Readings:
2 Maccabees 10-11
Revelation 11

2 Maccabees 10-11

These chapters recount events we’ve already read in 1 Maccabees, but again the writer here focuses not just on recounting history, but on giving the why and not just the what and who. Even towards the end of chapter 10 it says how the small group of men were enraged at the blasphemy and that was their motivation to go behind enemy lines and open the city gates from the inside. It was righteous zeal for the things of God, not personal gain or glory.

Some of the final battles of Judas Maccabaeus’ career take place and he prays for divine intervention. Not only does God answer his prayer, he also sends an angelic warrior to fight with for them in the battle and they’re victorious. The ensuing peace was also covered in 1 Maccabees.

Revelation 11

John is given a reed and told to measure the temple, but not the outer courtyard of the gentiles. This is using imagery from Ezekiel where he also measured the temple with a reed. The outer courtyard was as far as uncircumcised gentiles could come, they weren’t admitted to the inner courtyard or inside the temple. The trampling of the outer court represents believers being protected while unbelievers are marked for judgment. This is similar to how the believers were sealed before the seventh seal was broke, and now we await the seventh trumpet.

The time for the unbelievers to be trampled over mirrors the amount of time that Antiochus Epiphanes persecuted the Jews from 168-165 BC. Dispensationalists point to this and say it’s evidence that the temple in Jerusalem will be rebuilt because this prophecy has yet to be fulfilled. But if you look at what happened during the first Jewish revolt, Jerusalem was placed under siege and sacrifices ceased for 3 1/2 years.

The two witnesses are identified with the two olive trees from Zachariah, that were initially fulfilled in Joshua the high priest and Zerubebel, will testify to Jesus Christ’s as the fulfillment of the Law and Prophets like Moses and Elijah on the Mount of The Transfiguration of Christ. Their unlimited prophecy and then war with the beast, which symbolizes Rome, says that the church will be unrestricted in its spread until eventually Nero all but declares war of the church. He will kill many Christians, even to the point of the unbelievers celebrating because they believe this newfound religion is dead, but it will be n unsuccessful war against the church. Even to this day, many empires have tried to destroy the church; they’re all gone, but the church remains.

The seventh trumpet is blown and the elders fall down worshiping God. They sing a shortened version of the title of God from the first chapter, they omit “who is to come” and that is deliberate, because just as the angel announced after blowing the trumpet, the kingdom of God has arrived and the Lord is no longer the one who is to come, he has now arrived as king and judge. It’s important to remember this moment when we discuss the millennium reign in coming chapters because this moment is key in understanding that part of the eschatological events of Revelation.

It’s also important to remember that chapter and verse numbering were added hundreds of years after the Biblical texts were written. So the chapter breaks are artificial to the text and though they usually flow well, I think this last verse in 11 would best be read if it were the first verse of chapter 12.

Tomorrow’s Readings:
2 Maccabees 12-13
Revelation 12