Revelation 11
5
If anyone desires to harm them, fire
proceeds out of their mouth
and devours their enemies.
If
anyone desires to harm them, he must be killed in
this way.
6
These have the power
to shut up the sky,
that it may not rain
during the days of their prophecy.
They have power over the waters,
to turn them into blood,
and to strike the earth
with every plague,
as often as they desire.
anyone
desires to harm
them
I saw another angel
ascend from the sunrise, having the seal of the living God. He cried
with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was given to harm the
earth and the sea, saying, "Don't harm
the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, until we have
sealed the bondservants of our God on their foreheads!"
(Revelation 7:2-3)
They have tails
like those of scorpions, and stings. In their tails they
have power to harm men for
five months. (Revelation 9:10)
For the power of the
horses is in their mouths, and in their tails. For their tails
are like serpents, and have heads, and with them
they harm. (Revelation 9:19)
He allowed no man to do
them wrong. Yes, he reproved kings for their sakes, saying, Don't
touch my anointed ones! Do my prophets no harm.
(1 Chronicles 16:21-22)
"Don't touch my
anointed ones! Do my prophets no harm!"
(Psalms 105:15)
Now in the twelfth month,
which is the month Adar, on the thirteenth day of the month, when the
king's commandment and his decree drew near to be put in execution,
on the day that the enemies of the Jews hoped to conquer them, (but
it was turned out the opposite happened, that the Jews conquered
those who hated them), the Jews gathered themselves together in their
cities throughout all the provinces of the King Ahasuerus, to lay
hands on those who wanted to harm
them. No one could withstand them,
because the fear of them had fallen on all the people.
(Esther 9:1-2)
God, don't be far from
me. My God, hurry to help me. Let my accusers be disappointed and
consumed. Let them be covered with disgrace and scorn who
want to harm me. But I
will always hope, and will add to all
of your praise. My mouth will tell about your
righteousness, and of your salvation
all day, though I don't know its full measure. I will come with the
mighty acts of the Lord Yahweh. I will make mention of your
righteousness, even of yours alone.
(Psalms 71:12-16)
My lips shall shout
for joy! My
soul, which you have redeemed, sings praises to
you! My tongue will also talk
about your righteousness all day long, for they are
disappointed, and they are confounded, who want
to harm me. (Psalms 71:23-24)
With these verses, what
might we learn about relating to those who might want to harm
us?
There
are four angels to which it has been given to harm the
earth and the sea.
There
are locusts with scorpion stings in their tails with
which they have power to harm men.
Similarly
there are horses with tails like serpents that have
power to harm.
The
conspiracy of Haman to exterminate all the Jews
resulted in a reversal of circumstances where the Jews were allowed
to defend themselves against any who wanted to harm
them.
David
uses his lips, his soul and his tongue to shout and sing and
praise God as his defense against those who wanted to harm
him.
Clearly, there are
enemies who have desires to harm those who are giving
their witness in favor of God. Yet the deeper question that
becomes prominent in Revelation regards the methods involved.
These passages are clues we can lay on the table in helping
to discern the nature of these witnesses.
fire
proceeds out of their
mouth
and devours their
enemies
Now that is rather intense
defensiveness is it not? Sounds a bit like a creature we read
about in Job, only there it involves a description of a sea
monster more intent on harming others than like
someone representing the Lamb who is the true hero of Revelation.
Can you draw out
Leviathan with a fishhook, or press down his
tongue with a cord? Can you put a rope into his nose, or pierce his
jaw through with a hook? Will he make many petitions to you, or will
he speak soft words to you?
Who can open the doors of
his face? Around his teeth is terror. Strong
scales are his pride, shut up together with a close seal. One is so
near to another, that no air can come between them. They are joined
one to another. They stick together, so that they can't be pulled
apart. His sneezing flashes out light. His eyes
are like the eyelids of the morning. Out of his mouth go
burning torches. Sparks of fire leap forth. Out of his
nostrils a smoke goes, as of a boiling pot over a fire of reeds. His
breath kindles coals. A flame goes forth from his mouth.
There is strength in his neck. Terror dances before him.
