Yochanan And The Two Witnesses

Revelation 11:1

Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff, and I was told, “Rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there, 

Then I was given a measuring rod...  This action of Yochanan being given and receiving a measuring rod follows immediately with no break from what was just said in the previous chapter. Yochanan is given the measuring rod immediately after his having been made to understand that he with his spiritual community would be called upon in the last times, just before the seventh trumpet's sounding, to make known to the world what was written in the little scroll.  As has been said, what was written in the little scroll was what he heard The Seven Thunders say but was, at that time, not allowed to reveal.  Erasing the chapter break in our minds, we are to understand that immediately he was given the rod and told to measure the Temple in heaven.

The measuring of the Temple in heaven is to be understood as a further revelation of what is already revealed in chapter 10.  We will see that this is another way of saying the same things, about the concealment within the revelation, while adding more to what this means.  First, it is important to clarify the fact that the Temple in heaven is the whole setting of the revelation that has taken place since Yochanan (John) was called up into the heavens in the Spirit in chapter 4.

The Temple on earth stood as a reflection of the Temple Above.  We must consider what it means, then, that all that has taken place in the visions of the revelation since chapter 4 have taken place in a vision of the Temple Above.  For Yochanan, the many visions have all been visions coming from a vision of the Temple in heaven into which he was called. Now he is being told to measure that Temple.

The vision of the One who sits upon the throne and the vision of the Lamb standing in the same place as the Divine Menorah of the Seven Spirits of God, as well as the golden altar before the Holy of Holies all existed in the Temple Above, and were reflected by measure in the Temple on earth.

Ezekiel was guided with a measuring rod in the hand of an angle in his vision of the Temple. Now Yochanan is told to himself measure the whole Temple Above in which this revelation is taking place, with the exception of the outer court.  Several things are essential to note here.

First remember, as stated, that for Yochanan there is no chapter break, or break of any kind.  There is no pause between his being told by The Seven Thunders that he (representatively speaking) will prophesy again in the future before all nations and peoples and then his being told to measure the Temple.  Yochanan, and we together with him, are to understand that the reason he is given this command to measure the Temple is to show that at this point there is a measure, a limitation, a set dimension, being given to The Revelation of Yehoshua HaMashiach (Jesus Christ).  The revelation will be fully revealed to those worshiping in the Temple, but as to those in the outer court, the court of the Gentiles, the full measure of the revelation will not reach to them yet at this time.  From them the hearing of what The Seven Thunders said will be concealed until it is revealed to them in and through God's sealed witnesses — who are here measured as all those who are worshiping in the Temple.

This is the meaning also of Yochanan's having himself been brought right into the visions of the Revelation.  Until he is told to eat the little scroll he is our witness to the revelation.  Then, by eating the little scroll he becomes not only a witness to the visions but an actor in and of the vision.  In the same way, by being given the measuring rod himself and being told to measure the Temple but not the outer court he, as the representative of his personal spiritual community, is made an actual part of the vision himself.

Yochanan, having the secrets of The Seven Thunders now inside of him in the form of the little scroll, can now himself measure the whole Temple Above and count the number of those who worship in it. He no longer needs an angelic mediator to reveal such a vision to him.  This transfer of primary authority to bring final judgment upon the nations began in chapter 7 with the transfer of action from the angels holding the four winds to those having the seal of God, as has been said, (see Jn. 14:12). It is important to clarify how this understanding brings us to where we are now.

As explained earlier, in the progressive unfolding of the Revelation of Yehoshua HaMashiach all judgment of the nations, (which at the end of history means all judgment upon This World Order and upon the old nature of Adam), has been mitigated and turned from condemnation to salvation and redemption through the sealing of the servants of God.  As will be made fully clear in chapter 14, the sealing of the 12 thousand of each of the tribes of Israel was accomplished through the blood of the Lamb who was slain. This means that the revelation itself has been made dependent upon the sealing in the forehead of the 12,000 of each of the tribes of Israel.

Accordingly, through bringing Yochanan into the vision to be the one who enacts the vision it is the Revelation of Yehoshua HaMashiach itself that is now telling us that the revelation has now been made dependent, in this symbolic way, upon Yochanan. He is now the one seen as being the representative of those sealed with the seal of God.  And it is in this role that the text brings us directly from Yochanan to The Two Witnesses.

