The first five trumpets are patterned after five of the plagues of Exodus. The first trumpet (hail, fire, and blood) corresponds to the plague of hail and fire (Exod. 9:22-25); the second and third (poisoning of the sea and waters) to the plague on the Nile (Exod. 7:20-25); the fourth (darkness) to the plague of darkness (Exod. 10:21-23); and the fifth (locusts) to the plague of locusts (Exod. 10:12-15). As with the Egyptian plagues, the plagues punish hardness of heart, idolatry (since each plague had a judgment suited to a particular Egyptian god), and persecution of God’s people. God’s overall intention was to harden Pharaoh’s heart so that he would not release Israel (Exod. 4:21) and so that God would have opportunity to perform His plague signs (Exod. 7:3; 10:1-2). Therefore, these signs were not intended to coerce Pharaoh into releasing Israel, but functioned primarily to demonstrate Yahweh’s incomparable omnipotence to the Egyptians (Exod. 7:5, 17; 8:10, 22; 9:16, 29; 10:1-2). In this light, they are also judgments executed against the Egyptians because of their hardness of heart. The ultimate purpose of the plague signs was that Yahweh should be glorified. Even when God grants Pharaoh a change of heart so that He releases Israel, He hardens his heart again. The result of this last act of hardening leads to the defeat of the Egyptians in the Red Sea, which results in God’s glory (Exod. 14:4, 8, 17). Although the plagues are warnings for which Pharaoh will be held accountable if he does not heed them, they are ultimately intended, at least for the majority of Egyptians, as judgments. For not only has God foreknown and predicted Pharaoh’s obdurate response (Exod. 3:19; 4:21; 7:3), He has also caused it (Exod. 4:21; 7:3).
These plagues are now shown to be typological or prophetic foreshadowings of God’s judgments against unbelievers throughout the church age and culminating in the last judgment, which initiates the final exodus of God’s people from this world of captivity into eternal freedom. While the trumpet plagues bring warning and may cause repentance in some (as indicated by the limitation of the judgments in 8:7–9:21, which implies that God is restraining His wrath to allow for repentance), their primary purpose is the judgment of unbelievers. These plagues also function to demonstrate their hardness of heart and the fact that they are being punished because of such hardness, which is expressed by their persistence in idolatry (so 9:20-21) and their persecution of the saints (cf. 6:9-11).
In the OT, trumpets had a number of connotations, including judgment, warning, victory, and eschatological judgment. Against the background of the Exodus plagues, the emphasis in Revelation with the trumpets must be on the theme of judgment, a judgment unleashed by the resurrection and enthronement of Christ (5:5-14), which have given Him sovereignty over history. In the OT, trumpets also sounded an alarm that a battle against God’s enemies was imminent (Judg. 7:16-22; Jer. 4:5-21; Ezek. 7:14). Undoubtedly, the main OT passage in view here is the story of the fall of Jericho in Joshua 6, where trumpets announced the impending victory of a holy war. Seven trumpets were blown by seven priests, and here the trumpets are blown by seven angels who are priestly figures (see 15:6). The ark was present at Jericho (Josh. 6:11-13) and, in its heavenly form, is also present in the heavenly temple (Rev. 11:19). Interestingly, at the Jericho episode (Josh. 6:10-20), there was verbal silence directly linked to a climactic trumpet judgment, which is a pattern found in Revelation 8. The trumpets blown at Jericho by the priests, like the plagues on Egypt, are not warnings at all, but only indicate judgment. This shows further that the trumpets in Revelation primarily connote the idea of judgment rather than warnings designed to induce repentance.
At Jericho, likewise, the first six trumpets precede, but are a necessary preparation for the climactic judgment of the seventh. Likewise, the first six trumpets of Revelation are necessary primary woes leading up to the decisive judgment of the seventh trumpet at the end of history (see on 11:15-19), when the “great city” (11:8), of which Jericho is a prophetic type, will be decisively destroyed (see on 11:13). This reminds us again that the contents of the seven trumpets do not occur subsequent to those of the seven seals, for the content of the seventh trumpet and the (sixth and) seventh seal is identical: the last judgment. But whereas the first five seals focus not only on the judgment of unbelievers but also on the purifying of believers through suffering, the content of the trumpets focuses only on the effect of the various judgments on unbelievers. In light of the Jericho background, it is suitable that the trumpet judgments are placed immediately after ch. 7, where God’s people have been portrayed as a fighting army (7:3-8), which conducts victorious holy war ironically by remaining faithful despite earthly suffering (e.g., 7:14). The trumpet inflictions coming on the heels of ch. 7 should be seen as another of the ways the saints carry on holy war: they pray that God’s judicial decree will be carried out against their persecutors. The saints wage ironic warfare by means of sacrificial suffering, which makes their prayer of vindication acceptable to God.
And finally, it is beyond coincidence that “a very loud trumpet sound” summons Israel to Mount Sinai to acknowledge God’s kingship and presence among them after the plagues of Egypt have been executed (Exod. 19:16). This OT pattern of destructive plagues followed by the peace of kingship has been partially formative for John’s introduction of the end-time kingship of God in 11:15-19 by the seventh trumpet following the plagues of the preceding trumpets. It is appropriate that likewise a trumpet sound marked a transition between the defeat of Egypt and the imminent defeat of Jericho, all of which was conducted under God’s military leadership.
6And the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound them. 7And the first sounded, and there came hail and fire, mixed with blood, and they were thrown to the earth; and a third of the earth was burned up, and all the green grass was burned up. 8And the second angel sounded, and something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea; and a third of the sea became blood; 9and a third of the creatures, which were in the sea and had life, died; and a third of the ships were destroyed. 10And the third angel sounded, and a great star fell from heaven, burning like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of waters; 11and the name of the star is called Wormwood; and a third of the waters became Wormwood; and many men died from the waters, because they were made bitter. 12And the fourth angel sounded, and a third of the sun and a third of the moon and a third of the stars were smitten, so that a third of them might be darkened and the day might not shine for a third of it, and the night in the same way.
6 Now the description of the seven trumpet angels introduced in v. 2 but abruptly interrupted is continued. The trumpets do not follow the seventh seal chronologically but only in the order of the visions that John saw: he saw the trumpet visions after the seal visions. The trumpets are a temporal recapitulation of the same time periods pictured in the seals. But whereas the primary perspective of the first five seals was on the trials through which believers must pass, now the focus in the first six trumpets is on judgments which unbelievers, both inside and outside the visible church, must endure. The trumpets resemble some of the trials which were pictured in the seals, but their primary purpose is to punish.
7 The first angel sounds his trumpet and the first of the new series of judgments is sent forth. The first trumpet of hail and fire, mixed with blood, is patterned after the Egyptian plague of hail and fire (Exod. 9:22-25). The scope of the plague is widened throughout the earth (affecting parts of the whole world rather than simply Egypt): only a third of the earth was burned up, and a third of the trees. The fire is not literal, but figurative (as elsewhere in Revelation, most clearly in 4:5, but also in 1:14; 2:18; 10:1; 19:12). This is consistent with 1:1, where the visions are said to be a communication by symbols (see the comments there). Here it speaks of God’s holy judgment. The fire burns before God’s throne (4:5), and likewise the trumpet judgments have their origin “before God” (8:2). The parts of the earth affected by the first trumpet are those dealing with food supplies, as in Exod. 9:25, 31-32 (where likewise only a part of the food supply is destroyed); this is similar to the famine of the third seal in 6:6, where only some food supplies were affected. Another background to this trumpet is in Ezekiel’s prophecy that the coming judgment on disobedient Israel would be characterized by famine (Ezek. 4:9-17; 5:1-17). Israel would (significantly) be divided into thirds, the judgment of one third being described in relation to a burning with fire “at the center of the city” (Ezek. 5:2). Ezek. 5:12 confirms the suggestion that the fire burning in 5:2 is a metaphorical portrayal of judgment by famine, since it summarizes the fire as plague and famine. As in v. 7 and in Exodus, Ezekiel’s famine does not result in death for all (Ezek. 4:16-17; 5:10, 12, 16-17). Fire and famine are linked also in Rev. 18:8.
8-9 The second trumpet, continuing the judgment theme of the first, sees a great mountain burning with fire … thrown into the sea, following which a third of the sea became blood. Fire, in Revelation and elsewhere, is a well-known image of judgment. In Revelation, mountains speak of kingdoms, both good and bad, earthly and heavenly (14:1; 17:9; 21:10), but in the OT, mountains as representing nations are often used to portray the objects of God’s judgment (Isa. 41:15; 42:15; Ezekiel 35; Zech. 4:7). Hence this picture speaks of judgment against an evil kingdom. Jeremiah speaks of Babylon as a destroying mountain which will be burned by fire (Jer. 51:25), and later in the same chapter (vv. 63-64) speaks of Babylon sinking into the waters, never to rise again. Clearly Jeremiah’s vision lies behind the trumpet judgment here. Babylon is also described as a stone being thrown into the sea in Rev. 18:21. Jeremiah’s prophetic pronouncements thus lie behind both of John’s visions. This mountain burning with fire represents God’s judgment on Babylon, the great city holding sway over the whole evil world system. As in v. 7, fire may again represent famine. The third of the sea turning to blood is a direct allusion to Exod. 7:20-21; just as the fish in the Nile died, so also now a third of the creatures in the sea die. That the death of a third of the creatures in the sea which had life includes not only non-human creatures but also humans is directly implied by the following clause, and a third of the ships were destroyed. This fits a picture of famine in which food sources are affected, while the partial destruction of marine commerce likewise represents partial economic deprivation throughout the world and anticipates the destruction of Babylon as the source of maritime commerce in 18:11-19.
10-11 With the third trumpet, the judgment of famine appears to be continued. A burning star falls from heaven and pollutes a third of the rivers and the springs of waters. The presence of fire continues the previous idea of famine, while the theme of undrinkable water also reinforces the judgment of the second trumpet. Note Ps. 78:44: God “turned their rivers to blood, and their streams, they could not drink.” This time the fireball is in the form of not a mountain but a great star … burning like a torch. The star, as elsewhere in Revelation (1:20; 2:1, etc.), is an angelic being often representative of an earthly person or kingdom. The picture thus appears to indicate the judgment of an angel who represents sinful people. These kinds of judgments continue throughout history and culminate in the final judgment at the return of Christ. The picture here goes back first to Isa. 14:12-15, where Babylon’s guardian angel is pictured as a star cast down from heaven into a pit. The star is called Wormwood, which is based on Jer. 9:15 and 23:15, where God judges His disobedient people by giving them wormwood and poisoned water to drink. The uses in Jeremiah are not literal but metaphorical for the bitterness of suffering resulting from judgment. In fact, the image of polluting “wormwood” was chosen to show that the judgment was well-suited to the crime: because Israel’s religious leaders figuratively “polluted” Israel with idolatry, so God is pictured as polluting them with bad water, that is, with the bitterness of suffering. Wormwood is a bitter herb which contaminates water, and is mentioned in Jeremiah and other parts of the OT figuratively to refer to the bitterness of suffering resulting from divine judgment (Deut. 29:17-18; Prov. 5:4; Amos 5:6-7). The polluting of the fresh waters, along with the mention of fire, continues the thought of famine in the previous two plagues. The first three trumpets have been pictured as judgments of fire which affect parts of the earth, sea, and rivers, and of humanity.
12 The fourth trumpet continues the theme of woe from the preceding ones, but does not refer to famine. It brings a limited measure of darkness, a third of the sun and a third of the moon and a third of the stars being affected. It is similar to, but more limited in scope, than the description of the last judgment in 6:12-13, where the sun turns black and the moon is covered. The earlier passage refers to God’s final judgment against idolaters and those who persecute His people, so something similar is in view here, though only in a partial sense. The allusion is to the plague of darkness in Exod. 10:21-29. The Jews interpreted the Exodus plague in a symbolic sense, as a spiritual, cultural, or mental darkness. The darkness here may refer to a series of divine judgments which plunge men into despair as it causes them to realize the futility of their idolatry and that disaster is rapidly coming upon them. Fear, terror, hopelessness, and depression may be their response.
That the interruption of light sources in v. 12 is figurative is pointed to by the fact that the vast majority of such imagery in the OT is clearly not literal but metaphorical. When Jeremiah speaks of the judgment which came against Israel because of Manasseh, he alludes to the sun setting while it is yet day (Jer. 15:9). Amos likewise speaks of Israel’s historical judgment, part of it being that God will make the sun go down at noon (Amos 8:9). These were not climactic end-of-the-world events but figurative references to the depth of the effects of God’s judgment which actually came upon the nation and were compared to the decisive destruction of the cosmos at the very end of history. Joel (2:1-10), in phrases similar to Revelation, refers to a trumpet blowing, a fire burning, the sun and moon growing dark, and the stars losing their brightness, all referring to events that actually occurred in Israel’s history rather than to some strange final cosmic cataclysm. Actual historical events occurring from time to time throughout the church age are being referred to here in the same way actual historical events were referred to by Joel, Amos, and Jeremiah, and so the meaning of these events in the sky must be taken in the same figurative manner. Note Eccl. 12:1-2, where the “evil days” leading to death (so Eccl. 12:6-7) are a time when “the sun, the light, the moon and the stars are darkened, and clouds return after the rain” (cf. similarly Job 3:3-10). Zeph. 1:15-16 alludes to similar cosmic disturbances (darkness, gloom, and clouds) as symbolic of God’s historical judgment against idolatrous Israel, in the context of the sounding of the trumpet and battle cry! See also Isa. 13:10 and Ezek. 32:7-8 for similar references. That these events occur throughout the church age is indicated, on the one hand, by the fact that, like the seals, they are unleashed by the resurrection and ascension of Christ to His heavenly throne and, on the other, by the fact that they are all clearly differentiated from the final judgment, as apparent from the OT allusions and parallels cited above.
The fourth trumpet is the logical climax and point of emphasis of the first set of four trumpets, since it expresses the underlying thought of the first three. It is an emblem of the hardened unbeliever’s spiritual separation from God. The darkness is figurative and refers to all those divinely-ordained events intended to remind the church’s idolatrous persecutors, and those within the church aligning with the idolatrous culture, that their idolatry is vain, that they are separated from the living God, and that they are already undergoing an initial form of judgment. All four trumpets are concerned with sufferings imposed on the ungodly. This conclusion is confirmed by 7:1-3, where genuine believers have their faith protected by being sealed from the harm directed at the earth, sea, and trees. Vv. 7-11 show that the unsealed are being affected by the trumpet woes, because now the same three objects of earth, sea, and trees are portrayed as harmed. With this in mind, it can be no coincidence that 7:3 is based on Ezek. 9:4-6 and that 8:3-5 is modeled on Ezek. 10:1-7 (see on v. 5). Just as the pouring out of punitive coals on Jerusalem (Ezekiel 10) occurs after the righteous remnant in the covenant community have been given a protective mark on their foreheads (Ezekiel 9), so the same pattern is intentionally followed here and combined with the recollection that the Israelites also received a mark on their doors to protect them from the Exodus death plague. The Exodus–Ezekiel background suggests further that the trumpet trials plague the unsealed both within and outside the visible boundaries of the covenant society.
The tribulations of vv. 6-12 are executed throughout various parts of the earth at all times during the church age, but they do not affect the entire earth or all people. The partial nature of the judgments signifies figuratively that these are not descriptions of the last judgment. It is possible that these are trials which affect all intractible unbelievers until the complete punishment of the judgment day. The command to John in 10:11 preceding the sounding of the seventh trumpet (“You must prophesy again concerning many peoples and nations and tongues and kings”) refers to prophecy against ungodly peoples living throughout the world and shows the widespread effect of the trumpet judgments (reinforced by the fact that the woe comes to all “earth-dwellers”; cf. 8:13). The people John is commanded to prophesy against in 10:11 are the same people he prophesies against in 8:7–9:21.
The parallelism of the first four bowls with the first four trumpets confirms that the judgments in both series come because of idolatry (16:2), but adds the element that these woes also occur because of persecution of the saints (16:5-7). In particular, the second and third bowl portray water becoming blood. The description of the third bowl explains that this punishment was fitting because those judged had “poured out the blood of saints and prophets,” and that God was therefore just when He gave them blood to drink, because they deserved it (16:6). Likewise, the two trumpet judgments where water becomes blood must be related to the same concern that persecutors get their just deserts.
As already argued, the first three trumpets evoke conditions of famine. Whether these are literal famine conditions or figurative portrayals of suffering is hard to determine. They may be figurative, whereby the famine conditions are nevertheless literal parts of a much broader suffering (the figure of speech is known as “synecdoche,” whereby a part is named to indicate the whole of which it is a part).
The figurative nature of the first four trumpets is pointed to by at least two observations. First, the use of different Greek words for “like” throughout the narration of the trumpets indicates an intended lack of precision in describing what was seen in vision and in particular suggests a metaphorical portrayal (8:8, 10; 9:2, 3, 5, 7-10, 17, 19). This figurative emphasis is underscored by the use of the Greek word sēmainō (“communicate by symbols”) in 1:1 and its background in Daniel, where it connoted a figurative depiction (see on 1:1). Second, the exegesis of various images throughout the trumpets has shown a probable figurative bent (e.g., the mountain and the star; see likewise on the speaking eagle in 8:13; see also on 9:1-19). For example, it is hard to imagine a literal situation in which one meteor could fall on a third of the world’s fresh water at the same time.
The Exodus plagues are understood in Revelation 8–9 as a typological foreshadowing of the trumpet plagues, whose effect is escalated to the whole world. The images of famine themselves, as noted above, would not merely be literal references to actual situations of famine, but could generally connote sufferings of all kinds. The sufferings throughout vv. 7-12 are continual reminders of how transient the idolatrous object of the earth-dwellers’ trust is. The sufferings result from deficiencies in the world’s resources, which the ungodly depend on to meet their needs. These trials, coupled with actual death, remind them that they are ultimately insecure. The reason for their predicament is that they place their trust in what is unstable. The climax of these temporal judgments and sufferings is the final destruction of the entire world and its wicked system. The destruction occurs in order to demonstrate the world’s ultimate insufficiency as an object of spiritual trust.