(Job 41:1-3, 14-22)
It is hard to miss the
strong similarities here. Why would witnesses for God
be doing the same thing that Leviathan, the symbol of
Satan himself, be doing? This is something I believe we must be
willing to ask, not merely in this instance but concerning any
witness who claims to testify on behalf of God. Let's look at
more passages to see what else may surface.
Thus I saw the
horses in the vision, and those who sat on them, having
breastplates of fiery red, hyacinth blue, and sulfur yellow; and the
heads of lions. Out of their mouths proceed fire,
smoke, and sulfur. By these three plagues were one
third of mankind killed: by the fire, the smoke,
and the sulfur, which proceeded out of their
mouths. (Revelation 9:17-18)
In my distress I called
on Yahweh. Yes, I called to my God. He heard my voice out of his
temple. My cry came into his ears. Then the earth shook and trembled.
The foundations of heaven quaked and were shaken, because he was
angry. Smoke went up out of his nostrils. Fire
out of his mouth devoured. Coals were kindled by
it. He bowed the heavens also, and came down. Thick
darkness was under his feet. He rode on a cherub, and flew. Yes, he
was seen on the wings of the wind. He made darkness pavilions around
himself: gathering of waters, and thick clouds of the skies. At
the brightness before him, coals of fire were kindled.
Yahweh thundered from heaven. The Most High uttered his voice. He
sent out arrows, and scattered them; lightning, and confused them.
Then the channels of the sea appeared. The foundations of
the world were laid bare by the rebuke of Yahweh, At the
blast of the breath of his nostrils. (2 Samuel
22:7-16)
Then the king sent to him
a captain of fifty with his fifty. He went up to him: and behold, he
was sitting on the top of the hill. He spoke to him, man of God, the
king has said, Come down. Elijah answered to the captain of fifty, If
I be a man of God, let fire come down from the sky, and consume you
and your fifty. Fire came down from the sky, and consumed
him and his fifty. Again he sent to him another captain of
fifty and his fifty. He answered him, man of God, thus has the king
said, Come down quickly. Elijah answered them, If I be a man of God,
let fire come down from the sky, and consume you and your fifty. The
fire of God came down from the sky, and consumed him and his fifty.
(2 Kings 1:9-12)
he
must be killed in this way[?]
His delight will be in
the fear of Yahweh. He will not judge by the sight of his eyes,
neither decide by the hearing of his ears; but with righteousness he
will judge the poor, and decide with equity for the humble of the
earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; and with
the breath of his lips he will
kill the wicked. (Isaiah 11:3-4)
For the house of Israel
and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously against me, says
Yahweh. They have denied Yahweh, and said, It is not he; neither
shall evil come on us; neither shall we see sword nor famine: and the
prophets shall become wind, and the word is not in them: thus shall
it be done to them. Therefore thus says Yahweh, the God of Armies,
Because you speak this word, behold, I will make
my words in your mouth fire, and this people wood,
and it shall devour them. Behold, I will bring a nation on
you from far, house of Israel, says Yahweh: it is a mighty nation, it
is an ancient nation, a nation whose language you don't know, neither
understand what they say. (Jeremiah 5:11-15)
Ephraim, what shall I do
to you? Judah, what shall I do to you? For your love is like a
morning cloud, and like the dew that disappears early. Therefore I
have cut them to pieces with the prophets; I killed them
with the words of my mouth. Your
judgments are like a flash of lightning.
For I desire mercy, and not sacrifice; and the
knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. But
they, like Adam, have broken the covenant. They
were unfaithful to me, there. (Hosea 6:4-7)
Note the progression
in these passages of how fire and the mouth are symbolized as
destroying the wicked. Keep in mind that the central theme
of this entire book is revealing the truth about God as it is
in Jesus, and that the hero of Revelation is the violently
slaughtered Lamb, not the fire-breathing dragon. Ends
do not justify the means, regardless of what trite clichés might
assert. I believe the wicked will certainly be destroyed, but the
methods and motives that God uses to win the war over
His enemies is in each battle, not about who can flex their power to
intimidate others most effectively.
he
must be killed in this
way
If anyone is destined for
captivity, to captivity he goes; if anyone kills with the sword, with
the sword he must be killed. Here is the perseverance and
the faith of the saints. (Revelation 13:10 NAS95)
For if you live
after the flesh, you must die; but if
by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
(Romans 8:13)
This is a principle I
suspect may be linked, at least partially, to the reason
for the demise of these two witnesses. Jesus explained this
principle to Peter after he attempted to defend Jesus by using his
sword to lash out against the band of thugs sent to arrest Jesus in
the garden.