Just as all the servants and witnesses of God are represented by the 144,000, in the same symbolically representative way, all the servants and witnesses of God are represented by Yochanan himself.  This occurred first, as stated, when he was told to eat the little scroll.  Now when he is told to measure the Temple and count those who worship within it, we will see that this leads immediately to a vision of the last manifestation of the Two Witnesses, (who have been present in different forms throughout the Scriptures).

We were given to understand that Yochanan as representative of, or else through, his personal spiritual community would in the end prophesy again concerning the secret of the mystery of God, the revelation of Yehoshua the Mashiach of Israel. We will now see a vision of The Two Witnesses doing exactly this, prophesying exactly as Yochanan was just made to understand he would prophesy, to all the world from Jerusalem.

Having said this, let's begin from the beginning of the chapter again:

The aspect of the revelation that remains concealed from the world is and must be the key to the whole revelation.  Unless what remains deliberately concealed is known the revelation is not fully a revelation.  This aspect of the revelation that is concealed is however known to Yochanan and it is symbolically made to be a part of him.  He has eaten it.  He, or whom he represents, the sealed servants of God, have been made the key to the whole revelation being made known.

Yochanan is told to take a measuring rod and measure the Temple (of the Revelation).  The secret is that he is himself, (as having been made to symbolically contain the key to the revelation), the measure by which the Temple is measured.  He is, therefore, able to count those who worship in the Temple, for he represents them in the vision of the Revelation; they are like him and he is able to recognize and count them.  But he does not measure the outer court nor count the Gentiles, as we see next.

Revelation 11:2

but do not measure the court outside the temple; leave that out, for it is given over to the nations, and they will trample the holy city for forty-two months. 

the court outside the Temple... In the Temple in heaven, this spiritual realm of the Gentiles was not entirely given over previous to this time. Until this point in the Revelation some of the radiance of the Good News of Israel and Her Mashiach radiated into the court of the nations.  But now, for forty-two months the area of that court will be completely controlled by the angels of the nations, and therefore, correspondingly on earth unregenerate Gentile forces.

To be clear, we are talking about the outer court of the Temple in heaven. What does this mean? The Temple in heaven is the Place of the Revelation of Yehoshua. Whereas previously the revelation of the Mashiach of Israel was available even to sincere onlookers from the nations, at the time of the forty-two months, during that time, there will be no revelation directly to those who stand at a distance.

The replacement theology that has always distorted the Good News of Israel and Her Mashiach, and has always partially confused the faith of the Gentiles, will at that time be allowed to completely blind them.  Only those who have been allowed to enter into the Temple and worship with Israel in the Temple will be able to receive the complete revelation of the Mashiach of Israel which will be made known at that time. After the forty two months this will change, as we will see.

Revelation 11:3

And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days clothed in sackcloth.”

I will grant authority... In this way the Two Witnesses are introduced.  1,260 days are 42 months of precisely 30 days each. Who are the Two Witnesses?  Those who have received prophetic understanding from the Word of God should already know.  The angel said to the prophet, Zechariah, "Do you not (already) know who these Two Olive Trees are?"

We have seen, and will yet see, that these Two Witnesses have two precursors in the visions of the Revelation, one being Yochanan himself, the other being the 144,000 of the twelve tribes of Israel and all are sealed with the seal of God.  We have also seen, and will yet see, that these witnesses of God together are those upon whom the full disclosure of all mysteries concealed in the Revelation are made dependent, in accordance with the oath of the angel recorded in chapter 10, verse 7.

Revelation 11:4

These are the two olive trees and the two lamp stands that stand before the Lord of the earth. 

These are... Here we are told explicitly in prophetic terms who these Two Witnesses are. There have already been constant allusions and references in the Revelation to the Scriptures.  This reference to the two olive trees and the two lamp stands, quoting the book of Zechariah exactly, brings all that has already been revealed in the Scriptures in the past about Mashiach directly into the development of the final Revelation.  It is meant to require us to go back to all prophecy that came before. We will not be able to go forward in receiving more revelation until we do this.

