Bible Gem 2392 – John’s Déjà Vu Experience (Revelation 22:6-9)

⁶Then the angel said to me, “Everything you have heard and seen is trustworthy and true. The Lord God, who inspires his prophets, has sent his angel to tell his servants what will happen soon.” ⁷“Look, I am coming soon! Blessed are those who obey the words of prophecy written in this book.” ⁸I, John, am the one who heard and saw all these things. And when I heard and saw them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed them to me. ⁹But he said, “No, don’t worship me. I am a servant of God, just like you and your brothers the prophets, as well as all who obey what is written in this book. Worship only God!”

Revelation 22:6-9

Compared with John’s earlier experience from chapter 19:

⁹And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb.” And he added, “These are the true words that come from God. ¹⁰Then I fell down at his feet to worship him, but he said, “No, don’t worship me. I am a servant of God, just like you and your brothers and sisters who testify about their faith in Jesus. Worship only God. For the essence of prophecy is to give a clear witness for Jesus.”

Revelation 19:9-10

I drew your attention to this when we struck this passage in chapter 19, now here it is again in chapter 22. I considered analysing it at the time in its context in 19, but was keen to press on to the challenge of Rev 19:10. So I figured I would leave the comparison of John’s two experiences for this second encounter here in Revelation 22. So I shelved it until now.

Doesn’t it strike you as curious that John would react the same way the second time around, especially if he was dealing with the same angel? Is the angel who spoke to John in 19:9 the same one who spoke to John in 22:6 or are they different angels? John is usually careful to distinguish between the angels who spoke to him. I have never been spoken to by an angel so I don’t know how distinctly different they are from one another. The angel in 19:9 appears to be the mighty angel who picked up the boulder the size of a huge millstone (18:21). The angel who spoke to John in 22:6 seems to be “one of the seven angels who held the seven bowls” according to 21:9. John uses ‘the angel’ to specify which angel was involved or qualifies the angel in focus with descriptive noun phrase like “one of the seven angels who . . .”. If the angel in focus is a different angel again John uses the indefinite article [a or an]. I therefore conclude the angel of 19:9 and the angel of 22:6 are two different angels.

Why did I bother to go into this detail? For the simple reason that if John was talking to the same angel in 19:9 as he was in 22:6 one would think he would have recognised him, particularly if the angel spoke virtually the same words on both occasions. John must have thought this feels like a déjá vu moment. But if they were in fact two different angels, it’s likely the similarity of the moment passed him by. There are commentators who castigate John for having the same reaction in both situations. Surely he would have learned his lesson after the first experience, and therefore he was warned for bowing before an angel.

I am not so sure. Both contexts are similar, not only in the words used [with some differences] but on each occasion the utterance is affirmed as being the trustworthy true Word of the LORD. In other words it has the confirmation of God Himself. In both instances the utterance is prefaced by ‘these words are trustworthy and true’ or words to that effect. I think John is reacting to that scenario. He is being reassured that what he has seen and heard is in fact from God. Now that is very significant!

Some think John felt a person was talking with him; a fellow servant of God. I don’t believe that is the case. The text makes it clear it was an angel. If John had bowed before a fellow human being he ought to have been castigated, given the revelations he had had. Others feel if it were an angel, John ought to have been able to distinguish between an angel or God. I have read the opinions of some commentators who think the glory or the brightness of an angel is markedly duller than the glory of God. But there are many examples in Scripture where it is hard to tell if it was an angel talking or God Himself. Thus I wouldn’t be so dogmatic. I am not going to list them for you; I figure you can chase such references up for yourself. I drew attention to this anomaly in Gem 2360 but chose to delay discussing it until now.

I made brief mention of it in Gem 2360 but I delayed discussing it given the problem of dealing with the latter portion of Revelation 19:10. See the Gem series Unravelling the Hidden Depth. I feel more gracious toward John. I sense the words ‘Write this’ and ‘These are the true words that come from God’ both refer to the whole book of Revelation.

There are three alternatives:-

1. They refer to the preceding words.
2. They refer to the following words.
3. They refer to all revelations given to John recorded in the book.

I favour the last alternative, but give you all three so you can make up your own mind. It seems to me that John has been given God’s confirmation on all he has seen and heard and written down. How could it be otherwise? The Alpha and the Omega transcends human limitations. God Himself is making it clear that everything John has recorded is verified and it has His stamp on it. I believe that to be the case, given the closing statement in 19:10 which I have analysed to the n^th degree in Gem series list above. Everything related to the testimony of the prophets bears it out and the lives of disciples affirm it as well. I think it is the weight of all of this and the fact that God confirms it which causes John to fall to his knees in worship. It could also be a parallel reference to discourage angel worship.

There are some other elements in the text which need highlighting. Notice the difference between the two passages:

Revelation 19:

Revelation 22:

There are a couple of things I would like to point out in the propositional analysis above. Firstly note the duality in lines 5 and 6 of the PA layout for Revelation 19. The dual occurrence of ‘him’ [αὐτῷ] in verse 10 could refer to him (the angel) or Him (God). In other words in John’s mind he was taking in all that God had revealed to him and falling to his knees at the feet of the messenger but with his mind focused on all that God had done. I understand that as I will explain below from personal experience. The second aspect to note is the reference to the change made between ‘brothers and sisters’ 19:10 and ‘your brothers, the prophets’ (22:9) which embodies all I drew out in Gem 2366. I will leave you to ponder the depth of that after reading that Gem and connecting it to the last proposition John introduces in 19:10.

As mentioned above, I believe John was overwhelmed with depth and significance of what God had shown him in all that he had heard and seen. I too have a personal story that I could classify as a déjà vu experience. Déjà vu is a French term meaning ‘already seen’ – expressing the sense that I have been in this situation before. See the Nugget story below:

Hearing God’s Audible Voice (HGV 16)

Then follow up with:

https://www.bereaninsights.org/gem-story/dont-sell-your-house-and-dont-sort-out-a-house-manager-i-will/

The combination of these two experiences absolutely blew my mind as to the depth and detail that God will go to in order to fulfil something He has promised. Read these two accounts above and you will understand the detail of how God put all of this together, down to the n^th degree as promised. Firstly in speaking to me in reassuring me by the exact same words via John Massam and Mike Shaxton within a half an hour. Then just four months later through Garry Danswan when I was hassling about God not giving me the name of the person who would be our house manager. Instead He gave me two names, knowing we would need a substitute for Garry a year or so later on. My déjà vu experience was far more obstinate than John’s I am sure, but you be the judge. I think John was simply reeling from the shock of all that God had told him, much as I was during both phases of God taking care of our need for a house manager.

Moral of the stories, don’t blame John for a lack of faith. I think it was highly likely a case of John being blown away by the details and the exactness of what God had told him and the reassurance that all he had heard and seen was from God Himself.

Now all that is left is for you to ponder on these things for yourself.

Any further questions you may have of me feel free to ask them. We will continue on with the next block of Revelation 22 in the next Gem.

The devil builds his strongholds in the shadows of our strengths.

Tom White

Christian, you are not a citizen of this world trying to get to heaven; you are a citizen of heaven making your way through this world. 

Vince Havner

Learn to trust God that what He tells us is trustworthy and true simply because it’s He who’s telling us.

Ian

May the size of your prayers and your faith to hold on, lead you to belief in the God who is so much greater than ever you could ask or imagine.

Ian