The Two Witnesses

"And I will give power to My two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth." (Revelation 11:3)

In the middle of Revelation, two men stand in the street of Jerusalem. Fire comes from their mouths and devours their enemies. They shut heaven so that no rain falls. They turn waters to blood and strike the earth with every plague, as often as they wish. When their testimony is finished, the beast kills them, and the world celebrates over their bodies for three and a half days. Then the breath of life enters them, and a voice from heaven says, "Come up here."

John never names them. He does something better. He describes their works, and every one of those works has been done before, by two men.

The Two Witnesses follows those works back to their owners. It begins with the passage itself, the rule that every word is established by two witnesses, and Zechariah's vision of the lampstand and the two sons of oil who stand by the Lord of the whole earth. It shows why the witnesses also stand for the two great Houses, Judah and Israel.

Then it walks through each man's life. Moses, who spoke with God face to face, turned the Nile to blood, promised a Prophet like himself, and was buried by God where no one could find him. Elijah, who stood before the Lord, shut heaven for three and a half years, called down fire on Carmel, and was taken up in a whirlwind without dying. The two men met again on the mountain of transfiguration, speaking with Jesus about His departure.

The book closes with the days of their testimony, their death and rising in the sight of their enemies, and the place they hold before the throne.

He did not write their names. He wrote their works.