It is typically said that in eons past God created an angel named. This angel was of the cherub variety. But that angel’s pride and arrogance led to a downfall, and the fallen angel has been at war with God ever since. This fallen angel goes by various names, such as Satan, Lucifer, and the devil. Satan’s fall, so it goes, can be found in Ezekiel 28:11-19.
When reading Ezekiel 28:11-19, the origin and fall of Satan is less apparent. The passage is “a lamentation over the king of Tyre” (v. 12),[1] but there is nothing specific to inform readers it is an angelic fall. Nevertheless, Christians through the centuries taught the passage concerns Satan. Even early Christians found a veiled reference to the origin and fall of Satan in Ezekiel 28:11-19. Such included: Tertullian of Carthage,[2] Cyril of Jerusalem,[3] Ambrose of Milan,[4] Augustine of Hippo,[5] and John Cassian.[6]
Now, the passage is directly addressing the king of Tyre; however, there is also correspondence to the origin and fall of Satan. I will explain this in the following.
Context: Ezekiel 26:1-28:19 present a series of oracles concerning calamities that came upon the city of Tyre.
Nevertheless, Tyre was far from innocent. After Babylon laid waste to Jerusalem in the sixth century BC, the Tyrians sent in looters to grab spoils from the city’s ruins. Yahweh then moved Ezekiel to pronounce to the city’s doom, and Nebuchadnezzar is named as playing a part in carrying out the judgment upon Tyre (Ezek. 26:1-28:19; 29:18).
Tyre was an illustrious maritime city in ancient Phoenicia (present day Lebanon). It was remembered as a center of commerce (Ezek. 27). Trade relationships once existed between Tyre and Israel. For example, Hiram, king of Tyre in the tenth century BC, supplied wood and other resource to David and Solomon, which included materials for constructing the temple in Jerusalem (2 Sam. 5:11; 1 Kings 5:1-12; 7:38-45; 1 Chron. 22:2-5; 2 Chron. 2:1-17; 4:11-18).
Nebuchadnezzar II besieged Tyre for thirteen years (circa. 585-572 BC) and the city became subject to Babylon.[7] The final end to Tyre came with the rise of Alexander the Great and the expansion of the Grecian Empire.[8] Despite Tyre’s glorious past, corruption brought the city to a dismal end.
The King of Tyre and Adam: Ezekiel 28:11-19 laments the downfall of the king of Tyre.[9] Laments, dirges, or elegies are somber compositions bewailing deep loss and despair.
Ezekiel draws connections between the king of Tyre and Adam. “You were the signet of perfection, | full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. |You were in Eden, the garden of God” (Ezek. 28:12-13a). Yahweh gave Adam rule over Paradise, the first man received instructions directly from the Lord, and God was Adam’s source of wisdom. Similarly, the Lord ultimately gave the king of Tyre rule over a bountiful maritime city, and wisdom to rule would have never been withheld from the Lord.
The Creator also adorns the king of Tyre with precious stones mounted upon gold (Ezek. 28:13b). This signifies the Lord as the source of the king’s prosperity. The precious stones mentioned are also among the twelve stones set in the breastplate of the high priest of Israel (Exod. 28:17-19).
A connection between the “guardian cherub” and the king of Tyre is also made (Ezek. 28:14).[10] Here the prophet can mean “either (as niv) the king of Tyre was elevated to the status of a cherub, or he had a cherub appointed as his guardian.”[11] Either way signifies a relational nearness to the Lord. This nearness to God is depicted in Ezekiel’s vision at the Chebar River of the four cherubs accompanying God’s glory (Ezek. 1:4-28; 10:1-22).[12] Just as the cherubim moved with the glory of the Lord, the king of Tyre was meant to experience life with God. The same would be true for Adam and the rest of humanity.
“You were on the holy mountain of God | in the midst of the stones of fire you walked” (Ezek. 28:14). Holy mountains in the Ancient Near East, similarly to Greek mythology, “visualized a mountain height as the dwelling place of deity,” and “The holy mountain is then very appropriate as a parallel to Eden, for both concern God’s presence.”[13] The presence of the Lord was with Adam in the Garden of Eden, and the king of Tyre could also experience life with the presence of the Lord. While the God is hidden from sight, if anyone searches with the eyes of faith, the Lord will make Himself known (Heb. 11:6).
“You were blameless in your ways | from the day you were created” (Ezek. 28:15a). Adam was created without sin, and the king of Tyre conducted himself in innocence, “till unrighteousness was found” (Ezek. 28:15b). Both Adam and the king of Tyre of their own accord fell into sin.
