Revelation 11 - Introduction

Analysis Of The Chapter

This chapter Revelation 11 which is very improperly separated from the preceding, and improperly ended - for it should have been closed at Revelation 11:18 - consists (excluding the last verse, which properly belongs to the succeeding chapter) essentially of three parts:

I. The measuring of the temple, Revelation 11:1. A reed, or measuring-stick, is given to John, and he is directed to arise and measure the temple. This direction embraces two parts:

(a)He was to measure, that; is, to take an exact estimate of the temple, of the altar, and of the true worshippers;

(b)He was carefully to separate this, in his estimate, from the outward court, which was to be left out and to be given to the Gentiles, to be trodden under foot forty-two months; that is, three years and a half, or twelve hundred and sixty days - a period celebrated in the book of Daniel as well as in this book.

II. The two witnesses, Revelation 11:3. This is, in some respects, the most difficult portion of the Book of Revelation, and its meaning can be stated only after a careful examination of the signification of the words and phrases used. The general statement in regard to these witnesses is, that they should have power, and should prophesy for twelve hundred and sixty days; that if anyone should attempt to injure them, they had power, by fire that proceeded out of their mouths, to devour and kill their enemies; that they had power to shut heaven so that it should not rain, and power to turn the waters of the earth into blood, and power to smite the earth with plagues as often as they chose; that when they had completed their testimony, the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit would make war with them, and overcome them, and kill them; that their dead bodies would lie unburied in that great city where the Lord was crucified three days and a half; that they that dwelt upon the earth would exult in their death, and send gifts to one another in token of their joy; that after the three days and a half the spirit of life from God would enter into them again, and they would stand up on their feet; that they would then be taken up into heaven, in the sight of their enemies; and that, at the time of their ascension, there would be a great earthquake, and a tenth part of the city would fall, and many (seven thousand) would be killed, and that the remainder would be affrighted, and would give glory to the God of heaven.

III. The sounding of the seventh trumpet, Revelation 11:14. This is the grand consummation of the whole; the end of this series of visions; the end of the world. A rapid glance only is given of it here, for under another series of visions a more detailed account of the state of the world is given under the final triumph of truth. Here, as a proper close of the first series of visions, the result is merely glanced at or adverted to - that then the period would have arrived when the kingdoms of the world were to become the kingdoms of the Lord, and of his Christ, and when he should commence that reign which was to continue forever. Then universal peace and happiness would reign, and the long-promised and expected kingdom of God on the earth would be established. The “nations” had been “angry,” but the time had now come when a judgment was to be pronounced on the dead, and when the due reward was to be given to the servants of God - the prophets, and the saints, and those who feared his name, small and great - in the establishment of a permanent kingdom, and the complete triumph of the true religion in the world.

I regard this chapter, therefore, to Revelation 11:13, as extending down to the consummation of all things, and as disclosing the last of the visions seen in the scroll or volume “sealed with the seven seals,” Revelation 5:1. For a reason above suggested, and which will appear more fully hereafter, the detail is here much less minute than in the earlier portions of the historic visions, but still it embraces the whole period, and states in few words what will be the condition of things in the end. This was all that wes necessary; this was, in fact, the leading design of the whole book. The end toward which all tended - what John needed most to know and which the church needed most to know, was that religion would ultimately triumph, and that the period would arrive when it could be announced that the kingdoms of this world had become the kingdoms of God and of his Christ. That is here announced; and that is properly the close of one of the divisions of the whole book.