Commentaries:
No entry exists in Forerunner Commentary for Revelation 22:8.
Revelation 22:8-9
Excerpted from: The Spirit WorldThese two passages show the position and the attitude of the righteous angels. We do not know who this angel was. He is not given a name. It could have been Gabriel. That would be a total assumption. I do not know. Gabriel does seem to have been used by God to make revelations of things. He did it to Daniel and he revealed to Mary that she would have the Son. So it is not without a good biblical background that this might have been Gabriel, but since he had already been introduced in the Bible, why did God not put it in here? Well, He did not. So we just have to say, well, we do not know.
So these two passages show here that the angels do not consider themselves worthy of worship, and they are not. Like I said earlier, they are higher than us on the scale of things right now, at this time. But they are not worthy of worship. And just from the sound of this angel's response to John falling down on his face here, they do not want it. They do not want the reverence of human beings.
Now I am just wondering, did John have a lingering influence from Greek and Jewish thought at the time about angels? Or was he just overwhelmed? I kind of lean toward the overwhelmed thing, that he just kind of forgot himself because of all the things that he was being shown. They were just so magnificent and this angel seemed to be the representative present and he just fell on his face. But whoever the angel was here admirably said, "No. Don't do this. This isn't right. Worship God!"
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