The fourth trumpet also serves as an appropriate transition to the demonic judgments of the fifth trumpet, both dealing with the theme of darkness. Those who abide in spiritual darkness must be plagued by the forces of darkness, whose work it is to draw the dark curtain of unbelief permanently over the spiritual eyes of the ungodly, who are intractable in their unbelief. The use of the word “plagues” (9:20) to describe the trumpet woes suggests that they occur throughout the church age, for in 22:18 “plagues” refers to a curse which can strike anyone throughout the entire church age (including the disobedient within the visible church) who is unfaithful to the message of John’s vision. This telling observation strongly suggests that some if not most of the trumpet judgments happen during the entire period between Christ’s first and second comings, and not merely at a tribulation period immediately preceding and including the second coming. The four trumpets affect three parts of the created order (earth, air, and water), suggesting that the basic content of creation in Genesis 1 is being systematically undone, though not in the same order; the elements affected are light, air, vegetation, sun, moon, stars, sea creatures, and humans. The notion of a “de-creation” in the first four trumpet judgments is supported by observing that the book climaxes in new creation (21:1ff.).
On the purpose of disastrous events within the plan of God. These verses about the first four trumpets present the plagues of Egypt and God’s hardening of Pharaoh’s heart as a typological model for His judgments of unbelievers throughout the church age. How does this relate to the view we often take of cataclysmic events that happen throughout the course of history in this age? Do we think of such events primarily as warnings designed to wake unbelievers up so as to change direction? Do we think of them as beginning judgments on hardened unbelievers? Do we also see such destructive events, at the same time, as trials through which believers are refined and through which they draw closer to God (as with the purpose of the sufferings in the first five seals)? Many Christians think the events that happen in history are theologically or spiritually neutral, but in fact, Revelation says that they have divine purposes attached to them which are relevant for unbelievers and believers. How one responds to such events is one indication of whether or not a person has a genuine saving relationship to God: Do Christians accept disastrous events as sent from God to refine their faith and to cause them to draw even closer to Him, or do they blame God and become hardened to Him? Does a characteristic negative reaction to devastating events indicate the spiritual darkness that one is in, whether as a pseudo-believer or as an unbeliever outside the borders of the visible covenant community?
13And I looked, and I heard an eagle flying in mid-heaven, saying with a loud voice, “Woe, woe, woe, to those who dwell on the earth, because of the remaining blasts of the trumpet of the three angels who are about to sound!”
13 The last three trumpets are introduced by a phrase indicating a new vision: and I looked, and I heard. These trumpets are marked off from the first four literarily by the introductory vision formula together with the eagle proclaiming a threefold “woe” to come upon the ungodly through the remaining three trumpet blasts. The purpose of the literary division is to highlight the harsher aspect of the remaining trumpets.
What John sees is an eagle flying in mid-heaven. The Exodus model is still in mind, since there also the plagues became increasingly severe and more specific in their application. The presence of the eagle points to more serious trials, as the phrase flying in mid-heaven refers elsewhere only to flying creatures which appear in anticipation of the last judgment (14:6; 19:17; cf. 18:2). The first two woes are also associated with the third, which alludes to the final judgment, by laying the basis for it in the lives of unbelievers and tormenting them in a way which foreshadows their eternal torment. The woes are also worse than the initial four trumpets in that they directly strike the wicked. The reason the wicked are directly affected is that they did not repent from the first four judgments against the environment which supported their lives and lifestyle. The spiritual heightening of the last three trumpets is indicated by the direct involvement of demons. The greater severity of these trumpets is also expressed by their being called “woes,” whereas no name is given the first four trumpets. Vv. 7-12 have emphasized that the regular patterns of nature’s cycles on earth and of the luminaries in the heavens will be interrupted. The implicit theological reason for this is to connote judgment on sinners who have broken God’s established ethical and covenantal patterns (so above on v. 12). 8:13ff. makes this implicit theology explicit. This judgment is primarily spiritual in nature, as ch. 9 reveals.
Eagles often signal coming destruction in the Old Testament (Deut. 28:49; Jer. 4:13; 48:40; Lam. 4:19; Ezek. 17:3). Particularly relevant are Hos. 8:1 (“Put the trumpet to your lips! Like an eagle the enemy comes against the house of the Lord”) and Jer. 4:13, where the destructive image of an eagle is followed by “woe to us” together with the threefold mention of the sounding of a trumpet as an announcement of judgment in Jer. 4:5, 19, 21. The figure here could be one of the living beings of Rev. 4:7, who is described as like a flying eagle. The metaphorical association of the eagle with judgment is not inconsistent with the probability that it also represents an angelic being, as pointed to by the parallel with 14:6, where the angel flies in mid-heaven to pronounce God’s judgment (14:7). In Exod. 19:4, God compares himself to an eagle who protects His people, after having plagued the Egyptians: “You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings, and brought you to Myself.” Now an eagle announces new plagues on the idolaters and earth-dwellers.
1And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star from heaven which had fallen to the earth, and the key of the bottomless pit was given to him. 2And he opened the bottomless pit; and smoke went up out of the pit, like the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by the smoke of the pit. 3And out of the smoke came forth locusts upon the earth; and power was given them, as the scorpions of the earth have power. 4And they were told that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, nor any green thing, nor any tree, but only the men who do not have the seal of God upon their foreheads. 5And they were not permitted to kill anyone, but to torment for five months; and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings a man. 6And in those days, men will seek death and will not find it; and they will long to die and death flees from them. 7And the appearance of the locusts was like horses prepared for battle; and on their heads, as it were, crowns like gold, and their faces were like the faces of men. 8And they had hair like the hair of women, and their teeth were like the teeth of lions. 9And they had breastplates like breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots, of many horses rushing into battle. 10And they have tails like scorpions, and stings; and in their tails is their power to hurt men for five months. 11They have as king over them, the angel of the abyss; his name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in the Greek he has the name Apollyon. 12The first woe is past; behold, two woes are still coming after these things.
1 The fifth angel sounds the trumpet, and John sees another vision of judgment. He sees a star from heaven which had fallen to the earth. This star is probably the same or at least similar to the star of 8:10, an angel representing sinful people and undergoing judgment along with them. The OT background is Isa. 14:12-15. Jesus uses virtually the same expression to describe Satan’s judgment in Luke 10:18: “I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning.” The expression here may be another way of saying that “Satan … was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him” (Rev. 12:9; cf. 12:13). The conclusion that this is a fallen angel is also suggested by v. 11. There the “angel of the abyss” is called “king over” the demonic locusts and is referred to as “Abaddon” (“Destruction”) and “Apollyon” (“Destroyer”). The heavenly being who is sovereign over the abyss and locusts in vv. 1-3 is probably the same figure as the one in v. 11, who is said to be “king” over them (for the Satanic nature of this angel see on v. 11).
This fallen angel is given the role of inflicting punishment on sinful humanity. He is given the key of the bottomless pit, the realm where Satan dwells, but this key or authority is ultimately given by Christ, who alone holds the keys of death and Hades (1:18). Neither Satan nor his evil servants can any longer unleash the forces of hell on earth unless they are given power to do so by the resurrected Christ (see further on 20:1-3). As the visions of ch. 9 and following are unveiled, the readers are given an ever-expanding definition of the extent of God and the Lamb’s sovereignty. They are in ultimate control of Satan’s realm. And the saints are to remember this when the forces of evil direct their wrath against them or self-destructively against their own allies, the followers of the antichrist. There is a grand purpose which God is working through it all, which is a basis for hope and encouragement for beleaguered Christians (for discussion of the problem of how a good God can be sovereign over evil see on 6:1-8).
2 Dense smoke arises from the abyss when the angel opens it: The sun and the air were darkened by the smoke of the pit. The image of darkening of the sun and other parts of the cosmos has already been seen to connote judgment (see on 6:12ff.; 8:12). The image is an allusion to the repeated references to the darkening of the sun in Joel 2:10, 31; 3:15 (cf. Isa. 13:10), where it is a sign of judgment. Joel’s imagery itself is probably a development of the plague of locusts in Exod. 10:1-15 (see on v. 7 below). This was a judgment because of the Egyptians’ hardness of heart in rejecting God’s word through Moses. There is no reason to think that the connotation of judgment has changed here. This is confirmed by the clear meaning of judgment which “smoke” carries later in this chapter (vv. 17-20) and later in the book (14:11; 18:9, 18; 19:3). Consequently, the picture in v. 2 indicates that the judgment formerly limited to the demonic realm is being extended to the earthly realm. As a result of Christ’s death and resurrection, the devil and his legions have begun to be judged, and now the effect of their judgment is about to be unleashed upon unbelieving humanity, who give their ultimate allegiance to him. An essentially identical pattern of widening judgment occurs in 12:7-12; 13:3-8; 16:10; and 17:8 (although in 12:12ff. the saints are also affected by the extension of judgment in the form of persecution and attempted deception). As will be seen below in vv. 3-6, the judgment partly involves deception, which is metaphorically anticipated by the darkening smoke. Darkness throughout the NT symbolizes spiritual blindness (Luke 11:36; John 1:5; 3:19-21; 8:12; 11:10; 12:35-36; Rom. 13:12; 2 Cor. 4:4; 1 Pet. 2:9; 1 John 1:5).
3 Demonic-like beings portrayed as locusts arise from the smoking abyss and go out to the earth. As in the original plague of locusts, it is God Himself who sends locusts upon the earth (the phrase power was given them implies God or Christ as the subject; for God as the subject in similar clauses see 6:2-8; 8:2, etc.). The model of the Exodus plagues here confirms that God is the one who has absolute sovereignty over the instruments of the plagues, as is indicated by the clause introducing the locust plague against Egypt: “Stretch out your hand … for the locusts, that they may come up on the land of Egypt” (Exod. 10:12).
4 But whereas the Exodus locusts harmed the vegetation, these locusts do not harm the grass of the earth, nor any green thing, nor any tree, but only those who do not have the seal of God upon their foreheads. The seal is given only to genuine believers. The seal is a sign of God’s sovereign authority and ownership over those destined ultimately to be part of His kingdom and not of Satan’s domain. This means that the faith of Christians is safeguarded by God’s protective presence (see further on 2:17; 7:2-3). Of course, there are unbelievers who become believers throughout this time, but they are those who have been “sealed” beforehand by God’s decree and will believe at some point during their lives. In fact, they become Christians as a result of the sealing activity directed toward them. Part of the harm inflicted has to do with keeping unsealed unbelievers in spiritual darkness (see on 8:12). At the same time, this link with 8:12 implies that these devilish beings cause events which remind the ungodly that they are separated from the living God. Such reminders induce fear and despair as people are forced to reflect on their hopeless situation. That this kind of torment is in mind is made explicit by vv. 5-6. Just as the plagues did not harm the Israelites but only the Egyptians (Exod. 8:22-24; 9:4-7, 26; 10:21-23), so true Christians are likewise protected from the fifth plague.
5 The locusts, however, were not permitted to kill anyone, but only to torment them, and only for five months. The five-month period could refer by analogy to the dry season or to the life-cycle of locusts, but it is probably symbolic (referring to a limited period of time), as are other numbers in Revelation. That the limitations are divinely imposed is clear from the fact that God determined the temporal limitations of the Egyptian plagues, which are in mind here. The torment is primarily spiritual and psychological suffering, since this is the connotation of the word elsewhere in the book with reference to the nature of trials both preceding and including the final judgment (cf. 11:10; 14:10-11; 18:7, 10, 15 [in ch. 18 synonymous with the emotional pain of “weeping” and “mourning”]; 20:10).
The theme of spiritual and psychological suffering explains why sealed believers are not affected, for they have confidence in their destiny in Christ. Deuteronomy 28 also predicts that “in the latter days” (so 4:30) Israel will suffer the plagues of Egypt (vv. 27, 60), including that of locusts (vv. 38-39, 42), because of their idolatry (e.g., v. 14; 29:22-27; 30:17; 31:16-20). This latter-day affliction includes “plagues” (Deut. 28:61) of “madness” (v. 28), darkness (v. 29), “trembling heart,” “failing eyes” (darkness?), and “despair of soul” (v. 65). To whatever degree this Deuteronomy passage is in mind, the notion is applied to those in the visible community of the new Israel who are not part of the invisible community of faith. But this plague likely extends beyond the boundary of the covenant community, since the Egyptian plagues likewise struck those outside the believing community. In fact, the plague predicted by Deuteronomy 28 to come on Israel in the latter days was to be constituted by the very plagues that God had sent on Egypt (Deut. 28:60), because those in the visible community of faith would become as unbelieving as the Egyptians.
6 John now gives a partial interpretative comment on the vision he has just seen. The spiritual and psychological nature of the torment is emphasized by the fact that men will seek death and will not find it — that is, they will want to die, yet be so afraid of death they will not find it within their power to kill themselves. The effect of the locusts is to remind the church’s ungodly persecutors that their idolatry is vain and that they are separated from the living God, and consequently have no hope. In them the prophecy of Moses that the disobedient will be driven mad by what they suffer will be fulfilled (Deut. 28:28, 34). The Exodus plagues caused the Egyptians confusion and despair through the realization that Yahweh was the only true God and that they could not prevail against Him. This realization included an anxious conviction of sin yet unaccompanied by repentance (cf. Pharaoh’s response in Exod. 9:27-28; 10:16-17). So now sinners will live in terror as they realize the idolatrous values on which they have built their lives are but foundations of sand in the face of Satan’s attacks. And, as with the Egyptians, so now the fifth trumpet plague also hardens the victims against turning to God from their despair. Such hardening is actually a deceptive influence of the demons. Believers, by contrast, will fear no evil because they know that, whether they live or die, they are with Christ and that behind the apparent catastrophes and reversals of life a loving and sovereign God is working out His eternal will for their good (Rom. 8:28). In contrast to the ungodly, they take ultimate pleasure in the torments, even death, which the world imposes on them in order that they may give testimony to Jesus and the word of God: “because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even to death” (12:11; cf. 1:9; 2:10; 6:9; 20:4).
7 John’s detailed description of the locusts here contains three uses of the word like, as well as the phrase as it were, indicating his struggle to describe what he is seeing. The vision sparks in his mind similar scenes from the OT, as the following verses reveal. So he utilizes the prophetic language which most resembles what he sees. His vision of locusts like horses prepared for battle is clearly related to Joel’s portrayal of the plague of locusts attacking Israel (itself modeled on the plague of locusts in Exodus 10), which likewise begins with the blowing of a trumpet (Joel 2:1). As God used locusts to judge Egypt, so in Joel God is portrayed as using locusts to judge unrepentant Israel, out of which only a remnant will be saved (Joel 2:31-32). Joel mirrors the thought of Exodus that the primary purpose of the locust plague is to harden the hearts of unbelievers. Joel’s locusts (whether literal or representing enemy armies) brought famine (1:5-12, 16-20; 2:25) and anguish (2:6). Here the locusts are pictured (v. 4) as not harming the earth’s vegetation, so the damage now envisioned is that of a famine of the soul (the prophets sometimes spiritualize famine, e.g., Amos 8:11-14). This suggests that actual famine conditions observed in the first three trumpets ultimately point to punishments coming upon sinners because of the spiritual famine and barrenness of their souls. The description of John’s locusts represents an exaggeration of their actual physiology: their head is shaped like horses’ heads; their antennae become hair; the destructive effect of their mouth becomes ferocious teeth; their sound becomes the sound of chariots; their armor becomes breastplates of iron. In general, the locusts are translated into human terms and compared to an army. The comparison of the locusts’ faces to the faces of men with crowns like gold on their heads evokes their demonic nature. Joel 2:4-7 also compares the locusts to horses and to men prepared for battle.
To attempt to find the dominant model for the locusts first in the realm of modern warfare (for instance, helicopters, as one popular writer suggests) instead of OT imagery is not the best approach. Rather than first going forward from John’s time into our present or future, the commentator should first go back from John’s time to the OT, since this is the first clear source from which Revelation derives its images and determines their meaning.
8 The phrase their teeth were like the teeth of lions is based on Joel 1:6, where the locusts were like “a nation” whose “teeth are the teeth of a lion.”
9 The phrase breastplates like breastplates of iron is a general description of part of the armor of a soldier (or battle horse; cf. Job 39:19-20, where battle horses are compared to locusts). The sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots, of many horses rushing into battle is an allusion to Joel 2:4-5: “Their appearance is like the appearance of horses; and like war horses, so they run. With a noise as of chariots they leap on the tops of the mountains … like a mighty people arranged for battle.” Also see Jer. 51:27, which speaks of the judgment of historical Babylon, is introduced with “a trumpet among the nations,” and compares horses to “bristly locusts,” and Jer. 51:14, which describes enemy armies as “a population like locusts.” The locusts, like so much else in Revelation, must be understood figuratively, and so it would be a mistake to view them as actual physical locusts (note accordingly “likeness” in v. 7 and the repeated “like” in vv. 7-10).
10 The picture of the locusts concludes as it began in vv. 3-5 by comparing their authority to the power which scorpions have over their prey and by limiting their authority over people to five months. The combination of an army of horses who devour the land and serpents who bite occurs in Jer. 8:16-17, where the picture is similar to John’s combination of horse-like locusts and scorpions who sting. In both passages, the judgment comes on idolaters (Jer. 8:2; cf. Rev. 9:20).
11 The angel who controls these demonic beings is called Abaddon or Apollyon (Hebrew and Greek respectively for “destroyer”). Abaddon is closely linked to Sheol or the place of death in the OT (Job 26:6; 28:22; Ps. 88:11; Prov. 15:11; 27:20). These names, together with the statement that the angel is “king over” the demons, suggest that this is either Satan himself or one of his most powerful representatives. Rev. 12:3-4 and 13:1ff. are compatible with this conclusion, since there the devil and the beast are pictured, respectively, with kingly diadems on their heads and as leaders of evil forces. This is in line with the same conclusion already reached about the angel’s identification in 9:1. The two names for Satan express his function in utilizing demons to work among the impious so that they will eventually be destroyed by death of body and spirit. The demonic activity lasting only five months is but a part of the process leading to this final, macabre goal. The sixth trumpet pictures the completion of this process.
12 This verse is a transition, summarizing the preceding trumpet and introducing the next two. Does the transition indicate that the last three trumpets follow one another in the chronology of history or merely in the chronological sequence of the visions? The first hint that the second meaning is intended is found in the opening expression the first woe is past. This does not mean that the events have already transpired in history, but only indicates that the vision containing the events is now over. The introductory word behold shows an emphasis on the woes as visions instead of events. This is implied also by the concluding phrase after these things, which elsewhere in the book refers not to the order of historical events but to the order of visions coming one after another (see on 4:1). Consequently, the sense of v. 12 is, “The presentation of the first vision of woe has passed. See, two more visions of woe will be presented after this first one.” Thus, the primary concern is with the order of visions and not the order of history represented in the three visions.
