And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein. (Revelation 11:1)
The line of thought in ch. 10 carries into ch. 11.
Them that worship.
That is, true spiritual Israel, the people of God, as contrasted with the “Gentiles” (v. 2). The measurement of worshipers suggests a work of judgment (see EGW Supplementary Material on this verse).
Temple.
Gr. naos (see on chs. 3:12; 7:15; cf. ch. 11:19). Following the great disappointment of October 22, 1844, the attention of the Adventist believers was directed to the heavenly sanctuary and to the work of Christ as high priest in that sanctuary. That the reference is not to the literal temple in Jerusalem may be deduced from the fact that when John received his visions, the temple lay in ruins. Because of the rejection of the Jews as God’s chosen representatives (see on Matt. 21:43; see Vol. IV, pp. 26-33), that temple will never be restored as a divinely recognized center of worship (see on Eze. 40:1). Consequently “them that worship” are not literal Jews worshipping in their literal temple, but those who direct their worship to the heavenly temple, where Christ ministers in behalf of His children (Heb. 8:1, 2). In a special sense and in the context of this prophecy, the measuring takes place at a specific period in the history of the church.
Measure.
. On the basis of Zechariah’s symbol of the man with a measuring line who measured Jerusalem as an assurance that the city would be rebuilt (see on Zech. 2:2), it may be suggested that the measuring of the temple and worshipers here is also a promise of restoration and preservation. Between the sixth and seventh seals is a parenthetical assurance that in spite of the terrors that attend the second coming of Christ, God has a people who will stand (see Rev. 7; cf. on ch. 6:17). Similarly, the present parenthesis between the sixth and seventh trumpets may also be intended as a reassurance that in the midst of the horrors attendant on the blowing of the trumpets, God’s temple—that is, the plan of redemption portrayed there—and His true worshippers are secure.
This restoration and preservation of God’s temple would seem also to have a particular application to the fuller understanding of the meaning of Christ’s ministry in the heavenly sanctuary that has come since 1844.
Rise.
John is bidden to enter into the action of the vision.
The angel stood.
Textual evidence favors ( cf. p. 10) the omission of these words (cf. R.S.V.).