Ezekiel then describes the corruption that brought about the demise of the king and the people of Tyre. “You were filled with violence” (Ezek. 28:16). Tyre lost their civility and mistreated others. Genesis employs similar language in the describing conditions prior to the flood: “the earth was filled with violence” (Gen. 6:11. 13).
“Your heart was proud because of your beauty” (Ezek. 28:17a). Tyre set outward appearances as the measure of their worth. They were superficial. How they looked on the outside was all that mattered regardless of all the unseen inner corruption. “You corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor” (Ezek. 28:17b). Their reliance upon outward appearances even compromised their good judgment in administering their affairs. The very “wisdom” that contributed to their greatness was undermined in all the projects to boost their public appeal (cf. Ezek. 28:4, 5, 12).
“By the multitude of your iniquities | in the unrighteousness of your trade | you profaned your sanctuaries” (Ezek. 28:18). Tyre committed sacrilege in using their ill-gotten gains for sacrifices.
Pride and arrogance ultimately led to the downfall of the great maritime city. The Lord told them, “Because your heart is proud, | and you have said, ‘I am a god, | I sit in the seat of the gods, | in the heart of the seas,’| yet you are but a man, and no god, | though you make your heart like the heart of a god (Ezek. 28:2). Thus, the king of Tyre follows in the sin of Adam, who rebelled against God in the eating of the forbidden fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” Instead of learning from God how to live rightly as creatures bearing the imago Dei, Adam and Eve foolishly sought to be the god and goddess of their own universe apart from a relationship with the one true God.
The lamentation spoken in Ezekiel 28:11-19 is “Ezekiel’s way of saying that Tyre, like Adam, owes all of her privileges, wealth, security, and power to God. It is not the sea that has made Tyre but the Lord of those seas” but this also “may be pointing out that those whom God once favored and blessed (Adam and this king) he may later have to punish.”[14] The fall of Adam is recapitulated in the fall of the king of Tyre.
The same kind of judgment language is employed by Isaiah in his taunt against the king of Babylon. It is Isaiah who addresses the king of Babylon as “Day Star” or “Lucifer” (Isa. 14:12, KJV), a name which also gets applied to Satan. It was Lucifer who foolishly said in his heart, “I will ascend to heaven; | above the stars of God | I will set my throne on high; | I will sit on the mount of assembly |in the far reaches of the north; |I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; | I will make myself like the Most High” (Isa. 14:13-14).
Origin and fall of Satan: The archenemy of God and the people of God is Satan, who is also called the dragon, the devil and the serpent (Rev. 12:9; 20:2; cf. Gen. 3). Jesus equated Satan with “Beelzebul,” who is “the prince of demons” (Matt. 12:24-29; Mk. 3:22-27; Lk. 11:15-23). He is “the prince of the power of the air” (Eph. 2:2), the “ruler of this world” (Jn. 12:31; 14:30; 16:11), and “the evil one” (1 Jn. 2:13, 14; 3:12; 5:18, 19). Satan operates as “the accuser of our brothers” (Rev. 12:10; cf. Job 1:6-22, 2:1-7; Zech. 2:1-5) and the adversary who “prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Pet. 5:8).
The malevolent supernatural beings who ally themselves with Satan are referred to as “spirits” (Lk. 13:10-17), “demons” (Lk. 11:14-23), or “angels” (Matt. 25:41; Rev. 12:9). There were angels who rebelled against God (Jude 6; 2 Pet. 2:4), and it is reasonable to infer that Satan is, likewise, an angel who leads his own angelic rebellion against God.
