- This is considered one of the major Biblical passages in giving us details about Satan. Of course, it is written to the king of Tyre but the details (which we’ll unpack in the sermon) give ample reason to think this passage has two meanings.
- The first is a straightforward prophecy about the king of Tyre. Obviously some of the language is poetic.
- The second is what I’m going to call this evening “a biography of Satan.” We get a brief but insightful life story for Lucifer.
- This is helpful to us because there are many misconceptions about Satan. As we’ll discuss at various points in this sermon, much of the popular conception about Satan doesn’t match the Bible.
- We are not going to get into spiritual warfare tonight, although that is an interesting subject, but it’s worth mentioning here at the start. This is a worthwhile subject to look into because we need to know our enemy. The Scripture makes it clear that he is out for our destruction and so the more we know about him the better equipped we will be to fight him.
- The world we live in is a battleground, not a playground. We had better know the schemes of our enemy so that we don’t get trapped in them.
- So let’s look at the “biography of Satan” that Ezekiel gives us.
ORIGIN STORY: Satan began in an exalted position, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.
- Ezekiel 28:12-14.
- That statement has a lot to it. Let’s take it piece by piece and look at the statements in our passages that give us that information.
a. “began”
- v. 13 - “on the day you were created”
- Satan is a created being.
- This is important to understand in order to keep him in the proper context.
- We know that God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. All three are eternal. None of them were created. In fact, it’s a heresy to say that Jesus was created. It is fundamental to our theology to believe that Jesus was preexistent God. Why? Because for Him to be the perfect bridge between humanity and God He had to be fully human and fully God. His birth into the world is the miracle that it is in part because He is God Incarnate. This is a core theological conviction and one that we are unable to compromise on.
- On the other hand, Satan is a created being. God made him.
- One implication of this is that Satan and Jesus are not equal.
- Some people think of Satan and Jesus as the primary combatants in this spiritual battle that is our world and that it’s a battle of near equals, with Jesus maybe being slightly stronger. No. Jesus is God; Satan is not. They are not at all close in power - Jesus is infinitely more powerful.
- The problem is that the battle is over human souls and that's a battlefield where love is more valuable than power. - Jesus can’t “power” us into the Kingdom. No, He has to love us into the Kingdom. Because we as humans are so valuable to Jesus and because we have free will to choose for or against God, that is where the battle rages.
- But it’s important to note that Satan is a created being.
b. “exalted position”
- v. 14 - “You were anointed a guardian cherub, for so I ordained you. You were on the holy mount of God; you walked among the fiery stones.”
- v. 14 has a lot of details that point to an exalted position. That's the good news. The bad news is that those details, while impressive, are ones that we are pretty fuzzy on the details concerning.
- First, “anointed” and “ordained.”
- Generally when we talk about “anointed” we are looking at someone set aside for a special purpose. I think of an - Old Testament prophet anointing a king who has been picked by God to lead the nation of Israel.
- Satan was “anointed,” which speaks of God choosing him for an important role.
- “Ordained” is similar. That has more of a sense of qualification for that role. He was chosen by God as being qualified to fulfill that role.
- In both cases, we are talking about starting from impressive heights in the role he had, being the greatest of the angels.
- Second, “guardian cherub.”
- Once again, we are limited in our knowledge. It would be great if the Bible had a chapter somewhere that defined the different levels of rank for the angels, but we don't.
- But we can deduce a couple things.
- Knowing the exalted place that Satan held, we can presume that “cherub” (or “cherubim”) is an important type of angel. Elsewhere in the Bible they seem to at least in part be focused on the worship of God. Another way to put that is they seem to be in the presence of God.
- That would go along with “guardian.” We might presume that means angels who were the closest to God physically.
- Third, “on the holy mount of God.”
- We all have different mental pictures of what the presence of God might be like. Here it seems to be described as a mountain type of structure. I don’t want to read too much into this slight detail but maybe we need to think bigger if we are thinking of a smaller throne room.
- Fourth, “among the fiery stones.”
- This could refer to something far from the presence of God that Satan had access to. In its context, though, it seems more likely that this is a reference to something in the presence of God.
- This is striking because I think (and this is an exaggeration) that many people might think of the presence of God as a place of gentle beauty. I don't know exactly what “fiery stones” means but I think of something fierce and beautiful, something awe-inspiring and not at all gentle. Perhaps many colors but not quiet and gentle.
c. “full of wisdom.”
