Temple at the Tribulation time!
Revelation 11:1-2
Temple in Tribulation Time!
Revelation 11:1-2, Then I was given a reed like a measuring rod. And the angel stood, saying, “Rise and measure the temple of God, the altar, and those who worship there. 2 But leave out the court which is outside the temple, and do not measure it, for it has been given to the Gentiles. And they will tread the holy city underfoot for forty-two months. As we come to Revelation 11, the midway point in this glorious book. Learning so much about what is planned for the future events surrounding the coming of Christ.
This is probably the most difficult chapter yet in our study of the book of Revelation, and that primarily relates to the first few verses. This wonderful book of the revelation is really designed to reveal Jesus Christ.
He is the main character, the central theme.
The book focuses on His second coming, His return to earth in
glory, with a twofold purpose
➢ to judge the wicked, and ➢ to reward the righteous. The book talks about the events leading up to His return and the events following His return. The tribulation event leads up to it, the millennial kingdom follows it.
The many features of His divine intervention, His takeover, His return, the establishment of His kingdom, began to unfold for us in chapter 6. The first three chapters dealt with looks at the church in Asia Minor, with tremendous implications and ramifications for the church all throughout history.
Chapters 4 and 5 gave us a vision of heaven as things were getting ready for the breaking of judgment on the earth. Chapter 6, we began to see the unfolding of judgment as the Lord prepared to come and take the earth and the universe that is rightfully His.
Now the whole flow of events that began in chapter 6 are related to a little scroll that was in the hand of God.
That little scroll were all these events that we are now involved in understanding as these tremendous judgments take place prior to the coming of Christ. The little scroll was sealed seven times that was to keep its contents hidden and safe until the proper moment.
The rightful heir came along, the only one who had the right to break the seals. He broke them one at a time. As those seven seals are broken, each time one is broken it reveals more events. We have gone through the first six seals.
We are now in the seventh seal. Each of those seals, when it was opened depicted a coming element of future judgment. Now we are into the seventh seal. In the seventh seal are listed seven trumpet judgments. We have already gone through the first six of those trumpet judgments.
So far, we have gone through seven seals and six trumpets. We are about to hear the blowing of the seventh trumpet.
When the seventh trumpet is blown there will be seven bowl judgments, the pouring out of inundation of wrath that is the final flurry of wrath, rapid-fire wrath at the very end. Each of these series of seven seals, seven trumpets and seven bowls are so fearsome, frightening, and devastating.
Before the seventh seal, seventh trumpet, and seventh bowl, the Holy Spirit allows us to stop and catch our breath.
- Six seals, and then an interlude.
- Six trumpets, and then an interlude.
- Six bowls, and then an interlude.
The Holy Spirit has chosen to give us an interlude to comfort and to encourage the people who will be living through these events. As they see them unfold and things get worse and worse, worse than ever in all human history.
They need a little window of opportunity to look and to understand and find out that God is still on the throne. The righteous are still going to be protected and blessed. The kingdom is still going to come. We are in an interlude between the sixth and the seventh trumpet from Revelation 10:1-11:14.
When the seventh trumpet blasts at the end of chapter 11, out of that seventh trumpet are going to come the seven bowl judgments. But before that, this interlude to comfort and encourage God’s saints now, and particularly those who will be alive at that time.
They will be wondering if everything is going according to the plan of God, or if everything is coming apart as directed by Satan, Antichrist and these fearsome judgments. By the time people get to this point in the sixth trumpet, they have experienced amazing things: false peace, wars, famine, earthquakes, pestilence, death, vengeance, the collapse of the universe.
The seventh seal then is opened and seven trumpet judgments come, including
- the destruction of one-third of the earth,
- one-third of the seas and the creatures in them,
- one-third of the ships,
- one-third of the fresh water,
- one-third of the sun and the moon,
- the release of demons that have been bound in the pit for centuries to torment men.
- they are followed by an army of two hundred million more hellish fiends come and they kill one-third of all mankind with fire and brimstone and smoke.
As the seventh trumpet blows, the seven bowls are instantly poured out. They are big, wide saucer-type bowls, and they just dump judgment rapidly. In this brief interlude we find out that God is still in control, His plan is still in place, and He will still redeem the righteous.
