Revelation 11:1,2 - Measuring the temple

This chapter is one that causes most difficulty in interpretation. There are some who don't even think it was part of the original, but they really don't have much evidence for such a silly view.

John is given a reed and told to measure "the temple of God and the altar, with its worshippers". However, he is to exclude the outer court. 

Some thing this temple is a future physical temple that would be built. This is almost certainly wrong. In Zechariah 2 we are told that the city is a city without walls, and that God is its glory within Zech 2:4,5. When Jesus talked about rebuilding the temple it was His own body He was speak about (John 2:21). And Paul tells us that we are temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 6:19). Physical temples are out. 

Then there are some who say it is the believing church, this is much more likely. There are also those who say it is believing Israel. I think this latter view is in error. The new covenant destroys the divide between Israel and Gentiles (Eph 2:11-22), all believers are united in Christ. Theologies that see Israel as somehow separate are in error. Dispensationalist type views and pre-trib rapturists fall into this error as well. Now, I am absolutely certain that Israel will be saved, and that this is fundamental to God's plan, but all believers are united in Christ. Anyway, I guess I am bound to have upset someone now!

However, John is not to measure the outer court, for the Gentiles will trample on this for forty two months. There may well be an allusion to the time of Antiochus Epiphanes (168-165 BC) who caused much Jewish suffering. The period of three and a half years should not necessarily be taken literally, it may come to be just symbolic of a time of great persecution or reign of wickedness.

So why is John told to measure the part of the temple he is to measure? The message is that although traumatic times lie ahead (or we may be in the middle of them) God has not forgotten His people, He has not forgotten the church nor His temple. 

As an aside, it may be clear from what I say here and elsewhere that I don't have much time for numbers, and over specific interpretation of numbers or symbols. I do think that some people get far too hung up on these things. However, there is a danger that I won't pay sufficient attention to them. So just a warning. All of us have our faults and blind-spots and biases in interpretation and I have mine.