Moshe and Aaron stood before Pharaoh from the beginning when God redeemed Israel out of Egypt. They stood as prophet and priest in the ongoing work of the redemption of Israel, bringing Israel into the Land of Testimony and making Israel to be a worthy corporate witness.  When Israel was made to be two houses, one coming from Judah's leadership and one coming from Joseph's leadership, we were made to see that the offices that Moshe and Aaron filled coming up out of Egypt were offices established even before them, at the time of Israel going down into Egypt, in the personal testimonies of Joseph and Judah.  We will learn that the testimonies of Joseph and Judah that brought Israel down into Egypt were testimonies laying the foundation of the separate offices of priest and prophet.

When Judah and Joseph stood face to face in Egypt, wrestling together with truth and righteousness, they were just two men, two witnesses, but standing with them and being represented by them were the twelve tribes of Israel, the whole house of Jacob.  And so it will be when The Two Witnesses stand to testify in Jerusalem.  The whole house of Israel will be wrestling with their testimony and in the end will come to stand with them.

At the end of his life, we are told, "Jacob called his sons together and told them, 'Assemble yourselves around me so I can tell you all what is going to happen to you in the last days.'"

Concerning Judah he says, "Judah is a lion cub. My son, you have gone up from the prey. Crouching like a lion, he lies down, Like a lioness, who would dare rouse him? The sceptre will never depart from Judah, nor a ruler's staff from between his feet, until the One comes, who owns them both, and to him will belong the allegiance of nations. Binding his donkey to the vine and his mare's foal to its thick tendrils, he will wash his garments in wine and his robe in the juice of grapes.  His eyes are darker than wine and his teeth whiter than milk."

Without searching here into all the specifics of Jacob's blessing of his son, Judah, and their relevance to the last days, we can say that the essence of the blessing is that Judah would be, and his rulership in Israel would be, the vessel of prophecy for the coming of the Mashiach.  Though not all prophets would come from Judah, the foundation for the office of prophecy in Israel would be established in Judah.

Concerning Joseph he says, "Joseph is descended from a fruitful vine, a fruitful vine planted near springs of water. His branches climb over walls. Even though enemies attacked him, shooting at him and pursuing him viciously, nevertheless his bow remained steady and his arms kept in shape by the strength of Jacob's Mighty One, in the name of the Shepherd, Israel's Rock, by your father's God, who will continually help you, by the Almighty, who will keep on blessing you with blessings from heaven above, with blessings from the deepest ocean, with blessing from the breast and womb. Your father's blessings will prove to be stronger than blessings from the eternal mountains or bounties from the everlasting hills. May they come to rest on Joseph's head, May they be set upon the brow of the one who was separated from his own brothers."

Again, without searching here into all the specifics of Jacob's blessing of his son, Joseph, and their relevance to the last days, we can say that the essence of the blessing is that the rejection and sufferings of Joseph would, through the blessings of the covenant of his fathers, be made a sanctified sacrifice.  Though the priests in Israel would not come specifically from Joseph, the foundation of the office of priesthood in Israel was laid by Jacob's blessing of Joseph's sacrifice.

There are messianic aspects, then, in both Judah and Joseph's blessings.  Jacob, their father, saw that both of these two sons acted in the spirit of the Mashiach in their own generation and that there actions foretold the Two Witnesses that would come in the Revelation of Mashiach in the last days.

Joseph represented the house of Rachel.  He was separated from his brothers and in this separation he witnessed to the aspect of the death of Mashiach as God's Tzaddik (Righteous One).  He testified that God's righteous suffering servant, was like a sacrificial lamb who willingly suffered being cut off from his people for the sake of the corporate salvation of his people.  Joseph's willing acceptance of this role, expressed by all that he said and did, but especially by his absolving his brothers, in the name of God, of the sin committed toward him, was the action of a priest.

Judah  represented the house of Leah. He was not separated from his brothers but he also, like Joseph, was willing to lay his own life down as a substitute for the life of his brother, Benjamin, who was the visible remnant of the house of Rachel, the source of the life that sustained his father Israel's soul.  As a result he was found worthy to be like a lion, like Mashiach in leading all Israel to repentance and to a newness of life, testifying prophetically to Mashiach's resurrection from the dead and rulership in Israel and over the nations.

