Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff, and I was told, “Rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there, 2 but do not measure the court outside the temple; leave that out, for it is given over to the nations, and they will trample the holy city for forty-two months. 3 And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.”
Chapter 11 continues the interlude begun in chapter 10, and develops the thought of the latter part of it, viz, the bitterness encountered in the preaching of the Word of God. We are given a description of the bitter experiences the Church of Christ must pass through when it preaches the message of salvation. There are three unequal sections, describing the Apostle measuring the temple of God (1, 2); the ministry and fate of the two witnesses (3-14); and the final trumpet blown and the victory song of the saints in glory (15-19). We look first of all at the measuring of the temple. The 'court which is without' refers to the outer court of the temple, into which Gentiles were allowed to come, as distinct from the holy place and the holiest of all, the two inner courts. The 'measuring' seems to signify protection from profanation. As one commentator puts it, it means 'to set it apart from that which is profane, in order that, thus separated, it may be perfectly safe, protected from all harm. The sanctuary is 'accepted' while the court is 'rejected'.' The outer court given to the Gentiles indicates that practical heathenism and corruption have invaded the temple of God. As another commentator says, 'John seems to envisage a time when the outer courts of the Church's witness will be trodden underfoot by unbelievers'. Now bear in mind that we are at the stage between the sixth and seventh trumpets, awaiting the sounding of the last trumpet. Here, then, is a vision of what we may expect to see in the Church of God prior to that time. And we see, in the vision, a Church whose outer court has become prostituted by unbelievers and desecrated and made profane. This may well have been unthinkable and fantastic in John's day, when the Church was inevitably composed of men and women with a true experience of grace. But it has certainly become true - and is sadly true - of our own time. One does not think simply of the large numbers on the congregational rolls of our Churches who seldom, if ever, come to church, but of the division that exists among those who do come, and come regularly - between those who have known a personal encounter with Christ and those who are formally religious, however devout and enthusiastic they may be. It is certainly these latter who are largely responsible for the introduction of so much that is irrelevant to the Church's life -the worldliness and secularism that has all but driven the real message of grace out of the Church of Christ. So much so indeed that all over Scotland, when a man seeks to introduce the living gospel and a testimony of grace, you would almost think he was trying to introduce a plague into a congregation, such is the resentment, the opposition, almost diabolical at times, that he meets with in seeking to do his work. This is the kind of work that is adumbrated in John's vision of the measuring of the temple.