Days of Vengeance - The Preterist Archive

11:3-6
This kind of imagery is used throughout the Bible. 3 In
his Gospel, St. Matthew deliberately goes out of his way
to draw our attention to the number forty-two,
arranging his list of Christ’s ancestors to add up to it:
“Therefore all the generations from Abraham to David
are fourteen generations; and from David to the
deportation to Babylon are fourteen generations; and
from the deportation to Babylon to Christ are fourteen
generations” (Matt. 1:17) 4 – all adding up to fortytwo,
the number of waiting between promise and
fulfillment, from bondage to redemption. But now, in
the Revelation, the time has been shortened: The
Church does not need to wait forty-two generations
any longer, but only forty-two months. The message of
these verses, therefore, is that the Church will be saved
through the coming Tribulation, during which
Jerusalem is to be destroyed by an invasion of Gentiles.
The end of this period will mean the full establishment
of the Kingdom. The passage thus parallels the Olivet
Discourse (Matt. 24, Mark 13, Luke 21), where Jesus
prophesies the destruction of Jerusalem, culminating in
the Roman invasion of A.D. 70. 5
3-4 But before Jerusalem is destroyed, St. John hears
further testimony of its guilt, a summary of the apostate
history of the City, focusing on its perennial
persecution of the prophets. God tells St. John that He
has ordained two Witnesses to prophesy for twelve
hundred and sixty days, the number of days in an
idealized forty-two months (of thirty days each). This
number, therefore, is related (but not identical) to the
forty-two months, and continues to express the
essential “forty-two-ness” of the period preceding the
full establishment of the Kingdom. 6 The Witnesses are
clothed in sackcloth, the traditional dress of the
prophets from Elijah through John the Baptizer,
symbolizing their mourning over national apostasy (2
Kings 1:8; Isa. 20:2; Jon. 3:6; Zech. 13:4; Matt. 3:4;
Mark 1 :6). Biblical law required two witnesses (Num.
35:30; Deut. 17:6; 19:15; Matt. 18:16; cf. Ex. 7:15-25;
8-11; Luke 10:1); the idea is a pervasive theme
throughout Biblical prophecy and symbolism. A
preliminary conclusion about the two Witnesses,
therefore, is that they represent the line of prophets,
culminating in John the Baptizer, who bore witness
against Jerusalem during the history of Israel.
The two Witnesses are identified as the two olive trees
and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of
the earth. At this point the imagery becomes much
more complex. St. John returns again to Zechariah’s
prophecy of the lampstand (Zech. 4:1-5; cf. Rev. 1:4,
13, 20; 4:5). The seven lamps on the lampstand are
connected to two olive trees (cf. Ps. 52:8; Jer. 11:16),
from which flow an unceasing supply of oil, symbolizing
the Holy Spirit’s filling and empowering work in the
leaders of His covenant people. The meaning of the
symbol is summarized in Zechariah 4:6: “Not by might
nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the LORD of hosts.”
The same passage in Zechariah also speaks of two
Witnesses, two sons of oil (“anointed ones”), who lead
God’s people: Joshua the priest and Zerubbabel the king
(Zech. 3-4; cf. Ezra 3, 5-6; Hag. 1-2). In brief, then,
Zechariah tells us of an olive tree/lampstand complex
representing the officers of the covenant: two Witnessfigures
who belong to the royal house and the
priesthood. The Book of Revelation freely connects all
of these, speaking of two shining lampstands which are
two oil-filled olive trees, which are also two Witnesses,
a king and a priest – all representing the Spirit-inspired
prophetic testimony of the Kingdom of priests (Ex.
19:6). (A major aspect of St. John’s message, as we have
seen, is that the New Covenant Church comes into the
full inheritance of the promises as the true Kingdom of
priests, the royal priesthood in which “all the LORD’s
people are prophets.”) That these Witnesses are
members of the Old Covenant rather than the New is
shown, among other indications, by their wearing of
sackcloth – the dress characteristic of Old Covenant
privation rather than New Covenant fullness.
5-6 St. John now speaks of the two Witnesses in terms
of the two great witnesses of the Old Testament, Moses
and Elijah – the Law and the Prophets. If anyone
desires to harm them, fire proceeds from their mouth
and devours their enemies. In Numbers 16:35, fire
came down from heaven at Moses’ word and consumed
the false worshipers who had rebelled against him; and,
similarly, fire fell from heaven and consumed Elijah’s
enemies when he spoke the word (2 Ki. 1:9-12). This
becomes a standard symbol for the power of the
prophetic Word, as if fire actually proceeds from the
mouths of God’s Witnesses. As the Lord said to
Jeremiah, “Behold, I am making My words in your
mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall consume
them” (Jer. 5:14).
Extending the imagery, St. John says that the Witnesses
3. For example, Daniel was told: “From the time that the regular sacrifice is abolished, and the abomination of desolation is set up, there will be 1,290 days. How
blessed is he who keeps waiting and attains to the 1,335 days!” (Dan. 12:11-12). These numbers are based on the 430-year period of oppression in Egypt (Ex.
12:40) and the 45 years from bondage to the conquest of the Land (Josh. 14:6-10); the symbols indicate that the coming period of oppression, compared to that
in Egypt, will be brief (days as opposed to years), but three times as intense (3x 430= 1,290). Those who persevere in faith, however, will attain to the l,335th day
of victory and dominion.
4. St. Matthew probably chose to divide the genealogy into three groups of fourteen to highlight the name of David, which has a numerical value of 14 in Hebrew.
David is the central figure in Christ’s genealogy, and Christ is presented throughout Scripture as the greater David (cf. Acts 2:25-36). In order to arrive at this
symmetrical arrangement, however, St. Matthew leaves out three generations between Joram and Uzziah in v. 8 (Ahaziah, Joash, and Amaziah; cf. 2 Kings 8:25;
11:21; 14:1), and counts Jeconiah twice in v. 11-12. Now, St. Matthew was not stupid: He could add figures correctly (he had been a tax collector!); moreover, he
knew that the actual genealogies were available to his readers. But he wrote his Gospel to provide a Christology, not chronology. His list is written to expound
the “forty-two-ness” of the period leading up to Christ’s advent, and the “fourteen-ness” of Christ Himself – all revealing the Savior as “the son of David, the son
of Abraham” (1:1).
5. Interestingly, the Roman siege of Jerusalem under Vespasian and Titus did last a literal three and a half years, from 67 to 70. But the main point of the term is its
symbolic significance, which is based on its use in the prophets. As in many other cases, God obviously brought about the historical events in a way that harmonizes
with the Biblical symbolism He authored.
6. For some interesting aspects of the number 1,260 and its relationship to the number of the Beast (666), see comments on 13:18.
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