Revelation 11:5

And if anyone would harm them fire pours from their mouth and consumes their foes. If anyone would harm them this is how he is doomed to be killed. 

And if anyone would harm them...  As all power and authority is given to the Lamb, so it is given through him to the witnesses of the Lamb....  At face value the authority here seems to be in conflict with the ordered manner of the "plagues," (see next verse). But the reference is simply to how Moshe and Aaron commanded that each plague take place.  Moshe had a certain discretion when personally threatened; but this discretion was there in that the need for his defense had been anticipated in the ordering of the plagues before hand.  So to with the Two Witnesses.  This also establishes that when the Two Witnesses are killed it is not that they are overcome. They are laying down their lives as did their Master.

Revelation 11:6

They have the power to shut the sky, that no rain may fall during the days of their prophesying, and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague, as often as they desire. 

They have the power... Showing that they come in the spirit and power of Elijah.  And that they stand in the office of Moses. The specifics, showing that they are in control of all present trumpet judgments and bowl/vial judgments  to come.  While the level of the authority of the judgments are ordered by one trumpet sounding after the other, the Two Witnesses possess all these levels of authority and exercise them in accordance with their testimony.  (While the vision of the Two Witnesses comes before the vision of the judgments of the bowls, the fulfillment of their vision comes at the time of the bowls).

Revelation 11:7

And when they have finished their testimony the beast that rises from the bottomless pit will make war on them and conquer them and kill them, 

will...kill them...  This is actually in their control and is actually the completion of their testimony, and does not interfere with it or cut their testimony short.  What is the testimony of The Two Witnesses? How does it parallel that of Moshe and Aaron in Egypt when the witness of Moshe and Aaron did not end with Pharaoh being able to kill them?

The testimony of the Two Witnesses is the testimony of Truth, which is the seal of God, concerning the death and resurrection of Yehoshua, God's Anointed One, for the redemption of Israel.  The redemption of Israel unlocks the mystery of Israel, which is the mystery of God in this world.  So it was to be in God's redeeming Israel out of Egypt and bringing them up to receive His Torah and leading them into the Land of Promise.  But the testimony was marred by Israel's sin and unbelief. But where the sin was very great, the grace of God was much greater!

Whereas Israel sinned with the golden calf and through the unbelief of the 10 spies, God, in abundant grace, sent his prophets, from Moshe to Yehoshua to lead Israel to repentance and to rectify her sin. And whereas, even so, Israel rejected her Anointed One, and allowed the nations to make a great deal out of this rejection, like Joseph, he accepted his suffering on behalf of the salvation of the tribes of Israel and for the sake of his fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  He made atonement through his blood for Israel, and the nation that would have been broken forever through sin he kept whole. Accordingly, in him the redemption of Israel in heavenly places is accomplished and will be accomplished on the earth.  So shall he be fully revealed.  So shall the mystery of God be made known, first to his sealed servants, then to all the world.  For the knowledge of Hashem shall fill the earth.

The Holy Scriptures make it clear that God's purpose in bringing Israel out of Egypt was to make Himself known and His name known.  For to know Him in truth is eternal life.  Therefore, when the Scriptures say more than 85 times, "you will know that I am the LORD," *1 we are to understand this in the sense of His message to the sinful world in and through Moshe, "I am who I am, (not who you want me to be)!" (see Exodus 3:14).

Exodus 6:7

I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the LORD your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. 

Exodus 7:5

The Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring out the people of Israel from among them.”

Exodus 8:22

But on that day I will set apart the land of Goshen, where my people dwell, so that no swarms of flies shall be there, that you may know that I am the LORD in the midst of the earth.

Since the redemption of Israel was not fully completed at the first, Ezekiel takes up and uses some form of the expression, "then you will know that I am the LORD" over 70 times, applying it both to Israel and to the nations.  In the end, Ezekiel associates the complete redemption of Israel with the resurrection of the dead, just as the apostle Paul does in Romans 11.

