Wednesday Bible Study: The sixth trumpet prelude

 

Rev 9:12  The first woe has passed; behold, two woes are still to come. 

Rev 9:13  Then the sixth angel blew his trumpet, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar before God, 

.....

Rev 11:14  The second woe has passed; behold, the third woe is soon to come. 

Exactly two chapters cover this trumpet blast, and for the same reason- after what happens, John is given a look at the why of it.  I'm going to give you the why of it first.

Chapter ten introduces John to a new character...

Rev 10:1  Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven, wrapped in a cloud, with a rainbow over his head, and his face was like the sun, and his legs like pillars of fire. 

Rev 10:2  He had a little scroll open in his hand. And he set his right foot on the sea, and his left foot on the land, 

Rev 10:3  and called out with a loud voice, like a lion roaring...

Note that John is, in his vision, back on earth.  He has to be, because this angel, having descended, is going to give him instructions.  Notable, why?  Because there are certain things that are about to happen that he's going to be involved in, and they happen on earth.  Now right here, I'm going to be honest with you- I have a lot of questions, and I will be giving a lot of "I don't know"s.  First thing I don't know involves what happens next:

...When he called out, the seven thunders sounded. 

Rev 10:4  And when the seven thunders had sounded, I was about to write, but I heard a voice from heaven saying, "Seal up what the seven thunders have said, and do not write it down." 

Why not?  There are things to be known by only those to whom it happens, and to be revealed only then.  Then why does John hear it?  He was at that time- far in his physical future.  And actually, my asking this question brought me to the key to the whole thing.  Look here in the end of Daniel's prophesies...

Dan 12:4  But you, Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book, until the time of the end. Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase." 

John McArthur helped me out here, too.  He believes that in these late days, with the world seemingly falling apart, the surviving faithful Jews will be 'running to and fro', wondering why God would allow such things.  They will come to the Book of Daniel- and quite possibly Revelation- and their knowledge will increase, as they see their world in Daniel's prophecy.  Like Chuck Swindoll speculated about that number 666- it's something that is on a need to know basis.  And its being there will help THEIR faith when the time comes.

So what is the angel's message to the world he stands astride?  Endgame...

Rev 10:5  And the angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand to heaven 

Rev 10:6  and swore by him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and what is in it, the earth and what is in it, and the sea and what is in it, that there would be no more delay, 

Rev 10:7  but that in the days of the trumpet call to be sounded by the seventh angel, the mystery of God would be fulfilled, just as he announced to his servants the prophets. 

Mercy was about to be extinguished.  Then the angel turns to John, and the little scroll open- the same scroll, it would seem, that the Lamb opened earlier in our journey- is given, with the instruction to eat it.  This is NOT the first time it happens- in Ezekiel 3, the prophet is commissioned this same way.  Just as Ezekiel was commissioned, now John is:

Rev 10:11  And I was told, "You must again prophesy about many peoples and nations and languages and kings." 

The difference between the two:  Ezekiel, who ate the promise of Israel's restoration, only mentions the book being sweet to his tongue.  But John is about to write about judgment- thus his scroll is sweet to the tongue, but bitter in his stomach.

The stage set, we go to chapter eleven; and like with the sixth seal, this story seems to fit BEFORE the trumpet blows.  Here John is told to "measure the Temple", another thing common to prophets, and signifying- usually- to examine the people associated WITH the Temple, in way of judgment.  Here is where we enter two of the more controversial characters in our tale...

Rev 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. 

Rev 11:3  And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth." 

Rev 11:4  These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. 

Most people believe they are Moses and Elijah, representing the Law and the Prophets.  Again, Swindoll points out they don't have to BE those two, any more than John the Baptist HAD to be Elijah.  (Here, I am referring to the prophecy at the very end of the Old Testament:

Mal 4:5  "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. 

Mal 4:6  And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction." 

About which Jesus said:

Mat 11:12  From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force. 

Mat 11:13  For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John, 

Mat 11:14  and if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come. 

John the Baptist came "in the spirit and power of Elijah", says Luke, and it may be that these men endowed with the power and spirit of Moses and Elijah; or perhaps it might not be Moses at all, but Enoch- the only other character besides Elijah to not die a physical death.  Or, as Swindoll says, it might be two totally new beings.  I have an educated guess, and I get it from Zechariah:

Zec 4:1  And the angel who talked with me came again and woke me, like a man who is awakened out of his sleep. 

Zec 4:2  And he said to me, "What do you see?" I said, "I see, and behold, a lampstand all of gold, with a bowl on the top of it, and seven lamps on it, with seven lips on each of the lamps that are on the top of it. 

Zec 4:3  And there are two olive trees by it, one on the right of the bowl and the other on its left." 

....

Zec 4:11  Then I said to him, "What are these two olive trees on the right and the left of the lampstand?" 

Zec 4:12  And a second time I answered and said to him, "What are these two branches of the olive trees, which are beside the two golden pipes from which the golden oil is poured out?" 

Zec 4:13  He said to me, "Do you not know what these are?" I said, "No, my lord." 

Zec 4:14  Then he said, "These are the two anointed ones who stand by the Lord of the whole earth." 

Sound familiar?  So, who do we know who stood by (beside) the Lord of the Whole earth?

Mar 9:2  And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, 

Mar 9:3  and his clothes became radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them. 

Mar 9:4  And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus. 

So my educated guess is Moses and Elijah- in some manner.)  But the thing is, here they come, with every supernatural gift displayed by these two, to preach judgment:

Rev 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. 

Rev 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. 

So for the first three and a half years of the 7-year judgment, these two will stand in the Temple area, preaching judgment.  But midpoint, something else happens- the AntiChrist commits the Abomination of Desolation, declaring himself to be god.  And it wouldn't do to have these two preaching against him in "his own" Temple court...

Rev 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, 

Rev 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. 

And it will be a new "Christmas" for this fallen world, with people actually giving each other presents (V10);  but then after three days, they rise up and ascend into heaven.  A savage earthquake will mark their passing, but it makes no difference to those who believe that the AntiChrist IS god.  This is the final abomination that God allows... and now the sixth trumpet blows, and and the surviving Jews won't be the only ones wondering why....