On God using Satan as His agent of judgment. These verses present a picture of a horrible judgment ultimately directed by God, who uses Satan and his agents to inflict it. Would our first reaction to this be that this is unworthy of a holy God? Why would we react this way? What does it say about our limited view of the seriousness of sin? From another perspective, these verses show that the enemy is not an independent agent, but operates only under God’s authority. Do we tend practically to view spiritual warfare as a struggle between two equals (God and Satan) even though the Bible, as here, suggests otherwise?
On the significance of understanding the use of figurative language in the Bible. These verses show us how John uses the picture of horse-like locusts similar to scorpions to refer to the psychological and spiritual torment that Satan and his agents inflict at the command of God. John in turn borrows the picture from Joel, who likely uses the actual locusts of Exodus likewise figuratively to speak of enemy armies. Regardless of whether the locusts in Joel are literal, in Revelation they are figurative. John, like Jesus, uses pictures and parables which shock the believer into repentance while further hardening the heart of those intractable in unbelief. How best can we explore the true meaning of biblical passages like this? How often do we trace back the true meaning of such passages by discovering their roots in other passages of Scripture?
On the severity of the judgment of darkness. These verses present a view of the unbelievers’ torment as the forceful reminder that their idolatry is vain, that they are separated from the living God, and that they are without hope. Why, when their situation is so desperate, do people not turn to Christ? Why did only one of the other men on the cross cry out for help? It is said of the atheist Voltaire that his dying words consisted of calling out the name of Christ, alternately as a prayer and as a curse. Is this a measure of the darkness God’s judgment sends on the lost? And yet, at the cross, the one criminal who did cry out was answered and received God’s mercy.
13And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, 14one saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.” 15And the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released, so that they might kill a third of mankind. 16And the number of the armies of the horsemen was two hundred million; I heard the number of them. 17And this is how I saw in the vision the horses and those who sat on them: the riders had breastplates the color of fire and of hyacinth and of brimstone; and the heads of the horses are like the heads of lions; and out of their mouths proceed fire and smoke and brimstone. 18A third of mankind was killed by these three plagues, by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone, which proceeded out of their mouths. 19For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails; for their tails are like serpents and have heads; and with them they do harm. 20And the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, so as not to worship demons, and the idols of gold and of silver and of brass and of stone and of wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk; 21and they did not repent of their murders nor of their sorceries nor or their immorality nor of their thefts.
13 The voice coming from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God may be Christ’s (cf. 6:6) or an angel’s (cf. 16:7). Mention of the golden altar draws us back to the cry to God for justice from the glorified saints from below the same altar (6:10), and also connects the sixth trumpet with the transitional segment of 8:3-5, which showed that both the seventh seal and the seven trumpets were God’s response to the saints’ petitions. Four stands for completeness in the Bible (on which see the discussion on numerology in the Introduction [6.] and also on 7:1) and horns stand for power, so the vision refers to the completeness of God’s power coming from His presence (the golden altar), a power He is beginning to exercise in response to the prayers of the saints. In 14:18, the altar is directly linked to power over judgment: “Another angel, the one who has power over fire, came out from the altar.” Before (or literally “in the presence of”) appears six times elsewhere in Revelation in connection with explicit reference to some aspect of God’s presence in the heavenly temple (4:5; 5:8; 7:15; 8:3-4; 11:4). All these texts have some connotation of judgment or protection from judgment. These links also point to 9:13 as an allusion to God’s power of judging in response to the saints’ prayers.
14 The voice from the altar issues a command to the sixth trumpet angel to release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates. That they had been bound implies they had been restrained against their will, like the demons confined to the abyss in 9:1-3. They are probably also wicked angels. The Euphrates does not refer to the literal place the angels were bound and will raise their armies. Rather, the regions around the Euphrates (Isa. 7:20; 8:7-8), the “land of the north by the river Euphrates” (Jer. 46:10), or simply the “north,” meaning the region of the Euphrates (Jer. 1:14-15; 6:1, 22; 10:22; Ezek. 38:6, etc.), are mentioned in the OT as the area from which armies of destruction come, sometimes against Israel, sometimes against other nations. The strongest OT echo comes from Jeremiah 46, which portrays the coming judgment on Egypt, the army of horsemen from the north being like serpents, innumerable locusts, having breastplates (cf. 46:4, 22-23), and being “by the Euphrates River” (46:2; likewise 46:6, 10). The angels had been bound by God and are now released by Him, since the command to release them emanates from the divine altar in heaven.
Mention of the Euphrates anticipates the battle of the sixth bowl, where the Euphrates is also mentioned. Indeed, the sixth trumpet and sixth bowl describe the same event, but from different perspectives; on the link with the sixth bowl see further on 9:19. As in the OT parallels of the northern invader, so here it is God who ultimately unleashes the corrupt angelic invaders. These angels could be identified as the angelic counterparts to the wicked nations, who dwelled at or north of this boundary (e.g., Dan. 10:13, 20-21). Looking back at 7:1 enables us to identify “the four winds of the earth” being held back with the four beings bound at the Euphrates (and see on 7:1 for the identification of these winds with malevolent angels). The destructive winds “at the four corners of the earth” may now be unleashed against the unsealed (as in 9:4), since the sealing of God’s people has been completed (7:3-8), and they cannot be harmed by the effect of the angelic winds. John’s vision thus understands the Euphrates as a biblical reference for the place (spiritual rather than geographical) where Satan will marshal his forces against God’s people. The fact that the four angels of 9:14 are at the particular locality of the Euphrates and not the four corners of the earth is a mixing of metaphors, whereby the river sums up the end-time expectations concerning the direction from which will come the final onslaught of the Satanic enemy, which will affect the whole world (see on 16:12-16).
15 That the four angels had been “bound” means that they had not been allowed to carry out the function for which they had been waiting. But now, having been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, they were released, so that they might kill a third of mankind. The specific listing of time periods indicates that these angels are released according to God’s sovereign timetable. The point of specifying down to the hour the time of releasing these hordes is to emphasize that all events of history, whatever Satan’s involvement, are under the ultimate authority of God.
16 The four angels have power over ungodly spiritual forces, which are pictured as a multitude of armies on horses. The size of the demonic army is two hundred million (literally “double myriad of myriads” or “twice ten thousands of ten thousands”). The number is symbolic, as with other numbers in Revelation. The word myrias (“ten thousand”) is used in Greek to refer to an innumerable multitude. In the plural, it is used in the OT in the same way (Gen. 24:60; Lev. 26:8; Deut. 32:30; 2 Chron. 25:11-12; Mic. 6:7; and especially Dan. 7:10). Never in the Bible does it refer to a specific number unless prefixed by a numerical adjective (as in “three myriads” or 30,000 in Esth. 1:7 LXX). Use of the double plural (“ten thousands of ten thousands”), prefaced by the further intensifier “twice,” makes it almost impossible to calculate accurately and shows that a symbolic reference is indicated here. Note that in Jer. 46:2, 4, 6, 10, 22-23, one of the backgrounds to this text, the conquering armies ride on horses (v. 4), wear armor (v. 4), are compared to a serpent (v. 22) and locusts (cf. v. 23), and are (significantly) of innumerable number.
17 What John has heard in vv. 13-16 is explained further in visionary form in vv. 17-21. The riders have breastplates the color of fire and hyacinth and brimstone, the horses are described as having heads of lions (emphasizing their destructive power), and out of their mouths proceed fire and smoke and brimstone. As with the description of the locusts in the fifth trumpet, the piling up of hideous descriptions underscores the demons as ferocious and dreadful beings. Fire and brimstone in the OT (sometimes linked with smoke) indicate a fatal judgment (as here) within the course of history (Gen. 19:24, 28; Deut. 29:23; 2 Sam. 22:9; Isa. 34:9-10; Ezek. 38:22). The idea of God’s judgment of His enemies is figuratively expressed in 2 Sam. 22:9 (= Ps. 18:8) by the similar phrase “smoke … and fire from his mouth.” In Rev. 11:5, the expression “fire proceeds out of their mouth” refers to the punishment the two faithful witnesses execute against their persecutors. The fire is a figurative reference to their prophesying and testimony (11:6-7). There, the rejection of their testimony commences a spiritual judgment of the persecutors and lays the basis for their future final judgment (see further on 11:5-6). That the image of fire “proceeding from a mouth” is figurative is apparent from other parallels in the book. For instance, 1:16 (cf. 2:12, 16) and 19:15, 21 portray Christ judging His enemies by means of a sharp sword “proceeding from His mouth.” 2:16 alludes to some form of temporal punishment, whereas 19:15, 21 has to do with the defeat of Christ’s enemies at His return. Like the fire in 11:5, the sword in Christ’s mouth is figurative and probably refers to the condemnation of sinners through His word (as implied from 19:11-13).
18 The destructive nature of the judgment executed by the demonic horses is reemphasized by repetition from v. 17 of the fire and the smoke and the brimstone, which proceeded out of their mouths. The overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah from Gen. 19:24, 28 is uppermost in thought among other possible parallels, since the precise combination of fire, smoke, and brimstone occurs in the OT only there. As in v. 17 above, Genesis 19; Isa. 34:9-10; and Ezek. 38:22 describe the same kind of fatal judgment John foresees here. The fire and the smoke and the brimstone are now called three plagues from which a third of mankind was killed. This continues the description in v. 15, which means that these fiendish horses are the agents through whom the four angels of v. 15 conduct their dreadful work. They kill the whole person, both physically and spiritually. They carry out, not the final judgment, but a judgment that is linked to the final judgment and that prepares for it. They cause the physical death of idolaters, compromisers, and persecutors of the church, who are already spiritually dead. The plague of “killing” includes all kinds of death which the ungodly undergo (from illness, tragedy, etc.). The death stroke against their bodies makes certain their spiritual death for eternity. In this sense, it can be said that death here includes both the spiritual and physical dimensions. Thus fire and brimstone, referred to three times in vv. 17-18, refer exclusively elsewhere in John’s writing to the final and eternal judgment of ungodly idolaters (14:10; 21:8), the devil, the beast, and the false prophet (19:20; 20:10). This connection with final judgment in other passages of the book implies that the execution of death by the demonic horses is the beginning of the divine action which eventually secures unbelievers for their final judgment in 14:10 and 21:8, for which they must wait.
19 The horses’ tails are like serpents and have heads, and with them they do harm, like the scorpion-like locusts of 9:10, whose tails have “power to hurt men.” This particular harm, then, may refer not to death, but may be similar to the spiritual torment (preceding death) of the fifth trumpet, although the sixth trumpet in general brings widespread death, intensifying the woe of the fifth. The smoke of the fifth trumpet is now joined by fire in the sixth trumpet. The smoke and resulting darkness are metaphorical for a punishment of deception (see 8:12; 9:2-3), and the fire is metaphorical for lethal judgment (see v. 18).
That the power of the horses is in their mouths points to demonic deception resulting in judgment. Part of the deception manifests itself through false teachers affirming the legitimacy of some form of idolatry for Christians (e.g., cf. 2:6, 14-15, 20-21). The harm of deception (usually leading to idolatry) is also seen as a judgment in the OT and NT generally (e.g., Isa. 6:10-12; 29:9-14; 63:17; Pss. 115:8; 135:18; Rom. 1:18-32; 2 Thess. 2:9-12; the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart in Exodus 4–14 is a well-known example of the activity of Satan referred to in this text). The deceptive facet of the sixth trumpet is implied by its unique parallels with the sixth bowl, especially with respect to a judgment of deception “coming out of the mouth” of Satanic beings (16:13, where three evil spirits come out of the mouths of the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet). In like manner, the dragon’s attempted deception of the church is depicted by the metaphorical statement, “the serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman” (12:15). The authority given by the dragon to the beast by which he deceives men is explained as “a mouth speaking arrogant words and blasphemies … against God, to blaspheme His Name and His tabernacle, that is, those who dwell in heaven” (13:5-6). Therefore, part of the effect of the demons’ mouths in 9:17-19 is to intensify the deception of unbelievers.
The power of the horses lies not only in their mouths but also in their tails; for their tails are like serpents and have heads; and with them they do harm. This does not mean that the horses literally have serpents as their tails, for as the first part of the verse comments generally and implicitly on the similarity of the tails of the demonic horses to serpents, the second part continues the metaphor by saying that the harm inflicted by the heads of the serpent-like tails is as lethal as serpents who bite. The piling up of metaphors not completely consistent with one another is not for the purpose of portraying a nicely systematic or logical picture (of a literal but bizarre creature at home in a science fiction novel) but to bring an emphasis (in the same way, it is not in line with the intention of 5:8 to ask how each elder is able to play a harp and hold a bowl of incense at the same time). The metaphor of the serpent enforces further the connotation of the mouth of the demonically-inspired false teachers as that which harms through deception. Through the serpent simile, the idea of promoting falsehood is heightened. This reinforces the link of the horses to Satan himself, who is known in Revelation as “the serpent” (12:9, 14-15; 20:2). John understood that the sufferings he was narrating were already occurring, and were not to be limited to a period only immediately preceding the Lord’s return. This is also hinted at by another conspicuous parallel in Luke 10:17-19, where “the demons” (v. 17) are called “serpents and scorpions and … the power of the enemy” over which Christians presently have power but which can still “injure” unbelievers (v. 19). Jesus called the Pharisees serpents and vipers because they were blind guides leading others astray (Matt. 23:16, 33), and Prov. 23:32-35 speaks of wine as a serpent whose sting leads to delusion. The sting of the serpent, as represented by the smoke of 9:2-3, comes first in the form of deception. This deception leads unbelievers on to the final effect of the sting — God’s final judgment.
Our conclusion from the above is that the images of vv. 17-19 are not figurative for the destruction wrought by modern warfare, but connote the destruction of deception leading to spiritual and physical death. This conclusion has been arrived at by a contextual comparison of the images within the Apocalypse, rather than by comparing the images with similar ones in the world of modern warfare, or even of past warfare (for instance, some have attempted to identify the scene with the Islamic invasions of the fifteenth century).
Although a detailed analysis of ancient Jewish literature is beyond the scope of this shorter commentary, it may be helpful to note here that the combination of serpents and scorpions in Rev. 9:3-19 reflects the broader linkage in biblical and ancient Jewish thought, where the combination was metaphorical for judgment in general and deception or delusion in particular (e.g., Deut. 8:15; Sirach 39:30; CD VIII.9-11 [“vipers” and “snakes”]; Luke 10:19; Mishnah Aboth 2.10; Midrash Rabba Num. 10.2). In Num. 21:6 and Deut. 8:15 the reference is to “fiery serpents,” which is similar to the threefold repetition of fire in connection with the serpents in 9:17-19. In the Numbers passage their bite, as here, kills a significant portion of the people because of unbelief. Sirach 39:27-31 provides a striking parallel with Rev. 9:3-4, 15-19, which reflects Jewish and biblical tradition standing in the background of John’s train of thought: “All these things are for good to the godly; so to the sinners they are turned into evil. There be spirits that are created for vengeance, which in their fury lay on sore strokes; in the time of destruction they pour out their force, and appease the wrath of him that made them. Fire and … death … all these were created for vengeance … scorpions [and] serpents … punishing the wicked to destruction … they shall be prepared on earth, when need is; and when their time is come, they shall not go beyond his word.” According to Sirach, these afflictions occur generally throughout all ages.
Likewise, John understood that the sufferings he was narrating were already occurring and not to be limited to a period only immediately preceding Christ’s return. This is also hinted at by another conspicuous parallel in Luke 10:17-19, where the demons are called “serpents and scorpions and … the power of the enemy,” over which Christians presently have power, but which can still harm unbelievers. The harm associated with the two repellent creatures is sometimes metaphorically expressed as deception, which is undoubtedly implicit in the passage from Luke. Ps. 58:3-6 refers to the “wicked” who “speak lies,” have “venom like the venom of a serpent,” and are further compared to a “deaf cobra.” The teeth of the wicked liars are compared to the “fangs of the young lions” (cf. Rev. 9:8-10, 17; Sirach 21:2). Similarly an early Dead Sea Scrolls document compares the High Priest in Jerusalem and the Roman authorities with “the poison of serpents and the head of asps.” This metaphor explains the harm of false teaching and deception, which the High Priest has caused (CD VIII.9-13); in the same document, those participating in the same false teaching are compared to “kindlers of fire and lighters of brands” and to spiders and adders (V.14-15). The text of Deut. 32:33 in the Aramaic Bible (the Palestinian Targum) refers to the “evil counsels … [and] wicked thoughts” of idolatrous Israelites as being “as serpents’ heads.” Likewise, Aramaic Jerusalem Targum of Deut. 32:33 speaks of “their malice like the head of asps.” In addition, in Targum Onkelos Deut. 32:32-33 affirms that upon Israelite idolaters “plagues will be evil as the heads of serpents, and the retribution of their works like their venom,” and then compares their punishment to that of Sodom and Gomorrah, as does Rev. 9:18 (on which see above).
Prov. 23:32-33 states that strong wine “bites like a serpent, and stings like a viper” resulting in the eyes seeing “strange things” and the mind uttering “perverse things.” The serpent-scorpion metaphor is thus used to describe a “woe” of delusion (Prov. 23:29-33). This may show that the rationale for using serpents and scorpions to signify doctrinal deception is that part of the literal suffering of their bites can be that of mental delusion, which precedes and then culminates in death.
In another Dead Sea Scrolls document, the “pit” and “abyss” open and spit out billows, arrows, and “the spirits of the Asp” against hardened hypocrites, “leaving [them with] no hope” (1QH III.16-18, 25-27; V.27). This affliction arising from the pit is interpreted as deceptive influences (especially false teaching) affecting the ungodly, but not those truly loyal to God (II.12-34; IV.5-22). In Mishnah Aboth 2.10, the words of the wise exponents of Torah do harm to those who do not obey them. In apparent contrast to the imagery in Revelation 9, it describes the effect of the words of the wise on the disobedient as “the sting of a scorpion … the hiss of a serpent … coals of fire.” Yet this is actually similar to Rev. 11:5 (the judgment issuing from the mouths of the witnesses), and overlaps generally with some of the above imagery in its emphasis on judgment through the infliction of harm. Indeed, it associates closely the metaphors of scorpions and serpents with judgment, though in this case the focus is on the effects of true teaching on those responding wrongly to it.
These OT and Jewish parallels show that in John’s time, scorpions and serpents, far from referring to instruments of modern warfare like destructive helicopters or jets, were metaphorical images for false teaching. If so, it is likely that the way the demons in Revelation work their deception is through human false teachers, which is a problem in the churches of Revelation (e.g., 2:14-15, 20-24; 22:18-19).
