You must be in fellowship prior to your Bible study, so that the spiritual information you receive can become a source, of blessing to your soul and produce spiritual growth.
8 And[kai] I[ego] John[Ioannes] saw[blepo] these things,[tauta] and[kai] heard[akouo] them. And[kai] when[hote] I had heard[akouo] and[kai] seen,[blepo] I fell down[pipto] to
worship[proskuneo] before[emprosthen] the feet[pous] of the
angel[aggelos] which[ho] shewed[deiknuo] me[moi] these things.[tauta] KJV-Interlinear
8 And I,
John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I heard and saw, I
fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed me these things. NASB
John testifies here that he has actually seen and heard all of these visions.
He saw and heard the angels, he has known the other apostles, the mother of Jesus, and even Jesus Himself. John accompanied Jesus for three-and-a-half-years, during Jesus' ministry. John saw His miracles, saw His crucifixion, saw His resurrection and ascension. John is thoroughly convinced that all that he has heard and seen is true and accurate, and will actually happen as predicted, without exception.
Within these visions in this book, John has seen the Rapture, the terrible distress and suffering of the Tribulation, the wonderful environment of the Millennium and the apathy, which resulted. He has seen our universe destroyed and the new universe created. He saw the new Jerusalem in all of its brilliant glory, and had the opportunity to examine the city in some detail. He found no temple, but saw the phenomenal relationship that people will have with God, in eternity.
John had to have been overwhelmed. He bowed down to the angel in error and was immediately corrected.
That, the bowing to the angel, is really our lesson of study for today.
The angels' reply is our lesson for tomorrow. The angels are fellow creatures with humanity. They are fellows with the apostles, with the prophets, with believers in general. They are fellows with anyone who has believed in Christ.
And even though John has had no inkling of our modern day technology, or our modern day movies with zombies and good and bad angels battling between heaven and earth, and such things, he had experiences that none of us can even begin to imagine.
He actually lived with Jesus, heard Jesus, and was witness to many legitimate miracles that none of us will ever see. And yet he was overwhelmed with the magnitude of what he had just seen and heard.
Most of us probably would like to think that we would know the difference between an angel and God or other creatures, and be able to distinguish what is what, and that we would not fall down at his feet. But then again, our generation has become so desensitized to life, that we might think that we are beyond being overpowered by amazing things.
And that would be an error in thinking if that is indeed what you think.
Remember that this world holds but a shadow of what is in fact reality. Shadows have very little in common with the real thing. They hold no texture, no scent, no color, no depth. Shadows are only a dark outline. So when we actually do see the real realities of life, then it is certain that we will all become overwhelmed at the magnitude of the differences.
John was overwhelmed and he knew and heard far more, and directly from Jesus, than any of us will ever know in this life. And in that case, then perhaps our seriousness with pursuing our daily studies should take on a bit more passion and drive toward our learning and growing.