- v. 12 - “full of wisdom.”
- It makes sense that if Satan was given such a high position in heaven that he would also be given wisdom.
- One thing that's interesting to me about that is a being so full of wisdom would make such a horrible decision as to rebel against God.
- We see a similar phenomenon with Solomon. He asked for and received great wisdom from God and yet he still made poor decisions regarding the marrying of foreign wives that led him away from God.
- We will talk more about this later in the sermon but it’s a reminder to us that wisdom is not a guaranteed safeguard. People with wisdom can still go off the rails under the right circumstances.
- The other point that I think is worth making here regards the negative side of wisdom. Someone who is wise usually has good insights into many situations. When the person is trying to do good, that is very helpful. When the person is trying to do evil, we shift over to what might best be called “cunning.”
- They have insight into how to destroy people or how to manipulate people or how to make their evil plans succeed. The insightfulness that came with Satan’s original wisdom is now being used in service of the destruction that he wants to bring.
d. “perfect in beauty.”
- vv. 12-13 - “perfect in beauty,” “every precious stone adorned you.”
- There is a popular imagination of Satan as an ugly, red, horned demon with a pitchfork. There is nothing appealing about him in that image.
- I don’t think that's accurate.
- Here we have Satan described as amazingly beautiful. What does it mean that he was “perfect in beauty”? I don’t think it means that he was as beautiful as God. I think it means that there was nothing lacking in his beauty as he was originally created. By comparison, you might look at a woman and say, “She’s beautiful but she’d look nicer if her nose was a little smaller” or you might look at a man and say, “He’s handsome but he’d look better if he had a stronger jawline.” With Satan, the way he was created was not lacking.
- In addition to that, his apparel was adorned with a wide variety of enticing precious stones. This, of course, only added to the beauty of his appearance.
- Thinking of Satan as a beautiful being makes a lot of sense to me. When we think of temptation, we know that usually there is an initial attraction to the sin. We rarely are drawn by sin that is initially ugly. No, there is that beauty or winsomeness that draws us in, only to find it’s not everything we hoped for.
- Like the fish that wants the meal and doesn’t see the hook, we go after the attractive bait and then are in a bad spot.
BREAKING BAD: His fall was caused by pride.
- Ezekiel 28:15, 17.
- When we look at all we discussed under the first point, it can lead us to ask, “How could a being with such enormous gifts choose against God?” And that ironically gets right at the point because it was not in spite of those enormous gifts that Satan rebelled but exactly because of those gifts.
- Verse 15 tells us that Satan was initially blameless.
- We have no idea how long that was. Was Satan created before the creation of our world? We don’t know. Was Satan created after the creation of our world but before humanity? We don’t know. How long did Satan exist before he fell? We don’t know. There are a lot of unknowns in this story.
- What we do know is that he started blameless and then wickedness was found in him.
- What caused the fall?
- Verse 17 tells us that it was pride.
- This makes sense. He was the greatest of the angelic beings and he allowed that to create pride within his heart. - The enormous blessings that God gave him were both his greatest blessing and his greatest curse.
- Verse 17 also tells us the pride was on account of his beauty.
- One of the most difficult things for us as humans is to have a great gift and then to use that gift without allowing it to corrupt our heart. You see it, for instance, all the time in the artistic world. The incredible writing or painting ability that someone has leads everyone to praise them endlessly. At some point the person starts taking all that hype into their hearts and it slowly turns them into arrogant, insufferable people. Apparently it also happens with angelic beings.
- What is the heart of pride?
- I think it’s thinking that you deserve the place of God, which is exactly what Satan came to believe.
- In our lives it may manifest in a smaller way - we may just feel like we deserve to be at the center or on the throne of our lives. We refuse to give God the central place that He deserves.
FALL FROM HEAVEN: His sin led God to drive him out of heaven.
- Ezekiel 28:13a, 16b, 17b.
- Satan originally had a high place in the presence of God - remember that he was a guardian cherub. Because of his sin he was driven from that place.
- Verse 16b speaks directly to this reality. The presence of God is presented as the “mount of God” and “among the fiery stones.” Satan is expelled from his position.
- To where was he sent? Verse 17b tells us that it was to earth.
