Zechariah
The Two Olive Trees
“3 And I will give power
unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and
threescore days, clothed in sackcloth. 4 These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before
the God of the earth. 5 And if any man will hurt them, fire
proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will
hurt them, he must in this manner be killed. 6 These have power to
shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power
over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as
often as they will” (Revelations 11:3-6).
The
Controversy Over the Identity of the Two Witnesses
There is no reason here to suddenly
move from a literal interpretation to allegory.
Nor is there any reason to suppose that John is speaking in symbolic
language about these two witnesses.
Therefore, they are not the Church
and Israel or Israel and the Word of God. They are not the Law and the Prophets or the
Law and the Gospel. They do not
represent the Old Covenant and the New Covenant, or the Old Testament books and the New Testament books.
The
two witnesses are two literal men who miraculously appear on the scene of
history with extreme supernatural powers.
Can we identify them for sure without any doubt? No, we cannot. Can we speculate as to the probability of who
they are from other portions of Scripture?
Sure, and with a certain degree of confidence. Will
it make any difference who they are?
Not really, they will be God’s men doing God’s work in God’s power. According to Revelation 11:3, their power
will be given to them by the “mighty messenger” of Revelation 10:1 which has
been shown to be Jesus Christ.
The
Ministry of the Two Witnesses
I believe they will be Moses and
Elijah (with a strong possibility that if Moses is not the one, Enoch is), or
possibly Moses and the Apostle Paul. Their
primary purpose is to be witnesses to Jesus Christ TO UNBELIEVING JEWS.
“7 And when they
shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the
bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill
them. 8 And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the
great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord
was crucified. 9 And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and
nations shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not
suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves. 10 And they that dwell
upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts
one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the
earth. 11 And after three days and an half the Spirit of life from
God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon
them which saw them. 12 And they heard a great voice from heaven
saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud;
and their enemies beheld them.” (Revelation
11:7-12).
The ministry of these two witnesses
will be a combination like that of Jonah and Nahum to the city of Nineveh. They will come proclaiming the wickedness of
man, the holiness of God, and the pending judgment upon all who refuse to
repent. Yet like Nahum, nothing shall
stay the judgment, not even repentance.
These two men will preach about these things throughout the last three
and one-half years of the Tribulation.
They will proclaim the judgments of God as they happen. Perhaps they will proclaim the judgments of
God before they will happen as did Moses to Pharaoh in the book of Exodus,
warning the faithful and calling others to repentance.
In Zechariah chapter three, Joshua
(the High Priest) represents a defiled priesthood and therefore a defiled
nation before God. The angel of the LORD
is the Son of God Who will restore and purify Israel for the Kingdom. These two witnesses of Revelation will be how
the LORD provides the message that will restore a remnant to faith in Christ.
Secondary to this, these two witnesses
shall be a great “torment” to all Christ rejecters. When they proclaim the truth about the
deception of this Antichrist system and its false wonders, Antichrist and his
followers will seek to kill them. When
they attempt to do so, “fire” will come out of their mouths and kill those that
oppose them. They will have the power to
keep it from raining at their will, to cause water to turn to blood, and to
bring plagues as often as they need.
In Revelation 11:4, Christ states that
these two individuals are the fulfillment of the prophecy of Zechariah. They are described as “the two olive trees,
and two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth.” This is a fulfillment of the prophecy of
Zechariah chapter four. Zechariah prophesied of the restoration of
the nation of Israel prior to the establishment of the Kingdom and the coming
of Messiah to rule on earth. Therefore,
this will carry special significance to the Jews living during the Tribulation period.
“2 And
said unto me, What seest thou? And I said, I have looked, and behold a
candlestick all of gold, with a bowl upon the top of it, and his seven
lamps thereon, and seven pipes to the seven lamps, which are upon the top
thereof: 3 And two olive trees by it, one upon the right side
of the bowl, and the other upon the left side thereof. 4 So I
answered and spake to the angel that talked with me, saying, What are
these, my lord? 5 Then the angel that talked with me answered and
said unto me, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord. 6
Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the LORD
unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith
the LORD of hosts. 7 Who art thou, O great mountain? before
Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain: and he shall bring forth the
headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it”
(Zechariah 4:2-7).
The significance regarding these two
witnesses is that God reveals to Zerubbabel through Zechariah, that God’s
Temple will not be restored by a large military power (“might’), or by some
outstanding charismatic and influential leader (“power”). The restoration of the Temple would be a
spiritual restoration that could only be accomplished by the Holy Spirit. This restoration was a physical picture of
spiritual revival of the nation of Israel.
The accomplished restoration was
not the revival itself, but the product of that revival.
These two witnesses will be how God
will accomplish revival among the Jews.
The 144,000 are sealed in Heaven at the same time these two men come on
the scene (Revelation 6:17; 7:4-8). Therefore,
this army of glorified saved Jewish evangelists will come to Earth from Heaven
with these two witnesses as their leaders.
This is important because it will prove to the Jews the inspiration of
all the New Testament books of the Bible.
