And I fell at his feet to worship him
Being transported with the news he brought him of the marriage,
or conversion of his countrymen the Jews, and struck with
reverence and awe of the glory and majesty in which the angel
appeared to him; and forgetting himself, that worship was only
due to God, he behaved in this manner; which is not to be excused
nor justified, as appears from the angel's words:
and he said unto me, see thou do it not;
the words are in the original very short and concise, and are
spoken in an abrupt manner, and in great haste; as fearing he
would be guilty of idolatry, before he could speak all his mind,
and use the arguments that were necessary to dissuade from it:
I am thy fellow servant, and of thy brethren that have the
testimony
of Jesus;
if this was one of the ministering spirits, he was a servant of
the same Lord as John; and if he was a minister of the Gospel, he
was still more literally a fellow servant of his, and of the
apostles, and preachers of the Gospel; which is meant by the
testimony of Jesus, that bearing testimony to the person, office,
grace, obedience, sufferings, and death of Christ, and the glory
following; and therefore being but a servant, and a servant in
common with John and his brethren, was by no means to be
worshipped; not the servant, but master; not the creature, but
the Creator:
worship God
and him only, even God the Father, Son, and Spirit; not the
Father to the exclusion of the Son, the firstborn, whom all the
angels are called upon to worship; nor of the Spirit, who is
equally joined with the Father and Son in baptism, a part of
religious worship, and in other parts of it also; but this
excludes all creatures, angels, and men, things animate or
inanimate, and images of them; the worshipping of which will now
be no more, or at least will be quickly at an end.
For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of
prophecy
that is, the testimony of Jesus, or the Gospel which John and his
brethren had, is the very spirit, life, and soul of the prophecy
of this book; for as all the prophets bore witness to Christ, so
does the Spirit of God in this; or the testimony which they had,
and bore to Christ, was equal to the spirit of prophecy with
which this angel was endowed; so that he and they were upon an
equal foot; and he was no more a proper object of divine and
religious adoration than they were.