Revelation 11:15, the seventh angel sounds. In this interlude, we saw an unusual angel doing an unusual act and then instruct John not to write what he had heard, in the voice of thunders. Then he was told to take the little scroll, emblematic of the title deed to the earth and the universe, to eat it. It was both sweet and bitter.
We find that John is exposed to a revelation from God, and the revelation is to remind him that God is still in charge. God sends a mighty angel to stand on the sea and stand on the land. He represents the sovereignty of God no matter what may be happening.
Two hundred million demons may be overrunning the earth, and there may be those demons that have been let out of the pit going everywhere and tormenting men short of death.
The unbelievable collapse of the sky, the destruction of seas, and land, and fresh water may be taking place, but God is still sovereign and in control. The final judgment is about to come, and the Lord will establish His kingdom.
When John is told to eat this little book, it has some very interesting implications. The book represents all these judgments because they are written in it. As John looks at them, they are both bitter and sweet. In the vision as John takes the little book and eats it.
When he takes it into his mouth, it is sweet and as it comes into his stomach, it becomes very bitter.
Why? It is sweet for Christ, God, holy angels, and for believers. It is very bitter for the unrighteous and the ungodly who will receive their final judgment in hell. Revelation 10 is a reminder that no matter how many demons or demonic power is released, and they create devastation across the globe, God is still in charge. Christ is still coming.
The end is very near.
Revelation 10:11, And he said to me, “You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, tongues, and kings.” John was told that he must prophesy again concerning many peoples and nations and tongues and kings. The end is near, but there is more to write. John must be ready to write about it. Though the end is near we are only in chapter 10 when he has given this instruction. There are still many chapters of revelation that John will receive and must write.
The Worthy One, the Lamb is coming to redeem His own and condemn those who refused Him. There is much more yet to say about all of that. But John and his pen are not the only witness. We have already met a 144,000 Jews, who have gone around to evangelize the world.
We know that the fruit of their efforts has been an innumerable number of Gentiles in chapter 7 that can’t even be counted. A massive group of people from every tongue and tribe and people and nation who name the name of Jesus Christ.
There are many then who have come to Christ, Jew and Gentile, and they will all be speaking about Christ. Many of them will be martyred. Some of them God will spare to go into His kingdom.
In the addition to the 144,000 and the many Gentiles who will come to Christ and proclaim His name, there will also be a supernatural act of this angel flying through heaven preaching the everlasting gospel. In the very last days, as all these judgments unfold in the great tribulation, there will be two more unique evangelists. They are going to be preaching in the end time.
We meet them here in Revelation 11. John is instructed here that there are going to be some witnesses coming in the end time. This is indicative of the grace of God. They come warning men of the imminent impending blowing of the seventh trumpet.
This starts at the midpoint in the tribulation. They are warning men all the way along, during the seal and trumpet judgments that take place in the second half of the tribulation, the time known as the great tribulation.
All along are preaching the gospel, warning, calling men to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. They keep doing that right up until the end. This is a wonderful comforting truth for us to know, because it reminds us that people will have an opportunity to hear the gospel.
We know that these two men are going to have worldwide ministry, because it says the whole world is going to see them. Everybody is going to look at their dead bodies. Certainly because of satellite television or through Internet.
They are going to have a tremendous impact on the world. But because of the power of what they can do.
- Stopping the rain,
- Turning water into blood,
- Smiting the earth with every plague,
- Anybody tries to harm them fire comes out of their mouth and destroys them.
Because of the nature of these two men, the whole world will know who they are. During these times of fierce judgment, the Lord keeps preaching the gospel right up until the very end.
Matthew 24:14, “The gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world for a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.”
But right up to the end, gospel preaching will go on. God will always have His prophets confronting the rejecters, calling them to repent.
When these two are through, then the seventh trumpet blows and then the bowls are poured out in final furious wrath. Flaming judgment follows as Christ comes at the battle of Armageddon, conquers all, destroys the ungodly, and then sets up His kingdom.
Before we look at the two witnesses, the first two verses are thrown in here. V 1, Then I was given a reed like a measuring rod. And the angel stood, saying, “Rise and measure the temple of God, the altar, and those who worship there.
John had a lot of visions, and occasionally, he got involved in his vision. In chapter 10 when he had the vision of the great angel and the little book in the angel’s hand, he was told to eat the little book. John is getting involved in the vision.