The two olive trees represent these two men, full of the Holy Spirit and
with unlimited resources. They are also
the two “candlesticks” (“Lampstands”) as they are the heralds of God’s truth in
the power of His Holy Spirit.
“11 Then
answered I, and said unto him, What are these two olive trees upon the
right side of the candlestick and upon the left side thereof?
12 And I answered again, and said unto him, What be these two
olive branches which through the two golden pipes empty the golden oil
out of themselves? 13 And he answered me and said, Knowest thou not
what these be? And I said, No, my lord. 14 Then said he,
These are the two anointed ones, that stand by the Lord of the whole
earth” (Zechariah 4:11-14).
Jack MacArthur (Revelation;
Certain Sound Publishing) says:
“Trees in
Scripture speak of righteousness, while the olive oil consistently typifies the
Holy Spirit. Two is the number of
testimony. These two men, then, will not
only be witnesses and martyrs, they will be righteous and Spirit-filled. The
two lampstands (candlesticks) signify lightbearers. In the intriguing passage of Zechariah 4 olive
oil is seen as the source of fuel for the lampstands.”
The Antichrist will come into power by
military “might” and by dominating “power” as he holds the position of world
leader. This will be the exact opposite
of the Kingdom of Christ (compare Zechariah 4:6; “Not by might, nor by power,
but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.”).
The restoration of the nation of
Israel will be a spiritual accomplishment before it is ever a physical one. The two witnesses will be the means God uses
to bring revival and the message of salvation through the finished work of
Jesus Christ to the nation of Israel during the last half of the seven-year
Tribulation.
The ministry of these two witnesses is
said to be for a period of forty-two months (1,260 days divided by thirty days;
all prophetic months are thirty days
long) equals forty-two months, or three and half years).
“And I will give power
unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and
threescore days, clothed in sackcloth” (Revelation 11:3).
Their ministry will end just prior to
the sounding of the seventh Trumpet judgment, which is the seven bowl or vial
judgments. These last seven judgments
are the most severe and all appear to take place very rapidly, perhaps even in
one day or less.
“11 And
after three days and an half {they lay
dead in the street for this time} the Spirit of life from God entered into
them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them {the celebrating unbelievers} which saw them. 12 And they {the celebrating unbelievers} heard a great voice from heaven saying
unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their
enemies beheld them. 13 And the same hour was there a great
earthquake, and the tenth part of the city {Jerusalem}
fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand: and the remnant {believing Jews} were affrighted, and
gave glory to the God of heaven. 14 The second woe is past; and,
behold, the third woe cometh quickly”
(Revelation 11:11-14).
Therefore, the probability is that the
two witnesses will arrive on the scene after the completion of the sixth seal
(Revelation 6:12-16) at about the same time that the Antichrist desecrates the
Temple with his image. In that case, the
two witnesses will oppose and resist everything the Antichrist does for the
next three and a half years, until the Antichrist is finally allowed to kill
them at the end of the Tribulation and just prior to Armageddon. Just when the Antichrist begins to think he
has finally gotten a victory, Jesus Christ will confront him in power and
glory.
Revelation 11:5 reveals that if anyone
attempts to hurt the two witnesses, or even approaches them with the intent of
doing them harm, fire will come out of their mouths and consume the
adversary. That should be a great
deterrent to assassination attempts.
Imagine standing on the sidelines of that event or hearing it on a news
broadcast; “Four assassins attempted to killed two men in Jerusalem today who
have been talking about Jesus Christ.
Fire came from the mouths of the two men and consumed the
assassins. Nothing but a pile of ash was
left. Pictures at eleven.”
The “power” they will be given is
defined in Revelation 11:6. They will
have power with God to withhold rain from the earth for the whole three and one
half years while they are on earth. They
will have power with God to turn water to blood. They will also have power with God to bring
various kinds of plagues upon the earth at their will. Let me assure you, these are going to be two
men every Christ rejecter will want dead, but with which no one will want to
mess.
According to Revelation 11:7, only
when “they have finished” will the Antichrist be allowed to kill them. This will be at the end of the 1,260
days. Not one day sooner. This will prove to the world that these men
are under the protection of God. Even in their momentary death God will manifest
His sovereignty.
All during the 1,260 days, the Christ
rejecting world will continue to deny that these men are of God. Yet, these men
will be a constant testimony to the sovereignty of God. The book of Revelation will be their textbook
as they proclaim its prophecies each day.
As they do so, the world will begin to see they are at war with God but
will still refuse to repent (Revelation 16:9 and 11).
Once they are killed (Revelation 11:8),
their dead bodies will be put on display for three and a half days in the city
of Jerusalem, which God calls “spiritual Sodom” and “spiritual Egypt.” That means Jerusalem will have become the
center of all religious perversion imaginable.
For those three and a half days, the T. V. networks will broadcast
pictures of the dead bodies of these two men all over the world (Revelation
11:9). The Christ rejecters will think
they have finally won. They will think
victory is theirs.
The lost, Christ rejecting world will
begin to celebrate (Revelation 11:10).