Then the nations that are left all around you shall know that I am the Lord; I have rebuilt the ruined places and replanted that which was desolate. I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it.  Ezekiel 36:36 

Like the flock for sacrifices, like the flock at Jerusalem during her appointed feasts, so shall the waste cities be filled with flocks of people. Then they will know that I am the Lord.” Ezekiel 36:38 

And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord.”  Ezekiel 37:6 

And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people.  Ezekiel 37:13 

And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the Lord.”  Ezekiel 37:14 

Then the nations will know that I am the Lord who sanctifies Israel, when my sanctuary is in their midst forevermore.”  Ezekiel 37:28

So I will show my greatness and my holiness and make myself known in the eyes of many nations. Then they will know that I am the Lord.  Ezekiel 38:23  

I will send fire on Magog and on those who dwell securely in the coastlands, and they shall know that I am the Lord.  Ezekiel 39:6 

“And my holy name I will make known in the midst of my people Israel, and I will not let my holy name be profaned anymore. And the nations shall know that I am the Lord, the Holy One in Israel.  Ezekiel 39:7 

The house of Israel shall know that I am the Lord their God, from that day forward.  Ezekiel 39:22 

Then they shall know that I am the Lord their God, because I sent them into exile among the nations and then assembled them into their own land. I will leave none of them remaining among the nations anymore.  Ezekiel 39:28 

The prophet Joel sums up all that has been said:

Multitudes, multitudes, in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining. The Lord roars from Zion, and utters his voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth quake. But the Lord is a refuge to his people, a stronghold to the people of Israel. “So you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who dwells in Zion, my holy mountain. And Jerusalem shall be holy, and strangers shall never again pass through it. Joel 3:14-17 

It is for this reason that the first of the Ten Commandments given to Israel is:

“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. Exodus 20:2 

This commandment is understood in Rabbinic Judaism as the commandment to Israel to believe in God.  It should not be understood as a commandment simply not to be an atheist, but explicitly the commandment to believe in God as He revealed Himself in redeeming Israel from Egypt.*2

When we understand that the revelation is the revelation of the final and complete redemption of Israel on earth as it is in heaven, we can then understand that this is the essence of the testimony of the Two Witnesses, whose testimony brings about the completion of preparation for final stage of this redemption of Israel on earth as it is accomplished in heaven through the blood of the Lamb.

The complete redemption of Israel from the house of slavery is not only its redemption from the nations of sin and rebellion against God but from sin itself.  For anyone who sins is a slave of sin.  By revealing Himself to the fallen world as the One who Redeems Israel and becomes the God of Israel, the true God silences all false gods and all idolatrous imaginations about God of the sinful mind.  For He declares that He will redeem Adam, He will be merciful and save Humanity, but only through judgment, only in the way He chooses.  And then He does what He says.  Thus it is that the empire of the civilization of the nations will be brought to nothing and God will rule from Zion, and the world will be saved.  This is the substance of the testimony of the Two witnesses.

The house of Joseph's testimony was made to be the testimony of the gentiles who believe, just as Joseph was made to take on the role of an Egyptian but proved faithful to the name of the God of Israel.  In heavenly places the tribes attached to the house of Joseph are known at the time they are sealed with the seal of God.  But on earth Joseph and the Egyptians remain gentiles together until the final moment of salvation when Joseph is revealed.  As Messianic gentiles the testimony of God's servants on earth must free itself from all replacement theology and turn the gentile experience of salvation and the grace of God into a testimony to Israel's corporate salvation in heavenly places.

The house of Judah's testimony was from the beginning the testimony of God's justice and mercy. God brought Jacob to the point of death in fear of the loss of both Joseph and Benjamin and it is this that brought Judah and his brothers to repentance and to the experience of the mercy of God.  Were Jacob to have died in sorrow the hope of the resurrection would have died with him.  At the time of King David and King Solomon the promise of the Mashiach was also threatened with extinction.

David and Solomon together were not able to rule over the nations so as to bring the perfect prophetic picture of the Messianic fulfillment of salvation and blessing to all the families of the earth, as it was promised to Abraham,  Therefore the tabernacle of the house of David fell. By the prophet Ahijah, the Levite prophet of Shiloh, God let it be known that He would take the rulership that it had over Israel away from the house of David.  Just as when Jacob's life was threatened when he felt the life of Benjamin was threatened, now the life of his heritage was again threatened because the promise of the Mashiach, the son of David, was threatened. It was to preserve mercy and to preserve that promise to David, and to preserve His own name in Jerusalem that God then told the house of David that He would preserve one tribe under its rule.  This was the tribe of Judah and is the tribe of Judah and will be the tribe of Judah bringing the testimony of God's mercy to Israel and to Jerusalem through the Two Witnesses into the streets of Jerusalem in the last moments of the last days.