And here again he is very involved in the vision, and he is told by someone, it says, to take this rod and measure the temple of God. John hears a voice. Then I was given a reed like a measuring rod. The measuring rod was like a staff.
It was a rod used in ancient times for measuring. John has just received this prophecy in Revelation 10:11. He has been told that he was supposed to say many more things, write many more things. A renewed commission for John to write the book of Revelation.
John is going to be involved in the very vision about which he will write. John was told to do is take a measuring rod. The Greek word is kalamos refers to a reed that grew in the Jordan Valley. They grew down in the lowlands of the Jordan Valley, and they grew to be somewhere between ten and fifteen feet high. They were a hallow stalk, like a bamboo stalk.
Because they were so very light, they were cut down and cut into proper lengths and used as measuring instruments like a yardstick. They were also used when they were refined and shaved down with an instrument to a point as a pen.
We find such use even in the Scripture. They were used as a walking staff. So, they had a lot of use. So here John is told to take this stick, we don’t know what the length was.
“Rise and measure the temple of God, the altar, and those who worship there.
Why is he doing this?
What is the point of this? There are two things that occur in the Bible about God in measuring out things. ➢ One is judgment, and ➢ Other is ownership. God in Old Testament history has at times measured out something for destruction. He measures it out. I am confining My destruction to this particular area, or this particular city, or this particular location, or this particular people.
But in this case that doesn’t seem the best understanding of the measurement. Also, true that in the Old Testament God also measured out things as being His own possession, personal possession for the sake of preservation.
Revelation 21:15, And he who talked with me had a gold reed to measure the city, its gates, and its wall.
The measuring is of the New Jerusalem, the heavenly Holy City in which the saints will dwell forever and ever. Similar usage of the measuring that John is instructed to act here, that God wants him to measure out His temple because it belongs to Him. He is identifying it as His own.
“Rise and measure the temple of God, the altar, and those who worship there. This appears then to be an act of defining the parameters of God’s property, what it is that belongs to Him. God is saying that I am going to measure out the people of the temple, the people who worship in it, the people to whom it belongs, namely Israel.
If you understand that God is measuring off Israel for some protective, preserving, favoured position, then you get the idea. This is good for us and John to understand because his recollections of Israel were that they rejected God in 70 A.D.
The city was devastated and destroyed. The temple was literally levelled to the ground. 25 years before John is receiving this revelation.
Israel, for all intents and purposes, has been literally overrun by the Romans. 985 towns have been devastated by the Romans. 1.1 million Jews have been massacred by the Romans. Israel’s future at this point looks very bleak.
For John and for all of us the idea that God is measuring out His temple and those who worship in it for preservation in the future. Keep in mind also that Antichrist has already desecrated the temple. Antichrist is already largely involved in the massacre of Jewish people.
But at the same time, a 144,000 Jews, 12,000 from every tribe, are already evangelizing. Jews are believing.
Romans 11:26, “All Israel will be saved.”
God is saying by this scene that I am measuring out protection and Favor over My people. Not necessarily temporal protection, because many of them will die, some of them will live. The Greek word for temple here used is Naos, means the inner temple, the Holy of Holies and the Holy Place.
The inner temple was the Holy of Holies, and around it was the Holy Place.
Then he adds the altar. Probably refers to the brazen altar in the outside area. Where usually the worshipers come in. They couldn’t go into the Holy Place. Only the priests could go in there. They had to stay on the outside.
“Measure the temple” Means the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies, the brazen altar would be the outer area where the people could go to express their worship and offer their sacrifices. Where they prayed as the incense went up on the altar behind in the Holy Place.
and those who worship there.
Who would that be? It would be only Jews. It would be Jews in the time of the great tribulation. This implies that there will be a temple during the time of the tribulation. How can they be worshiping in a temple if there isn’t one?
Bible scholars believe there will be a rebuilding of the temple during the time of the tribulation. It doesn’t have to happen before the time.
They erect the temple very quickly if they wanted to. When that temple is up, the Jews will begin to worship there. The time John wrote this there was no temple. It had been extinct for twenty-five years. Jesus predicted.
Matthew 24:2, And Jesus said to them, “Do you not see all these things? Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down.”
There was no temple. When John is told to go and measure the temple of God, it must have stuck him that at this particular time in prophetic history there would be a temple again. But that wouldn’t be too hard to understand, because the prophets had already said that.
