Let’s start with the obvious: the book of Revelation is hard. And confusing. There are a lot of details we just don’t know for sure—like, who are the two witnesses that today’s verses describe? Moses and Elijah? Maybe.
The imagery in Revelation often reads like a fantasy novel, and I can easily get lost. There are a lot of brilliant theologians who can connect dots between the Old Testament and Revelation (for example, see the Life Essentials Study Bible video correlation of the Daniel 9 prophecy of 3.5 years and the Revelation 11:3 specification of 1,260 days). I have to ride on their coattails to make most of these connections.
So, let’s talk about what we do know. Here’s the spoiler alert: God wins. The overall story has a happy ending.
We expect there to be great tribulation on the earth in the final days, but even in the midst of that, God’s character is evident.
Even in the end times, God sends two witnesses to prophesy to the people. He equips them with “authority” and “power” (Revelation 11:3 and 6, respectively) to do their work. When their testimony is completed, they will be killed, “but after three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and tremendous fear seized those who were watching them. Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them: ‘Come up here!’ so the two prophets went up to heaven in a cloud while their enemies stared at them” (Revelation 11:11–12). An earthquake is described to follow, and of those who survive, Revelation 11:13 says, “the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.”
God’s mercy is evident in that He is still giving humanity a chance to repent and a chance at salvation. God’s power is evident in raising the witnesses from the dead and in the creation of an earthquake. Yes, there is evil—“the beast that comes up from the abyss” (v. 7)—but God’s sovereignty is evident in the foretelling of this story, the timing of the events, and the ultimate outcome of bringing more believers into His kingdom.
We may or may not see the end of days, but God has called us and equipped us, as believers, to use our gifts “so that in everything God will be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong the glory and the power forever and ever” (1 Peter 4:11).
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