We live in the United States of America in 2024. A lot of talk is happening right now as it has been since 2016 when Donald Trump ran. Talk specifically about how to get “America” back on the right track. “Back in God’s plan.”
More often than not and the sole reason Trump has been elected back in 2016, is because many people believe, as many evangelicals believe, the way to cause American to repent of their sins is by electing a brash, “say it how it is”, erraditic, etc man who will apply force to our governments legislative system and force America back to God.
This very way of thinking comes about from a bad reading of the Bible, Revelation and a misunderstanding of the core principles of the Way of Jesus. Thankfully John has a message from Jesus on how the nations(not just America) will come to repenatance, and much like how Jesus always works, His way is not the way you would expect.
The Scroll
John now sees in Revelation 10 a “mighty angel coming down from heaven”(v.1) holding the scroll of the Lamb that the seals were broken off of earlier.
The scroll has a message. It has writing on the front and the back if you remember. And only one person was worthy enough to open this scroll. The Lion of the Tribe of Judah.
But when John looked back at this “lion figure” he instead saw a “slaughtered lamb.” This is key to understanding what we are about to read. And it is key to understanding the 7 trumpets and why people were not repenting after all those plagues.
John is told by this angel, to eat the scroll. This is reminiscent of Ezekiel 2:8-9:
“But you, son of man, hear what I say to you. Be not rebellious like that rebellious house; open your mouth and eat what I give you.” And when I looked, behold, a hand was stretched out to me, and behold, a scroll of a book was in it.(ESV)
Ezekiel like John had a message to proclaim about the evil of the nations and like John is told to eat the scroll. This is symbolically communicating that what is about to come out of John’s/Ezekiel’s mouth is the word of God. This is exactly what God is wanting to say to the people and he is using these two men to communicate this truth.
Now we are given two visions that are messages of truth “about many peoples, nations, languages and kings”(NIV).
Two Visions
1.) In the first vision John is given a measuring rod and told to go measure the temple and altar of God and to set it apart. John is told not to measure the courtyard outside of the temple.
Measuring the temple is imagery of protection. We get this idea from Zechariah 2:1-5:
And I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, a man with a measuring line in his hand! Then I said, “Where are you going?” And he said to me, “to Mesaure Jerusalem, to see what is its width and what is its length. And behold, the angel who talked with me came forward, and another angel come forward to meet him and said to him, “Run, say to that young man, ‘Jerusalem shall be inhabited as villages without walls, because of the multitude of people and livestock in it. And I will be to her a wall of fire all around, declares Yahweh, and I will be the glory in her ,midst.’”
The imagery here is that Yahweh is going to be the protection around Jerusalem. They will not have exterior walls, just the firey presence of God.
In John’s vision as we read about him measuring the temple and altar we are to remember Zechariah 2 and make the connection that God’s temple here is being protected. The outside courtyards are not being protected, instead they are left to be trampled upon by the nations.
This is to communicate a truth specifically to these first century churches who are about to face some severe persecution but it can also apply to us as time goes on.
The temple is language used to represent God’s people. So the temple here is God’s people. Externally we may get trampled upon by the nations, we may face severe persecution that destroys our physical bodies beyond belief but we are God’s temple, protected by the blood of the Lamb. We may suffer but we still and always will live victorious. They may be able to destroy the body but they cannot destroy the soul.
2.) The second vision sheds light on this same idea of being victorious no matter what we face. Here we are presented with two witnesses that God assigns to be prophets to the nations. They are called by God to proclaim God’s truth to the nations. John specifically calls these two witnesses/prophets “lamp stands.”
Lamp stands are symbolic language again for the church. These two prophets represent the churches prophetic role to call the nations to God. But then “the beast that comes up out of the abyss will make war on them, conquer them, and kill them.”(11:7 NIV) (This brings to mind Daniel 7)
At this point, it seems all hope is lost for these two witnesses. Their lives are over. The beast has won, yet “after three and a half days, the breath of life from God entered them and they stood on their feet.”(11:11 NIV)
These two witnesses who were once dead have now entered new life. They like the Savior of the world have been resurrected. They like the slaughtered Lamb have found victory over death.
This very portrayal of the gospel to the nations is what ultimately leads many in the nations to come to repentance. The answer to “how as followers of Jesus do we stand up continually and proclaim the good news even when we are facing the backlash of the nations?” is by living lives like that of our rabbi Jesus. We do not bring people to repentance by force or conquering, people come to repentance by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony.
Summary
How do the nations come to repentance?
By following Jesus’ example of being a living sacrifice. We must be willing to suffer and die, knowing that through Christ we will always live. As Paul the Apostle famously says:
For to me, to live is Christ [He is my source of joy, my reason to live] and to die is gain [for I will be with Him in eternity].
Philippians 1:21(AMP)
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