Now when they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up
from the Abyss will attack them, and overpower and kill them.
Revelation 11:7
One of my favorite movies, Kingdom of Heaven, is about Jerusalem being lost to the Muslims during the Crusades. In it is an oath that a dying knight passes on to his son. One line of the oath is: “Speak the truth always, even if it leads to your death”. This is what I think of when I read about the two witnesses in Revelation 11:1-13. They will speak the truth – and it will lead to their deaths.
For the sake of today’s devotional, we will be taking the approach that these two men are literal, not metaphorical, and that they will appear in the future, not having done so at some point in the past. These two men will one day stand on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem and prophesy for three and a half years. This location is the holiest site for the Jews, one of the holiest for the Muslims, and the future focal point of the End of the Age for Christians.
No one will be able to harm the two witnesses during this window of time. Instead, they will have the ability to prophesy, affect the weather, and strike the earth with plagues. Can you imagine the spectacle this will be? These aren’t the kind of guys you’d want at a party! They will be representatives and agents of God’s judgment on the world for 42 long months.
When their appointed time is completed, the two witnesses will be martyred. Or will they be? More on that in a moment. Their bodies will lay slain for three and a half days, so that the world can gloat over their deaths. After all, they will have brought much destruction and torment to the nations. However, the party will be short-lived, as God will “unmartyr” them and call them back up to heaven with a loud voice. What will follow this supernatural heaven-going will be a catastrophic earthquake that results in horrific damage to Jerusalem and the people fearing God and giving glory to Him.
So what will it take for our world to honor and fear God before it is too late? What will it take for you and me to do so now? A catastrophe? Illness? The loss of a loved one? Persecution? Martyrdom? As I’ve shared, it is most often through tribulation in my own life that my faith is either shaken or grown. The deciding factor is whether I try to fix things in my own strength or run to my knees before the Lord and plead for His merciful help. How about you? Which path will you choose for your life?