Then Jesus said to him,
"Put your sword back into its place, for all those who
take the sword will die by the sword. Or do you think that
I couldn't ask my Father, and he would even now send me more than
twelve legions of angels? How then would the Scriptures be
fulfilled that it must be so?"
In that hour Jesus said
to the multitudes, "Have you come out as against a robber with
swords and clubs to seize me? I sat daily in the temple teaching, and
you didn't arrest me. But all this has happened, that the
Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled." Then
all the disciples left him, and fled.
(Matthew 26:52-56)
What needs to become much
more clear in our thinking is the difference between two meanings
of the word 'must.' As with nearly all religious words in
particular, there is a true meaning that is seldom understood
by most, and then there are counterfeit meanings that are
widely accepted as being the fact because they are seldom
questioned. The same is true with this word. From the world's
perspective, force and compulsion are the means by which to
gain the advantage in a contest, when something must be
done it involves either and implied or explicit threat of
punishment if an order is not carried out. “You must do
this...or else!” This is reflective of the system of top-down
control hierarchy we are all familiar with, where authority
exercised by superiors expects unquestioning compliance backed
up by dire repercussions if not carried out. This is the way
things are done under Satan's system, and Peter was infected
with this mentality as are nearly all of us yet today. If
force is not applied vigorously and effectively, our side will
lose. But Jesus had a completely different view.
The kingdom of heaven is
not tainted by these ways of thinking or acting. Hierarchy
is not practiced in God's kingdom like we do it, because true
authority comes from the free choice of those living in
God's family to willingly obey because of love awakened in
their hearts, not out of fear of punishment. John makes this
very clear in his epistle of 1 John where he declares that mature
love expels all fear, for fear has to do with punishment
(1 John 4:16-21). God is love, and certainly His love is
completely mature and perfect. This means that God is never in the
punishing business or else He could not be love. This is very
difficult for many to accept, which is one reason so few
are willing to embrace the true nature of the kingdom
Jesus brings to this world. His is a kingdom of love and total
respect for freedom of all, even His enemies. This is the very
essence of the nature of the Lamb which is why He is the
unexpected hero of the war, not because He is stronger
than His enemies but because the strategy of love is the
unexpected power that is effective enough to overcome evil
and is in fact the only way to defeat it. This is the emergent
theme of this entire book, and is also why I feel it important
we discern what is really going on with these two witnesses. Keep
in mind what we already read relating to these two witnesses from the
prophet Zechariah.
Then the angel who talked
with me answered me, "Don't you know what these are?" I
said, "No, my lord." Then he answered and spoke to me,
saying, "This is the word of Yahweh to Zerubbabel, saying, 'Not
by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit,' says Yahweh of
Armies. Who are you, great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you are a
plain; and he will bring out the capstone with
shouts of 'Grace, grace, to it!'"
(Zechariah 4:5-7)
Compare this also with what
Jesus had to say when His disciples wanted to use force by
fire like Elijah had done to punish a town of Samaritans that had
refused to extend hospitality to Jesus.
It came to pass, when the
days were near that he should be taken up, he intently set
his face to go to Jerusalem, and sent messengers before
his face. They went, and entered into a village of the Samaritans, so
as to prepare for him. They didn't receive him,
because he was traveling with his face set towards Jerusalem. When
his disciples, James and John, saw this, they said, "Lord, do
you want us to command fire to come down from the sky, and
destroy them, just as Elijah did?" But he turned and
rebuked them, "You don't know of what
kind of spirit you are. For the Son of Man didn't
come to destroy men's lives, but to save them." They
went to another village. (Luke 9:51-56)
Here in Revelation 11 we see
two witnesses who have a similar attitude to James and
John. They illustrate the mindset of what most Christians share
today, that God at some point must resort to force or evil
will never be defeated and God's kingdom cannot replace it. But
nothing could be further from the truth. This is why our study of
prophecy as well as all of Scripture must be informed by the
revelation of Jesus Christ alone as to the true nature of God's
kingdom. Otherwise we will jump to conclusions that God approves of
using Satan's methods when necessary after loving methods have failed
to get the desired results. This is the key difference between the
meaning of 'must' from a worldly paradigm and the nature of
'must' from Jesus' perspective. This is a central issue.
