Verses 8-9: And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which showed me these things. John had been previously commanded not to worship the angel, but God only. (Chapter 19:10) It is inconceivable that he would disobey the order by doing so here. It has been explained that John was mistaken in the identity of the angel in this instance, believing him to be Jesus. But there is no such intimation in the context. John’ s memory was not so short as to have forgotten, even under the overwhelming circumstances of an angel’ s appearance, the so recent prohibition against the worship of the angel. To the contrary, a reappearance of the angel would have reminded him of the previous command. The obviously correct view therefore is that John was here restating what had previously occurred for a necessary emphasis, just as he had quoted the words of Jesus in verse 7. In the restatement of what had occurred in the record of chapter 19:10, John added that the angel had said: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethen the prophets. This word of the angel links the apocalypse of John with those of the Old Testament, and as being of the same character, content and source; and of the same application as to their respective periods in their current history. A prophetic spiritual brotherhood had been displayed by the apocalypse, inspired by the same Spirit; even in the repeated use of the same words and phrases and the employment of the same symbols. The visions of the Old Testament prophets related to the judgments on Babylon and Egypt and to Israel’ s deliverance from exile; and the visions of John in like manner pertained to the destruction of Jerusalem and the victory of the church over Judaism and heathenism. But the statement of the angel exalted John’ s inspired credentials and authority as the author of Revelation to that of the prophets of the old dispensation. The words of the angel further included them which keep the sayings of this book. This number included all to whom John had addressed the letters and this apocalypse and who were exhorted to read, heed and keep the things written in it. The angel classed himself as being among them all, therefore was not the object of their worship. It meant that no man or angel is to be revered or worshiped: worship God. The Son of God said to Satan, the head of the diabolical realm who was commanding his worship: “ It is written, thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.”