What does Revelation 11:5 mean?
In this verse we read about the remarkable power the two witnesses possess. No foe can stand against them. We learn that fire issues from their mouth and destroys anyone who dares to harm them.This judgment is reminiscent of what happened when the king of Samaria sent three groups of fifty soldiers to the prophet Elijah. In each situation Elijah called down fire on the fifty soldiers and their captain (2 Kings 1:9–14). Perhaps Jesus' disciples James and John recalled Elijah's fiery response to the king of Samaria's soldiers when a village of Samaria refused to receive Jesus. They asked, "Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?" (Luke 9:54). Jesus responded to their question by rebuking them (Luke 9:55). The tribulation, however, is a period of retribution for those who adamantly oppose the Lord. Those who endeavor to harm the two witnesses are "doomed to be killed" (Revelation 11:5).
Revelation 11:3–14 follows on the heels of a brief assertion that the Gentiles will possess the temple's outer court and trample Jerusalem for forty-two months. We learn also that God will authorize two witnesses to prophesy during those forty-two months. Here we gain information about the two witnesses' ministry, what happens to them, and God's immediate response. The passage ends by alerting us to the fact that the second woe has ended, but the third woe is coming soon.
This chapter continues the interlude between the sixth and seventh trumpet judgments. John received a measuring rod and was told to measure the temple, the altar, and the worshipers. However, he was told not to measure the court outside the temple, because the Gentiles would overrun it for three and a half years. During that time, two divinely authorized witnesses would prophesy. They would have power to summon fire from heaven and to strike the earth with plagues. At the end of their testimony the beast from the pit will kill them and leave their bodies in a street in Jerusalem. But, three and a half days later, God will resurrect their bodies and draw them up to heaven. At that time a powerful earthquake will level a tenth of Jerusalem and kill seven thousand people. When the seventh trumpet sounds, loud voices in heaven proclaim Jesus as the possessor of the world's kingdoms, and the twenty-four elders praise Jesus as the Lord God Almighty who will begin to reign. He will judge the dead but reward His servants. The chapter ends with the opening of the temple in heaven.
