“And I will appoint my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days,clothed in sackcloth.” They are “the two olive trees” and the two lampstands, and “they stand before the Lord of the earth”. (Revelation 11:3-4)
There is something about being a witness in this world to the truth of God: such witnesses will be often overlooked or ridiculed by an unbelieving world.
Specifically, when the 2 living witnesses mentioned in the book of Revelation would have completed their testimony to the truth of God, they would be killed while all who despised them will gloat over their dead bodies. (Revelation 11:9-10).
But who are these 2 Witnesses in the book of Revelation? Some have said they are Moses and Elijah, others said they are Enoch and Elijah coming back to life and lastly some say they will be two unknown believers whom God calls to be His witnesses in the end times.
We will not go into the debate of who these witnesses will be since our focus is to have a closer look at why God always have witnesses. The answer is simple: to warn the world of coming judgement so that no man will be with excuse on the Day of Judgment.
Therefore every generation has always had witnesses to warn that God isn’t slack concerning his impending judgement of sin even if by human context of time it seems like forever and that it may never happen. (2 Peter 3:9).
One thing should be made clear, that no generation was ever left alone without God’s witnesses to men about impending judgement of sin and the signs of such things to come.
In Mathew 3:7 we see John the Baptist warning the renegade religious leaders saying: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming judgment”.
In the Book of Isaiah, God himself spoke about giving a sign, that “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel”. (Isaiah 7:14). The first coming of the Messiah Himself fulfilled this promise and his death as a pathway to salvation signals the ultimate warning about the judgment of sinners.
In our own generation, there are of course many witnesses and more will still come but no sign of impending judgement loom larger than the fast spreading gospel of salvation and the in-gathering of the children of Israel as a nation since 1948.
Talking about these two witnesses in our own generation Jesus warned in Mathew 24:14, that “ this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come”.
About the second sign which refers to the in-gathering of the children of Israel precipitated by their persecution across the world,before the second coming of the all conquering Messiah the Bible says :
“In the same way no one ever saw a country begin in one day; no one has ever heard of a new nation beginning in one moment. But Jerusalem will give birth to her children just as soon as she feels the birth pains. (“ Isaiah 66:8 New Century Version (NCV).
Time may not permit us to dig into more details about these two witnesses, that is, the growing message of salvation globally and the continuing in-gathering of the children of Israel back to their ancestral land.
But we have taken time to reflect on these events to warn the backsliding Christian and the unbelieving people whose vocation across generations is to mock the witnesses, disbelief the signs and therefore scorning God’s mercies to sinners and his impeding judgement of sin.
Beloved, the mercy of God to sinners is currently being extended to a sinful world like never before seen and his judgment equally knocks at the door. Everyday of our lives on earth is an opportunity to repent or renew our faith in Jesus Christ.
It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. (Hebrews 10:31).
Reading
Luke 21:5-36
