For three and a half days those from every people, tribe, nation, and language will look at [the prophets’] corpses, because they will not permit them to be placed in a tomb. And those who live on the earth will rejoice over them and celebrate, even sending gifts to each other, because these two prophets had tormented those who live on the earth. But after three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and tremendous fear seized those who were watching them. … Just then a major earthquake took place and a tenth of the city collapsed; seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven. Revelation 11:9-11, 13
New English Translation
At the beginning of Revelation 11, we get introduced to two very powerful prophets sent by God. Though they are described as “consuming their enemies” and destroying those who oppose them, eventually we read about the beast coming and killing both prophets. Sadly, rather than mourning a tragic death, the people rejoice that God’s prophets are dead! In a situation like that, it is pretty easy to think that the enemy is winning and things are pretty hopeless.
Though I do think it is really tragic that people would rejoice over God’s workers dying, I think what follows is even cooler. Not only did God raise both prophets from the dead and call them into heaven with Him, but He vindicated their deaths with an earthquake that killed thousands of people. Then, here’s where the really amazing thing happens, the people gave glory to God. That’s right. After all that, they gave glory to God.
I think what we forget is that sometimes people have to see a little tragedy before they’re willing to see the awesomeness of God. When life’s going alright and you like where you’re headed, you think you’re okay and you got things figured out. However, when everything falls apart, that’s when you start asking hard questions and evaluating what you’ve been doing with your life.
In Revelation 11, we get to see that the people thought they had “won” the battle. The prophets they really did not like were dead, and so they celebrated. Then, God shook their world (literally), and their eyes were opened. Sometimes a person has to fall off a pedestal to realize they were never supposed to be on it in the first place.
In life, it is so easy to want to avoid the hard things, we don’t want to experience them and we don’t want other people to have to go through them either. However, if we were to remove bad situations from life, then we’d miss the good that can come from them. Yes, we do not want tragedy to ever happen, but we have to realize that God can use even the worst of things to bring Himself glory.
Realize this, though in this case God used tragedy to shake an evil people out of their security and open their eyes, sometimes tragedy happens for no reason at all. If God can use tragedy to help evil people, then when difficulties happen for no reason to good people, surely He can redeem that and use it too! Remember, God is not limited by such things. What we see as simply sad and heartbreaking, He sees beyond, opening doors and avenues to do something great in your life.
So, here’s what I want you to take away from this: be open to tragedy blossoming into something better. When a family member or friend you’ve been praying will come to salvation has a hard time, pray that it will open their eyes to see God and that they will come out of it stronger and better as they align with God. If you personally are going through a struggle, don’t assume that God is punishing you. Rather, ask God to use it to strengthen your faith and refine you, knowing that if God can use tragedy to bring someone to Him, then He can work through tragedy in your life just as powerfully.
Sometimes all we need is a perspective change. Then, rather than seeing the world as a hopeless broken place, we begin to see it as a place full of potential for God to do something amazing. Are you ready to see the potential for God to move?