This text is located in the “trumpet” section of the book of Revelation, which began in chapter 8. The trigger for the blowing of the respective trumpets was the prayers of the saints (Revelation 8:3–4), which clearly ought to be in step with Jesus’ instruction about prayer (Matthew 6:5–13; Luke 11:1–4). The first four divine responses to the prayers of the saints involved natural disasters of some form (Revelation 8:7–12). The responses to prayers with the fifth and sixth trumpets were of a different kind, involving the release of demons from the abyss upon the earth (Revelation 9:1–11) and the influx of pagan thinking in lands that once knew the gospel (Revelation 9:13–19). The release of demons from the abyss formed the first woe upon the earth (Revelation 8:13; Revelation 9:12); the influx of paganism formed the second woe (Revelation 9:12; Revelation 11:14). Jesus delayed showing John about the third woe (see Revelation 11:14b) until he had provided two vignettes intended to encourage John and his readers. Chapter 11 forms the second of these two vignettes (the first was the vision of the angel of Revelation 10:1–11).
1 Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff, and I was told, “Rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there,