Revelation 19:10; Worship God
Revelation 19:10 And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
The word “worship” indicates to worship with divine honour. In contrast, this same word can mean to do homage or obeisance to another. This as well as the context shows John’s intention to worship this angel as God (Bullinger).
As a corrective the angel tells John to redirect his worship. John was bewildered for the moment and had lost touch with a truth that he knew quite well (John 1:21-24).
John 4:21-24 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
The angel reinforces his command with a further explanation – for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
Some see John as the source of this explanation (eg. Lee), but its nature requires that it come from the angel as it supplies a reason for the corrective given (Alford). In giving a reason for worshipping God, the words also clarify why “fellowservant” can apply to both the angel and to John. Both angels and humans who convey inspired revelation do so on the basis of the divine witness of Jesus. So it is only appropriate that God alone, the ultimate source of that witness, receive the reverence of those who are impressed by that revelation (Beckwith, Moffatt). Prophecy declares the revelation message, whether delivered by an angel or a man. It is a function of servanthood. Worship does not belong to the servant, but to the one served. [Kiddle, Revelation, p. 383; Beasley-Murray, Revelation, p. 276; Huges, Revelation, p.202.]
The sense of the explanation is He who has the spirit of prophecy will convey Jesus’ testimony. The spirit of prophecy is the Spirit of God working in and through the prophet – i.e., the divinely inspired activity of the prophet (Beckwith, Sweet). The highly regarded Old Testament prophets received revelation through the preexistent Christ (cf. 1 Peter 1:11), but their words could not qualify as new Christian prophecy because no prophetic inspiration was genuine that did not center upon the testimony of Jesus (Moffatt).
1 Peter 1:11 Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.
John and his fellow Christians who were gifted as prophets received prophetic inspiration to speak his testimony along with angels such as John’s guide through Revelation 17:1-19:10. They were merely vehicles of Jesus’ words and did not merit the worship that belongs to God alone.
[Robert L. Thomas, Revelation 8-22 – An Exegetical Commentary, Moody, 1995, 376-377]