20a For the rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues, the plagues served as warnings and were not intended to have a redeeming but a damning effect. In fact, they did not repent of the works of their hands, but continued to worship demons and the idols of gold and of silver and of brass and of stone and of wood. The torment of the tails did not kill all the wicked, but those remaining were nevertheless still affected in that they did not repent and continued to remain hardened toward God. Indeed, they worshiped demons (who continued to deceive them) and idols and continued headlong into their sinful lifestyle (on which see vv. 20b-21). This shows again that the sixth trumpet is an escalation of the fifth by its introduction of death, though the sixth still continues to unleash the affliction of the fifth against all the surviving non-elect. These plagues will have a redeeming effect only on a remnant of compromisers inside the church and idolaters outside the church who have been sealed beforehand and finally benefit from the seal’s protective function. The pattern of the Exodus plagues is still apparent. Just as the death of the firstborn led to the decisive judgment at the Red Sea, so here the death of others as a warning sign does not induce repentance, but prepares for the final judgment of the intractably impenitent at the seventh trumpet (11:18). The theological purpose of the warning is that God, by providing sufficient opportunities for spiritual reform, should demonstrate His sovereignty and especially His justice in finally judging the entire host of “unsealed” people at the seventh trumpet. The pastoral purpose is to remind the readers that antagonism to their faithful witness will continue to the end of history and that they should not be disheartened because it is part of God’s plan in which they can trust.
20b-21 The remainder of v. 20, together with v. 21, explains from what the ungodly did not repent. They did not repent of the works of their hands, but continued to worship demons and idols. The typical OT list of idolatrous practices according to their material substance (so Pss. 115:4-7; 135:15-17; Dan. 5:4, 23; Deut. 4:28; the list here most closely echoes Dan. 5:4, 23) is prefaced by a summary of the spiritual essence behind the idols (Ps. 106:36-37; 1 Cor. 10:20). Idols are one of the main instruments used by the forces of darkness to keep people in that darkness. Part of the OT judgment of idolaters is that they ironically reflect the unspiritual image of the idols, so that they likewise are spiritually not able to see, hear, or walk (Pss. 115:5-8; 135:18; cf. Isa. 6:9-10). This may be the precise manner in which the demons anesthetize the idolaters of Rev. 9:20-21 with spiritual ignorance and insensitivity. Hence, idolaters are punished by means of their own sin.
The vices listed here — murders, sorceries, immorality, and thefts — are associated with idol worship in both the OT and the NT (e.g., Jer. 7:5-11 [cited by Jesus in Matt. 21:13]; Hos. 3:1–4:2; 2 Kgs. 9:22; Isa. 47:9-10, 48:5; Mic. 5:12–6:8; Nah. 1:14; 3:1-4; Acts 15:20; Rom. 1:18-32; Gal. 5:20; Eph. 5:5; Col. 3:5), as in Revelation (see on Rev. 2:14, 20-22 with respect to “immorality” [porneia]; see also 21:8; 22:15). Indeed, idolatry is the root sin responsible for these other vices. The repetition of “repent” in 9:20-21 could be linked with the theme of repentance in the letters, especially 2:21-23, where the word occurs three times as a challenge to repent from idolatry, which is there synonymous with spiritual fornication (porneia). This would mean that there are many in the churches who will not repent, and so the gruesome description of the demons here is intended also to shock some among the true people of God out of their complacent condition, as well as to bring others to true repentance.
On the seriousness of deception. These verses present a picture of ferocious creatures representing demonic spirits who bring torment on unbelievers. A careful examination of the picture shows that the actual form in which these creatures confront people is often that of human false teachers (inside and outside the visible church), who promote worship of anything other than the true God. Is it possible that by a literalistic interpretation of Revelation, whereby we expect to be confronted by supernatural horses with tails of serpents or by some modern military lethal force, we could miss the very present spiritual reality of these beings in our midst? How seriously do we take the threat of false teaching? Do we see it as a disagreeable but merely human phenomenon, or as something empowered by powerful demonic spirits? How do we respond to such threats? Do we always unswervingly go to God’s Word for protection, since it is the only source of truth against such threats? Elsewhere John says, “You are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one” (1 John 2:14); that is, strength to overcome the false teachings from the devil (in the context) comes only from “the word of God.”
On the nature of idolatry. These verses present a picture of idolatry largely in line with that of the OT: the worship of idols of gold, silver, and other materials. The larger context of Revelation, which speaks of the destruction of all created things, shows that these human materials stand for anything that is not God, that is, worship of the creation rather than the Creator. What forms of idolatry exist in our society? Gold is not evil in itself, but is if it is worshiped. What about sports, careers, leisure activities, or the acquiring of money and material possessions? What of things clearly evil, such as pornography? How extensive is idolatry in our experience? Is part of the deception that we have restricted “idolatry” to the worship of literal idols? Whatever we are committed to more than God is an idol, including worship of ourselves.
On the perniciousness of idolatry. John links idolatry here with murders, sorceries, immorality, and thefts. If the OT observation is to be taken seriously, idolaters become as blind and dumb as what they worship. They thus become anesthetized, in the words of the commentary, to all that is good and of God, even as they fall deeper and deeper into the clutches of the forces of darkness, as John portrays so vividly. Is this how idolatry leads to these awful forms of sin and rebellion? How has Satan used idolatry to lead people into further darkness? Is there a point beyond which repentance is impossible? How can we guard ourselves against even the beginnings of idolatrous practices, since we know where these practices inevitably lead?
1And I saw another strong angel coming down out of heaven, clothed with a cloud; and the rainbow was upon his head, and his face was like the sun, and his feet like pillars of fire; 2and he had in his hand a little book which was open. And he placed his right foot on the sea and his left on the land; and he cried out with a loud voice, as when a lion roars; 3and when he had cried out, the seven peals of thunder uttered their voices. 4And when the seven peals of thunder had spoken, I was about to write; and I heard a voice from heaven saying. “Seal up the things which the seven peals of thunder have spoken, and do not write them.” 5And the angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land lifted up his right hand to heaven, 6and swore by Him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and the things in it, and the earth and the things in it, and the sea and the things in it, that there shall be delay no longer, 7but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, then the mystery of God is finished, as He preached to His servants the prophets. 8And the voice which I heard from heaven, I heard again speaking with me, and saying, “Go, take the book which is open in the hand of the angel who stands on the sea and on the land.” 9And I went to the angel, telling him to give me the little book. And he said to me, “Take it, and eat it; and it will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey.” 10And I took the little book out of the angel’s hand and ate it, and it was in my mouth sweet as honey; and when I had eaten it, my stomach was made bitter. 11And they said to me, “You must prophesy again concerning many peoples and nations and tongues and kings.”
Just as there was an interpretative parenthesis between the sixth and seventh seals, so again there is a similar parenthesis between the sixth and seventh trumpets. Here the parenthesis extends from 10:1 to 11:13. Ch. 10 is the introduction to the main content of the parenthesis in 11:1-13.
In this new vision, John is recommissioned to prophesy. His task is twofold. He is to prophesy about the persevering witness of Christians which brings them suffering, and about the destiny of those who react antagonistically to their witness. The prophecy he is given concerns the relationship between believers and unbelievers during the church age, culminating in the final judgment, at which point he resumes and concludes the relating of the trumpet vision, in which that judgment is set forth. Chs. 10–11 are put within the cycle of trumpets to connect the two halves of Revelation together. This is a literary device of interlocking, which functions to introduce the second part of the book while also linking it to the first part. The parenthesis does not chronologically intervene between the sixth and seventh trumpets but offers a further interpretation of the same period of the church age covered by the first six trumpets.
Even as ch. 7 shows that Christians are sealed against the spiritually destructive harm of the six trumpet judgments, so 11:1-13 reveals that they are sealed so as to bear an enduring and loyal witness to the gospel, which begins to lay a basis for the final judgment of those rejecting their testimony. This vision thus explains the theological basis for the judgment on the wicked in the first six trumpets. Non-Christians are punished by the trumpet judgments throughout the church age because they have persecuted believers. This expresses more explicitly the hint of the preceding chapters that the trumpets are God’s answer to the saints’ petition for their vindication and punishment of their oppressors (so 6:9-11; 8:3-5; 9:13-21). 10:6b-7, together with 11:14, announce that there will be no delay to God bringing an end to history (11:11-13, 18) when the full number of suffering believers has reached the predetermined number (6:10; 11:7a) and impenitence has reached its intractable height (9:21; 11:7-10).
1 John sees another strong angel coming down out of heaven. The first strong angel appeared in 5:2 and likewise proclaimed “with a loud voice.” This is the first among a number of references which deliberately link this chapter in a significant manner with ch. 5. These links indicate that the revelation to this angel will be similar to the revelation given by the angel in ch. 5. This angel is not an ordinary angel, but is given divine attributes applicable in Revelation only to God or to Christ. He is clothed with a cloud. In the OT, it is God alone who is said to come in the clouds, except in Dan. 7:13, where the subject is the Son of man, but note that in Rev. 1:7 the one “coming with the clouds” in v. 7 is identified further in 1:13 as “like a Son of man,” who in Daniel is given the attributes of the divine Ancient of Days. Another reference to clouds in Revelation occurs in 14:14, where John sees “a white cloud, and sitting on the cloud was one like a Son of man” (cf. continued references to this cloud in 14:15-16). In this light, the figure in 10:1 is probably equivalent to the “angel of Yahweh” in the OT, who is referred to as Yahweh Himself (e.g., Gen. 16:10; 22:11-18; 24:7; 31:11-13; Exod. 3:2-12; 14:19; Judg. 2:1; 6:22; 13:20-22; cf. Zech. 3:1-3 with Jude 9; see also Dan. 3:25; Acts 7:30, 35, 38). The angel has a rainbow … upon his head, as did the appearance of God in Ezek. 1:26-28. The Ezekiel reference has already been drawn on in the portrait of the Danielic Son of man in Rev. 1:13ff. The pattern of the Ezekiel 1–3 vision is followed again later in Rev. 10:2, 8-10, where the heavenly being like that in Ezekiel holds a book, and the book is taken and eaten by a prophet. Note also that the rainbow is around God’s throne in Rev. 4:3. The angel’s face was like the sun, just like that of Christ in Rev. 1:16, and this is an exact reproduction of the phrase describing Christ’s transfigured appearance in Matt. 17:2. His feet are like pillars of fire, similar to the description of Christ’s feet as “burnished bronze, when it has been caused to glow in a furnace” (Rev. 1:15).
The fact that the feet of the angelic figure are called pillars of fire evokes the presence of Yahweh with Israel in the wilderness, where He appeared as a pillar of cloud and a pillar of fire to protect and guide the Israelites (Exod. 13:20-22; 14:24; Num. 14:14; Neh. 9:12, 19). In Exod. 19:9-19, God’s descent on Sinai “in a thick cloud” and “in fire” is announced by “thunder” and “the sound of a trumpet,” which reflects the pattern of Revelation 10, where God’s presence by His angel in vv. 1-3 is followed by thunder and the imminent trumpet sound in vv. 3-4, 7. The point of the reference here to God’s presence with Israel in the wilderness is that the same divine presence protects and guides the faithful witnesses of the new Israel in the wilderness of the world, as the following chapters reveal (so 11:3-12; 12:6, 13-17). Therefore, the angel is the divine Angel of the Lord, as in the OT, who is to be identified with Yahweh or with Christ Himself. Enhancing this identification is the observation that Christ is compared to a lion in 5:5, and so is the angel in 10:3.
2 The divine angelic figure (Christ) had in his hand a little book which was open. What is the content of this little book, which John eats (vv. 9-10), and out of which he then prophesies (v. 11)? We know at least from the conclusion of ch. 10 (v. 11) that John’s prophecy is to be against “many peoples and nations and tongues and kings,” as in the universal formula used in subsequent chapters for multitudes who undergo forms of judgment (11:9; 13:7-8; 14:6ff.; 17:15). “Kings” is inserted into the formula to anticipate the “kings” in the later visions who will be judged (so 16:12, 14; 17:1-2, 10-12, 16, 18; 18:3, 9; 19:18-19). Furthermore, while it is true that Rev. 11:1-13 elaborates on ch. 10, chs. 12ff. continue the elaboration. Therefore, the little book includes reference, at least, to the contents of chs. 11–16, since another prophetic commission may be indicated in 17:1-3, which unleashes a new series of prophetic visions. The ch. 10 scroll may also include chs. 17–22, if the prophetic commission of 17:1ff. is merely a renewal of the previous one.
The little book which was open in the hand of the angel here and in the following verses is difficult to identify unless it is linked with the scroll that the Lamb was to open in ch. 5. Though there are some differences (the book is smaller; John takes the book instead of the Lamb), the similarities are far more significant:
Therefore, a reasonable assumption is that the meaning of the scroll of ch. 10 is generally the same as that of ch. 5. In ch. 5, the scroll was symbolic of God’s plan of judgment and redemption, which has been inaugurated by Christ’s death and resurrection. The interpretation of 5:9-10 by the hymn of 5:12 also pointed to the book of ch. 5 being a testament or will which contained an inheritance to be received. God promised to Adam that he would reign over the earth. Although Adam forfeited this promise, Christ, the last Adam, was destined to inherit it. The reception of the scroll from God on the throne and the opening of it in ch. 5 connoted Christ’s taking of authority over His Father’s plan and beginning the execution of it. On the basis of His death and resurrection, by which He redeemed His people, He was worthy to take the book, assume authority over the plan in it, and establish His kingdom over the redeemed (see on 5:2-5, 9-10, 12). The plan of the book encompasses history from the cross to the consummation of the new creation, since a summary of the scroll’s contents is revealed in chs. 6–22. It outlines Christ’s sovereignty over history, the reign of Christ and the saints throughout the course of the church age and in the new cosmos, Christ’s protection of His people who suffer trial, His temporal and final judgments on the persecuting world, and the final judgment. Ch. 5 revealed, though, that perseverance through suffering is the ironic means Christ used to overcome and take sovereignty over the book as His inheritance. The book of ch. 10 is also associated with the same ironic pattern, to be explained in the following verses (see further on v. 7).
The possession of the scroll-like testament means that now Christ has dominion over the entire cosmos, symbolized by the angel standing on both sea and land (placing one’s foot on something indicates sovereignty over that thing, as in Josh. 10:24-26). This is the basis for the command to John to prophesy about Christ’s sovereignty to “many peoples and nations and tongues and kings” in v. 11. The heavenly being’s sovereignty over sea and land shows that God is also ultimately in control over the dragon, who stands on the “sand of the sea” to conjure up the beast “coming out of the sea” (13:1) and the “beast coming up out of the earth” (13:11).
3-4 The angelic figure cried out with a loud voice, as when a lion roars, thus further identifying the angel with Christ, the “Lion that is from the tribe of Judah” (5:5). Following this, the seven peals of thunder uttered their voices. The seven thunders are probably to be identified with the voice of a heavenly being, like the living creature of 6:1 who cries out with a voice of thunder, or like the heavenly host of 19:6, whose voice is as the sound of thunder (see also John 12:28-29 for the voice from heaven like thunder), or it could be the voice of God or Christ. As John was about to write down what the seven thunders had said, he heard a voice from heaven saying, “Seal up the things which the seven peals of thunder have spoken, and do not write them.”
In the OT thunder often indicates judgment (five times in Exod. 9:23-34; 1 Sam. 7:10; Ps. 29:3; Isa. 29:6; and many other occurrences), as it does in Rev. 6:1, where it introduces the seven seals. References in Revelation (with slight variations) to thunders, sounds, lightnings, and an earthquake mark the last judgment (see on 8:5; 11:19; 16:18). The source of the thunders may be Psalm 29, where God’s thunders of punishment are equated with “the voice of the Lord,” an expression which is repeated seven times in the Psalm. The Psalm’s thunders are now employed to underscore the newly obtained sovereignty of Christ (v. 2), which has been handed over to Him by the eternal God (“Him who lives forever and ever,” v. 6a). Christ’s sovereign authority is expressed by His (or His angel’s) voice, which unleashes the revelation of the seven thunders. The use of the definite article (the seven peals of thunder) could point to the fact that this was something known (presumably from Scripture) to John (and likely to his readers). On the basis of the use in the OT and elsewhere in the book, the image of “thunders” here could designate some judgment preceding the final judgment. On the same basis, they might be premonitions of divine wrath, as in John 12:28-31. The latter is indicated here by the use of the word by itself, apart from the fuller expressions of chs. 8, 11, and 16, and by the fact that the seventh trumpet, introducing the final judgment, has not yet been sounded.
The seven peals of thunder probably represent another sevenfold series of judgments parallel to the sets of seven seals, trumpets, and bowls, but not to be revealed. They would give yet another perspective on the same events as the seals, trumpets, and bowls, which would make sense in light of the four sets of seven judgments in Leviticus 26 that God says He will send against His people if they disobey Him. The thunder judgments are not revealed here perhaps because they are so repetitive of the previous two synchronous sevenfold cycles of seals and trumpets that they reveal nothing radically new. Enough has been said about the various punishments unleashed against the unrepentant throughout the church age. The focus is now on the relationship between the unrepentant and the faithful witnesses during the same time when the seals and trumpets occur. The reason for the punishments is the focus. The wicked suffer because they reject the message of the witnesses and persecute them, as 11:1-13 makes clear.
The command of v. 4b reflects the similar command given to Daniel by the angel, who is the model for the angel here and in vv. 5-6. The “sealing” in Daniel 12 referred partly to keeping hidden from Daniel and others how a prophecy was to be fulfilled. John, like Daniel, receives revelation, but, unlike Daniel, he understands it. The definite article with “thunders” may imply that the thunders are known to him (perhaps from an understanding of Psalm 29), and the fact that he is about to record the revelation of the thunders also suggests that he understands their significance to some degree. Nevertheless, like Daniel, he is still not to make it known to his readers. Also in line with Daniel 12 is the possibility that the sealing could allude to the seven thunders as judgments that, in contrast to the majority of the other sevenfold series, were events yet to occur in the distant future.
5-6 The angelic figure John saw standing on the sea and on the land lifted up his right hand to heaven and swore by Him who lives forever and ever. In contrast to the preceding command to seal up the revelation of the thunders, the angel makes an oath to God which is a revelation about the way redemptive history culminates. The description here is a direct allusion to the angel in Dan. 12:7, who stood above the waters, raised his hands to heaven, and swore by Him who lives forever. These words in turn mirror the prophetic words of God to Moses in Deut. 32:40-43, where God swears that He will judge the ungodly. In Deut. 32:32-35, God’s judgment is described as “the wrath of serpents and … of asps,” and one Aramaic version of Deut. 32:33 (the Palestinian Targum) compares the plans of the wicked to “serpents’ heads” and “the head of asps,” which was a significant image in the preceding context (Rev. 9:19). And in the same passage (Deut. 32:34-35), God says that His judgments are “sealed up” (cf. v. 4) and will be released in due time, as they were in Israel’s subsequent history.