Don't judge,
so that you won't be judged. For with whatever
judgment you judge, you will be judged;
and with whatever measure you measure, it will
be measured to you. (Matthew 7:1-2)
If any man has ears to
hear, let him hear." He said to them, "Take
heed what you hear. With whatever measure you
measure, it will be measured to you,
and more will be given to you who hear. For whoever has,
to him will more be given, and he who doesn't
have, even that which he has will be taken away
from him." (Mark 4:23-25)
Carefully consider these
principles along with their implications. Why does Jesus say
to be careful what we hear? This parallels another question
Jesus asked someone, How do you read? Our preconceptions and
presumptions about God's motives and methods make all the
difference.
There are a number of
passages where Jesus spoke of His upcoming torture and death
as being a must in His ministry.
Consider how the following
'musts' relate to the mentality of the must be killed under
examination here.
God is spirit, and those
who worship him must worship in spirit
and truth. (John 4:24)
I have other sheep, which
are not of this fold. I must
bring them also, and they will hear my voice. They will
become one flock with one shepherd. (John 10:16)
But watch yourselves, for
they will deliver you up to councils. You will be beaten in
synagogues. You will stand before rulers and kings for my sake, for a
testimony to them. The Good News must
first be preached to all the nations. (Mark 13:9-10)
But he said to them, "I
must preach the good news
of the Kingdom of God to the other cities also. For this reason I
have been sent." (Luke 4:43)
From that time, Jesus
began to show his disciples that he must
go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders,
chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and the third day be
raised up. (Matthew 16:21)
Behold, one of those who
were with Jesus stretched out his hand, and drew his sword, and
struck the servant of the high priest, and struck off his ear. Then
Jesus said to him, "Put your sword back into its place, for all
those who take the sword will die by the sword. Or do you think that
I couldn't ask my Father, and he would even now send me more than
twelve legions of angels? How then would the Scriptures be
fulfilled that it must be so?"
(Matthew 26:51-54)
When you hear of wars and
disturbances, don't be terrified, for these things must
happen first, but the end won't come immediately."
(Luke 21:9)
He said to them, "This
is what I told you, while I was still with you, that all
things which are written in the law of Moses, the
prophets, and the psalms, concerning me must
be fulfilled." (Luke 24:44)
For where a last will and
testament is, there must
of necessity be the death of him who made it. (Hebrews
9:16)
and that he may send
Christ Jesus, who was ordained for you before, whom heaven
must receive until the times of
restoration of all things, which God spoke long ago by the
mouth of his holy prophets. (Acts 3:20-21)
For as in Adam all die,
so also in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own order:
Christ the first fruits, then those who are Christ's, at his coming.
Then the end comes, when he will deliver up the Kingdom to God, even
the Father; when he will have abolished all rule and all authority
and power. For he must
reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The
last enemy that will be abolished is death. (1 Corinthians
15:22-26)
For we must
all be revealed before the judgment seat of Christ; that
each one may receive the things in the body, according to what he has
done, whether good or bad. (2 Corinthians 5:10)
He seized the dragon, the
old serpent, which is the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole
inhabited earth, and bound him for a thousand years, and cast him
into the abyss, and shut it, and sealed it over him, that he should
deceive the nations no more, until the thousand years were finished.
After this, he must be
freed for a short time. (Revelation 20:2-3)
In every case here, must is
not about compulsion but rather about strategic necessity.
I believe it is crucially
important to remain aware of how much our
preconceptions affect what we think and how we interpret.
Everything we hear and read is filtered through our biases and
culture. Everyone has a confirmation bias that must be
challenged and repeatedly tested to refine or redefine it by looking
more closely at Jesus' bias in order for us to see the true
kingdom of heaven more clearly.
