Revelation 19:10

The Error of the Seer, Revelation 19:10

10. to worship him Perhaps understanding from the last words that the speaker was God Himself. In the O. T. God had revealed Himself to men by means of angels, and men had, by falling at the feet of angels, rightly worshipped the God Who was present in them (see esp. Hosea 12:4 compared with Genesis 32:30). But since a more perfect revelation of God has been given by the Incarnation, no such divine presence in an angel is to be looked for. (So Jer. Taylor, Dissuasive from Popery, Part II. 11. Revelation 8:3.) We have therefore no need to suppose that the holy apostle was in intent guilty of idolatry; he meant the worship for God in the angel, but this being an angel and nothing more, it follows of course that he ought not to be honoured as God. See Revelation 22:8.

I am thy fellowservant In a sense, the angels are even servants to the elect on earth, Hebrews 1:14.

and of thy brethren that have, &c. In the parallel passage, Revelation 22:9, we have "thy brethren the prophets," and the sense seems to be the same here, from the last words of the verse.

have the testimony of Jesus Revelation 1:2; Revelation 1:9; Revelation 6:9, and, closest of all, Revelation 12:17. In all these the word rendered "testimony" comes near to the sense that became technical, of "martyrdom."

for the testimony, &c. Comparing Revelation 22:9 with the passages last cited, it seems that the sense of the passage is, "Martyrdom like thine" (the seer was at least a confessor, Revelation 1:2, perhaps, as tradition says, a provedmartyr in will) "and thy brethren's involves in it the grace of prophecy, and so places the martyrs in so close communion with God that they need no angel mediator." But what is said to St John as a prophet is in its measure true of all Christians. All in their measure are witnesses for Christ, and all partakers of His Spirit; and therefore all are prophets in the same sense that they are all priests and kings. Thus all, if not yet"equal with the angels" (St Luke 20:36), are brought too near to God to need angels to bring Him near to them.