Albert Barnes Commentary Revelation 2:28

"and I will give him the morning star." — Revelation 2:28 (ASV)

And I will give him the morning star. The "morning star" is that bright planet—Venus—which at some seasons of the year appears so beautifully in the east, heralding the morning—the harbinger of the day. It is one of the most beautiful objects in nature and lends itself to a great variety of uses for illustration.

It appears as the darkness passes away; it is an indication that the morning is coming; it is intermingled with the first rays of the sun's light; it seems to be a herald announcing the coming of that glorious luminary; it is a pledge of God's faithfulness.

In which of these senses, if any, it is referred to here is not stated; nor is it said what is implied by its being given to him who overcomes. It would seem to be used here to denote a bright and brilliant ornament—something with which he who "overcame" would be adorned, resembling the bright star of the morning.

It is observable that it is not said that He would make him like the morning star, as in Daniel 12:3; nor that he would be compared with the morning star, like the king of Babylon, Isaiah 14:12; nor that he would resemble a star which Balaam says he saw in the distant future, Numbers 24:17.

The idea seems to be that the Savior would give him something that would resemble that morning planet in beauty and splendor—perhaps meaning that it would be placed as a gem in his diadem and would sparkle on his brow—bearing some such relation to Him who is called "the Sun of Righteousness," as the morning star does to the glorious sun at its rising.

If so, the meaning would be that he would receive a beautiful ornament, bearing a near relation to the Redeemer Himself as a bright sun—a pledge that the darkness had passed—but one whose beams would melt away into the superior light of the Redeemer Himself, as the beams of the morning star are lost in the superior glory of the sun.