Revelation 3:9

Behold, I give of the synagogue of Satan, of them that say they are Jews, and they are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee.

This verse is not to be understood in the literal sense at all. Christians would not be honored by having anyone worship before their feet, nor could God be pleased by such a thing. What is done here is to take the ancient Scriptures regarding the Gentiles "bending before" Israel (Isaiah 60:14) and to state that the reverse is true now. The Jews were once God's chosen people, an honor forfeited by them in their rejection of the Son of God. "These words echo the words of the prophets telling of the coming of the Gentiles to do homage to the people of Israel, and of bowing themselves down before the soles of their feet."[41] The fulfillment of this came when the Gentiles bowed them selves before the feet of Christ, the true Israel; and the fulfillment of Jesus' words as given by John here will occur when Jews are converted and bow themselves before Christ, with whom Christians are identified as being his spiritual body on earth. It is wrong to read this as if it declared any wholesale conversion of Jews at some future time. Throughout the ages, many faithful Jews have received Christ, and they are still doing so; and in this the prophecy is continually being fulfilled. Thus, in what Moffatt calls "the grim irony of providence,"[42] "what the Jews fondly expected of the Gentiles, they them selves will give to the Gentiles. They will play the role of the heathen and acknowledge that the church is the true Israel of God."[43] After the Babylonian captivity, many Jews were settled in the district where these seven cities lay, and in time many of them became wealthy and powerful. "They were proud of their national privileges (which, by inference, they still enjoyed), and powerful in numbers and wealth, no doubt despising the Jewish Christians as traitors."[44]

[41] Isbon T. Beckwith, The Apocalypse of John (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1919), p. 481.

[42] James Moffatt, op. cit., p. 367.

[43] Robert H. Mounce, op. cit., p. 118.

[44] J. R. Dummelow, op. cit., p. 1976.