Amos 9:11, “On that day I will raise up The tabernacle of David, which has fallen down, And repair its damages; I will raise up its ruins, And rebuild it as in the days of old; Certainly, that would include a house where God could be worshiped.
Micah 4:1, Now it shall come to pass in the latter days That the mountain of the Lord’s house Shall be established on the top of
the mountains, And shall be exalted above the hills; And peoples shall flow to it. Now that may be an allusion to the millennial temple. Perhaps it looks ahead to the millennial temple. But the point is the prophets predicted a coming rebuilt temple in the end days.
Haggai 2:9, ‘The glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former,’ says the Lord of hosts. ‘And in this place I will give peace,’ says the Lord of hosts.”
Zechariah 6:12-13, Then speak to him, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, saying: “Behold, the Man whose name is the BRANCH! From His place He shall branch out, And He shall build the temple of the Lord; 13 Yes, He shall build the temple of the Lord. He shall bear the glory, And shall sit and rule on His throne; So He shall be a priest on His throne, And the counsel of peace shall be between them both.” ’
The prophets were always looking to the future temple. Ezekiel 40 to 48 talks about a glorious temple in the future. Most of those prophetic references looked at the temple Messiah will build in the kingdom. But at the time at which the Jews were living, time in which John was alive, he would only anticipate generally that a future temple was to be built.
Now he hears something about that temple. God is measuring a future temple out for protection. The temple which John is measuring is the temple during the tribulation which is different than the one during the millennial kingdom.
Does the Bible talk about a tribulation temple also? Yes, it does. Daniel chapter 9, the prophecy of the coming of the Antichrist.
Daniel 9:27, Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week; But in the middle of the week He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate, Even until the consummation, which is determined, Is poured out on the desolate.” If during the week of the tribulation the Antichrist stops the sacrifice and grain offering, then you must ask the question, “Where is the sacrifice and grain offering happening?”
The only place it can be done legitimately is in a temple. That leads us to believe that during that seven-year period a temple will be rebuilt. It will be rebuilt in the early time. The pact with Antichrist will give the Jews the freedom to worship in their own temple. Only in the midweek, he will stop that worship.
He will do what is called the abomination of desolations and he will move into the temple, desecrate it, throw the Jews out. He will slaughter false animals offered to himself as a false god. He will slaughter animals offered to himself as a false god in the temple, desecrate their worship. But the temple needs to be there if that is to happen.
Daniel 12:11, “And from the time that the daily sacrifice is taken away, and the abomination of desolation is set up, there shall be one thousand two hundred and ninety days. It’s abolished half-way through, so it had to be going on prior to that, so they had to have a temple.
Matthew 24:15, “Therefore when you see the ‘abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place” (whoever reads, let him understand), Jesus affirming there will be a temple, there will be sacrifices which the Antichrist will desecrate.
2 Thessalonians 2:4, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. That is what the abomination is.
He makes a pact, and the Israelites think they are getting protection from this world leader and getting safety. He lets them have their temple and have their worship, and he gives them that freedom. They think that he is protecting them.
Midweek he comes in, destroys their worship, abominates their temple, takes his seat is he is God, demands that the whole world worship him. These Scriptures conclusively tells us that not only are there prophecies in the Old Testament about a millennial kingdom and about a kingdom in which the Lord Himself will establish a temple, but there will also be a tribulation temple which will be abominated at the midpoint.
The Jews then before the midpoint will have their sacrificial system back. They will be doing the sacrifices according to Old Testament law. This will be the fourth temple. ➢ Solomon built the first one, ➢ Zerubbabel built the second one, ➢ Herod built the third one, and ➢ Tribulation Jews will build the fourth one.
Christ will build the fifth one in the millennium described in some of those Old Testament prophets and mostly in Ezekiel 40 to 48.
This is the dream and the passion and the hope of orthodox Jews today. They want their temple, and they want it on Mount Moriah. The problem is Mount Moriah is now occupied by one of the holiest places. The second holiest place in the Muslim world, the Dome of the Rock.
John sees here that they will have a temple. What that’s going to mean is that early in the tribulation the Jews are going to go back to their old style of worship. This is part of God preparing them to look again for their Messiah.
