Revelation 10-11, Psalm 43

The great signs and wonders of God’s judgment have come on the earth, but the humans persist in their problem. Sure, we have war, famine, disease, and death. Whatever, we will continue doing what we think of as right and wrong instead of looking to God for his opinion on the matter. Nothing could possibly go wrong. This is fine. Of course, it is not fine if you are actually experiencing it. I am of the opinion that this is why people turn to God in mass numbers following both natural and man-made disasters. When the consequences of a fallen world find us, we shout to the sky like the people in Revelation 6, who can stand? Implying, of course, that no one can.

God, though, answers that question differently. There are those who can stand. They are the innumerable multitude that follow the slain lamb. Who fight their war like he did, by dying and rising from the dead. An army that fights with love, self-sacrifice, and allegiance to the King of God’s Kingdom. It is the complete inverse of the human problem. Instead of seeing and taking the knowledge of good and bad, it is a surrender to God’s definitions of those things, bringing victory though apparent powerlessness.

That is where we left off yesterday. But that isn’t the end of it. After all, victory through defeat is all well and good, but there is still the instruction that John was given way back in chapter 1. This is all so that the believers may know the things that you have seen, that are now, and that are to take place after this. There is an explanation to be had for what is going on, and here is where we start to see it, like a curtain pulled back behind a stage production, revealing the background workings that have been making everything tick since the play began.

First off, John eats the scroll. Okay, super weird. What is that about? Well, we have to look back to the prophet Ezekiel. Which won’t make us feel any less weird, but at least gives us some context. In Ezekiel 3, the prophet is given a scroll to eat, which is sweet in his mouth, but his words bring bitter judgment on his people, because they do not listen. Remember, this scroll has been opened by the lamb, and it revealed the plan of God for salvation. The plan is out, and it is communicated through the words of humans. When John eats the scroll, he hears yet another set of seven, this time seven thunders. But he doesn’t write this one down. The seven seals and trumpets have proclaimed enough. Instead of the thunders, John is told to go and prophesy, as Ezekiel was. God has given the message of salvation to people like John. They are to proclaim it. The signs and wonders of the six trumpets did not cause people to repent. As we saw in the seven seals, the last sign is the judgment which crushes all who cannot stand before God. This is God extending mercy before dropping the curtain on the whole thing.

But it won’t just be John out there eating scrolls and calling the nations to repentance. There are these two witnesses, who are said to be lampstands. In the rest of the book, lampstands are symbols of the church. I see no reason not to make the same comparison here. These witnesses are given the authority of the prophets from the Hebrew Scriptures. They carry out the signs and wonders of two specific prophets: Moses and Elijah. These same two characters were shorthand for the Story of the Hebrew Scriptures: the Law and the Prophets. They bear witness, and people repent and believe.

But something happens to them. A beast rises from the bottomless pit and kills them. We’ve seen this beast before, in the book of Daniel. But we’ll deal with him mostly in tomorrow’s reading. The point here is that the beast does some serious damage to the witnesses, killing them and leaving them lying in the street. But then they get up from the dead, and in a final act of witness they are taken up to heaven. Pretty cool, that.

I think the persecuted church is being given a timeless lesson here. Bearing the words of God’s plan of salvation will always bring persecution down eventually. It may even be lethal persecution. It may even seem to have destroyed the church entirely. But it will never have done so. The King of God’s Kingdom was killed for his message of salvation, as were the prophets before him. The reaction of the fallen world to a call to surrender who they think they are to the definition of who God says they are will necessarily be violent. In the end, the only weapon humans with a problem have is murder. And in the end, it will not be enough. The witnesses rise from the dead and continue to bear witness. The unsealed scroll tells the believers that yes, you may die in the service of your King. But this is the King who said I am the resurrection and the life. If anyone believes in me, though he die, yet he shall live.