If you met a person with superhuman powers, would you be afraid of them or try to be their friend?
The Brewery Ministries Paraphrase
It's a normal day. Sort of. Nothing's truly been normal for a while now. But on this day, a guy shows up saying he's going to "measure the temple." But he's been told to ignore the outer court. I tell him they don't make measuring tape that long, but he doesn't seem to get the joke.
Then two strangers show up in the middle of the city. What they're wearing is a bit odd — they're wearing sackcloths. They came for one reason and one reason alone: they've been given 1,260 days to talk some sense into the world. And they aren't just talking either. They have the most heavy-metal defense system ever. If anyone tries to mess with them, fire comes out of their mouths. Yeah… some people don't seem to like that much.
The fire was just the start. Somehow they had control over the weather. They can switch off the rain and turn the city into a desert on command. Who are these guys, the X-Men? But one of their abilities is the worst plague of all. You can go up to a drinking fountain and they can turn the water to blood. It's like being trapped inside of a Resident Evil video game.
They can summon any plague they want, whenever they want. But if you leave them alone, you have no reason to worry. They only curse people who mess with them.
For three and a half years, these two are untouchable. But then… someone really messes them up. It is said that the beast broke out of a prison built for angels called The Abyss. A seven-headed beast with ten horns shows up looking to fight the two men. It's bad. Real bad. The beast murders the two men in the middle of the street.
But then people get even more weird. They leave the bodies on the sidewalk like a tourist attraction. Some are so happy these guys are dead that they create a holiday to celebrate their murder. They even exchange presents and say "Happy Death Day!" to each other. Imagine waking up, seeing two corpses on the news, and thinking, "Finally! I'm sending Sharon a nice cheese basket to celebrate."
The party lasts exactly three and a half days. Just as the hangover is setting in, the corpses stand up. A voice from the clouds shouts, "COME UP HERE," and the two men float into the sky in a cloud while their enemies stop partying to watch in total terror. To put an exclamation point on their exit, a massive earthquake levels a tenth of the city and kills 7,000 people. Happy Death Day…
Fire from their mouths. Blood from the fountains. Bodies on the sidewalk. And somehow, that's not even the weirdest part.
Work Through the Evidence
Fire-breathing isn't just here to make the story epic — it's a clue. Fire is sometimes a symbol of God's judgment in the Bible. People who tried to hurt the two men were killed by their fire-breath, likely a metaphor. What might this metaphor mean?
At first glance, John walking around with a measuring stick seems random. But in the Bible, measuring is code for checking the status of people's hearts — God checking to see who's actually on His team. John is told to measure the "inner temple" where God's followers gathered, but to totally ignore the "outer court" where others hung out. Then the fire-breathing men show up. Interpret the metaphor — what does it mean?
Here are some clues to why the men dressed like a sack of potatoes 🤣 People used to wear sackcloths when they were mourning. Put yourself in their shoes. How would you feel if you saw the world in an apocalyptic state? What would you do?
The plagues in this story are actually a "parallel" to the plagues sent against Egypt in Exodus. Through two men (Moses and Aaron), God turned the river into blood, blotted out the sun, and sent hail. God was judging Egypt's leader for enslaving and abusing His followers. How does this help explain why God might be sending plagues through two men again in Revelation 11?
Who were these guys? Some scholars think the two men are new "actors" playing the roles of Moses and Elijah — the two men in Revelation 11 seem to have their exact superpowers. But there's also a more literal theory: Enoch and Elijah were the only two people in the Bible said to have never died — taken to heaven while still alive. Some think they were saved for this exact moment. Which theory do you find more compelling and why?
The 7-headed beast breaks out of The Abyss — the Alcatraz of the spiritual realm, a maximum security prison for angels, associated with chaos and death. What do you think it means that this beast was able to kill the two protectors sent by God?
What do you think of how the world responded to the two men's deaths? They left the bodies on the street and threw a party. Can you ever see a situation in real life where people throw parties to celebrate the murder or silencing of good people?
Why It Matters
When something in Revelation is a clear callback to an Old Testament story, it's a clue that helps us interpret it more accurately rather than letting our imaginations run wild. What we know for sure is that this story takes place when the world is in shambles — society has reached the point where people are seriously harming each other.
So God "measures" people's hearts to see who should be protected from what's coming and who wants to be part of the future He's planning. The two men show up to grieve the state of the world and protect the people God marked as safe. They could be thought of as guardians sent by God.
The beast gets his power from the dragon — a metaphor for Satan. The world has become so mixed up that people can't even recognize the men were sent as protectors. They celebrate the death of the ones trying to save them. The celebration shows us that people have given themselves over to the beast's influence.
It's a bleak story — but in the end, God raises the two men from the dead. The earthquake is a callback to the one at Jesus' crucifixion. It seems God is so committed to giving us freedom of choice that He'll honor our decisions even when it means we destroy this world. But the hope in this story is that He will undo death — just as He did for Jesus and the two men here.
"And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth."
And if anyone would harm them, fire pours from their mouth and consumes their foes... They have the power to shut the sky, that no rain may fall during the days of their prophesying, and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague, as often as they desire.
When they have finished their testimony, the beast that rises from the bottomless pit will make war on them and conquer them and kill them... But after the three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood up on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them. Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, "Come up here!" And they went up to heaven in a cloud.
What Did You Find?
My Overall Conclusions
I Learned This About God
I Learned This About Myself
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📜 Bizarre Bible Unfiltered Stories — Your Progress
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