Revelation 11:1

1. There was given me By what giver is not said, (as in Revelation 6:11; Revelation 8:2;) doubtless by an invisible yet divine donor, the gift coming visibly as by panoramic spontaneous movement.

A reed The light-jointed plant that grows in marshy grounds. It was an emblem of feebleness, (Matthew 11:7;) used as a mock sceptre for Jesus, (Matthew 27:29-30;) as an instrument for writing by our John himself. 3 John 1:13.

A rod A staff for walking; or a rod for chastising; or, probably, here, a sceptre or baton of office, as Aaron’s rod. Hebrews 1:8; Revelation 2:27; Psalms 2:9. This fragile reed, the emblem of a humble Christianity, was yet a sceptre mighty to take a divine measurement of human things. That measurement could be either, as here, severe and critical, or, as in Revelation 21:15, an appreciation of a glorious wonder.

And the angel stood These words are to be rejected as a false reading. The angel disappears at the close of the last chapter, and the scene changes.

Before the seer appear, (note Revelation 4:11,) in gradual development, the temple or holy house; the altar of incense, which was in it; then the court, which surrounded it; and, finally, the city, which embraced the whole. The main progress is from the less in size to the greater, but from the greater in sacred importance to the less.

Measure Take a divine and critical estimate of its present value and amount.

Saying In the Greek (omitting the angel) there is no immediate subject-noun with which this saying agrees, save rod. And some, as Wordsworth, have accordingly made the rod utter the direction and predictions which follow, just as the altar speaks in Revelation 9:13. But even then the saying, no doubt, refers to the invisible giver of the rod.

The saying embraces the predictions, in future tense, to Revelation 11:10; and then, at Revelation 11:11, the seer commences his past tense, yet so commences as, with exquisite skill, to take in the predictions as part of the narrative. The whole could be read in the past tense as one narration.

Rise Not as if he had been sitting or kneeling, but as moving him to action from the reverie during which the change of scene had taken place.

Temple… altar The inmost places of the true Church of God.

Them that worship The true living Church of the saints. The measurement is an authentication of their trueness. The authoritative rod, or sceptre, is also a reed, or pen, that writes a divine endorsement. Happy the Church whom the measuring reed endorses.