This Deuteronomy background is a further indication that the seven thunders which are to be “sealed up” in Rev. 10:4-5 are another series of seven judgments, whose contents are not revealed but whose execution is ever imminent and even has begun, in that they are parallel with the seals and trumpets and that the first six woes of each series are inaugurated. The Christ who describes Himself here in the same words as His Father did to Moses in Deut. 32:40 orders the judgments of the seven thunders to be sealed in Revelation 10, just as His Father told Moses that His judgments were sealed. God is described as Him who … created heaven and the things in it, and the earth and the things in it, and the sea and the things in it. The reference to heaven, earth, and sea, followed in each case by the phrase and the things in it, serves to underscore the absolute sovereignty of God in creating all things. This connects God’s sovereignty over the beginning of creation to Christ’s rule over creation in the latter days of the church age and into eternity, as symbolized by the angel’s posture in vv. 2 and 5. The same connection between God’s sovereignty and that of Christ was made between chs. 4 and 5, in reference to the book of ch. 5 coming from God but opened by Christ (see on chs. 4–5). The oath the angelic figure utters is that there shall be delay no longer (or literally “that time shall be no longer”) but that, as in Dan. 12:7 (see above), everything will be “completed” or “finished.”
7 The more precise meaning of the preceding phrase concerning delay (or time) is now given: In the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, then the mystery of God is finished. The continuation of the oath explains further how the meaning of the oath from Daniel is altered. The prophecy in Dan. 11:29–12:13 concerned the end-time suffering of God’s people, God’s destruction of the enemy, the establishment of the kingdom, and the reign of the saints. The prophetic events were to lead up to and result in the consummation of history. Dan. 12:7 says that these prophetic events will occur during “a time, times, and half a time,” after which God’s prophetic plan will “be completed.” John views the “times, time, and half a time” of Daniel as the church age leading up to the final judgment (see further on 11:3; 12:6, 14; 13:5).
The identification of this time formula from Daniel is evident in Rev. 12:4-6, where the period begins at the time of Christ’s ascension and is the church’s time of suffering (so also 12:14; see on 12:4-6, 14). In the context of the book, this period must cover the church age and be concluded by Christ’s final coming. Therefore, vv. 6-7 are speaking of the end of this period, which is the end of time or of history. The angel told Daniel that the meaning of the prophecy was sealed up until the end time, when it would be revealed. In contrast to Daniel 12, the angel’s oath in Revelation 10 begins an emphasis on when and how the prophecy will be completed, which is amplified in ch. 11. When the seventh angel sounds his trumpet, the prophecy of Dan. 11:29–12:13 will be fulfilled and history (Daniel’s “end of the age,” 12:13) will come to an end (i.e., historical “time shall be no longer”).
A strong verbal parallel between 10:6b-7 and 6:11 shows that the content of the mystery in ch. 10 concerns God’s decree that the saints suffer, which leads directly to the judgment of their persecutors. At this time, the mystery of God will be finished. When in 6:10 the saints cry out as to when the judgment of God will come on those who have persecuted the church, the answer is that there is (literally) “yet a little time” (6:11) until the full number of those who are to be killed is completed. Now God says that there will (literally) “no longer be time” (v. 6b), but the mystery is to be fulfilled or finished. The prayer of the saints in 6:10 is thus answered by the events to be precipitated by the sounding of the seventh trumpet. V. 6 has alluded to Dan. 12:7 and Deut. 32:40, both of which speak of God’s vindication of His people after their suffering. In Dan. 12:7, the angel says that “as soon as they finish shattering the power of the holy people, all these events will be completed.” The days of the voice of the seventh angel probably refers to the definitive time when the decisive blow of the last judgment is struck, for there is to be no further delay. The mystery of God (= God’s mystery) is, as He preached to His servants the prophets, an allusion to Amos 3:7, where God “reveals His secret counsel to His servants the prophets” (though the actual word “mystery” is not used, Amos 3:4-8 also pictures God as a lion roaring and has a trumpet blowing).
The gospel of Christ, including both salvation and judgment, was prophetically announced by God to His prophets in the OT (preached here is literally “preached the gospel” [euēngelisen]), and its inaugurated fulfillment has been announced to the prophets of the new age. The fulfillment of the prophesied gospel is occurring, and will continue to occur, in a mysterious and unexpected manner from the human perspective. The suffering of the saints will give way to their eventual vindication. Only those to whom God reveals the mystery can understand the meaning of this history. The reason the revelation can be made is that the death, resurrection, and exaltation of Christ have inaugurated the “latter days” and the fulfillment of the prophecies from Daniel which were to occur in the “latter days.” In fact, the prophecy of the “latter days” in Dan. 2:28-45 is repeatedly called a “mystery” (Greek mystērion) there (vv. 27-30). Christ’s removing of the seals from the scroll in ch. 5 connoted precisely the same idea of new revelation due to the inauguration of the difficult-to-understand latter day prophecies from Daniel 12 (see on 5:1-5, 9; and see Dan. 12:4, 8-9), which have been combined here with the “mysterious” prophecies of Daniel 2.
Note the striking parallel to Rom. 16:25-26, where Paul speaks of the mystery of God revealed according to God’s eternal command by the Scriptures of the prophets and made known to the nations. This mystery is that of the cross. Where the word “mystery” occurs elsewhere in the NT, it often refers to fulfillment of OT prophecy in a way different than would have been expected in Judaism or was not so clear in the OT (e.g., Matt. 13:11; Mark 4:11; Luke 8:10; 2 Thess. 2:7 [cf. Dan. 8:23-25; 11:29-45]; Rom. 11:25; Eph. 3:3-4, 9). The angel is beginning to explain to John the “when” and “how,” which Daniel did not understand about his own prophecy: John is told that the “latter days” prophesied to Daniel have now begun, and that this has been set in motion through the “mysterious” manner of Christ’s death and resurrection. That is, the prophecy of God’s defeat of the evil kingdom is being ironically fulfilled by this evil kingdom’s apparent physical victory over Christ and the saints. The mysterious nature of the saints’ victory is to be understood through the ironic way in which Christ obtained victory through His apparent defeat by the same evil kingdom.
The legitimacy of this comparison is based on the prior observation that ch. 10 is parallel to ch. 5 and to be interpreted in its light. In ch. 5, Christ’s death was already a beginning victory, because He was a “faithful witness” resisting the spiritual defeat of compromise (1:5) and because He was accomplishing the redemption of His people by paying the penalty of their sin (so 5:9-10; 1:5-6). Jesus’ death was also a victory because it was an initial step leading to the resurrection (1:5; 5:5-8). Likewise, ch. 10 is saying that those who believe in Christ will follow in His footsteps. Their defeat is also an initial victory, because they are faithful witnesses withstanding the spiritual defeat of compromise, and even their death is a spiritual resurrection, for they will receive a crown of victory (2:10-11). The same pattern will be shown in the following context of 11:1-13, where the persecution and defeat of the witnessing church is the means leading to their resurrection and their enemies’ defeat.
Thus, just as Christ, so Christians have their “book,” which is also symbolic of their purpose: they are to reign ironically as Christ did by being imitators on a small scale of the great cosmic model of Christ on the cross. And this may be why Christ is portrayed as a large, cosmic figure overshadowing the earth. Therefore, the little book is a new version of those same purposes symbolized by the book of ch. 5 insofar as they are to be accomplished by the people of God.
8 Now the heavenly voice of v. 4 commands John to take the book which is open in the hand of the angel who stands on the sea and on the land. This command continues the contrast of vv. 5-7 with v. 4, where the angel began to reveal truth about the climax of redemptive history in antithesis to the prohibition in v. 4 to seal up the revelation. In vv. 8-10, more revelation issues from the hand of the same angel in the form of the book. John’s approach and taking of the book has similar significance to the Lamb’s approach and taking of the book in 5:7-8. The Lamb’s taking and opening of the scroll was symbolic of His newly gained authority, and John’s similar action shows that he participates in and identifies with Jesus’ authority in executing judgment and redemption, even though only Jesus has redeemed humanity and is sovereign over history. Ch. 11 will reveal that what is true of John as a prophet and of his reigning through suffering is true of all Christians in general. This is clear in that both John and the “two witnesses” of ch. 11 (representing the church: see on 11:3) are referred to as prophets (11:6, 10; cf. similarly 16:6; 18:20, 24; 22:6, 9). This close identification with Christ’s reigning through suffering is another instance of the notion found elsewhere in the book that believers “follow the Lamb wherever He goes” (14:4). We will also see that in 11:3-12, the two witnesses’ career of testimony is patterned after that of Christ.
9-10 John’s reception of the book symbolically connotes his prophetic call. The command and the carrying out of the command to take the book and consume it is a picture portraying his formal recommissioning as a prophet. His call has already been stated in terms of Ezekiel’s commissioning in 1:10 and 4:1-2, and the parallel here continues with specific reference to Ezek. 2:8–3:3, where, as part of his commissioning, the prophet eats the scroll, which is sweet but followed by a bitter response (3:14) because of the people’s rebellion. The angelic figure, giving the little book to John, tells him to take it, and eat it; and it will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey. The eating of the scroll indicates the prophet’s complete identification with its message (cf. Ezek. 3:10). The effect of “eating” or identifying with the book is that it is sweet because it contains God’s own life-giving words (Deut. 8:3; Pss. 19:10; 119:103; Prov. 16:21-24; 24:13-14), in which the prophet will briefly delight. The bitterness comes from the scroll’s purpose, which is to announce judgment and its effect in terms of the rebellious response of the people. Ezekiel was warned in advance that, except for a remnant who will respond and repent (9:4-6; 14:21-23), those who would listen were a rebellious people and would not respond. Therefore, his message is primarily one of judgment. This is explicitly emphasized by the description of the scroll: “it was written on the front and back; and written on it were lamentations, mourning, and woe” (Ezek. 2:10).
Note also the close parallel to Jer. 15:15-18. First, the prophet finds joy in his commission: “Thy words were found and I ate them, and Thy words became for me a joy and the delight of my heart” (v. 16). Yet, as his words are rejected, his joy turns to bitterness: “I did not sit in the circle of merrymakers … for Thou didst fill me with indignation. Why has my pain been perpetual … ?” (vv. 17-18; Jer. 15:19-21 further shows that vv. 15-18 are part of a prophetic commission). Likewise, John found joy and bitterness in his prophetic commission. In contrast to Ezekiel and Jeremiah, John is warning not Israel of old, but the church, the visible new Israel, against unbelief and compromise with the idolatrous world, as well as warning the world of unbelievers (see on v. 11 and 11:1ff. below).
John, along with the angelic creatures and the deceased saints in heaven, actually takes pleasure in God’s pronouncement of judgment, because God’s word represents His will, which works all things for His glory (11:17-18; 14:7; 15:3-4; 19:1-2). It does so in at least three ways:
Nevertheless Christians, like God, do not take sardonic, emotional pleasure in the pain of punishment considered as an end in and of itself separately from its broader framework of justice.
The sweetness of the scroll likely includes reference to God’s redemptive grace in the gospel to those believing, and its bitterness to the fact that this grace must be experienced in the crucible of suffering (cf. 2 Cor. 2:15-16). This is evident from recalling that the little scroll connotes the Christian’s purposes on a small scale in imitation of the large-scale purposes of Christ signified by the larger book of ch. 5. Certainly, part of these purposes is the experience of divine grace through suffering. Part of the gospel’s sweetness is that Christians already begin to be vindicated because of their persevering testimony when they reach heaven (6:9-11), and this process is completed when God vindicates them before all eyes at the end of history (e.g., 11:11-13, 18).
Yet it is the bitterness which will linger, for John’s actual experience is revealed in the next verse: it was in my mouth sweet as honey; and when I had eaten it, my stomach was made bitter. The reality of the non-repentant response to his message by others in the church and the world is a “bitter” or mournful thing for John to contemplate, as it was for the OT prophets and for Jesus Himself (Luke 19:41). The only other time “bitter” appears in Revelation is in the third trumpet plague (8:11), where many die because of the bitter waters, thus showing that the period of bitterness (the world’s rejection of the church’s message) extends throughout the church age (during which the third trumpet plague occurs) and cannot be confined to the period immediately before the return of Christ.
The emphasis on judgment in relation to the scroll is paramount, as seen against the Ezekiel background and the following chapters of Revelation, which focus more on judgment than on reward, especially ch. 11. This is confirmed if we recall that the scroll of ch. 5 highlighted judgment, because it was modeled on Ezekiel 2–3; Dan. 7:10; 12:4, 9; and other OT theophanies introducing messages of judgment. The seven seals showed further that the ch. 5 scroll was primarily a scroll of woe.
11 This verse, containing John’s further recommissioning, is directly linked by and (having the sense of “therefore” or “and so”) to the sweetness, and even more to the bitterness, of the scroll in v. 10. John is to announce the bittersweet judgment of the scroll against the ungodly peoples of the earth because that is the message which he has been commissioned to deliver. Having digested the contents of the scroll, he must now make its contents known to others. The symbolic version of John’s recommissioning portrayed in vv. 8-10 is interpreted to mean that he is to prophesy again. The use of again indicates that this is a recommissioning. He has been commissioned on at least two previous occasions (1:10-20 and 4:1-2), although the first includes the whole book as well and the second probably includes also the remainder of the book. These two previous commissionings directly resulted in the prophetic tracts of chs. 2–3 and chs. 4–9. The inclusion of again here indicates a continuation of the same kind of prophesying about the same people as in chs. 6–9. The commissioning here results in the prophetic tract of 11:1-13, and, as we saw on v. 2 above, this commissioning likely extends at least from ch. 11 to ch. 16, and perhaps even all the way to ch. 22.
Therefore, in 10:11, John’s previous prophetic commissionings are renewed and deepened, as was the case with Jeremiah (Jer. 15:15-21). He is told to prophesy again concerning many peoples and nations and tongues and kings. He is addressed by a plurality of heavenly beings: And they said to me. John is commanded to prophesy again concerning or, more accurately, “prophesy against” (where “against” represents the Greek preposition epi). The usual meaning of the phrase in the LXX is one of judgment, and is often used that way in Ezekiel, which is the primary OT background to this passage. Use of the scroll image from Ezekiel 2–3 in the immediately preceding context of 10:8-10 also points to the theme of judgment. Finally, note the negative manner in which John uses variations of the fourfold phrase “peoples and nations and tongues and tribes” in the remainder of the book (11:9; 13:7; 14:6; cf. 17:15).
The verb “prophesy” does not refer just to predicting of future events but also to providing God’s revealed perspective on what is happening in the present. Note how John exhorts his readers to “hear” and “keep” the words of prophecy in this book (1:3; 22:7, 9). The prophetic message of Revelation is designed not only for the future, but also for the present — for those who are currently hearing and reading its message and who are constantly being called to put it into practice in their lives now. This understanding of prophecy is consistent with the OT idea, which emphasizes a revealed interpretation of the present together with the future (forth-telling as well as foretelling), demanding ethical response from those addressed, who are primarily God’s people. Therefore, John’s prophesying is not only against the ungodly who reside outside the covenant community of the church but also against compromisers within the visible new Israel, who are from all “peoples and nations and tongues and tribes,” and who ally themselves with the world from which they have purportedly been redeemed. Just as Ezekiel directed his message against old Israel, so John also directs his partly against unrepentant, compromising elements of the visible church, new Israel.
On the divinity of Christ. As presented here (10:1-6) and in many other places in the book, the divinity of Christ is a major and consistent theme in Revelation. The divine angel of the Lord, identified often in the OT with Yahweh, is here also identified with Christ, for which idea the commentary provides much support. Has a shallow reading of Revelation, with a focus on misguided eschatology, drawn us away from its presentation of the exalted Christ? What has drawn us to focus on (often poorly understood) eschatological timelines and miss the heart of the book, which is the glory of God and of Christ?
On the authority of Christ expressed through the church. John draws a strong parallel between the book of ch. 5, presented to Christ by God, and the little book of ch. 10, presented by Christ to John and, by extension, to the church. This shows that all authority comes from Christ, but that He chooses to invest His church with a measure of that same authority. If the book, as the commentary suggests, represents the inheritance of Christ in terms of His rulership over the cosmos, then the little book represents the inheritance of the church. What does this say about the authority that God’s people exercise? The nature of our authority is linked here with the proclamation of the gospel message and the judgment of God. It is also linked with the sweetness of God’s word to his people and with the bitterness that comes from the inevitable widespread rejection of that message and the consequent suffering of the church. Consider Jesus’ words: “I lay down my life that I may take it again…. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from my Father” (John 10:17-18). How is our authority linked with that of Jesus? Have the times of the church’s greatest temporal authority been the times of its weakest spiritual authority? How do we measure the true dimensions of the authority (as defined by John) of the church we are part of or that of the wider church in our own nation?
On the mystery of God. John states that the mystery of God will be finished or completed at the last judgment (the sounding of the seventh trumpet). The commentary contends that “mystery” in the NT involves the fulfillment of OT prophecy in ways that would not have been expected in Judaism or were not completely clear in the OT. The mystery is expressed above all in the cross. If the mystery is to be “finished” at the last judgment, when did it begin? How is this mystery worked out in the life of the church? How does it relate to Daniel’s comment about the shattering of the power of the holy people (Dan. 12:7)? In the third century AD, Tertullian stated that “the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church” (Apology 50). Was he speaking of this same mystery? How do we find rest in God when the forces of evil seem to be triumphant? Is the mystery John spoke of adequately reflected in the preaching of the church today?
1And there was given me a measuring rod like a staff, and someone said, “Rise and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and those who worship in it. 2And leave out the court which is outside the temple, and do not measure it, for it has been given to the nations; and they will tread under foot the holy city for forty-two months. 3And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for twelve hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth.” 4These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. 5And if anyone desires to harm them, fire proceeds out of their mouth, and devours their enemies; and if anyone would desire to harm them, in this manner he must be killed. 6These have the power to shut up the sky, in order that rain may not fall during the days of their prophesying; and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood, and to smite the earth with every plague, as often as they desire. 7And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up out of the abyss will make war with them, and overcome them and kill them. 8And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified. 9And those from the peoples and tribes and tongues and nations will look at their dead bodies for three and a half days, and will not permit their dead bodies to be laid in a tomb. 10And those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and make merry; and they will send gifts to one another, because these two prophets tormented those who dwell on the earth. 11And after the three and a half days the breath of life from God came into them, and they stood on their feet; and great fear fell upon those who were beholding them. 12And they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here.” And they went up into heaven in the cloud, and their enemies beheld them. 13And in that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell; and seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.