How many secular Jews we have in the world today? Most of the Jews are only into the traditions, they have forgot the significance of the sacrificial system. But when it’s all reinstituted and they all flood back to it because of the love of tradition, they are going to have to come face to face with the fact that they have sins. Those sins need a sacrifice for which they offer on that altar do not take away sin and do not transform their lives.
Suddenly the New Testament reality of the gospel being preached by a 144,000 Jews and an innumerable number of Gentiles, and flying angel is going to come to bear heavy on their hearts. God is going to redeem His people, Israel, as Romans 11 says, “so all Israel will be saved.”
The Jews start to move back toward Jehovah God by offering sacrifices again in the temple and show some interest in their Messiah again, the Antichrist is going to step in and abominate the place. Halt the worship. Demand that the whole world worship him.
Revelation 13:14-15, And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived. 15 He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed. In other words, the Antichrist will either worship him or you die.
But the institution of Judaism again in the temple is going to stimulate the hearts of Jewish people toward their Messiah, and will refocus them.
Zechariah 12:10-14, “And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn. 11 In that day there shall be a great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning at Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. 12 And the land shall mourn, every family by itself: the family of the house of David by
itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of Nathan by itself, and their wives by themselves; 13 the family of the house of Levi by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of Shimei by itself, and their wives by themselves; 14 all the families that remain, every family by itself, and their wives by themselves.
Zechariah 13:1, “In that day a fountain shall be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness.
They go back to the temple and focusing on what’s happening in the temple. Seeing what is going on brings the reality back that they need a redeemer. They look back at all the New Testament says about Christ. They start to look on Him whom they have pierced. They hear the preaching of the 144,000.
What the angel is saying to John is, “Go measure this place out, because God is going to do something in this place.” It’s going to be His place to accomplish His purpose.
Zechariah 13:8-9, And it shall come to pass in all the land,” Says the Lord, “That two-thirds in it shall be cut off and die, But one- third shall be left in it: 9 I will bring the one-third through the fire, Will refine them as silver is refined, And test them as gold is tested. They will call on My name, And I will answer them. I will
say, ‘This is My people’; And each one will say, ‘The Lord is my God.’ ” This is right before the final coming of Christ described in Zechariah 14. God is measuring out the temple, because He has plans for it, and those plans have to do with God’s purpose in the redemption of Israel.
Wouldn’t this have been wonderful news to John? Israel was not permanently set aside, but the promises God made in the Old Testament were going to come to pass. There would be a future temple, not just a millennial temple.
Even a tribulation temple in which God would accomplish His purposes? Zechariah 2 has great similarity to the text of Revelation 11.
Zechariah 2:1-5, Then I raised my eyes and looked, and behold, a man with a measuring line in his hand. 2 So I said, “Where are you going?” And he said to me, “To measure Jerusalem, to see what is its width and what is its length.” 3 And there was the angel who talked with me, going out; and another angel was coming out to meet him, 4 who said to him, “Run, speak to this young man, saying: ‘Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls, because of the multitude of
men and livestock in it. 5 For I,’ says the Lord, ‘will be a wall of fire all around her, and I will be the glory in her midst.’ ” God is saying to Zechariah, Jerusalem may be in devastation now, but the day is coming in the future when Jerusalem will rise to a glory like it’s never know. It will be so glorious. It will be so filled with people and cattle. It will overflow.
But it won’t need any walls, because the flaming fire of God will protect it. Ezekiel says the name of the city will be Jehovah-Shammah which means “the Lord is here.” Zechariah 2 God was measuring out Jerusalem to say, “This is My city, and some day in the millennial kingdom it’s going to be all packed and all glorious. I will be its protector. It is being marked out as My possession.”
In Revelation 11, John is asked to measure. He measures out a temple for the tribulation in which, God is going to begin to initiate longings in the hearts of Jews as they go back to their worship patterns of the Old Testament and the sacrificial system. They are going to cry out and long for a true Lamb who can really take away their sins.
In the midst of it all they will be preached by 144,000 invincible, converted Jews, a flying angel, and a lot of converted Gentiles, all preaching the gospel. During the week their temple is going to be desecrated and abominated, but their hearts will still be opened.
Then will come along these two witnesses who preach for the last half, 1260 days, 3 ½ years. They are preaching repentance, and warning about judgment, and proclaiming the gospel. All these things work together to lead Israel to repentance.
