Then John, the one who heard and saw these things,
because of the tremendous encouragement of these things and
their overwhelming and awesome nature fell down to worship
at the feet of the angel. In the falling down to worship at
the feet of the angel, John again lost the biblical
perspective of worship. The message of God’s Word is
designed to focus us on the Lord and to enhance our worship
of Him, but if we are not careful, we can lose sight of this
in our excitement and appreciation of the Word and get our
eyes on the messenger. When this happens we can, if we are
not careful, become guilty of the carnal divisiveness of the
Corinthians (1 Corinthians 1:11-13; 3:3-4; 4:6-7).
Verse 9, here we see the responsibility of the messenger to
guard against such responses. The main emphasis is that God,
who is the Creator of all, is alone worthy of such worship.
Verse 10 - to seal up a book means to conceal, hide its
message. This book, unlike Daniel 12:4, was never to be
sealed and was meant to be understood and applied from the
day John received it because the time is near, imminent, and
people need the truth of this book to understand what God is
doing and to prepare for what is coming.
Verse 11, which at first seems fatalistic, is an appeal to
men to respond to this book, for if one does not, there is
no other message that can change him, if the warnings of the
book are not sufficient, there is no more that God has to
say. The wicked must continue in their wicked way and be
judged by the Lord when He comes. The same rule applies to
the righteous. Their reaction to the prophecy is to continue
in righteousness and holiness.