Rev. 11:1-13 shows that the church is sealed for bearing an enduring and loyal witness to the gospel, which begins to lay a basis for the final judgment of those rejecting their testimony. The emphasis of ch. 10 on recommissioning John for his prophetic calling now shifts to a focus on the prophetic message he was commissioned to deliver. The message is that of judgment upon those who reject the persevering witness of Christians and who persecute them. This message, secondarily included in the introduction of ch. 10, now becomes the focus. The judgment is the first explicit answer to the saints’ prayer for vindication and retribution against their antagonists (in development of 6:9-11 and 8:3-5). This explicitly expresses what the trumpets imply. The events portrayed in 11:1-13 occur during the same time as the first six trumpets.
1-2 The beginning of the prophetic message is an acted-out parable of measuring a temple. John is given a reed and commanded to measure the temple of God, and the altar, and those who worship in it. However, he is not to measure the court which is outside the temple … for it has been given to the nations; and they will tread under foot the holy city for forty-two months. Though this is not explicit, it is the commissioning angel of ch. 10 who continues to speak to John in 11:1ff. These verses are complex, and require careful comment on several points.
There are at least five broad interpretations of this passage:
The “measuring” is best understood against the background of the prophecy of the temple in Ezekiel 40–48. There, the sure establishment and subsequent protection of the temple are metaphorically pictured by an angel measuring various features of the temple complex (in the Greek text of Ezekiel, virtually identical Greek words for “measure” are used: the verb occurs about 30 times and the noun about 30 times). In Rev. 21:15-17 an angel, in dependence on the same Ezekiel text, uses a “measuring rod” (as in 11:1) to measure the city, its gates and its wall. There, the measuring of the city and its parts portrays the security of its inhabitants against the harm and contamination of unclean and deceptive people (so 21:27). Jewish and Gentile Christians will compose this temple community (as is evident from 3:12; 21:12-14 [the apostles representing the church from every nation]; 21:24-26; 22:2). What is figuratively established by the measuring in Ezekiel and Revelation 21 is the infallible promise of God’s future presence, which will dwell forever in the midst of a purified community.
In Revelation 11, the “measuring” connotes God’s presence, which is guaranteed to be with the temple community living on earth before the Lord’s return. This means that the faith of God’s people will be upheld by His presence, since without His living presence there can be no living faith. In ch. 11, this means that the promise of God’s eschatological presence begins with the establishment of the Christian community. Even before the church age began, God made a decree which secured the salvation of all people who would become genuine members of the church (see further on the meaning of the sealing in 7:3).
If the literal view of the temple, altar, and city were correct (the first two views described above), then John would be distinguishing believing Jews (in the sanctuary) from the nation of unbelieving Jews (the outer court). But one difficulty with this is that no distinction between believing ethnic Jews and unbelieving ethnic Jews clearly occurs anywhere else in the book. With regard to the fourth view, it is unlikely that the outer court would represent pseudo-believers (either Jews or the apostate church), because the following context of ch. 11 yields no hint of apostates or compromisers but only contrasts true witnesses with those who persecute them. Another theological objection to the futuristic literalist view is that a future literal temple with an altar would mean the revival of the OT sacrificial system, whereas Heb. 10:1-12 affirms that Christ’s sacrifice typologically fulfilled and abolished that system forever. The response that such future sacrifices will be mere memorials of Christ’s sacrifice is unconvincing. The fact that the temple prophesied in Ezekiel 40–48 includes a sacrificial system must be reinterpreted in the light of Heb. 10:1-12.
Consequently, some form of the last view described above is most plausible. The outer court of the Jerusalem temple did not have a completely negative function. This outermost portion of the Herodian temple was designed for “God-fearing” Gentiles. But, as noted above, it is the eschatological temple of Ezekiel 40–48 which is the focus here. In this case, the contrast would be between the innermost sanctuary and the outer court, which was intended for the Israelite worshipers. If John has the context of Ezekiel in mind, then it is unlikely that he is now affirming that, contrary to Ezekiel’s expectation, part of the real end-time temple will be inhabited by unbelievers and idolaters. Rather, the bodies of those whose souls are a part of the invisible temple will undergo degrees of suffering. However, their souls will not be contaminated with idolatrous influences, so that they remain believers. Christ’s work is now the dominant interpretative lens through which to understand OT expectations. In Rev. 11:1-2, the temple of the church is being patterned after the cross of Christ, who is the true temple. Just as Christ suffered, so the church will suffer and appear defeated. Nevertheless, through it all, God’s tabernacling presence will abide with believers and protect them from any contamination leading to eternal death. God’s abiding presence also guarantees them ultimate victory.
In 11:1, the focus is now on the whole covenant community dwelling in a spiritual temple in which God’s presence dwells (so also 1 Cor. 3:16-17; 6:19; 2 Cor. 6:16; Eph. 2:21-22; 1 Pet. 2:5). What Ezekiel prophesied has begun to find its real, true fulfillment on a spiritual level, which will be consummated in fuller form physically and spiritually in a new creation (see on Rev. 21:1–22:5). Christians, who are identified with Christ, are also presently identified with the temple. Without exception, “temple” (Greek naos) elsewhere in Revelation refers not to a literal or historical temple, but either to the heavenly temple of the present (7:15; 11:19; 14:15, 17; 15:5-6, 8; 16:1, 17) or to the temple of God’s presence dominating the new age of the future (3:12; 21:22). This usage points to the same identification in 11:1-2: the people of God who are members of God’s temple in heaven are referred to in their existence on earth as being in “the temple of God.” Already in John 2:19-22, Christ identified His resurrection body as the true temple, and this is developed in Rev. 21:22 (likewise Mark 12:10-11 and parallels). There John says he “saw no temple” in the new Jerusalem “for the Lord God … and the Lamb are its temple.” There is no reason to limit this identification to the new, future Jerusalem, since the identification began to be made when Christ was resurrected, and the resurrected Christ is the central feature of the heavenly temple scene in 1:12-20.
The “altar” refers to the way God’s people now worship in the community. In line with 6:9-10, the altar connotes the sacrificial calling, which entails suffering for their faithful witness (as affirmed by 6:3-9; see on 6:9-10). In fact, the Greek word here for “altar” (thysiastērion) can be translated as “the place of sacrifice.” The picture of Christians portrayed as worshiping in a spiritual temple as priests at an altar is similar to 1 Pet. 2:5 (believers as “living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices”). Indeed, Rev. 1:6 and 5:10 (on which see) allude to the same OT text (Exod. 19:6) as 1 Pet. 2:5 in identifying Christians as priests (cf. Heb. 13:9-16, where believers have an altar, i.e., Christ, through which they offer up sacrifices to God).
If the temple signifies the church dwelling in the midst of Christ’s and God’s presence, the outer court (which is part of the temple) must therefore represent the church in its exposure and vulnerability to the world system in which it lives. The “holy city,” which is to be trodden underfoot (v. 2), is equated with the outer court. In Revelation, the “holy city” refers either to the future heavenly city (3:12; 21:2, 10) or to its earthly manifestation in the form of the church (20:9: “they … surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city”). As Revelation develops, we shall see how the world system is ruled by demonic forces. Yet believers must live within it and remain physically unprotected in the midst of persecution. They will suffer as they maintain faithful witness to Christ in the midst of a pagan society, but they will be kept spiritually safe. Note that both parts of the temple (inner and outer court) belong to God, and the period of trampling down of the outer court (and the holy city) will cease, at which point all creation will be restored under the rulership of Christ.
What, then, is the significance of the forty-two months? If the picture here of the “temple” and the “altar” is symbolic, then so is the time period. The reference is to the time of tribulation prophesied by Daniel (7:25; 12:7, 11-12) either as a “time, times and half a time” (three and a half years or forty-two months) or as one thousand, three hundred and thirty-five days (the equivalent). For Daniel, this lay far off in the future, but for John it has begun, starting with the resurrection of Christ and continuing until His return (see on Rev. 1:1, 7). The reason for the exact number of “forty-two” here and in 13:5 is likely to recall the same time of Elijah’s ministry of judgment (Luke 4:25; Jas. 5:17; see on 11:6) and Israel’s entire time of wilderness wandering after the Exodus, which encompassed a total of forty-two encampments (so Num. 33:5-49). This is reinforced by possibly reckoning forty-two years for the Israelites’ total sojourn in the wilderness, since it appears they were in the wilderness for two years before incurring the penalty of remaining there for forty years until the death of the first generation. Remember that the trumpet plagues take us back to God’s judgments on Egypt, by which His people were released into the wilderness. In 11:6-8; 12:6, 14, the community of faith is pictured as battling against a spiritual Egypt, or as being protected in the wilderness. The uses in 12:6 and 12:14 confirm that 11:1-2 alludes to an attack on the community of faith throughout the church age. In 12:6, the messianic community (= the “woman”) is protected from the dragon’s onslaught during the three and a half years by taking refuge in “the wilderness where she had a place prepared by God.” The picture of 12:14 is virtually identical. This “place” in which Christians are kept safe from the devil is likely none other than the invisible sanctuary of God (see 12:6, 14), since that is to be the object of attack during the three and a half years in Daniel, and since that is the idea in Rev. 11:1-2 and 12:5-6.
Rev. 12:5-6 shows that the three and a half year period was inaugurated at Christ’s resurrection, since the “woman” (the covenant community”) flees directly on the heels of the resurrection, and that time of fleeing commences the three and a half years (there is no hidden long time gap between v. 5 and v. 6, as contended by some futurists). This three and one half year time will be consummated at Christ’s final coming (see on 12:5-6; cf. 14:14-20). 11:2 indicates that the period is the time of the treading under foot of the holy city. V. 8 implies that this treading under foot and, therefore, the three and a half years, was set in motion when “the Lord was crucified” in Jerusalem, especially since the ultimate basis for the trampling — the persecution of the church — is Christ’s death. This period was inaugurated at Christ’s resurrection, and will be consummated at His final coming. Another reason that a three and a half year period is chosen to represent the church’s witness is that it is the approximate duration of Christ’s ministry. The pattern of the narration of the witnesses’ career in 11:3-12 is intended as a replica of Christ’s: proclamation and signs resulting in Satanic opposition, persecution (John 15:20) and violent death in the city where Christ was crucified, followed by the world looking on their victim (Rev. 1:7), the world’s rejoicing (cf. John 16:20), and then resurrection and vindication by ascension in a cloud. The prophetic precedents of Moses and Elijah point to this pattern and are alluded to in vv. 3-13 in order to fill out the pattern in more detail.
The last clause of 11:2, and they will tread under foot the holy city for forty-two months, further explains the preceding clause (the significance of the and) concerning the casting out of the outer court. In confirmation of our above analysis of the outer court, this further explanation of v. 2b means that the outer court should similarly be identified in a positive manner as the holy city. Therefore, the outer court is a part of the temple (the community of faith in which God dwells). As such it is the earthly expression of it. That the outer court is considered an essential part of the temple complex is suggested by the assumption in v. 2 that it was formerly under the protection of the temple walls but is now to be cast outside that protection. The “nations” who “trample” are persecutors who are not part of the true covenant community, as is clear from the way this text alludes to Isa. 63:18 (“Thy holy people possessed Thy sanctuary for a little while, our adversaries have trodden it down”) and Dan. 8:13 (“while the transgression causes horror, so as to allow both the holy place and the host to be trampled”). That the “city” is measured in 21:15-17 shows its close identification with the prophesied Ezekiel 40–48 temple and, therefore, its identification with the temple in 11:1-2. Believers on earth are members and representatives of the heavenly Jerusalem. This identification of the holy city is confirmed from observing that the dragon and beast persecute the woman (= the earliest NT covenant community) and the saints throughout the church age for precisely the same time period of “three and a half years” (see on 11:3; 12:6, 14; 13:5). This background for the understanding of “trampling” and of the “city” shows that those metaphorically trampled are not being deceived or becoming apostates but represent the true community of faith undergoing persecution. In Revelation, the persecutors include both unbelieving Gentiles and Jews.
That all five descriptions (“measuring,” “temple,” “altar,” “outer court,” and “holy city”) in 11:1-2 are likely figurative and applicable to the believing community has precedent in 3:12, where five similar images are figuratively applied to overcomers: pillar, temple, God’s name, the name of the city of Jerusalem, and Christ’s new name. The names of God and of Christ on the believer indicate that believers dwell in the tabernacling presence of God and Christ, who are the true temple (see again 21:22), with which believers are also identified (as “pillars”).
3 Vv. 3-6 explain the primary purpose of the “measuring” of vv. 1-2. That is, God’s establishment of His tabernacling presence among His end-time community is aimed at ensuring the effectiveness of the community’s prophetic witness. The believers are to be prophets like the great prophets of the OT (like Moses and Elijah, so vv. 4-6). Though God’s people will suffer, He will grant authority to stand against the enemy. The future tenses (I will grant authority, they will prophesy) probably highlight divine determination instead of future time, context being the ultimate determiner of the meaning. The two witnesses mentioned here who prophesy are not individuals, but rather represent the corporate church in its capacity as faithful prophetic witness to Christ. We can give a number of reasons for this:
But why two witnesses? The OT required two witnesses to establish an offense against the law (Num. 35:30; Deut. 17:6; 19:15). Jesus also used the same principle (Matt. 18:16; Luke 10:1-24, where there are thirty-five — or thirty-six in some manuscripts — groups of two witnesses; John 8:17). So also did Paul (2 Cor. 13:1; 1 Tim. 5:19). God sent two angels to testify to the truth of the resurrection (Luke 24:4) and to the fact that Jesus would return (Acts 1:10-11). Above all, only two of the seven churches in chs. 2–3 escaped Christ’s accusations of unfaithfulness (Smyrna and Philadelphia). That these two churches as representative of the faithful church are in mind is apparent from the identification of the “prophetic witnesses” here as “lampstands.” Thus there is pictured here the faithful remnant church who witnesses.
Further, the words “witness” (Greek martys) in v. 3 and “testimony” (Greek martyria) in v. 7 are legal terms. At least six of the nine uses of “testimony” in Revelation refer to a witness rejected by the world, which results in legal consequences for those rejecting it (1:9; 6:9; 12:11, 17; 20:4). Like Elijah and his NT counterpart John the Baptist (2 Kgs. 1:8; Mark 1:6), the witnesses are clothed in sackcloth, emphasizing their mourning over the world’s sins, which are about to be legally judged. The OT legal background of “two witnesses” noted above and the evidence of the following verses bear out the emphasis on mourning because of judgment. The stress on judgment is apparent from the witnesses’ judicial relationship to their persecutors (especially vv. 5-6), and from the observation that their prophetic task is not to be viewed as a hopeful evangelistic campaign, as 11:13 bears out (on which see further).
4 Vv. 5-6 show that judgment is inaugurated through the witnesses themselves. But the identification of the witnesses is defined in more detail in v. 4 before the inaugurated verdict is portrayed in vv. 5-6. Even as the lampstands stood in God’s presence in the tabernacle and the temple, so the witnesses stand before the Lord of the earth, emphasizing that, in spite of their position on earth, they stand spiritually in God’s presence and in His heavenly courtroom. Though the prophetic witnesses live in a world of danger, they are never far from their Lord’s sovereign presence, and nothing can separate them from their secure relationship with Him. The lamps on the lampstand in Zech. 4:2-6 are interpreted as representing God’s presence or Spirit, which was to empower Israel (= the “lampstand”) to finish rebuilding the temple, despite resistance (cf. Zech. 4:6-9). Just as lampstands were a part of Solomon’s temple, so the church is part of God’s new temple. Accordingly, new Israel, the church, as a “lampstand,” is part of God’s spiritual temple on earth, and is to draw its power from the Spirit, the divine presence, before God’s throne in its drive to stand against the resistance of the world. Indeed, the “seven lamps of fire” in 4:5 “burn” in the heavenly temple, and they are most likely set on the lampstands. Thus, the Spirit empowers the lampstands, the church. This continues the theme from vv. 1-3 of God’s establishment of His presence among His end-time community as His sanctuary, which is aimed at ensuring the effectiveness of its prophetic witness.
That the witnesses are called olive trees as well as lampstands comes from the vision of Zechariah, who saw two witnesses like olive trees standing before the lampstand (Zech. 4:12-14). The olive trees provided the oil to light the lamps. As in Revelation, Zechariah’s two witnesses (in context representing Joshua the high priest and Zerubbabel the king) are described as standing in the presence of the Lord of the earth (Zech. 4:14). God would provide His fruitful Spirit (the oil) and cause it to issue forth from the priest and king (the olive trees) to lead the process of successfully completing the temple.
The establishment and preservation of the true temple despite opposition has been introduced in Rev. 11:1-2, and Zech. 4:14 is a climax to a section concerning the very same topic. Just as the priest and king are in Zechariah the key vessels used by the Spirit for the establishment of the temple against opposition, so here the two witnesses are likewise empowered by the Spirit to perform the same role in relation to 11:1-2. Zechariah speaks of the two witnesses, the king and the priest, who reestablish a literal temple, whereas John sees two witnesses helping to build the heavenly temple. In contrast with Zechariah, the two witnesses are not individuals but represent the church universal. Indeed the dual kingly-priestly role of the corporate church has already been explicitly affirmed (1:6; 5:10) and will be again (20:6). The broader context of Zechariah 4 shows the richness of the connection to the present context. First, in Zech. 1:16-17 and 2:1-5, an angel “measures” Jerusalem to signify that it will surely be re-established in order that God’s house “will be built in it” (1:16), and that God “will be the glory in her midst” (2:5; cf. the measuring of the temple in Rev. 11:1-2). But, second, Satan, together with the world powers, opposed the reestablishment of God’s temple in Jerusalem (Zech. 3:1-2; 4:7), as the beast and the world oppose the witnesses (Rev. 11:5-10).
