold of her, as of a woman in travail. How is the city of praise not forsaken, the city of my joy? Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets, and all the men of war shall be brought to silence in that day, says Yahweh of Armies. (Jeremiah 49:24-26)
The voice of those who flee and escape out of the land of Babylon, to declare in Zion the vengeance of Yahweh our God, the vengeance of his temple. Call together the archers against Babylon, all those who bend the bow; encamp against her round about; let none of it escape: recompense her according to her work; according to all that she has done, do to her; for she has been proud against Yahweh, against the Holy One of Israel. Therefore shall her young men fall in her streets, and all her men of war shall be brought to silence in that day, says Yahweh. (Jeremiah 50:28-30)
The youth and the old man lie on the ground in the streets; My virgins and my young men are fallen by the sword: You have killed them in the day of your anger; you have slaughtered, and not pitied. (Lamentations 2:21)
Contrast this with the description of how Jesus would act in the streets.
"Behold, my servant whom I have chosen; my beloved in whom my soul is well pleased: I will put my Spirit on him. He will proclaim justice to the nations. He will not strive, nor shout; neither will anyone hear his voice in the streets. He won't break a bruised reed. He won't quench a smoking flax, until he leads justice to victory. In his name, the nations will hope." (Matthew 12:18-21)
There is an interesting story of two witnesses who accompanied God to check out the veracity of reports about Sodom's wickedness and how the street factored into their investigation.
Yahweh said, "Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous, I will go down now, and see whether their deeds are as bad as the reports which have come to me. If not, I will know." The men turned from there, and went toward Sodom, but Abraham stood yet before Yahweh. (Genesis 18:20-22)
The two angels came to Sodom at evening. Lot sat in the gate of Sodom. Lot saw them, and rose up to meet them. He bowed himself with his face to the earth, and he said, "See now, my lords, please turn aside into your servant's house, stay all night, wash your feet, and you will rise up early, and go on your way." They said, "No, but we will stay in the street all night." (Genesis 19:1-2)
the great city
In that day 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.
(Revelation 11:13)
Another, a second angel, followed, saying, "Babylon the great has fallen, which has made all the nations to drink of the wine of the wrath of her sexual immorality." (Revelation 14:8)
The great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. Babylon the great was remembered in the sight of God, to give to her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. (Revelation 16:19)
One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke with me, saying, "Come here. I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute who sits on many waters,
And on her forehead a name was written, "MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF THE PROSTITUTES AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH."
The woman whom you saw is the great city, which reigns over the kings of the earth." (Revelation 17:1,5,18)
After these things, I saw another angel coming down out of the sky, having great authority. The earth was illuminated with his glory. He cried with a mighty voice, saying, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, and she has become a habitation of demons, a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird!
...standing far away for the fear of her torment, saying, 'Woe, woe, the great city, Babylon, the strong city! For your judgment has come in one hour.'
saying, 'Woe, woe, the great city, she who was dressed in fine linen, purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls!
and cried out as they looked at the smoke of her burning, saying, 'What is like the great city?' They cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and mourning, saying, 'Woe, woe, the great city, in which all who had their ships in the sea were made rich by reason of her great wealth!' For in one hour is she made desolate. "Rejoice over her, O heaven, you saints, apostles, and prophets; for God has judged your judgment on her." A mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and cast it into the sea, saying, "Thus with violence will Babylon, the great city, be thrown down, and will be found no more at all. (Revelation 18:1-2,10,16,18-21)
Thus says Yahweh: Execute you justice and righteousness, and deliver him who is robbed out of the hand of the oppressor: and do no wrong, do no violence, to the foreigner, the fatherless, nor the widow; neither shed innocent blood in this place. For if you do this thing indeed, then shall there enter in by the gates of this house kings sitting on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, he, and his servants, and his people.
But if you will not hear these words, I swear by myself, says Yahweh, that this house shall become a desolation. For thus says Yahweh concerning the house of the king of Judah: You are Gilead to me, and the head of Lebanon; yet surely I will make you a wilderness, and cities which are not inhabited. I will prepare destroyers against you, everyone with his weapons; and they shall cut down your choice cedars, and cast them into the fire. Many nations shall pass by this city, and they shall say every man to his neighbor, Why has Yahweh done thus to this great city? Then they shall answer, Because they forsook the covenant of Yahweh their God, and worshiped other gods, and served them.
