A Study On Revelation 11 Series

MEASURE: a length; an amount; a determination regarding a plan. All of these can be seen in what God is doing here in chapter 11 of Revelation.

In VERSE 1, we read,

“Then I was given a measuring reed like a rod, with these words: “Go and measure God’s sanctuary and the altar, and count those who worship there.”

A rod was a stick about 10 feet long that was used for measuring. The reed given to John would have, therefore, been the same length. He was told to measure the temple’s sanctuary and to count the number of people in it.

This would make it clear that there would be a temple at the time of John’s vision. The temple has always played a very important role in God’s dealing with the Jewish Nation. Many scholars believe that since everyone would already know the exact dimensions of the temple,

John was to measure the character of the temple. In other words, did it really represent a place that truly worshiped the Lord God, or was it a place that only represented yet another line of traditions that meant nothing spiritually to the Jewish people?

And to measure the number of people in it, is thought to represent the measuring of the people’s character. That is similar to our churches today in that many people may come through our doors, but not all of them are true believers. Just as many people come to church for a variety of reasons, many will go to the temple for various reasons, too – and not all are for Godly reasons.

HERE IS SOME BASIC INFORMATION ON THE TEMPLE:

Solomon built the first temple on Mount Moriah, just outside of Jerusalem, in 1050 B.C. A little more than 400 years later, the Babylonians destroyed it. A second temple was built some 70-years after that. About 20 years before Jesus was born, King Herod had this temple enlarged and remodeled. He was trying to win over favor of the Jews.

He had pure gold melted down and “painted” on all the interior walls. It was this temple that Jesus referred to in MATTHEW 24:2 when He said, “There shall not be one stone left standing.”

Forty years after Jesus’ resurrection, General Titus of Rome ordered his army to ransack Jerusalem. He gave orders not to destroy the temple, but a Roman soldier disobeyed the general and set fire to the temple. The fire burned so hot it melted all the gold and it ran down between the stone blocks as it melted. Thus, the Roman soldiers, in their greed to take all the gold, took all the blocks down so they could scrape the gold out from in between them. This made Jesus’ prophecy come true.

And talking about temples, know there will be another one built. It will be the temple that John refers to in his vision in the book of REVELATION.

In the Institute of Temple Treasures, in Jerusalem, you can see that they have already made all of the things that go into this temple. They have fashioned all the spoons, goblets, plates, and more in the same way the originals were made.

They have made all the wall hangings and cloths just like the originals, and have even dyed them using the same techniques used then. Everything is completely ready – except for the temple. They have made a fairly large replica of a temple outside Jerusalem, but it is only a model. The real one is yet to be built. There is even a school that teaches young priests how to properly prepare an animal for sacrifice according to the traditions of the past.

So, does this mean we might see the temple rebuilt before the Rapture? We don’t know. There is one obstacle in the way at present. That obstacle is a mosque known as the Dome of the Rock.

In the late 600’s (after Jesus), a man by the name of Omar build a mosque over a rock that is believed to be where the prophet Muhammad left his footprint as he leapt upward and an angel took him to heaven.

So, if this Islamic site is there, how in the world could they build a temple there without causing all Muslims to immediately come against them? Archeologists have found in the last 20 years or so that there is a flat rock 300 feet to the north of the Dome. They believe that is the actual place of the original temple for several reasons.

First, because it is flat, and therefore more accustomed to building a temple on it, where the rock at the Dome is jagged and uneven. Also, because in the original temple, the priest could stand in the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement, look out the veil and through the door and see the Eastern Gate right in front of them. That cannot happen at the Dome of the Rock site.