5 The purpose and effects of the “measuring” are explained further. The souls of the witnesses cannot be harmed, because they are protected by the invisible sanctuary within which they dwell: And if anyone desires to harm them, fire proceeds out of their mouth, and devours their enemies; and if anyone would desire to harm them, in this manner he must be killed. Therefore, the powers given to them in vv. 5-6 do not so much demonstrate outwardly their prophetic legitimation as indicate God’s spiritual protection of them. They may undergo bodily, economic, political, or social harm, but their eternal covenantal status with God will not be affected. Though they may suffer and even die, they will invincibly and successfully carry out the spiritual mission for which they have been “measured” and commissioned. The fire that proceeds out of their mouth is not to be taken literally but signifies the pronouncing of God’s judgment on the world’s sins, even as Christ’s similar judgment is pictured symbolically as a sword “proceeding out of His mouth” (1:16; 19:15 [cf. likewise 2:12, 16], which allude to Isa. 11:4 and 49:2, according to which the Messiah’s mouth will be like a sword in judgment). Note God’s words to Jeremiah: “I am making My words in your mouth fire and this people wood, and it will consume them” (Jer. 5:14). The prophecy of Jeremiah concerning the need for repentance became a tool of judgment when the nation rejected the exhortation, and so it will be with the witnesses. Our interpretation of 9:17-18 (on which see) supports and is consistent with a figurative interpretation of the fire metaphor in 11:5. 9:17-18 also provides precedent for this fire metaphor being applied to an inaugurated, non-consummative judgment, which is likely the case here also.
Elijah called down fire on his enemies (2 Kgs. 1:10-12). The subtle allusion to Elijah here anticipates the explicit reference to him in the next verse. Moses’ prophetic office was also demonstrated by his ability to call down fire from heaven to judge the ungodly. The manner of judgment is now further explained: if anyone would desire to harm them, in this manner he must be killed. This is a continued allusion to Deut. 19:15-19, first referred to in v. 3 as establishing the need for two witnesses in relation to the violation of God’s law. Not only were two witnesses required in order for a just verdict, but the punishment often was to be patterned after the crime itself: “then you shall do to him just as he intended to do to his brother” (Deut. 19:19). Those who sin are to punished by the same means they used against the victim, thus practicing the OT principle of “an eye for an eye,” which recurs throughout Revelation (11:18; 13:10; 16:6; 18:5-7).
6 The penal effect of the witnesses’ prophetic announcement of judgment is inaugurated during the period of their testimony. Not all the witnesses die from persecution, though they suffer. They inflict spiritual punishments by means of their continuing witness during persecution. Their authority is patterned after the same prophetic authority by which Elijah and Moses carried out their punitive tasks against their antagonists. The witnesses are the fulfillment of the OT-Jewish expectation that the prophets Moses and Elijah were to come again before the end of history to restore Israel and to judge the ungodly. Indeed, in Mark 9:4-7 Moses and Elijah, as the two witnesses legally needed, appear on the mountain to bear witness that Jesus is the Son of God. The allusion to the two prophets may imply that the witnesses testify to that toward which the law (represented by Moses) and the prophets (represented by Elijah) ultimately pointed. The comparison to them here, especially in light of their connection to Israel’s restoration, indicates that the church is the fulfillment of the latter-day restoration of Israel prophesied throughout the OT.
The specific reference here is first to Elijah’s power to withhold rain from the earth (1 Kings 17–18): These have the power to shut up the sky, in order that rain may not fall during the days of their prophesying. The second reference is to Moses’ ability to turn water into blood (Exod. 7:17-25): and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood. The same kind of power is carried over into this verse, except the focus is no longer on either individual prophets or kings, and the power is not expressed in literal drought or in literal water turning into blood. Now the whole prophetic community of the church executes afflictions against the antagonistic idolaters and reprobates who persecute them.
The first five verses of ch. 11 have been rich in symbolism — angels measuring, the temple, olive trees, lampstands, and fire coming out of mouths. Likewise v. 6 is symbolic; the ceasing of the regular order of the course of nature in the heavens is likely not literal but refers to all those divinely-ordained events intended to remind the persecutors that their idolatry is folly, that they are separated from the living God and that they are already experiencing an initial form of judgment.
The three and a half year period of the witnesses’ ministry corresponds to the same time period of Elijah’s ministry of judgment by drought (1 Kgs. 18:1; Luke 4:25; Jas. 5:17). It is interesting to note that in Luke 9:51-56 the disciples want to copy Elijah by calling down fire upon some Samaritan villagers. Jesus rebukes them, but in the next chapter sends out thirty-five (thirty-six in some manuscripts) groups of two (legal) witnesses to declare the judgment of God as well as His mercy through the proclamation of the gospel. Likewise, the two witnesses in John’s vision here declare the judgment of God not by calling down literal fire, a practice no longer suitable in the gospel age, but by declaring the gospel and the consequences of disobeying it. The church’s prophetic declaration of God’s truth concerning the gospel, including the message of final judgment, unleashes torments toward those ultimately impenitent (just as were the kings whom Moses and Elijah confronted). The torments anticipate the last judgment and harden the reprobate in their sinful stance, making them ever more ripe for the punishment of the great day. These are torments which primarily affect the spiritual realm of a person, especially plaguing their conscience. This is evident from 11:10, where the earth-dwellers rejoice because of the death of the prophets who “tormented” them. This means the earlier effect of their ministry caused the hardened ungodly to be dismayed over their desperate plight. Perhaps Felix is an example of the kind of torment suffered by the unrighteous when they reject the gospel message: Paul “was discussing righteousness, self-control and the judgment to come,” and Felix sent Paul away because of fear and resentment of the truth (Acts 24:25).
The plagues the witnesses bring are closely related to the trumpet plagues, which in turn are rooted in the plagues of Exodus. In both cases, the judgments are described as “plagues” (compare 8:12 [“smitten” is literally “struck by plague”]; 9:20; and 11:6). These judgments are directed against “earth-dwellers” (8:13 and 11:10) by those whose mouths are authorized or given power to pronounce judgment (9:13 and 11:6). Both include famine (8:7 [on our interpretation of that verse] and 11:6), killing (9:15 and 11:5), and harming (9:10 and 11:5). Fire comes from the mouths of executioners (9:17-18 and 11:5), water becomes blood (8:8 and 11:6), there are effects from heaven (8:10 and 11:6), and unbelievers are “tormented” (9:5-6 and 11:10). Each section — the narratives of the first six trumpets and of the witnesses — concludes with a final effect in which a specific percentage of unbelievers are killed and those remaining continue unmoved in their unrepentant stance (so 9:20 and 11:13, in both of which the phrase “the rest” occurs).
That the ungodly suffering judgment here are the same group as those suffering under the trumpet woes is evident from 10:11, where John is told to “prophesy again” to people throughout the world. The parallel wording of “the witness they had maintained” in 6:9 and “they should finish the testimony” in 11:7 suggests that both passages have in view the same idea of believers who persevere in their testimony to the end and are persecuted for it. The saints in heaven requesting judgment against persecutors (so 6:10-11) are told now that the “witness that they had maintained” (6:9) and for which they suffered is itself the instrument of the initial judgment of the oppressors. The judgment of vv. 5-6, therefore, is the first explicit answer to the saints’ prayer of 6:9-11 and 8:3-5 for vindication and retribution against their antagonists, which the trumpet judgments imply. We concluded previously that the trumpet and seal judgments represent two visions describing the same set of events. Now it becomes clear that this section, placed as a “parenthesis” or interlude between the sixth and seventh trumpets, retells the story of the trumpet and seal judgments from yet another perspective, in this case one emphasizing what happens to the church during the period between Christ’s resurrection and His return.
7 The introductory phrase and when they have finished their testimony shows that what follows in vv. 7b-13 is to occur at the end of history. At this time, the church will have completed its role of bearing witness to Christ before the world, and will appear defeated (so Matt. 24:9-22). V. 7 shows that the “measuring” of vv. 1-2 is for the purpose of and guarantees the successful completion of the church’s witnessing task. In 6:9, 11, during the seals vision, John was shown that a time will come when the full number of the saints to be killed on account of their testimony is completed, and this verse describes the same series of events, thus reinforcing the fact that the two witnesses represent the corporate church. Both texts portray saints being killed by an antagonistic world because of their witness-bearing. The role of witness is to be completed at an appointed time in redemptive history. This is a further connection tying the witnesses of ch. 11 with the witnesses’ prayer for vindication in 6:9-11. When their witness is completed, the faithful believers will be killed. Though they are about to be defeated in the eyes of the world (vv. 7-10), their demise will lead to the world’s final defeat (vv. 11-13). This consummate judgment of earthly persecutors is the full answer to the saints’ petition in 6:9-11.
Christ speaks to John in the same words (the beast that comes out of the abyss will make war with them, and overcome them and kill them) as the angel did to Daniel when he told him that the fourth and final beast ascending from the abyss would make war on God’s people and overcome them. Since Dan. 7:21 thus refers to an attack on the Israelite saints, here also the beast makes war, not on two individuals, but on the community of the new faithful Israel, the church. The same event will be described again in 20:7-10, where the beast makes final war against the saints and the beloved city (both phrases representing the church as a whole).
The phrase the beast that comes up out of the abyss does not mean that the beast is active only at the end of the age, but rather that at the end of the age his activity will come out manifestly into the open. That is, his spirit has stood behind the earthly persecutors during the course of history, but at the end he manifests himself openly in order finally to defeat the church (which is the precise thought of 1 John 2:18 and 4:3, also based on the same Danielic expectation). The beast in Daniel 7 represents an evil king and kingdom which persecute the saints, and so likewise the persecuting activity in Rev. 11:7 begins to take place through antagonistic earthly authorities. The same series of events (the final onslaught of the beast followed by his own demise) is described in 17:8, where the beast comes out of the abyss only to go to his destruction, and again in 20:7: “when the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from his prison.”
8 This introduces the aftermath of the witnesses’ death. The picture here (their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city) probably indicates not a literal and complete extermination but that the true church will seem defeated in its role of witness, will appear small and insignificant, and will be treated with indignity. Though parts of the church’s voice throughout history may be temporarily silenced (as in parts of the world even today), a universal silence will fall on the church at the very end of history. And just as small groups of believers continued to exist through earlier local and temporary silencings, so a small remnant of witnesses remain in the future scenario of vv. 8ff. The continued existence of a small church is pointed to by other parallels in the book which refer to a small community of believers undergoing persecution in the period immediately preceding the final judgment (so 20:7ff.; 17:8; so also Matt. 24:15-22, 37-39). In fact, the parallels in Revelation and the Gospels indicate that if God did not defeat the church’s persecutors at this point, the church would actually be wiped out entirely. The great city where the bodies lie is best identified as the ungodly world, not the earthly city of Jerusalem (see further below). Without exception, the remaining uses of “the great city” in Revelation are identified with Babylon, not Jerusalem (16:19; 17:18; 18:10, 16, 18, 19, 21). In the OT prophets, Babylon was associated typically with the region in which God’s people lived as aliens in exile under ungodly regimes.
The great city is compared here to Sodom (because of its wickedness) and to Egypt (because it persecuted the saints). The city is to be understood spiritually, as these references indicate. This means that the city is not located in any one geographical place but is to be understood as any ungodly spiritual realm existing on earth. The last clause, where also their Lord was crucified, continues the spiritual description of the city begun by the identification with Sodom and Egypt. This non-literal interpretation is borne out by observing that the word “where” (Greek hopou) elsewhere in Revelation never introduces literal but always symbolic, spiritual geography (e.g., the “wilderness” in 12:6, 14, “heads” and “mountains” in 17:9, and the “lake of fire and brimstone” in 20:10). In this light, the world-city is also spiritually like Jerusalem, which had become like other ungodly nations, and even worse, by killing Christ. In John’s time, the reference to “the great city” would be primarily to Rome and any of its allies, since it was the center of the ungodly empire which persecuted God’s people at that time.
9 The universal, negative identification of the city argued for in v. 8 is indicated further by the worldwide reference to unbelievers once in v. 9a and twice in v. 10. These are the citizens of the ungodly city, those who walk its global street. The universal formula (the peoples and tribes and tongues and nations) shows that the sardonic onlookers are those who live throughout the earth. The picture of those who look at their dead bodies continues the hyperbole of v. 8a that the church will seem defeated in its role of witness, appearing small and insignificant. The word “body” is actually in the singular in both v. 8 and v. 9a, though it is plural in v. 9b (the earth-dwellers will not permit their dead bodies to be laid in a tomb). The likely reason for the singular is to connote the corporate nature of the witnesses. They are one “body” of Christ who witness, but they are also many witnesses scattered throughout the earth, as is evident elsewhere in the book. A similar phenomenon occurs in 12:4-5, 13, 17, where the Christ child and those who “hold to the testimony of Jesus” are both identified as the offspring of the woman (see further on those verses). The three and a half day period during which they observe the bodies evokes the period Christ was in the tomb (though He lay in His tomb for only three days). Therefore, just as the three and a half year duration of Jesus’ ministry is the same as the course of the witnesses’ ministry (11:2-3), so also the time of His apparent defeat at the end of His ministry is similar to the conclusion of the witnesses’ period of testimony. The short half week of three and a half days is also a contrast to the long yearly half week of three and a half years (11:3; 12:14; 13:5). The contrast is meant to emphasize that the antichrist’s victory is brief and insignificant in comparison to the victorious testimony of the witnesses.
10 The beginning and end of v. 10 refer to those throughout the world who look on the witnesses’ corpses as those who dwell on the earth. This is a technical phrase repeated throughout the book for unbelievers who suffer under incipient divine judgment because they persecute God’s people (3:10; 6:10; 8:13, etc.). The phrase refers exclusively to idolaters in chs. 13–17 (so 13:8, 12, 14; 14:6-9; 17:2, 8; cf. also 8:13 with 9:20). Idolaters are called “earth-dwellers” because they are people who ultimately trust in some aspect of the world and not in God (see discussion of the phrase in 6:17). The earth-dwellers rejoice … and make merry; and … send gifts to one another when the witnesses are defeated, because part of the witnesses’ message is that rejection of Christ amounts to idolatry and will be punished by judgment (Acts 17:30-31; 1 Thess. 1:8-10), a message that tormented those who dwell on the earth.
11 God restores the witnesses to Himself after their apparent defeat at the end of the church age: And after the three and a half days the breath of life from God came into them, and they stood on their feet. The wording here is taken directly from Ezek. 37:5, 10, where the breath represents God’s Spirit and where the picture of physical resurrection signifies spiritual resurrection (especially in the light of Ezek. 36:26-27). Probably the spiritual resurrection of Israel comes to represent here the spiritual resurrection of the church (Ezekiel himself likely would have thought implicitly that spiritual resurrection inevitably leads to a final physical resurrection). This resurrection vindicates the authenticity of the witnesses’ testimony. God now also vindicates the remaining community of believers by destroying their oppressors (so 20:7-10, which not coincidentally is based on Ezekiel 38). At the least, the ascent of the witnesses affirms a final, decisive deliverance and vindication of God’s people at the end of time. Indeed, if the two witnesses symbolize persons and their actions are symbolic (e.g., sending fire from their mouth, shutting up the sky, etc.), then both their martyrdom and their ascent into heaven are probably symbolic. Ezek. 37:10-13 refers to restored Israel as “an exceedingly great army … the whole house of Israel … My people.” Since Ezekiel prophesies the restoration of a faithful nation back to God, John sees the fulfillment in all the faithful of the church, and not merely in two faithful individuals. As a result, great fear fell upon those who were beholding them. This is not a genuine fear of God but is like the Egyptians’ fear when they beheld the unexpected plagues and the Israelites’ deliverance through the afflictions (Exod. 15:16; Ps. 105:38). Such a strong echo of the exodus would not be out of place here, since the plagues performed through Moses have been alluded to in 11:6, and the Exodus plague background stands behind much of the narration of the trumpets in chs. 9–10.
12 The description of the witnesses’ deliverance continues: And they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here.” And they went up into heaven in the cloud. If this verse indicates a literal physical “rapture” (a taking of the witnesses out of the world), such an event would occur immediately before the final judgment (with no “tribulation” or “millennium” to follow), because the very next event (see v. 15) is the sounding of the seventh trumpet and the end of history. In this case, the vision would simply reveal that God’s last act before consummating the destruction of the world and bringing about the return of His Son would be the taking up of the church. However, the wording is so closely parallel to 4:1 (where John beholds a door standing open in heaven and hears a voice saying, “Come up here”), that this similarity points to a different meaning than a physical rapture. There, the angelic voice commands John to come up to heaven. Both this verse (representing John’s recommissioning) and John’s original commissioning in 1:9-11 (as well as John’s additional experiences as recorded in 17:1-3 and 21:9-10) are based on Ezekiel’s repeated “raptures” in the Spirit (Ezek. 1:28–2:2; 3:12-14, 23-24; 11:1-5; 43:5), where the Spirit lifted the prophet up and carried him away in a spiritual, not physical sense (though 11:1-5 could be debated, but it likely refers to the invisible spiritual dimension). Ezekiel was not physically raptured, but received visionary experiences, much as Paul did when, according to 2 Cor. 12:1-4, he ascended to the third heaven. One further parallel between chs. 4 and 11 is the preceding description in 11:11, the “breath [i.e. Spirit] of life from God came into them,” which is comparable with the end of 4:2a, “I was in the Spirit,” which refers to the Spirit conducting John into the invisible spiritual realm (the Spirit functions the same way in relation to John in 1:9; 17:3; and 21:10!). The heaven which the witnesses enter in 11:12, therefore, is an invisible dimension of reality not seen with the eyes of this world. This is a spiritual, not physical, transport, since all the other uses of the Spirit coming on people in Revelation (see just above) refer to a spiritual transport into an unseen dimension.
The reason for identifying John’s rapture with that of the witnesses is partly also that the third, repeated prophetic commission in ch. 10 is applied generally to the witnesses in ch. 11. The cloud in which they ascend and from which they heard a loud voice from heaven speaking in 11:12 is to be identified with the cloud of 10:1, in which the angelic Christ descended from heaven and appeared to John and from which “he cried out with a loud voice” (10:3). Both John (10:11) and the witnesses (11:3, 10, 18) exercise a prophetic commission in announcing judgment to “many peoples and nations and tongues and kings” (10:11).
The “cloud” in the Bible refers to the presence of God (or Christ) with His people (Exod. 13:21-22; Num. 14:14; Deut. 1:33; Ps. 78:14; Isa. 4:5; Ezek. 1:4; Dan. 7:13; Matt. 17:5; 24:30; Mark 9:7; Luke 9:34-35; Acts 1:9). The significance of the church going up to heaven in a cloud, therefore, is primarily the church’s vindication and acceptance by God. The world has rejected the witnesses’ message of prophetic judgment and salvation (vv. 4-10). But at this time, just as Christ was vindicated by resurrection and ascending on a cloud (Acts 1:9-11), Christ will finally vindicate His people similarly to demonstrate to all that they were true prophets (that the voice is Christ’s is implied by the parallel with 1:10-11 and 4:1-2). The persecutors perceive this divine seal of prophetic approval and are plagued by fear, because they have now realized that the prophets’ announcement of judgment was not empty but will come to pass. Exactly in what way God vindicates the witnesses before the world is not clear in the text itself (though we have argued that the text is focusing on the spiritual facet of resurrection). But the point of the narrative is not the precise form of vindication, but the revelation that the witnesses are God’s true representatives, who speak on His behalf.
