…and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city that symbolically is called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified. – Revelation 11:8

Let’s just think about the Sodom part of this verse. As I was wrestling with what this meant, I needed to remember the story of Sodom. I recall Abraham’s pleas but no righteous were found. Fire and brimstone come crashing on that city and justice rained down.

So, if I am to think of this when I read Rev 11:8 how am I to understand it? If it is symbolically the place where the Lord was crucified then is it right to think of it in a reversal?

So, instead of raining judgment on the wicked city, judgment lands on the only righteous One. I think that’s how we are to understand the two witnesses who are killed in the wicked city instead of the unrighteous.

But, just as Christ was raised and brought up to heaven so too the witnesses. THEN a taste of the judgment to come for some and leaving the rest in terror and they gave glory to the God of Heaven.

Imagine, the day Christ was crucified. The city was filled with nothing but unrighteous people like Sodom but the judgment fell on the only One who was righteous in order that he might save the unrighteous! Amazing!

My response and quotes from “Enjoying Your Prayer Life” by Michael Reeves:

I’ve heard this story of Martin Luther’s prayer life and when I’ve heard it, it has crushed me in the past because that’s not me.

Here’s the “story”

Apparently he was asked one evening what he’d be doing the next day and he replied, “Work, work from early till late. In fact I have so much to do that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer.”

Perhaps a quote from Luther that reveals a man like us who struggled as we do:

He wrote this to his friend Philipp Melanchon, “You extol me so much…Your high opinion of me shames and tortures me, since—unfortunately—I sit here like a fool and hardened in leisure, pray little, do not sigh for the church of God…In short I should be ardent in spirit, but I am ardent in flesh, in lust, laziness, leisure, and sleepiness…Already eight days have passed in which I have written nothing, in I have not prayed or studied; this is partly because of temptations of the flesh, partly because I am tortured by other burdens.”

Be careful not to tell the story of your life only on the good days but also the hard days. The edited version doesn’t help your fellow brothers and sisters persevere!