Revelation 11:8

and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city that symbolically is called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified. 

where their Lord was crucified...  It is called Egypt because Israel's heart never came fully out of Egypt, but why Sodom?  Because Israel is captive, Jerusalem is captive within in the old adamic nature, as well as without in the civilization of the nations.  But at the time of the Two Witnesses Jerusalem is about to be redeemed.

where their Lord... the Lord of this city... It is not the city who kills the Two Witnesses, it is the Beast from the pit.  This is the final and true testimony concerning Jerusalem.  It has been published from the beginning in The Book of The Revelation of Yehoshua HaMashiach, and the Two Witnesses will make it to be heard and known in all nations.  This leads directly to verse 13.

Revelation 11:9

For three and a half days some from the peoples and tribes and languages and nations will gaze at their dead bodies and refuse to let them be placed in a tomb, 

For three and a half days... Yochanan was told he had yet to prophesy before these, and here he is shown to be one prophetically with the Two Witnesses.  The Greek seems to indicate that it is representatives of the nations which forbid the burial.  The world thinks it has won but in killing the two has lost the last battle.  Theirs is the testimony that conceives and gives birth to the testimony of Jerusalem that says, "Blessed is he who comes in the name of Hashem", (see notes below).  Since they have made this new birth of Jerusalem come about with their testimony of martyrdom, the gates of the heavens will open and there will be no more delay.  As a result also Jerusalem will be divided between wheat and chaff.

Revelation 11:10

and those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and make merry and exchange presents, because these two prophets had been a torment to those who dwell on the earth. 

had been a torment ... that is to say, it was Hashem, the True God, who was the torment to them.... So by this the world will be made to finally show its true colors.  For someone who finds to one who is true and good to be a torment, what is their nature?  

Left and Right will rejoice together against God and His witnesses and will not know that they celebrate their own end. In order to defend themselves against the One who sits upon the throne and against the Lamb and against his witnesses, they will turn to a messiah of darkness and compromise with evil and to a union of all nations in an alliance of defense with a design to survive the Apocalypse, to save the Human Race as they know it.

Revelation 11:11

But after the three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood up on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them. 

a breath of life from God ... the great fear that falls on all nations is the turning and twisting of the spine of Adam.  The corporate spine of Adam twists and turns because the breathe that God breathed into Adam is departing. And it is not returning. Corporate Adam is in its death throes. Is there any hope of the breath from God being given again?  The world of Adam cannot help but hope, even though it is in rebellion against God.  Indeed, the breath from God is given again, but not for humanity through the nature of the first Adam.  For it is given to another.  Now, through the Two Witnesses in Jerusalem that testimony is given.  The whole world will see it and hear it.  They will know, either with the greatest dread and hatred, that the God of Israel is the One True God and Yehoshua is His Messiah, or else, together with Jerusalem, their heart will be broken and they will repent and receive the true spirit of hope.

Revelation 11:12

Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them “Come up here!” And they went up to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies watched them. 

Come up here!  Earlier we read that Yochanan also heard the loud voice saying, "Come up here!"  With Yehoshua it was only his talmudim who watched him ascend.  But here it will be the enemies, throughout all the world, who watch.  Their resurrection from the dead is the final testimony that in Yehoshua, Mashiach of Israel, when He raised  him from the dead, God made all things new.

Revelation 11:13

And at that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.

the earthquake... This earthquake* is the subterranean equivalent to the heavenly Seven Thunders.  The city is the city of Jerusalem where the Two Witnesses have prophesied for 3 1/2 days. The terror is the true saving fear of Hashem.  It is in this holy fear that Jerusalem finally prepares to receive him.  This, Jerusalem's repentance for not having received her King Mashiach when first he came to her riding upon a donkey, is here most quietly revealed.  But, for all its quietness, we will see that this is the greatest verse, together with that verse showing Mashiach's second coming, in the whole of the revelation!

gave glory to the God of heaven... Those who have ears to hear and eyes to see what the Spirit says to the gathering together of Yehoshua's people will hear and see and understand that Jerusalem's change of heart toward Yehoshua and his witnesses, that here takes place, first in Judah and Jerusalem, then in all Israel, is the culmination of redemption in the heart of Israel. 

