3 And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.”
4 These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. 5 And if anyone would harm them, fire pours from their mouth and consumes their foes. If anyone would harm them, this is how he is doomed to be killed. 6 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. 7 And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that rises from the bottomless pit[a] will make war on them and conquer them and kill them, 8 and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city that symbolically[b] is called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified. 9 For three and a half days some from the peoples and tribes and languages and nations will gaze at their dead bodies and refuse to let them be placed in a tomb, 10 and those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and make merry and exchange presents, because these two prophets had been a torment to those who dwell on the earth. 11 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. 12 Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here!” And they went up to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies watched them. 13 And at that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.
14 The second woe has passed; behold, the third woe is soon to come.
In 6 the vision changes, and the references change. Obviously we have here allusions to Elijah and Moses and the miracles they performed during their ministry (cf 1 Kings 17:1; Exodus 7:19). (Vision-wise, we should not be surprised that the details of the vision flash and change in quick succession). It is in relation to the reference to Elijah that we see the point of the 'forty two months' mentioned in 2 and the '1260 days' in 3 -these are not literal periods but symbolic, representing those particular times in O.T. economy when the testimony of God was made at such cost, speaking of the times of crisis through which the Church of God will pass. Elijah and Moses represent the faithful witness of the Church in an age of darkness and decline. Thus again, we have the picture of the work and witness of the true Church of Christ when, amidst opposition and adversity, she builds up the Kingdom of God. The 'fire' proceeding out of the mouths of the two witnesses has already been seen in chapter 8 in the fire of God coming down in answer to the prayers of the saints. The Church still in a very real sense smites the earth with plagues. She 'torments' the earth, as we read in 11. There is a 'torment' value in the gospel. We have only to think of the effect the apostolic message had upon Saul of Tarsus to see how maddening the gospel can be to those who will not bow the knee to Christ. Such then is the assurance given to John, and one to be received today also when hearts are filled with misgiving about the fate of God's people behind Iron and Bamboo curtain - the assurance that the work of God is continuing, and being established, and not all the wiles of Satan can prevent the fulfilment of His sovereign purposes among men.