Reviving the Two Witnesses

 BEFORE the second woe is finally past, the strong angel calls upon John to take part in another prophetic presentation, this one having to do with the temple.   (Revelation 9:12; 10:1)  Here is what John reports:  "And a reed like a rod was given me as he said; 'Get up and measure the temple sanctuary of God and the altar and those worshipping in it." - REVELATION 11:1.

The Temple Sanctuary

The temple here mentioned cannot be any literal temple in Jerusalem, since the last of these was destroyed by the Romans in 70 C.E.  The apostle Paul, however, showed that even before that destruction, there had appeared another temple sanctuary that would endure right up to our day.  That was the great spiritual temple that fulfilled the prophetic types provided by the tabernacle and later by the temples  built in Jerusalem.  It is "the true tent, which Jehovah put up. and not man," and its High Priest is Jesus, whom Paul describes as having already "sat down at the right side of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens." Its Most Holy is the loccation of Jehovah's presence in heaven itself. - HEBREWS 8:1, 2; 9:11, 24. 

The apostle Paul explains that the curtain of the tabernacle, separating the Most Holy from the holy compartment, pictures Jesus' flesh.  When Jesus sacrificed his life, this curtain   was rent in two, showing that Jesus' flesh was no longer a barrier to his entry into Jehvoah's  presence in heaven.  On the basis of Jesus' sacrifice, his anointed underpriests who died faithful would, in due course, also pass into the heavens.  (Matthew  27:50, 51; Hebrews 9:3; 10:19, 20)   Paul points out, too, that the continual sacrifics of the animals at the tabernacle pointed forward to Jesus' one sacrifice of his perfect human life.  The altar of the sacrifice in the courtyard represented Jehovah's provision, according to his will, for accepting Jesus' sacrifice in  behalf of the "many'-of the anointed and, later, of the other sheep-who would be "earnestly looking for him for their salvation." - HEBREWS 9:28; 10:9, 10; JOHN 10:16. 

From this divinely inspired information, we can conclude that the Holy Place in the tabernacle symbolizes a holy condition enjoyed first by Christ and then by the anointed members of the royal priesthood of the 144,000 while they are on  still on earth, before enterng through "the curtain." (Hebrews 76:19, 20; 1 Peter 2:9) It well  represents their having been adopted as spiritual sons of God, even as God acknowledge Jesus to be his Son following Jesus' baptism in the Jordan in 29 C.E.  (Luke 3:22; Romans 8:15) And what of the inner courtyard, the only part of the tabernacle visible to nonpriestly Israelites and the place where the sacrifices were made?  This picturs  the perfect standing of the man Jesus that qualifified him to offer his life for mankind. It also represents the righteous standing as holy ones, imputed on the basis of Jesus' sacrifice, that his anointed followers enjoy while on earth. - ROMANS 1:7; 5:1. 

Next time:  Reviving the Two Witnesses - Measuring the Temple Sanctuary

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