They will have an Anti-Christmas. They will have a Mardi Gras celebration and send gifts to one another as the T. V.
cameras of the world broadcast a continual picture of the dead bodies. The celebration will go on and on until it
will all be interrupted after three and a half days.
These two witnesses, whose bodies have
been lying rotting in the streets of Jerusalem, will stand up on their feet as people
watch through broadcasting mediums seen by the whole world. Mouths will drop open in amazement. Great fear will come on the world. Why?
Because they will realize their victory was no victory at all. They will realize that the battle is not over
and all that these men said was true. As
the inner fear begins to grip their hearts in convulsive spasms and the cold
sweat begins to break on their foreheads “they will hear a voice from heaven”
and watch in deadening silence from all around the world as these two men
ascend up to “heaven in a cloud” (Revelation 11:12).
In all the judgments that God will
bring upon this earth, one of the greatest torments to Christ rejecters will be
the constant testimony of these two witnesses that it is all of God. No
one will be allowed to pass these judgments off as the results as of Global Warming or natural catastrophes. As
the two witnesses proclaim the truths of the book of Revelation, the lost world
will be under constant conviction of the Holy Spirit. They think they finally are free from the
oppressive immorality of morality. They will think they are finally free from
the injustice of moral restraint, but the Holy Ghost will haunt them as He
convicts them of the consequences of their sin, of the righteousness of Christ,
and of the pending final day of judgment each time these two men preach. The only way to escape this conviction (now
and then) is to repent and accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
Could
They Be Moses and Elijah?
The most convincing evidence that
these two witnesses are Moses and Elijah is that Moses and Elijah were the two
who appeared with Christ on the Mountain of His transfiguration.
“1 And
after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth
them up into an high mountain apart, 2 And was transfigured before
them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the
light. 3 And, behold, there
appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with him. 4 Then
answered Peter, and said unto Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here: if
thou wilt, let us make here three
tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias. 5
While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a
voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well
pleased; hear ye him” (Matthew 17:1-5).
Malachi prophesied that Elijah would
return before the great Judgment Day of the Lord. Therefore, some of the Jews at Christ’s first
advent believed He was Elijah.
“5 Behold,
I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful
day of the LORD: 6 And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the
children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite
the earth with a curse” (Malachi 4:5-6).
Some thought that John the Baptist was
Elijah. John the Baptist did not fulfill
this. He did come in “the spirit and
power of Elijah,” but he was not Elijah.
“And he shall go
before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers
to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a
people prepared for the Lord” (Luke 1:17).
“And they asked
him, What then? Art thou Elias? And he saith, I am not. Art thou that prophet?
And he answered, No” (John 1:21).
Elijah and Moses
had the powers with God that these two witnesses will have.
“And Elijah the
Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As
the LORD God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these
years,
but according to my word” (I Kings 17:1; see I Kings 18:20-46 also).
“Then the king sent
unto him a captain of fifty with his fifty. And he went up to him: and, behold,
he sat on the top of an hill. And he spake unto him, Thou man of God, the king
hath said, Come down. And Elijah answered and said to the captain of fifty, If
I be a man of God, then let fire
come down from heaven, and consume thee and thy fifty. And there came down fire from heaven, and
consumed him and his fifty” (II Kings 1:9-10).
“Elias was a man
subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not
rain: and it rained not on the earth by
the space of three years and six months” (James 5:17).
“And Moses and
Aaron did so, as the LORD commanded; and he lifted up the rod, and smote the
waters that were in the river, in the sight of Pharaoh, and in the sight
of his servants; and all the waters that
were in the river were turned to blood” (Exodus 7:20).
Present technology makes a literal interpretation
of Revelation 11:9 possible.
Less than fifty years ago, the
technology to realize Revelation 11:9 was not yet available.
“And they of the
people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three
days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves”
(Revelation 11:9).
Today, with satellite television, and
live streaming cell phone technology, a picture can be almost instantaneously
sent to anywhere on earth that has a receiver.
It may not be that every single person in the world will view this, but
the technology is available for every nation, “people and kindreds and tongues”
to do so.
After the dead bodies of these two
witnesses lay in the streets of Jerusalem for three and a half days (after the
Christ rejecting world has celebrated their murder), God will once again
breathe into them the breath of life.
The same technology that allowed the whole world to see their dead
bodies and that has focused the world’s attention upon them, will be used of
God to show the world His power over death.
As the whole world watches these dead bodies, God will miraculously
raise them from the dead. In the sight
of the whole world, they will ascend into heaven in a cloud, as the voice of
God is heard everywhere saying, “Come up hither.”
As the world watches their live
streaming news and the sights before them, a great earthquake will destroy
one-tenth of the city of Jerusalem and seven thousand people will die. Almost immediately the seventh trumpet will
sound, and the seven bowls of God’s wrath will be poured out upon the earth,
which will be followed (almost immediately) by the coming of Christ with His
saints at Armageddon.
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Numerous studies and series are available free of charge for local churches at: http://www.disciplemakerministries.org/
Dr. Lance Ketchum serves the Lord as a Church Planter, Evangelist/Revivalist.
He has served the Lord for over 40 years.
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