In my study of these two
symbolic witnesses I see old paradigms and prejudices that
have gone largely unquestioned, yet do not fit the
revelation of God in Christ Jesus. This book is a revelation
of Jesus,the only accurate revelation of God's heart and
methods. What we find here are witnesses that resonate with
old versions of God that I am convinced were immature and even
superseded by their immediate successors. According to their
opinions of how God should solve dilemmas and meet threats was to
resort to use of violence against their enemies rather than loving
them like Jesus.
power
to shut up the sky,
that it may not rain
during the days of
their prophecy
This is probably the
clearest illustration that ties this prophecy to Elijah. We
should be familiar with the famous story of Mt. Carmel. The context
for that story is that it was the pinnacle of a crisis caused
by a famine that finally brought the nation of Israel to a life
and death moral choice.
Elijah the Tishbite, who
was of the foreigners of Gilead, said to Ahab, As Yahweh, the God of
Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew
nor rain these years, but according to my word.
(1 Kings 17:1)
But truly I tell you,
there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the
sky was shut up three years and six months, when a great
famine came over all the land. Elijah was sent to none of them,
except to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a
widow. (Luke 4:25-26)
Elijah was a man with
a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that
it might not rain, and it didn't rain on the earth for
three years and six months. He prayed again, and
the sky gave rain, and the earth brought forth its fruit. (James
5:17-18)
What could have been
done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? Why,
when I looked for it to yield grapes, did it yield wild grapes? Now I
will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will take
away its hedge, and it will be eaten up. I will
break down its wall of it, and it will be trampled down. I
will lay it a wasteland. It won't be pruned nor hoed, but it will
grow briers and thorns. I will also command the clouds that
they rain no rain on it." For the vineyard
of Yahweh of Armies is the house of Israel, and
the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for
justice, but, behold, oppression; for righteousness,
but, behold, a cry of distress. (Isaiah
5:4-7)
Here is the core issue,
the literal interpretation if that is what we are looking for.
From God's viewpoint, all of these issues are relating to the
condition of our hearts, not merely about our comfort
physically. What God is most keen on is how we relate to those
around us as well as to Him. In fact, I have long insisted that
if we want to know the real truth about what we think God
is like, all we have to do is look at the way we treat others,
because we cannot help but be reflectors of what our heart believes
God is like. We are created to image His likeness, however we
imagine that to be.
Notice the way God deals
with the injustice and oppression of His people. When
all efforts to reform them to reflect His loving character and
integrity have been exhausted, God is obliged to remove the
protections that have kept us safe, made us fruitful and then
releases us to the natural forces of decay as well as
outside elements ready to exploit. This is inevitable if we
continue to spurn and reject the mercy of the One who alone is
our only real defense.
It will happen that
everyone who is left of all the nations that came against Jerusalem
will go up from year to year to worship the King, Yahweh of Armies,
and to keep the feast of tents. It will be, that whoever
of all the families of the earth doesn't go up to Jerusalem
to worship the King, Yahweh of Armies, on them
there will be no rain. If the family of Egypt doesn't
go up, and doesn't come, neither will it rain
on them. This will be the plague with which Yahweh will strike the
nations that don't go up to keep the feast of
tents. This will be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of
all the nations that don't go up to keep the feast of tents.
(Zechariah 14:16-19)
What kind of rain
does not fall during the days of the prophecy of these two witnesses?
It is so easy to fall
back into literal interpretations when processing these
prophecies. We need to keep in mind that this book is given to
us in symbols, so if we want to get the most out of it
we need to allow the symbols to speak to us rather than keep
defaulting to applying these things to the physical realm. I believe
the following passages significantly identify the kind of the
drought that will take place when these prophecies are finally
fulfilled.
It will happen in that
day," says the Lord Yahweh, "that I will cause the sun to
go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day. I will
turn your feasts into mourning, and all your
songs into lamentation; and I will make you wear
sackcloth on all your bodies, and baldness
on every head. I will make it like the mourning for an only son, and
the end of it like a bitter day.
Behold, the days come,"
says the Lord Yahweh, "that I will send a famine
in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water,
but of hearing the words of Yahweh. They will
wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east; they
will run back and forth to seek the word of
Yahweh, and will not find it. In that day the
beautiful virgins and the young men will faint for thirst.
(Amos 8:9-13)
Be glad then, you
children of Zion, and rejoice in Yahweh, your God; for he gives you
the former rain in just measure, and he causes the rain to come down
for you, the former rain and the latter rain, as
before.
