After yet another time of praise and worship in heaven by both angels and humans, the Lord Jesus comes bodily to earth for the second time to destroy His enemies and take His throne.
Yet another angel appears in the heavens to invite the birds of prey to the great supper of the corpses of the armies of Antichrist.
Next on the scene is the angel in possession of the key to the bottomless pit who takes authority over Satan and imprisons him in the bottomless pit for 1,000 years. After the thousand years he will be released to make one last attempt at overthrowing the Lord Jesus, and—in one of the most astonishing prophecies presented in scripture considering the righteous rule of Jesus during that time—he will be able to gather an army numbering as “the sand of the sea” from all the nations. This is when Gog reemerges for one last time to join him in this attempt. There is no battle to speak of; God destroys this army with fire from heaven and Satan is cast into the lake of fire never to emerge again.
John then tells us that another angel that participated in the last seven judgments presents himself to introduce John to the “bride, the Lamb’s wife.” The intriguing part of this introduction is that he is referencing the New Jerusalem descending from heaven to earth. Point is made that all that are written in the Lamb’s book of life are welcome to enjoy the city; this would include all believers from all times—not just those identified as “the church.”
Now we come to a very intriguing couple of verses in connection with this last “angel.”
Revelation 22:8–9 “And I John saw these things, and heard them. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which shewed me these things. Then saith he unto me, See thou do it not: for I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book: worship God.”
The plain understanding of this verse indicates that this “angel” is one of God’s earthly prophets, a brother and fellowservant of John. Though we tend to interpret references to angels to be supernatural beings in the heavens that are God’s special ministering servants on behalf of man, the term is inclusive of any individual doing God’s bidding as requested at any given time.
The book of Revelation closes with one more intriguing verse and angel, and I am going to quote from my journal in closing.
Revelation 22:16 “I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.”
Jesus identifies Himself by name. He tells John that He has sent His angel/messenger to testify (give evidence, bear record, witness) to him (John) all the things that have been revealed to him during the revelation. John, in turn, is to share these things with the churches.
Again, the subject comes up regarding the signifying angel and Jesus and their identities. After reading through this book many times, it is obvious to me that God has used Jesus, real “angels” and redeemed saints to communicate with John throughout the duration of this revelation. I’m not sure I will ever be able to correctly distinguish between the angel and/or saint in given instances.
When I checked all the New Testament uses of the word for angel, every single instance was the word “aggelos”—a messenger; especially an “angel,” by implication a pastor—angel, messenger (except for Luke 20:36, which uses “isaggelos,” angelic—equal unto the angels). All the uses of the words “messenger or messengers” utilize the Greek word “aggelos.”
I’m not sure it really matters that we identify the speaker. What is important is to understand the message of the messenger—and in every case we know that this “messenger” is sent/provided by God. Every word is inspired by the Holy Spirit.
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