The Book of Revelation presents a series of apocalyptic vignettes depicting the devolution of Satan from heaven to hell. Michael the Archangel casts Satan out of heaven to the Earth and Satan loses his position as the accuser of the brethren but he makes war with those who keep God’s commandments and hold on to the testimony of Jesus (Rev. 12:7-16). Next, Satan is bound for in a pit and unable to deceive the nations for a thousand years (Rev. 20:1-3). Finally, after being released from the pit, Satan deceives the nations, Gog and Magog, in an attack against the saints and holy city, but God puts the kibosh on the insurrection, raining fire on the rebels, and casting the Devil into the lake of fire where he is tormented day and night forever and ever (Rev. 20:7-10).[15]
But Satan is never viewed as an equal opposing force to God. Rather, the Triune God of the universe is the Maker of all things visible and invisible (Gen. 1:1; 2:1; Neh. 9:6; Psa. 33:6; Jn. 1:1-3; Col. 1:16). Satan, therefore, is among the things made. God is the Creator and Satan is the created. Now, all that God created was “very good” (Gen. 1:31), but Satan rebelled and committed evil upon his own accord. This was the point that Tertullian wanted to get across in stating,
Indeed, before he became the devil, he stands forth the wisest of creatures; and wisdom is no evil. If you turn to the prophecy of Ezekiel, you will at once perceive that this angel was both by creation good and by choice corrupt. For in the person of the prince of Tyre it is said in reference to the devil…This description, it is manifest, properly belongs to the transgression of the angel, and not to the prince’s…No, it is none else than the very author of sin who was denoted in the person of a sinful man: he was once irreproachable, at the time of his creation, formed for good by God, as by the good Creator of irreproachable creatures, and adorned with every angelic glory, and associated with God, good with the Good; but afterwards of his own accord removed to evil (Five Books Against Marcion, 2.10) [16]
Augustine, likewise, rejected the notion of Satan being created morally flawed,
As for what John says about the devil, “The devil sinneth from the beginning” they who suppose it is meant hereby that the devil was made with a sinful nature, misunderstand it; for if sin be natural, it is not sin at all. And how do they answer the prophetic proofs,—either what Isaiah says when he represents the devil under the person of the king of Babylon, “How art thou fallen, O Lucifer, son of the morning!” or what Ezekiel says, “Thou hast been in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering,” where it is meant that he was some time without sin; for a little after it is still more explicitly said, “Thou wast perfect in thy ways?” And if these passages cannot well be otherwise interpreted, we must understand by this one also, “He abode not in the truth,” that he was once in the truth, but did not remain in it. And from this passage, “The devil sinneth from the beginning,” it is not to be supposed that he sinned from the beginning of his created existence, but from the beginning of his sin, when by his pride he had once commenced to sin (City of God, 11.15.1).[17]
Tertullian and Augustine communicate that Satan began as one of God’s good angels (“the signet or perfection, full of wisdom and beauty…every precious stone was your covering…an anointed guardian cherub”). While Satan started without any morally deficiency, pride became his downfall (“your heart was proud because of your beauty”). Whether envious of God or Adam and Eve who were created in the image of God, Satan rejected the good and through his own actions came all the moral deficiency. His own sin brought him to utter ruin.
Now, Tertullian wants to say Ezekiel 28:11-19 “properly belongs to the transgression of the angel, and not to the prince’s.” I find this to be an overstatement. Only with great difficulty can one completely exclude the king of Tyre as the subject being addressed in the lament. Ezekiel 28:11-19 concerns the king of Tyre but certainly has application to the origin and fall of Satan.
The King of Tyre and Satan. Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758), revivalist preacher, philosopher, and theologian, proposed, “It is yet more manifest from what is said of the king of Tyrus, as a type of the devil, in Ezek. xxviii. 12-19,” and “If the king of Tyrus were not here expressly called ‘a cherub,’ ‘in the paradise of God,’ and ‘in God’s holy mountain;’ by which it is most evident that he is spoken of as a type of a cherub in the paradise of God; yet I say if it had not been so, the matter would have been very plain, for the things here spoken of cannot be applied to the king of Tyrus with any beauty, nor without the utmost shining, any other way than as a type of the devil that was once a glorious angel in paradise.”[18]
The origin and fall of king of Tyre corresponds to the pattern set by Satan. The latter is the antitype and the former is the correspondent type. The king of Tyre and Satan were beautifully adorned. The king of Tyre and Satan walked with their Creator. The king of Tyre dwelt in a bountiful maritime city paradise and Satan was present as the serpent in Eden. The king of Tyre and Satan rebelled against their Maker. Satan fell first followed by Adam and then the king of Tyre.
The same applies to the king of Babylon, who is directly referred to as the blasphemous Lucifer (Isa. 14:12-20). The fall of the king of Babylon recapitulates the fall of Satan.
Because the king of Tyre and the king of Babylon mimic the way of Satan, the name of Satan can be used in reference to them. For example, when Peter objected to Messiah’s mission to suffer and die upon the cross and rise again on the third day, Jesus rebuked the wayward disciple, saying, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man” (Mk. 8:33). Of course, Peter is not actually Satan, but the Lord is pointing out that the wayward disciple is mimicking the rebelliousness of the evil one. Whereas Ezekiel 28:11-19 directly addresses the king of Tyre, and Isaiah 14:12-20 the king of Babylon, the way of Satan was being followed by the two earthly monarchs. Through their own unrighteous deeds, the king of Tyre and the king of Babylon made themselves out to be children of the devil (1 Jn. 3:10) and they acted in the likeness of their father (Jn. 8:44).
Application: Sinful pride is truly satanic. It turns our focus upon sating our own carnal appetites, shuts off our empathy, and misshapes us as creatures made in the image of God. We can never truly be worshippers of God so long as we are self-absorbed and self-centered.
