There is perhaps no more hotly debated passage in the Book of Revelation than chapter 11. It is a particularly complex passage filled with challenging allusions to various Old Testament texts such as Zechariah, Daniel, Exodus, 1 Kings, and Ezekiel. It is a passage filled with temple imagery and the symbolic use of numbers. The passage portrays “two witnesses,” described also as two olive trees and two lampstands. They are protected from harm as they prophesy powerfully to the nations. Finally, they are killed by a beast that arises from the abyss. But after a period of time the witnesses are raised to life and taken up into heaven.

What can the church expect in terms of treatment from the world in the period between the Lord’s two advents? And what is the church to be doing during these days? These questions come to mind as we consider the days of God’s judgment depicted in Revelation chapters six through sixteen. What ought we expect and what ought we be doing? These are the key questions addressed in this passage.

Revelation 10-11:14 is a theological break in the action between the sixth and seventh trumpets. Much like the break between the sixth and seventh seals (chapter 7), this break directs our attention to the church as she makes her way between Christ’s incarnation and his return. And just like the interlude between the sixth and seventh seal, the break between the sixth and seventh trumpets looks at the church from two vantage points. In chapter ten we see the church’s apostolic inheritance as stewards of God’s Word in all of its sweetness and bitterness. In 11:1-14 we see the church as persecuted but ultimately a triumphant witness to Christ in the world.

The Book of Revelation employs a great deal of recapitulation, that is viewing the same set of circumstances or events from various angles. You may recall that between the sixth and seventh seals there was a theological interlude which included two views of God’s people (chapter seven). The full number of God’s redeemed were depicted both as 144,000 assembled for battle as well a vast multitude from every nation. Likewise, there is a theological interlude between the sixth and seventh trumpets (chapters 10 and 11).

Like the interlude between the sixth and seventh seal, the interlude between the sixth and seventh trumpets give us two pictures of God’s people. Both pictures portray a threatened but ultimately safe and secured church in a sinful world; a people who are persecuted but sealed by God. Chapter ten raises the question of how God’s people can be overcomers in a world that is hostile toward God. Even more specifically, how do we hold on to God’s hard words in a hard age?

God’s Word is good. It is lifegiving. There is a sweetness to God’s Word that is inherently tied to his goodness. And yet, some of God’s words are hard. They expose sin and confront sinners. They warn of judgment for those who do not repent. In our own day God’s words concerning his design for man and woman, marriage, and sexuality are perceived by many as harsh or bigoted or outmoded. For many of us, God’s words about money or love for neighbor or how we treat an enemy are particularly hard, even unwelcome. In John’s vision we see how the character of God helps us to hold faithfully to his hard words even when such faithfulness puts us at odds with the world.

With the breaking of the sixth seal, John saw the final judgment of God upon the fallen creation (6:12-17). The seven trumpets present another vantage point of the Lord’s judgment. There seems to be an intensification which may be due to the fact that the trumpets are instruments of warning. This descriptive intensification may also be due to the fact that the trumpet judgments depict the experience of God’s judgment from the experience of unbelievers.

Chapter eight ends with the sound of an eagle warning the world of judgment. This is yet another link with the Old Testament which employs the image of an eagle announcing divine judgment (Deuteronomy 28:49; Jeremiah 4:13; 48:40; 49:22; Ezekiel 17:3; Hosea 8:1; Habakkuk 1:8). The messenger in John’s vision is announcing that judgment will fall on “those who dwell on the earth.” Although Christians dwell on the earth even as God’s judgment is being poured out, the phrase “those who dwell on the earth” always refers to unbelievers in the Book of Revelation.

The terrifying visions unfolded in the trumpet judgments depict the spiritual warfare to which this world is subjected: a war in which all Christians are called as soldiers. These visions are meant to sober, not terrorize God’s people. God aims not to make us predictors of future events but to call us to repentance and faithfulness. The answers are not found in newspapers but in discerning the condition of our hearts. “John recounted his vision to elicit a response of faithful commitment and patient endurance in his first readers, and that is what the text should provoke in us too” (Ian Paul).

In the trumpet and bowl judgments we find some of the most frightening images in the Book of Revelation. It is vital that we understand these visions within the symbolic categories in which they are written. We must also understand how these visions are shaped by Old Testament imagery and how they would have been understood in their immediate first century context.

The book of Revelation is structured around a series of sevens. In chapter one we’re introduced to seven stars and seven lampstands. Chapters two and three consist of messages to seven churches. Before the throne of Majesty is what John describes as the seven spirits of God which is a symbolic reference to the Holy Spirit in the fullness of his ministry. In chapters 6 through 16 are described seven seals, seven trumpets, and seven bowls each describing the judgment of God from various vantage points.

Both the seals and the trumpets are grouped by four and then three. The first four seals form a single unit, the four horsemen. The fifth, sixth, and the seventh seals function on their own: the fifth seal (the martyrs praying beneath the altar), the sixth seal (the final destruction of the fallen creation), and the seventh seals (the silence in heaven). Likewise, the first four trumpets form a unit, which are reminiscent of the plagues of Egypt. The fifth, sixth, and seventh trumpets follow as individual units (three woes).

The seals and the trumpets both rely heavily on Old Testament imagery and events. The four horsemen are drawn from the prophet Zechariah while the first four trumpets are drawn from the ten plagues in Egypt. And like the plagues visited upon Egypt, the trumpet judgments are, in part, pleas for sinners as well as God’s people to repent. While God spiritually protects his people through judgment, having sealed them with his Holy Spirit (chapter 7), he allows them to go through the judgments that they may be both sanctified and serve as his witnesses in the world.

As we move into chapter seven of Revelation we enter into territory over which there is strong disagreement between Christians. Our approach toward a proper understanding of Revelation is to begin by taking it on its own terms. As we saw at the beginning of the series, the Book of Revelation began as a letter sent to the churches in the region of Asia Minor. It was meant to strengthen the first century church in times of great tribulation. This is the very purpose the Book of Revelation has served in every generation since. It is a book of prophecy which is to say, it is a word from the Lord concerning events to be fulfilled in both the near and more distant future. And like all Apocalyptic Literature, Revelation makes great use of symbolic language, numbers, and word pictures to depict real circumstances and events.

Chapter seven is a theological interlude between the opening of the sixth and seventh seal. It is the answer to the question “Who can stand?” (6:17). Who will endure through the final judgments of God in the final days? The question is answered in John’s description of the church in symbolic and redemptive historical categories. First John hears the church described in our militant state as we inhabit a hostile world (vv. 1-8). It is a description of the church militant, the church at war. The roll call of the 144,000 is highly symbolic and recalls the assembling of the twelve tribes of Israel for battle. The arrangement of the 12 twelve tribes as John hears the roll call is unique from any other accounting in Scripture and is meant to point beyond ethnic Israel to the multinational church of Jesus Christ. It is the vast company of God’s redeemed, all of whom have been sealed by the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13-14). Secondly, John is then allowed to see them and what he beholds is not simply 144,000 men but the great multitude of the church in final victory, at peace in the presence of the Lord (7:9-17). The war is over. Sin, death and the devil have been cast away forever. “The great church victorious shall be the church at rest.”