It will happen afterward,
that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; and your sons
and your daughters will prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams.
Your young men will see visions. And also on the servants and on the
handmaids in those days, I will pour out my Spirit.
(Joel 2:23,28-29)
Just because God says there
will be a famine of the word of Yahweh does not mean it is
not there. Rather it about a hardening of hearts to the
point where people cannot receive and absorb the rain that may
be falling all around them but from which they have become
insulated by their unbelief.
There is one who
scatters, and increases yet more. There is one who withholds more
than is appropriate, but gains poverty. The liberal soul shall be
made fat. He who waters shall be watered also himself.
People curse someone who withholds grain, but blessing will be on the
head of him who sells it. He who diligently seeks good
seeks favor, but he who searches after evil, it
shall come to him. (Proverbs 11:24-27)
This word translated waters
here literally means to slake the thirst, to satiate or
satisfy, soak, even to bathe. Those who soak in the word
themselves and allow it to satiate their own soul thirst and
share it with others, will not be those who faint for thirst
for the Word of God. Rather they are transformed to thrive on
the water of life as they allow it to bring them through
metamorphosis. Meanwhile many around them are dying of
thirst because they have spurned the
water of life and truth, destroying their capacity to
receive and absorb it. It is similar to how rat bait
affects a body by causing it to dry up faster than water can be
replaced resulting in death. Resisting truth and the love
of God eventually so poisons our spirit that we lose
capacity to receive the living water of life, even when
surrounded by it. Like sea water is deadly to those
drifting on the ocean dying from lack of fresh water, rejectors of
God's mercy makes the water of love toxic to them and
incompatible with the kind of character they have formed. Thus
even surrounded by an ocean of God's passionate love, they die of
thirst because that living water can no longer revive their spirit
because it is foreign to them.
Now on the last and
greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, "If anyone
is thirsty, let him come to me and drink! He who believes in me, as
the Scripture has said, from within him will flow rivers of
living water." But he said this about the
Spirit, which those believing in him were to receive. For
the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus
wasn't yet glorified. (John 7:37-39)
Is this to suggest that
Jesus was not glorified by the work of Moses or Elijah
or any other time during the reign of the law and the prophets during
the Old Testament period? Let's let Paul address that issue.
But if the
service of death, written engraved on stones, came
with glory, so that the children of Israel could not look
steadfastly on the face of Moses for the glory
of his face; which was passing away:
won't service of the Spirit be with much more glory?
For if the service of condemnation has glory,
the service of righteousness exceeds much more in glory.
For most certainly that which has been made glorious has not been
made glorious in this respect, by reason of the glory that
surpasses. For if that which passes away
was with glory, much more that which remains is
in glory.
But to this day, when
Moses is read, a veil lies on their
heart. But whenever one turns to the Lord,
the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the
Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is
liberty. But we all, with unveiled face
beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord,
are transformed into the same image from glory to glory,
even as from the Lord, the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:7-11,15-18)
There are two very different
versions of glory laid out here. Which will we choose to
behold?
If we review the description
of these two witnesses, which kind of glory did they reflect?
during
the days of their
prophecy
I will give power to my
two witnesses, and they will prophesy one thousand two
hundred sixty days, clothed in sackcloth. (Revelation
11:3)
If we combine what we just
saw related to the 'no rain' with this time stamp relating to this,
what might be found? Is this referring to the 1260 years
during the dark ages when truth was cruelly repressed? Is
that all this is referring to? I don't sense we have a very good
grasp of the full significance of this prophecy yet, and I
remain open to more insights as the Spirit brings them to our
attention.
I will point out here that
to prophecy means to speak on behalf of God. Given the nature
of what these two witnesses seem to believe about God it seems
congruent that the rain of the Holy Spirit might not
be ready to endorse that message with the fullness of power
like what was witnessed at Pentecost. This is not to suggest that
they were false witnesses, but rather they were inferior witnesses
to what is necessary in order to bring closure to the war
between light and darkness and appreciating how God will bring an
end to evil and selfishness. The Lamb is the only perfect and
true witness who speaks accurately the truth about God. He is the
prophet that supersedes all other prophets. That is why God
Himself clearly stated that we are to listen to Jesus over the
messages and examples of Moses (the Law) and Elijah (the prophets).
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