Revelation 11:7, 8

And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.

And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.

This is a shocking picture.

Jerusalem is the city of David. Jerusalem is the city of the temple. Jerusalem is the city where our Lord walked, taught, bled, died, and rose again. It is the city over which Jesus wept. And yet here in Revelation 11, the Spirit gives it two dreadful names. Sodom. Egypt.

That tells you how far a city can fall when it rejects the One who came to save it.

Sodom speaks of corruption. Egypt speaks of bondage. Put the two together and you have a city that has become morally twisted and spiritually enslaved. And this is not Nineveh being described. Not Babylon. Not Rome. This is Jerusalem.

That is sobering.

A place can have history and still lose its heart.
A place can have religion and still reject Christ.
A place can have sacred memories and still become hard, worldly, and blind.

That is what makes this passage cut so deep. The city that should have known Him best is now described in terms that speak of rebellion and uncleanness. The very city where our Lord was crucified becomes the place where His witnesses are murdered and left in the street.

Think about that.

When men reject Jesus, they do not stay neutral. They drift somewhere. And the drift is always downward. A city without Christ does not become enlightened. It becomes like Egypt. A people who push away the Lord do not become free. They become like Sodom. That is the tragedy here.

And yet even here, there is something steadying in the text.

The beast does not touch these witnesses until they have finished their testimony. Not before. Not one day early. Not one word short. Hell may hate them. The beast may make war against them. But only when their testimony is finished does he prevail.

I love that, because it reminds me that God still sets the limit.

The enemy is fierce, but he is not sovereign.
The beast is violent, but he is not in charge.
The witnesses fall only when heaven says their work is done.

So even in this dark scene, God is still ruling. Even in a city turned sour, God is still keeping count. Even when Jerusalem looks more like Sodom and Egypt than Zion, the Lord has not lost hold of the story.

Beloved, this is a warning, but it is also a mirror. Any church, any city, any life that rejects Jesus may still keep its name, its traditions, its forms, but inwardly it starts looking like the world. That is the danger. The answer is not more religion. The answer is Christ Himself.

Because once He is rejected, decline begins.
But where He is received, everything changes.