- Now, as I’ve noted earlier, there are pieces of this puzzle we don’t have.
- One thing about the expulsion is that we should note that it is not as though Satan never came to earth before his sin or never went back to heaven after.
- Verse 13a speaks of Satan in the garden and seems (we can’t be sure) to happen in a time before his fall.
- Additionally, Job 1-2 speaks of Satan coming into the presence of God after his fall to accuse the human followers of God before God Himself.
- In light of that, it might be best to think of the punishment of Satan’s fall less as geographic and more as position. - What do I mean? The punishment wasn’t really that he got sent to a new location, although that did happen. More, it’s that he lost his honored position in the presence of God and was cast far from His presence.
- The big point here is that he is itching for a fight.
- He thinks he’s big stuff and that God was unjust in what He did to him. He knows the degree of love that God has for humanity and so he intends to do all he can to push lives off track.
FINAL ACT: His end is defeat.
- Ezekiel 28:18b-19.
- Some of the parts of this passage are harder to interpret than others and these verses are among the more difficult.
- I could wander down a side road here and get into some of the interesting, obscure things that the wording here raises, but let’s stay focused on the main thing. The main thing is the language here obviously points to a decisive defeat.
- That brings both a word of encouragement and caution.
- The word of encouragement is that we know we are on the winning side.
- Since the death and resurrection of Christ, the ultimate result of this war is not in question. There are certainly thousands and thousands of smaller battles still being fought but the outcome of the war is settled. Jesus wins. Satan loses.
- That should give us great hope even when we are in the midst of difficult seasons. Never doubt the war has been won.
- The word of caution is that his certain future defeat can create a desperate warrior.
- I don’t know to what extent Satan believes in the inevitability of his own ultimate destruction. Does he accept it as settled and he is merely content to do as much damage on the way down as possible? Does he still think there is still a chance of pulling a surprise victory out of the ashes here and so he is deluded on that point? I don’t know.
- It is worth noting, though, if he does accept his inevitable defeat, that in some ways makes him more dangerous.
- It makes me think of death row. We all know that when a death row inmate is walking the guards will often say, “Dead man walking.” It’s a warning to use extra caution as a guard because the prisoner near you has nothing left to lose. What if he makes a play for the guard’s gun? What are you going to do - charge him with that crime? You can do that but he’s already sentenced to die. There’s really nothing else that can meaningfully be done to him as a punishment, which is exactly what makes him so dangerous to the guards. He has nothing left to lose.
- This could help us understand the desperation with which Satan battles for our souls. He’s got nothing left to lose. His eventual loss is certain. He went into his original sin knowing full well the reality of God so there is no sympathy deserved there. Revelation is clear that his punishment is eternal.
WHAT KIND OF STORY IS THIS? This passage is a lament.
- Ezekiel 28:12.
- As we conclude, I want to go back to the beginning of the passage and focus on a word that is usually overlooked.
- When God speaks, he tells Ezekiel that this is a “lament.” All the material we’ve been unpacking in this sermon - it’s all a lament.
- That's a word we don’t use much anymore. It’s a good Biblical word, though. There are several laments in the Bible’s songbook - the book of Psalms.
- A lament is simply a tale of something sad that has happened. With many stories the sad thing is just a plot point on the way to something redemptive or beautiful. But not really so with a lament. It’s just a sad tale of a tragic occurrence.
- Side note: we need more laments in our songs today.
- We all have moments when life is just difficult and heartbreaking. We could use more songs that live in that space - acknowledging the tragedy and the struggle without trying to tack on a happy ending.
- As I said, there are laments in the Psalms so this is something that is Biblical to do.
- One recent effort in this direction was Steven Curtis Chapman’s album “Beauty Will Rise.” It was written after the tragic death of his young daughter. As the title suggests, some of the songs do attempt to make a redemptive point. Others, though, fall more in the category of laments. We need more of this.
- With regard to the subject of this sermon, it’s a striking word to use because it points us back to the tragedy of this whole thing in a way we don’t normally ponder. Our typical mode of discussion of Satan is more focused on spiritual warfare and overcoming him. That is needed and necessary.
- But it’s worth pondering that God also sees Satan’s story as worthy of a lament. He was created with such wisdom and beauty. He was given such an exalted position. So much promise, such great gifts. And this is what he did with it. Tragic. Lamentable.
