Scouring Scripture (Revelation 11)

revelation-11The book of Revelation gives us plenty of fun opportunities to scour scripture, searching for answers to the riddles found in it. For example, in Revelation 11, John described two witnesses who will prophesy for 3 ½ years during the end times.

Of course, we can’t know definitively who these two men will be, but many scholars believe that they will be Enoch and Elijah, the two men who scripture states never died. It is also possible, however, that the two men will actually be Elijah and Moses. Here’s why that argument is so compelling.

Revelation states that these men will have the power to stop the rain for 1,260 days- the exact 3 ½ years that Elijah made the rain stop in 1 Kings 17. These two men will also be able to turn water into blood and reign down plagues on the earth. Obviously, Moses famously had experience with both in Exodus.

Whoever these prophets will be, they will be the ones giving people one final chance to turn to Jesus. They will have every resource at their disposal to do this and do it well, but in the end, they will be killed and left in the street to rot. It doesn’t seem fair!

But this isn’t the end of the story. Just when all hope seems gone, God will step in and finish His good work and we learn an important lesson. We aren’t responsible for results. We are responsible for obedience. We have to do what God tells us to do and do it to the very best of our ability, but we leave the results up to Him.

The Bible is full of examples of people who never saw the results of their obedience, but they obeyed anyway. We have the great privilege of reading the rest of their story.

When we become discouraged in our ministry and wonder if any of it matters, let’s remember this truth: we are responsible to obey, God is responsible for all the rest and He never fails. Keep obeying friend! It will all matter in the end.

(For those who have missed any of the previous lessons, you can go to https://comethirstyministry.com/blog/ and view all previous postings.)

Week Fifty-One

Day 1: Revelation 8 (Everyone)
Day 2: Revelation 10 (Everyone)
Day 3: Revelation 11 (Everyone)
Day 4: Revelation 12 (Everyone)
Day 5: Revelation 17 (Everyone)