The
inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them and will celebrate by sending
each other gifts.
(Revelation 11:10)Our selection for today begins with the apparent deaths of the two witnesses (11:3) (or olive trees or lampstands (v. 4), or prophets (v. 10). We first read about the two olive trees in Zechariah where they stand for Zerubbabel and Joshua. Zerubbabel governed (a descendant of King David) the exiles who had returned from Babylon and Joshua was the High Priest, symbolic of joint godly leadership in both the political and the spiritual realms.
What I find particularly telling about this passage is the reaction of the inhabitants of the earth (symbolic of the unbelieving population of Rome – or Rome itself). After their deaths, these scoffers will party and send one another gifts in celebration that these two prophets are seemingly dead. But after three and a half days (Antiochus Epiphanes wreaked havoc on Jerusalem for three and a half years – three and a half days and 42 months are both symbolic of a lengthy persecution) things would start looking up. If the inhabitants of the earth symbolize Rome, then the prophets (olive trees, lampstands, prophets, etc.) symbolize the church.
Though the
church’s defeat looked like a sure thing – enough that its enemies were already
congratulating themselves with a victory celebration, after three and a half
days the breath of life from God entered
them (11:11).
Has evil ever prematurely thrown a party thinking you were down and out?
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