Verse 3 - “And I will grant authority to my two witnesses
and they will prophesy for twelve hundred and sixty days,
clothed in sack cloth.”
The words “witness, prophesy, and sackcloth” point us to the
nature and character of their ministry. “Witness” refers to
the witness or testimony of these men to the divine truth of
God. “Prophesy” is to speak forth. Included in this was the
element of foretelling future events. However, the gift of
prophecy as found in the early church included with it the
direct communication of a divine message from God (1
Corinthians 14:29-33).
“Clothed in sackcloth,” sackcloth is a very coarse, dark
cloth, often made of hair and worn like a sack. It expressed
mourning, repentance and judgment. Their message will
essentially be the message of John the Baptist, that of
announcing the coming judgments and calling men to repent,
the length of their ministry, “twelve hundred and sixty
days.” In Scripture, a prophetic year is 360 days. The 1260
days equals three and a half years.