It is because of this repentance of Jerusalem wherein she receives the testimony of the Two Witnesses to Yehoshua HaMashiach that Satan is cast down and knows that his time is short, as recorded in Revelation 12:13.  For it is in this that she fulfills the Scriptures, saying, "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD," Psalms 118:25 and Matthew 23:39. [See notes on Revelation 1:1.]

This is the change which allows the final woe of judgment to come upon the nations with the blowing of the seventh trumpet.  While on the earth the change of heart in Jerusalem toward Yehoshua is not immediately apparent, it is immediately known in all the Temple of God in the heavens, so that it is the very first declaration that is made upon the blowing of the seventh trumpet, as we will see!

Revelation 11:14

The second woe has passed; behold, the third woe is soon to come.

second woe has passed... Therefore the third woe comes no longer to Jerusalem but primarily to the nations alone.  This verse marks the whole of chapters 10 and 11a as one unit.  From here we go on to the blowing of the seventh trumpet in the second half of the chapter.

In Chapter 18 the narrative will begin to return to the revelation of the relationship between Yehoshua and Yerushalayim, (Jerusalem)

After this chapter we will read in the intermediary chapters about the third woe and the forms of judgment upon the nations that come from it.  We will receive the revelation in those chapters of how the final form of Israel's redemption comes from this for the sake of the salvation of the world. Chapter 14 especially will reveal to us how the final form of redemption comes from the final judgment upon the nations, Mystery Babylon and the beast.

Revelation 11:15-19 >

Footnotes:      ___________________________________

*1 "And you will know that I am the LORD."

See the complete list.

*2   Rabbinic Judaism...  Go to a post on the subject: Torah Faith Is Supernatural Faith, on the blog, Notes On The One Eternal Covenant.

*3 This earthquake

As thunder symbolizes judgments of warning or else mitigated judgment in the Revelation, so earthquakes symbolically represent judgment that is actually being enacted in the earth.

Rev 6:12  Then I saw the lamb open the sixth seal. There was a powerful earthquake. The sun turned as black as sackcloth made of hair, and the full moon turned as red as blood. [The sixth seal is itself the authority to bring immediate final judgment upon the nations.  Therefore all its accompanying symbols are the symbols of the judgments of wrath, including the earthquake.  All these signs take place in the vision in heaven, including a vision of an earthquake. Because Yochanan in the Temple in heaven sees a vision of an earthquake, he is to know that judgment is then being enacted in the earth.]

Rev 8:5  The angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and threw it on the earth. Then there were peals of thunder, noises, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake. [For the sake of the redemption of corporate Israel, as represented by its martyrs sealed with the seal of God, the warnings of thunder are shown to proceed through lightning to an earthquake to indicate the certainty that those judgments will come, and are in the process of coming even now in the earth, which will lead to Israel's final redemption.  Again, as in 6:12, this is a vision of an earthquake, here included with the vision of thunder, noises and flashes of lightning, which Yochanan sees in heaven.]

Rev 11:13  At that moment a powerful earthquake struck. One-tenth of the city collapsed, 7,000 people were killed by the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven. [This is the first of two actual prophetic earthquakes revealed in the Revelation that take place upon the earth.  The second is recorded in chapter 16:18.  Judgment begins first at the house of God. Though many earthquakes happen in history and all echo the judgments of God upon Adam and upon the nations, for the chastisement of Israel, for the sake of the salvation of the world, these two alone, happening in real time, are central to and essential to the Revelation of Yehoshua HaMashiach.]

Rev 11:19  Then the Temple of God in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen inside his Temple. There were flashes of lightning, noises, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail. [The series is as explained above. The final redemption will begin with the decisive judgment from Egypt of heavy hail.]

Rev 16:18  There were flashes of lightning, noises, peals of thunder, and a powerful earthquake. There has never been such a powerful earthquake since people have been on the earth. [The full force of the judgments are now working in the world.]