So, John measures the temple in order that it might be set apart for divine purposes. V 2, But leave out the court which is outside the temple, and do not measure it, for it has been given to the Gentiles. And they will tread the holy city underfoot for forty-two months.
The temple was interesting. It had in the inner heart the Holy of Holies. Just outside of that, the Holy Place. Just outside of that, the courtyard of the brazen altar where sacrifice was made. Outside of that what was called the court of the Gentiles.
Gentiles couldn’t go any further than that. Jews could go the next step, priests the next step, and only the high priest into the inner sanctuary. But leave out the court which is outside the temple, and do not measure it Don’t measure what’s on the outside.
Don’t measure the place where the Gentiles are, that doesn’t belong to Me. God is saying that I have no obligation by promise to redeem Gentiles. I do have an obligation by promise to redeem Israel. The outer court was called the court of the Gentiles.
God says, “That’s not Mine. That’s not part of this purpose and this promise.” Now keep in mind, innumerable numbers of Gentiles will be saved. But it never says, “So all Gentiles will be saved.” But it does say God will redeem all Israel after having purged out the rebels. God will have purged out a myriad of Gentile rebels and they will still be a myriad more shaking their fists and cursing His face when He comes back.
Paul had preached and the Jews begin to stir up the multitude to take him as a prisoner.
Acts 21:28, crying out, “Men of Israel, help! This is the man who teaches all men everywhere against the people, the law, and this place; and furthermore he also brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place.” False accusations all along the line. But to a Jew, to bring a Gentile into that inner place was a defilement.
God following the prescription of the temple says that I am not asking you to measure the place where the Gentiles are, I don’t have any long-term covenant promise with them as a people. Obviously, God is redeeming them out of every tongue and tribe and nation. But nowhere does it say all the Gentiles will be converted. But all the Jews after the rebels are purged will be saved.
This clearly gives the idea that the church is not present here.
Why? Because this doesn’t feel like the church age anymore.
Colossians 3:11, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all.
Ephesians 2:14-16, For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, 15 having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, 16 and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. In Christ there is neither Jew nor Gentile.
The middle wall of partition has been broken down. Here suddenly, there is definitely Jew and Gentile. God says, “Measure out the Jew as My people, but not those Gentiles.” The middle wall of partition which is down in the church age is back up again.
Another reason why we feel that this leads us to the conclusion that the church has been removed. We are now back in the seventieth week of Daniel.
To the same kind of separation between Jew and Gentile that existed in the first sixty-nine weeks of Daniel, from the decree of Artaxerxes up until Christ’s entry into Jerusalem. This is more of an Old Testament feeling that the wall is back up. It’s more like the old dispensation than the new one.
The Jews are back to being identified as a constituted covenant people of privilege, and the Gentiles are on the outside. They can come one by one, but God has no redemptive covenant with them as a whole people. “So don’t measure the outer court.”
V 2, for it has been given to the Gentiles. It doesn’t belong to God. I am not claiming the Gentiles. Those that come to Me, yes, but not as a special people. There is a distinction between the church and Israel. Some day in the future God is going to complete His promise to Israel.
The Gentiles, you let them have the outer area. It belongs to them.
V 2, And they will tread the holy city underfoot for forty-two months.
How long is 42 months? 1260 days 3 ½ Years. The Gentiles are going to attack Jerusalem.
What’s going to happen? The Jews are going to want to worship there, the Gentiles are going to want to desecrate and destroy the city. This is part of the time period which
Luke 21:24, And they will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led away captive into all nations. And Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.
The times of the Gentiles are the times when the Gentiles dominate the city of Jerusalem, and that’s not going to end until the return of Jesus Christ. Some way in some form the Jews have been dominated and will continue to be dominated by Gentiles since the destruction of Jerusalem and even long before.
God used Assyria in ancient times. God used Chaldea, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome.
God used the Turks. God used Brits. God used the Arabs. Always somebody oppressed Jerusalem. Even in the time of the tribulation Gentile armies will completely overrun and inundate the city of Jerusalem in devastating fashion.