(Jeremiah 22:3-9)
Now the word of Yahweh came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach against it, for their wickedness has come up before me." (Jonah 1:1-2)
The word of Yahweh came to Jonah the second time, saying, "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I give you." So Jonah arose, and went to Nineveh, according to the word of Yahweh. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days' journey across. (Jonah 3:1-3)
Yahweh said, "You have been concerned for the vine, for which you have not labored, neither made it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night. Shouldn't I be concerned for Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred twenty thousand persons who can't discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much livestock?" Micah (Jonah 4:10-11)
This last verse should be a reality check for us, alerting us to the reason this whole prophecy was given. Too often God's people are mostly concerned about the things that bring us comfort, hope, pleasure, relief or provision. Yet in doing so we may overlook that our hearts have not been conformed to the image of God in the likeness of Jesus. If we remain fixated on what we think is most important, and imagine that is what is important to God as well, our view of reality is defined as all about us instead of the kingdom of God where life is about receiving for the purpose of giving, blessing others without expectation of returns on our investments. We may puzzle over why Jonah seemed so oblivious to what appears to us as obvious. Yet remember that this story is being told from a higher perspective, not just Jonah's. If we will allow the Spirit to open our eyes, we will discover we may be little different than Jonah and are just as much in desperate need of a new birth experience if we want to enter into or even see the kingdom of God in Jesus Christ.
which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt
Lot lifted up his eyes, and saw all the plain of the Jordan, that it was well-watered everywhere, before Yahweh destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, like the garden of Yahweh, like the land of Egypt, as you go to Zoar. So Lot chose the Plain of the Jordan for himself. Lot traveled east, and they separated themselves the one from the other. Abram lived in the land of Canaan, and Lot lived in the cities of the plain, and moved his tent as far as Sodom. Now the men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked and sinners against Yahweh. (Genesis 13:10-13)
Yahweh said, "Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous, I will go down now, and see whether their deeds are as bad as the reports which have come to me. If not, I will know." The men turned from there, and went toward Sodom, but Abraham stood yet before Yahweh. (Genesis 18:20-22)
But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, both young and old, all the people from every quarter. They called to Lot, and said to him, "Where are the men who came in to you this night? Bring them out to us, that we may have sex with them."
Lot went out to them to the door, and shut the door after him. He said, "Please, my brothers, don't act so wickedly. See now, I have two virgin daughters. Please let me bring them out to you, and you may do to them what seems good to you. Only don't do anything to these men, because they have come under the shadow of my roof."
They said, "Stand back!" They said, "This one fellow came in to live as a foreigner, and he appoints himself a judge. Now will we deal worse with you, than with them!" They pressed hard on the man Lot, and drew near to break the door. But the men put forth their hand, and brought Lot into the house to them, and shut the door. They struck the men who were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they wearied themselves to find the door. (Genesis 19:4-11)
Oh that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end! How could one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, and Yahweh had delivered them up? For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges. For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, of the fields of Gomorrah. Their grapes are grapes of gall, Their clusters are bitter. Their wine is the poison of serpents, The cruel venom of asps.
(Deuteronomy 32:29-33)
This last passage is highly instructive for our study if we examined the entire chapter, but that would take too much time here. This entire chapter is the song of Moses we find referred to later in Revelation 15. Moses represents one of these metaphoric witnesses, and this reference to Sodom is right in the middle of his own description of God's frustration over being misunderstood by both His children as well as His enemies in the ways He uses to correct His people. This is precisely what we are discovering as problematic in the actions and methods of these two witnesses.
Hear the word of Yahweh, you rulers of Sodom! Listen to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah! "What are the multitude of your sacrifices to me?," says Yahweh. "I have had enough of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed animals. I don't delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of male goats. When you come to appear before me, who has required this at your hand, to trample my courts? Bring no more vain offerings. Incense is an abomination to me; new moons, Sabbaths, and convocations: I can't bear with evil assemblies. My soul hates your New Moons and your appointed feasts. They are a burden to me. I am weary of bearing them. When you spread forth your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. Yes, when you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood. (Isaiah 1:10-15)
For, behold, the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, takes away from Jerusalem and from Judah supply and support, the whole supply of bread, and the whole supply of water; the mighty man, the man of war, the judge, the prophet, the diviner, the elder, the captain of fifty, the honorable man, the counselor, the skilled craftsman, and the clever enchanter. I will give boys to be their princes, and children shall rule over them. The people will be oppressed, everyone by another, and everyone by his neighbor. The child will behave himself proudly against the old man, and the base against the honorable. Indeed a man shall take hold of his brother in the house of his father, saying, "You have clothing, you be our ruler, and let this ruin be under your hand." In that day he will cry out, saying, I will not be a healer; for in my house is neither bread nor clothing. You shall not make me ruler of the people.