13 The judgment of which the witnesses spoke commences immediately after the wicked see the vindication of those they had misjudged. The judgment is described in the form of a great earthquake. This phrase is virtually identical to those in 6:12 and 16:18, which are the only other occurrences of the word combination and which both describe the last judgment. If we have been correct in saying that the events of 11:11-13 transpire at the conclusion of world history, then the parallels with chs. 6 and 16 confirm this. Just as the “great earthquake” in 6:12 marked the beginning of the last judgment, which was consummated by the following seventh seal, so the great earthquake of 11:13 indicates the initial phase of the same final judgment, which is consummated by the following seventh trumpet. The wording comes from Ezek. 38:19, where the “great earthquake” refers to the final judgment of Gog at the end of history when it attempts to exterminate restored Israel. The reference to Ezekiel 38 is natural, since it comes directly after Ezekiel 37, which explains Israel’s restoration through the picture of resurrection. There is a direct parallel to the restoration of the two witnesses representing the church, which is restored Israel (Rev. 11:11-12), and the subsequent earthquake destroying the latter-day persecutors of the church. The allusion to Ezek. 38:19 associates v. 13 with the final denouement, since that appears to be the obvious interpretation of Ezek. 38:19-23 and how John uses Ezekiel 38–39 in 19:17 and 20:8-9.
The partial effect of the earthquake indicates that this is but the beginning of the last judgment: a tenth of the city fell; and seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake. Both numbers are likely figurative; if the two witnesses are identified with the seven thousand faithful associated with Elijah, an “eye for an eye” retribution may be symbolically signified. As to the rest, they were terrified and gave glory to God. This could mean a mass repentance, for “giving glory to God” elsewhere in Revelation always refers to sincere worship. Yet the word terrified (Greek emphobos) is never used in Scripture of fear of the Lord, but simply refers to the human emotion of fear. The ministry of the witnesses (the church) is patterned after Christ’s own ministry. At Christ’s resurrection, there was an earthquake, an angel descended from heaven and the guards shook like dead men. Here, at the vindication of the righteous, there is also an earthquake, an angelic voice speaks from heaven, and those who observe it are terrified. “Giving glory to God” in the OT sometimes describes the response of unbelievers who, like the guards at the empty tomb, are forced to acknowledge God’s reality rather than willingly submitting to it (Josh. 7:19; 1 Sam. 6:5). The phrase may go back to Nebuchadnezzar’s giving praise and honor to God in Dan. 2:46-47 and 4:37 since he represents Babylon, the forerunner of the end-time Babylon of v. 13. Yet at the same time that Nebuchadnezzar honored God (Dan. 2:46-47), he carried on worshiping idols (Dan. 3:1). While Rev. 11:13 could be taken to refer to repentance or non-repentance, the fact is there is no indication elsewhere in Revelation, and particularly in the parallel visions of seals, bowls, and trumpets, of a last-minute mass conversion of the lost, so on balance it is better to see a reference here to a fear-induced acknowledgment of God’s reality, rather than to an expression of saving faith.
The tenth of the city which fell and the seven thousand killed suggest that God was beginning to judge a significant portion of ungodly humanity, and the rest were soon to follow suit. In this respect, the judgment of the seven thousand so terrified the survivors that their only possible response was to accept their own imminent judgment and to acknowledge God as true sovereign in that judgment, as in 6:16-17 (as implied in Phil. 2:10-11; cf. Isa. 45:23-24). The context of judgment beginning at 8:6 up through 11:12, together with the OT background, favors an identification of the survivors as unbelievers suffering judgment. In fact, any sort of conversion would seem to be ruled out because v. 13a portrays the beginning of the last judgment rather than the repentance of the majority of “earth-dwellers.” Furthermore, the fact that vv. 11 and 12 emphasize God’s vindication of the whole church at the end of the age implies that those not vindicated in vv. 11-13 are not part of God’s people. In addition, the primary purpose of the prophets’ witness in vv. 3-6 appears to be not to induce repentance but to “torment” (so v. 10). They are God’s agents executing the beginning of His judgment on recalcitrant humanity (see on 11:5-6). This is not to deny, of course, that some will respond in repentance.
The earthquake imagery of v. 13a, therefore, marks the beginning of the final punishment, which is consummated by the earthquake imagery of the last judgment in 11:19. The fact that the seventh trumpet, which includes a description of the last judgment (11:18), follows on the heels of 11:13 confirms this conclusion, especially since the earthquake imagery of 11:19 is the climax of the seventh trumpet itself.
On the implications of divergent interpretations of Revelation. Vastly different interpretations exist regarding the identity of the temple and the outer court in vv. 1-2. These divergences illustrate how dramatically opposite conclusions can be drawn from a text in Revelation, depending on one’s interpretive framework. In thinking through these differences, what implications emerge for understanding God’s plan for the church in history and for Israel in history? What are the implications for our understanding of the historical timeframe Revelation refers to?
On the temple as a unifying theme in Scripture. The concept of the temple (representing God’s presence) is one of the central themes of the Bible (see G. K. Beale, The Temple and the Church’s Mission: A Biblical Theology of the Dwelling Place of God [Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 2004] for a fuller perspective on this subject). On the basis of the interpretation of the unifying theme of the temple as given in the commentary, how do you see the interrelationship of Ezekiel 40–48; Rev. 11:1-2; and Revelation 21–22?
On the church’s suffering and hope. Consider this statement from the commentary: “The pattern of the narration of the witnesses’ career in 11:3-12 is intended as a replica of Christ’s: proclamation and signs resulting in Satanic opposition, persecution (John 15:20) and violent death in the city where Christ was crucified, followed by the world looking on their victim (Rev. 1:7), the world’s rejoicing (cf. John 16:20), and then resurrection and vindication by ascension in a cloud.” In what way do vv. 3-12 give us a basis for a theology of suffering? In doing so, how do they give us also a basis for hope in the midst of suffering?
On dependence on the Holy Spirit. The commentary presents the two witnesses (representing the church) as standing in God’s presence even while suffering. They draw their strength from the Spirit. The oil from the olive trees and the light from the lamp flow through them, empowering their witness to the unbelieving world. This paints a picture of the church’s need for utter dependence on the Holy Spirit. To what degree are we personally dependent on the Spirit? In what measure are our churches dependent? How do we express this dependence? What is the role of personal and corporate prayer? One thing is for sure: when the time of testing or opposition comes, the degree of our dependence will be revealed.
On the wickedness of the nations and the judgment of God. According to the commentary, this chapter paints a picture of a severely persecuted church apparently falling prey to the attacks of its enemies especially in the time immediately before the return of Christ. This seems a discouraging message, but is there a silver lining to it when seen from God’s perspective? Revelation compares the church to Israel making its way through the wilderness on its way to the promised heavenly land. According to Gen. 15:16, Israel could not possess the Promised Land until the “iniquity of the Amorite” was complete. Is there a parallel to this thought here? That is, the very hour when wickedness is complete releases both the judgment of God upon the lost and the entrance of the church into its eternal inheritance.
14The second woe is past; behold, the third woe is coming quickly. 15And the seventh angel sounded; and there arose loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever.” 16And the twenty-four elders, who sit on their thrones before God, fell on their faces and worshiped God, 17saying, “We give Thee thanks, O Lord God, the Almighty, who are and who wast, because Thou hast taken Thy great power and hast begun to reign. 18And the nations were enraged, and Thy wrath came, and the time came for the dead to be judged, and the time to give their reward to Thy bond-servants the prophets and to the saints and to those who fear Thy name, the small and the great, and to destroy those who destroy the earth.” 19And the temple of God which is in heaven was opened; and the ark of His covenant appeared in His temple, and there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder and an earthquake and a great hailstorm.
14 The literary and theological parenthesis of 10:1–11:13 has ended. Therefore, v. 14 begins where 9:21 ended: The second woe is past (9:13-21); behold, the third woe is coming quickly. As in 9:12, the chronological language does not concern the order of history represented in the three woe visions, but refers only to the order of visions (see further on 9:12; 4:1). This means that the second vision of woe has been completed and the third is imminent. The nature of this visionary chronology explains why a description of the last judgment both in the conclusion of the parenthesis in 11:11-13 and again in the conclusion of the seventh seal in 11:18-19 is not inconsistent.
It is sometimes thought that vv. 15-19 do not make up the seventh trumpet (or third woe), but introduce it and are anticipations of it. No action is portrayed by the blowing of the seventh trumpet, but only songs declaring a series of actions that are not specifically described. Some think that chs. 12–14 lead up to the seven bowls of ch. 16, which constitute the third woe. Some think chs. 12–14 themselves describe the third woe, and still others view all of chs. 12–21 as the content. In contrast to the above views, we see 11:15-19 as an explanation of the consummation of history, since 10:7 has announced that when the seventh trumpet sounds, God’s accomplishment of His plan for history “is finished” (see on 10:7). It is reasonable to assume that 11:15-19 is the third woe, since the announcement has been made in 8:13 that the following three woes will all be equivalent respectively to the last three trumpets. If 11:15-19 is the seventh trumpet, then 8:13 has clearly said that it is also the third woe. The songs of the section depict actions of judgment and redemption and are not merely an anticipation of such actions. The descriptions are not detailed because they began in 6:12-17, and John knows that more descriptions of the same events will come later. A song can depict the content of a woe or trumpet as well as a vision can (e.g., 5:8-10 is a hymn narrating past events). Still, some think that vv. 15-19 cannot be the woe of the seventh trumpet because there is so much emphasis on the establishment of the kingdom instead of the severity of judgment. But the emphasis of this section lies not only on the kingdom but also on the woe of the final judgment (vv. 18-19), which demonstrates that the consummated, eternal kingdom of God has finally appeared on earth.
15 The third woe is the seventh trumpet, both of which are described in vv. 15-19. The proclamation here is that the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ. This can be said because the enemies of God’s kingdom have all been defeated and judged (so 11:18). God now takes for Himself the rule which formerly He permitted Satan to have over the world. The seventh trumpet of 11:15-19, like the seventh seal and seventh bowl, narrates the very end of history. The consummated fulfillment of the long-awaited messianic kingdom prophesied in the OT has finally come to pass (12:10 makes the same point). The past tenses in this verse appear to be a projection into the future, when the kingdom has been established and the heavenly host offers praise in response. In this case, the past tenses are actual descriptions of past actions, but from the perspective of the future.
It is not clear whether it is the Lord or Christ who will reign forever and ever. It may well be that the singular includes both God and Christ together. The picture here is the same as that shown to Daniel, where the evil kingdoms of the world are defeated and handed over by the Ancient of Days to the authority of the Son of man, who then reigns forever. That the eventual transference of power (from the rule of evil to the rule of God) pictured in Daniel 7 is in mind is already indirectly apparent from v. 7. There allusion was made to Dan. 7:3, 21 concerning the antagonistic world kingdom which will persecute the saints, which Dan. 7:13-14, 18, 22, 27 says will be replaced by the reign of the Son of man and the saints.
16-17 The twenty-four elders around God’s throne fell on their faces and worshiped God in response to the heavenly proclamation of v. 15 (see on 4:4 for identification of the elders). That they are praising Him for the completed form of His kingdom is apparent from v. 18, where all the enemies of God have suffered their final defeat and judgment. The praise of the elders is similar to that of the heavenly multitude in 19:6, and refers to the same period at the end of time. God has been addressed three times in Revelation as the One who is and who was and who is to come (1:4, 8; 4:8), but in v. 17 there is a significant variation of this: God is still addressed as the One who is and who was, but instead of referring to Him as the One who is to come, He is now addressed as the One who has taken up His great power and begun to reign. Though this final consummation of the kingdom had not yet occurred when John received the vision, it had happened from the perspective of those offering the heavenly praise. This change in time perspective enforces the thought that this section is narrating the actual establishment of the future kingdom and the final judgment as the content of the seventh trumpet. This is a rule in which God not merely controls events of the world, but has defeated the spiritual and physical powers which held “the kingdom of the world” in its sway (so v. 15). The consummate nature of the kingdom is also discerned from the emphasis on God’s reign more than on Christ’s. This suggests a parallel with 1 Cor. 15:25-28, where God’s rule is emphasized over Christ’s because the consummation of the latter’s rule has been reached.
18 It is best to see this verse as taking the reader back a step in the eschatological program to the time immediately preceding the establishment of the eternal kingdom mentioned in vv. 15-17. Nevertheless, it describes the first expression of God’s beginning end-time reign. The wicked nations are pictured as enraged against God and His people. God judges them wrathfully in response to their sinful outrage. The final judgment is expressed by the clause Thy wrath came. This is apparent from noticing that every other use of “wrath” (Greek orgē) in the book concerns the time of the final, great outpouring of wrath at the end of history (see 6:16, 17; 14:10-11; 16:19; 19:15). The following phrase and the time came for the dead to be judged confirms without doubt that this passage is a description of the last judgment. The end of v. 18 expands on the nature of the judgment. This is the same judgment of the dead as is referred to in 20:12-13, only here the reason that the dead unbelievers are to be judged is given: God will destroy the oppressors because they are those who destroy the earth (i.e., His people). The use of the same verb in describing both God’s judgment and the oppression of the godless is to emphasize once again the OT principle of the punishment fitting the crime.
The judgment on unbelievers here is patterned on the judgment of Babylon as prophesied by Jeremiah: “Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain, who destroy the whole earth” (Jer. 51:25). Babylon is a type of the eschatological world community, which will be judged at the end. This ties v. 18 in with Babylon, the great city, which is destroyed in 11:13. God’s people are referred to here as being bond-servants … and … the saints and … those who fear [God], the small and the great. That this is a fulfillment of the saints’ petition in 6:9-11 is evident from the parallel of 18:24–19:5, where, in an undeniable reference to the final judgment, God is to be praised by His bond-servants, those who fear him, and the small and the great (19:5) because He “judged the great harlot [Babylon] who was corrupting the earth … and He … avenged the blood of His bond-servants on her” (19:2, which develops both 6:10 and 11:18). All this shows again how the visions of Revelation describe the same set of events from different perspectives, rather than presenting a chronological listing of events.
The reward of the faithful is sandwiched literarily between the statements about judgment in order to indicate that part of their reward is the satisfaction arising from the knowledge that God has vindicated them by judging their persecutors. Again, this is linked to the prayer for retribution by the witnesses in 6:9-11. Whereas the trumpet woes and the parenthesis of 10:1–11:13 have shown how God has begun to answer that prayer in the midst of history, now He gives the climactic answer to it. The reward is given to Thy bond-servants the prophets and to the saints and to those who fear Thy name. These are probably three ways of describing the same group, because the entire church is identified in 11:3 with the two prophetic witnesses (which is consistent with Joel 2:28-32 in Acts 2:16-21). Compare also 19:10, where the angel forbids John to worship him and identifies himself simply as a fellow servant of all those who hold to the testimony of Jesus, for “the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy” — to testify or be a witness to Jesus is in some way to be a prophet. The reward is the saints’ deliverance, their reception of a position of reign with Christ and the accompanying blessings (cf. 22:12).
19 Another note of the final judgment is struck, commencing with the phrase, And the temple of God which is in heaven was opened. The portrayal of the seventh trumpet closes in v. 19 with the mention of flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder and an earthquake, which in Revelation are always indicators of the final judgment (4:5; 8:5; 16:18). Recall that the trumpet plagues are modeled on the plagues of Exodus. The seventh trumpet may be built around a segment from the Song of Moses in Exod. 15:13-18. There God is praised for redeeming His people by guiding them to His holy habitation (corresponding here to His temple … in heaven). When the “nations” heard about this deliverance, they became “enraged” (Exod. 15:14 LXX), but, in spite of this, God brought His people into His “dwelling” and “sanctuary” (15:17). After this, the declaration is made that “the Lord shall reign forever and ever” (15:18; see the verbatim parallel in Rev. 11:15). Such an allusive reference would be an appropriate way to conclude the series of trumpets, since the first six have been modeled on the Exodus plagues leading up to Exodus 15.
It is fitting that the trumpets should be concluded with a reminder of the pattern displayed in both the entrance of the Israelites into the Promised Land at Jericho and the entrance of the saints into the eternal kingdom. The seven trumpet plagues are followed by an earthquake and the victory of God’s people. Likewise at Jericho, trumpets were blown on six successive days, and then on the seventh and last day the trumpet blasts brought the wall down. The appearance of the ark of His covenant along with the trumpet also points back to Jericho, where the ark followed the trumpets, declaring both God’s judgment and His victory. The ark represents not just God’s judgment, but is also the place of forgiveness and of God’s presence with His people. The OT did not expect a literal reappearance of the ark, but rather looked forward to a reappearance of God’s presence in Israel’s midst (as clarified by Jer. 3:14-17), which was what the ark originally represented. This is the idea in Rev. 11:19, which is expanded on in 21:3, 22, where the establishment of the end-time temple is interpreted as God’s special revelatory presence in the midst of His people. At the consummation, God dwells with His people in a more complete and intense manner than previously, as indicated by the observation that the curtain separating the ark from the rest of the temple and people in the OT is now gone in 11:19, the heavenly ark being in full view. Therefore, the ark in 11:19, in the light of its multiple OT backgrounds, is a suitable symbol to indicate the simultaneous judgment and reward of the Last Day. And so the full answer to the saints’ petition for vindication in 6:9-11 is revealed in 11:15-19.
The nature of our reward. The commentary speaks about the reward of the faithful in relation to v. 18. How often do we as Christains think about eternal life and heaven in terms of reward? What is the nature of our reward? Is the downfall of our perscutors the greatest reward we can look for? Should we look for that downfall as an end in itself? Does it not merely serve another purpose in terms of the revelation of God’s glory in the manifestation of His fulfilled rule over all creation?
Forgiveness and justice. Consider the following statement in the commentary: “The ark represents not just God’s judgment, but is also the place of forgiveness and of God’s presence with His people.” We live in a culture which too often emphasizes forgiveness at the expense of justice, but in doing so have we lost a true understanding of both? Would you agree that the question of how God can be both forgiving and just is only truly understood through the cross? Why is this true?