Chapter 11 (Wednesday of the Second Week of Advent)

Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff, and I was told, ‘Come and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there, but do not measure the court outside the temple; leave that out, for it is given over to the nations, and they will trample over the holy city for forty-two months. And I will grant my two witnesses authority to prophesy for one thousand two hundred and sixty days, wearing sackcloth.’ 

These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. And if anyone wants to harm them, fire pours from their mouth and consumes their foes; anyone who wants to harm them must be killed in this manner. They have authority to shut the sky, so that no rain may fall during the days of their prophesying, and they have authority over the waters to turn them into blood, and to strike the earth with every kind of plague, as often as they desire. 

When they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the bottomless pit will make war on them and conquer them and kill them, and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city that is prophetically called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified. For three and a half days members of the peoples and tribes and languages and nations will gaze at their dead bodies and refuse to let them be placed in a tomb; and the inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them and celebrate and exchange presents, because these two prophets had been a torment to the inhabitants of the earth. 

But after the three and a half days, the breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and those who saw them were terrified. Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, ‘Come up here!’ And they went up to heaven in a cloud while their enemies watched them. At that moment 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 second woe has passed. The third woe is coming very soon. 

Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying,
‘The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord
   and of his Messiah,
and he will reign for ever and ever.’ 

Then the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshipped God, singing,
‘We give you thanks, Lord God Almighty,
   who are and who were,
for you have taken your great power
   and begun to reign.
The nations raged,
   but your wrath has come,
   and the time for judging the dead,
for rewarding your servants, the prophets
   and saints and all who fear your name,
   both small and great,
and for destroying those who destroy the earth.’ 

Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple; and there were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail. 

Commentary

The theme of the Lamb’s victory dominates everything. We should hesitate, therefore, to describe the sequence of images as such, however overwhelming it is, as “dramatic”; at most, the word should be reserved for the confrontation of the utterly inimical powers between which men find themselves situated and to which they can succumb (11:7; 13:7). The drama only attains its full shape if we relate the sequence of images to the concrete communities addressed in the “letters” and reflect on their situation as we find it in the images, magnified and projected onto an eschatological canvas—in short, if we accept the Book of Revelation as an integral part of the New Testament. Then the series of “stills” it gives us will acquire the movement they ultimately signify; then New Testament existence, biblical existence, will reveal its paramount dramatic quality. But—it may be objected—does not the New Testament, in its full form, also testify to the Lamb’s unqualified triumph? In John, surely, the Lamb is the beginning and end of all things? And in Paul too, does not the Lamb make all his enemies fall down at his feet? In fact, can we not find all the Book of Revelation’s fundamental assertions in the New Testament? This is true, of course. Even the prophetic glimpses into the future are analogous to those of the Book of Revelation, as we have mentioned. With its cross-sections through salvation history in heaven and earth, the Book of Revelation is only writing in larger characters things that were previously to be found in a more scattered form “between the lines”. In sum, the dramatic quality of revelation does not lie in any uncertainty as to the outcome, for God’s victory—which does not automatically include the certainty of salvation on the part of any individual—is already achieved. What is dramatic in revelation is to be found in its specific uniqueness: namely, that God is at the same time superior to history and involved in it. This reaches its high point in the specifically theological law of proportionate polarization: the more God intervenes, the more he elicits opposition to him.

Musical Selection

Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord.” Then the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped. Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple. There were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail. And I saw what looked like a sea of glass glowing with fire and, standing beside the sea, those who had been victorious over the beast and its image and over the number of its name. They held harps given them by God and sang the song of God’s servant Moses and of the Lamb: “Great and marvelous are your deeds, Lord God Almighty. Just and true are your ways, King of the nations. Who will not fear you, Lord, and bring glory to your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship before you, for your righteous acts have been revealed.”

Collect

You command us, God of power,

to prepare the way for Christ the Lord.
Let our weakness never discourage us,
as we long for the comfort of his healing presence.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God for ever and ever. Amen.