For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen; because their tongue and their doings are against Yahweh, to provoke the eyes of his glory. The look of their faces testify against them. They parade their sin like Sodom. They don't hide it. Woe to their soul! For they have brought disaster upon themselves. (Isaiah 3:1-9)
This word translated provoke involves bitterness, change and rebellion. Part of the problem of false religion is that we are led to believe that we must change God's thinking about us in some way by doing good things to affect how much He will favor us over others. Yet this view of God ultimately results in a spirit of bitterness inside that can easily turn into a spirit of rebellion. This is because we were never designed to have this sort of relationship with our heavenly Father, for such views of God contradict our very purpose for existence. We are not made to be slaves to placate and blindly obey God, but to be His family, His children as we grow up into the full likeness that Jesus developed as a human with us on earth. This is the only way to find peace, to enter into His rest, to live in love and joy and find fulfillment. Anything less leads to malfunction, distorted thinking, bitterness and even imagining that our sins are something to be proud of and parade them publicly.
Behold, everyone who uses proverbs shall use this proverb against you, saying, As is the mother, so is her daughter. You are the daughter of your mother, who loathes her husband and her children; and you are the sister of your sisters, who loathed their husbands and their children: your mother was a Hittite, and your father an Amorite. Your elder sister is Samaria, who dwells at your left hand, she and her daughters; and your younger sister, who dwells at your right hand, is Sodom and her daughters. Yet have you not walked in their ways, nor done after their abominations; but, as if that were a very little thing, you were more corrupt than they in all your ways. As I live, says the Lord Yahweh, Sodom your sister has not done, she nor her daughters, as you have done, you and your daughters. Behold, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: pride, fullness of bread, and prosperous ease was in her and in her daughters; neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. They were haughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I saw good. (Ezekiel 16:44-50)
Does this sound similar to the condition of the last group listed in Revelation 3?
Because you say, 'I am rich, and have gotten riches, and have need of nothing;' and don't know that you are the wretched one, miserable, poor, blind, and naked; (Revelation 3:17)
Likewise, even as it happened in the days of Lot: they ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; but in the day that Lot went out from Sodom, it rained fire and sulfur from the sky, and destroyed them all. It will be the same way in the day that the Son of Man is revealed.
(Luke 17:28-30)
and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly; and delivered righteous Lot, who was very distressed by the lustful life of the wicked (for that righteous man dwelling among them, was tormented in his righteous soul from day to day with seeing and hearing lawless deeds): the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment; (2 Peter 2:6-9)
and Egypt
The Egyptians ruthlessly made the children of Israel serve, and they made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field, all their service, in which they ruthlessly made them serve. (Exodus 1:13-14)
Yahweh said, "I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey; to the place of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite. (Exodus 3:7-8)
Afterward Moses and Aaron came, and said to Pharaoh, "This is what Yahweh, the God of Israel, says, 'Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness.'" Pharaoh said, "Who is Yahweh, that I should listen to his voice to let Israel go? I don't know Yahweh, and moreover I will not let Israel go." (Exodus 5:1-2)
I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me. (Exodus 20:2-3)
where also their Lord was crucified
Nevertheless I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the next day, for it can't be that a prophet perish outside of Jerusalem.' "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that kills the prophets, and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, like a hen gathers her own brood under her wings, and you refused! (Luke 13:33-34)
Therefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people through his own blood, suffered outside of the gate. (Hebrews 13:12)
The light of a lamp will shine no more at all in you. The voice of the bridegroom and of the bride will be heard no more at all in you; for your merchants were the princes of the earth; for with your sorcery all the nations were deceived. In her was found the blood of prophets and of saints, and of all who have been slain on the earth." (Revelation 18:23-24)
Review what we have considered from all these passages and how they unveil and amplify the meaning of the verse we are considering about these two witnesses.