Daniel 8:9-14, And out of one of them came a little horn which grew exceedingly great toward the south, toward the east, and toward the Glorious Land. 10 And it grew up to the host of heaven; and it cast down some of the host and some of the stars to the ground, and trampled them. 11 He even exalted himself as high as the Prince of the host; and by him the daily sacrifices were taken away, and the place of His sanctuary was cast down. 12 Because of transgression, an army was given over to the horn to oppose the daily sacrifices; and he cast truth down to the ground. He did all this and prospered. 13 Then I heard a holy one speaking; and another holy one said to that certain one who was speaking, “How long will the vision be, concerning the daily sacrifices and the transgression of desolation, the giving of both the sanctuary and the host to be trampled underfoot?” 14 And he said to me, “For two thousand three hundred days; then the sanctuary shall be cleansed.”
The latter half, they will destroy the Holy City from the abomination on. This is the same time period as the career of Antichrist.
Revelation 13:5, And he was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and he was given authority to continue for forty-two months.
The Gentile devastation of the Holy City Jerusalem is the same length as the reign of Antichrist. This is the same time period as the twelve hundred and sixty days exactly.
Revelation 12:6, Then the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that they should feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days. First half of the tribulation, all the Jews go rushing back, their temple is rebuilt. They want to reconstitute their ancient religion. They go rushing back to Jerusalem, everything is fine.
They are into the sacrificial system and the grain offerings. They are all doing very well. Immediately in the middle, Antichrist comes down, devastation happens. If people don’t worship him, they are massacred. Many Jews will die.
The rest of them run to the wilderness, and they hide. They will have a place prepared by God. Some people think it will be the city of Petra, which is a massive limestone city built in the inside of huge rock cliffs, and the entrance is very narrow.
God is going to take them and hide them.
How long? 1260 days. At the moment of the desolation, they flee. There is a remnant of Jews that God protects and hides, in order that He might keep His covenant with them. Remember now, by that time they have been exposed to the sacrificial system, they have heard the preaching of the gospel from the 144,000. Now they are protected by God, and through that process will come to their Messiah.
Revelation 12:14, But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent.
The serpent tries to drown her any way he can.
Revelation 12:17, And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring,
who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. He can’t get this hidden group. But God’s going to hide them. The devil is so furious. The Antichrist so furious. But they can’t get to them, because God protects them.
They take their hatred and their venom out on everybody who names the name of Christ. From the abomination on, everybody coming to Christ out of the Gentile world will be subject to the devastation of Antichrist and Satan.
Daniel 12:11, “And from the time that the daily sacrifice is taken away, and the abomination of desolation is set up, there shall be one thousand two hundred and ninety days. Daniel 12 says there will be 1295 instead of 1260 days.
Daniel 12:12, Blessed is he who waits, and comes to the one thousand three hundred and thirty-five days.
There will be another forty-five days. 75 days addition.
This is sometime between the return and Christ and the establishment of the kingdom to clean up the carnage and to set up the kingdom of Christ on earth. But the Antichrist, he only goes 42 months. The trampling of Jerusalem, 42 months.
The hiding of Israel, 42 months. They can come out of their hiding place. By then with the rebels purged out, converted, they will enter into the glories of the kingdom of Christ. The promise then from God that He has a future for Israel will be fulfilled.
From there he moves to a discussion of these two witnesses.
How absolute, unbending are the promises of God? God said, “You are going to get a temple.” They are going to get a temple. God said, “I am going to make you My people again.” He will. God said, “I am going to redeem you.”
He will redeem them. This is the promise given.
It would have been easy for someone like John who knew the Old Testament well to see these pictures of images of demons overrunning the earth, two hundred million of them in one fell swoop added to the ones that came out of the pit that tormented men, to see the whole disintegration of the earth and ask himself, “What about Israel?”
It would be easy for people living at that time who knew the Bible, to say, what is God going to do for His people Israel in the midst of this? All the features that are laid out in prophetic history come into focus in just those two simple verses.
The promised purging of the rebels from Israel will take place, and then salvation for the nation. No matter what Antichrist does, No matter what Satan does, God is going to redeem Israel. God is going to redeem an innumerable number of Gentiles before Jesus returns.
Matthew 7, “Narrow is the way, and few there be that find it.” But in the end the way will still be narrow.
But a whole nation, Israel, will find it, as will the greatest work of salvation on behalf of Gentiles the world has ever known, as God in an incredible flurry of grace, keeping His gracious promise to Israel and expressing His immense love to the rest of the world, will redeem many.