There is no place for redemption for the prideful, for pride says, “I’m ok, everybody else is wrong.” There is no place for repentance for the prideful, for pride says, “I’m not broken so don’t try to fix me.” There is no place for compassion in the prideful, for pride says, “I need to take care of myself and let others handle their own issues.” Sinful pride pronounces, “My kingdom come and my will be done.” All this is the perversion of humanity made in the image of God.
Ezekiel 28:11-19 is the lament over those who have come to ruin on account of their own sinful pride. Adam ate the forbidden fruit in a foolish attempt to be like God. The abundance of material wealth and external beauty led to the downfall of the king of Tyre. But Satan was first to lead angels in rebellion against God and Satan’s fall was mimicked by Adam and the king of Tyre. Moreover, it is our own sinful pride that aligns us too with the evil one. But God bids us to give up our pride, and experience true life as people made in the image of God. To be the people united to the Father, on account of the Son, and through the ministering of the Holy Spirit.
— WGN
Notes:
[1] All Scripture cited from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), unless noted.
[2] Five Books Against Marcion, 2.10
[3] Catechetical Lectures 2.4.
[4] On Paradise 2.9
[5] City of God, 11.15.1
[6] Conferences 1.8.8.
[7] F. F. Bruce, New International Bible Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1979), 831.
[8] See Hank Hanegraaff, Has God Spoken: Proof of the Bible’s Divine Inspiration (Nashville, T: Thomas Nelson, 2011), 122-124.
[9] Isaiah also bewailed the desolation of Tyre (Isa. 23:1-18). Various calamities fell upon Tyre at different times and by different nations including Assyria, Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar, and Greece under Alexander the Great.
[10] God created supernatural beings called angels and one variety of the angels is the cherub. Prayers and praises were addressed to the Lord God of Israel above the cherubim (2 Kgs. 19:15; Isa. 37:16; Psa. 99:1). Images of cherubim adorned Israelite places of worship (Exod, 26:1, 31; 36:8, 35; 1 Kgs. 6:23-35) and the Ark of the Covenant (Exod. 25:17-22; 37:1-9; cf. 1 Chron. 13:6). In Eden a cherub with a flaming sword were positioned to guard the way to the tree of life (Gen. 3:24). David sings of Yahweh riding upon a cherub to bring salvation to His anointed king and offspring (2 Sam. 22:2-51; Psa. 18:1-50). Another variety of angel is the seraph (Isa. 6:1-7).
[11] L. John McGregor, New Bible Commentary: 21st Century Edition, ed. D. A. Carson et al. (Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press, 1994), 734. Ezekiel 28:14 reads either “You were anointed as a guardian cherub” (NIV) or “With an anointed cherub as guardian” (NRSV).
[12] The cherubim that manifested were otherworldly in appearance: “they had a human likeness, but each had four faces, and each of them had four wings. Their legs were straight, and the soles of their feet were like the sole of a calf’s foot. And they sparkled like burnished bronze. Under their wings on their four sides they had human hands. And the four had their faces and their wings thus: their wings touched one another. Each one of them went straight forward, without turning as they went. As for the likeness of their faces, each had a human face. The four had the face of a lion on the right side, the four had the face of an ox on the left side, and the four had the face of an eagle. Such were their faces. And their wings were spread out above. Each creature had two wings, each of which touched the wing of another, while two covered their bodies. And each went straight forward. Wherever the spirit would go, they went, without turning as they went. As for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire, like the appearance of torches moving to and fro among the living creatures. And the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth lightning. And the living creatures darted to and fro, like the appearance of a flash of lightning” (Ezek. 1:5-14).
[13] Victor Harold Matthews, Mark W. Chavalas, and John H. Walton, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament, electronic ed. (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2000), Eze 28:14.
[14] Victor P. Hamilton, The Baker Illustrated Bible Commentary, ed. Gary M. Burge and Andrew E. Hill (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2012), 767.
[15] For discussion on the meaning of the millennium, see Steve Gregg, Revelation, Four Views: A Parallel Commentary (Nashville, TN: T. Nelson Publishers, 1997), 472–475. See also Darrell L. Bock, Three Views on the Millennium and Beyond (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1999).
[16] Cited from The Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 3, ed. Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe, trans. Peter Holmes (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company, 1885).
[17] Cited from Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, First Series, ed. Philip Schaff, trans. Marcus Dods, vol. 2 (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company, 1887).
[18] Jonathan Edwards, “Miscellaneous Observations,” The Works of Jonathan Edwards vol. 2, ed. Edward Hickman (Carlsile, PA: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1995): https://ccel.org/ccel/edwards/works2/works2.xii.ii.html
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