Revelation 11:4

These are the two olive-trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth.

This is an interlude which is full of comfort for all Christians, and prepares them for the coming of the last woe. Only the first thought is one that still belongs to the preceding vision in its contents: And there was given to me a reed like a rod, with the words, Up, and measure the temple of God and the altar, and those that worship there; and the outer court of the temple exclude and do not measure it, because it has been given over to the Gentiles, and they will trample upon the Holy City forty-two months. The Temple of Jerusalem, of which the temple here described is a picture, or type, had a number of sections, the Court of the Gentiles, the Court of the Women, the Court of Israel, and the Court of the Priests. The outer court, in this case, is described as being given over to the heathen, to the enemies of the Lord. The inner Temple, the Temple proper, then, is the true Church, the holy Christian Church, the communion of saints; while the outer Temple seems to represent the so-called visible Church, which has often been torn apart and trampled upon by heretics and antichrists. Forty-two months, three and one-half years, or 1,260 days: that is the symbolical length of the period in which the last woe would exert its power upon men. It is a long time, and yet it is limited by the power of the Lord. None of the powers of evil are permitted to go beyond the time permitted them by the Lord; His Christians may not be tempted beyond that they are able.

To this fact there is added another assurance: And I shall grant to My two witnesses, and they shall prophesy one thousand two hundred and sixty days, clothed with sackcloth; these are the two olive-trees and the two lamp stands that are standing before the Lord of the earth. In the midst of the general apostasy the Lord still has His witnesses, faithful preachers and teachers, who during the reign of Anti-Christ would lift up their voices and testify of the Savior and of the true Gospel. Their garments, indeed, would be made of black hair-cloth, the appropriate dress of humiliation, for there would be reason enough for repentance, also in the midst of the Church. The reference seems to be to men who, like Moses and Elijah, would lift up their voice in warning to stem the tide of anti-Christian doctrine and practice which threatened to engulf the Church. Two olive-trees or two lamp-stands these two faithful witnesses were, providing the oil for the light of God's grace and Spirit in the Church. Through their witness and through their suffering the servants of the Lord become lights in the world and of the world.