#483 6-Apr-12 8:37 p.m.
Ezekiel 28:
Reading #483 “I am a god”
This week the LORD speaks of Satan through he who was his right hand man on earth at the time. The first sinner was a creature whom God had greatly exalted, Lucifer the “day star”. Here he is represented under the figure of the leading man of Tyre who was also flourishing in might and magnificence.
Though all his glory was a gift from God, the mighty angel came to regard it as originating in himself, as did the king of Tyre. Little by little Lucifer came to indulge the desire for self-exaltation without fully realising what he was doing. Not content with his position, though honoured above the heavenly host, he ventured to covet homage due alone to the Creator. Like many leaders of today, instead of seeking to make God supreme in the affections and allegiance of all created beings, it was his endeavour to secure their service and loyalty to himself. And, coveting the glory with which the infinite Father has invested His Son, this prince of angels aspired to power that was the prerogative of Christ alone.
Thus it is written;
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Ezekiel 28:
1 The word of the LORD came again to me, saying, 2 Son of man, say to the prince of Tyre [representing Satan], Thus says the LORD GOD; Because your heart is lifted up, and you have said, “I am a god, I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas”; yet you are a man [a creature], and not God [the Creator], though you set your heart as the heart of God.
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This is also the pattern of life on earth in those who are its chief rebels. For others it is subtly promoted as possessing an immortal soul, the “god in me”.
In the beginning, after Adam’s sin, if God had not specially interposed, Satan and all mankind would have entered into an alliance against Heaven; and instead of cherishing enmity against evil, the whole human family would have been united in opposition to God.
When man transgressed the divine law, his nature became evil, and he was in harmony, and not at variance, with Satan. But, after Adam and Eve sinned under the devil’s temptation, God said, “And I will put enmity [a desire to be good] between you [Satan] and the woman, and between your seed [your followers] and her seed [each one of her descendants]; it [the enmity] shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel [He who is good]. Genesis 3:15.
It is the universal grace that Christ implants in the newborn which creates in man enmity against Satan, for there exists naturally no enmity between the sinner and the originator of sin. Both became evil through apostasy and are never at rest, except as they obtain sympathy and support by inducing others to follow their example. For this reason fallen angels and men and women who have rejected God’s general grace unite in a desperate companionship.
Taking the king of Tyre as a symbol, the Son of God repeats here what will happen to all those who reject Him, and explains why. (Lucifer and his sympathisers had been told all this before he led them out of heaven, but they didn’t believe it.)
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Ezekiel 28:
3 Behold, you are wiser than Daniel [or any other man]; there is no secret that they can hide from you. 4 With your wisdom and with your understanding you have gotten you riches, and have gotten gold and silver into your treasures: 5 by your great wisdom and by your traffic have you increased your riches, and your heart is lifted up because of your riches. [This is the goal of the vast majority of mankind, but only a few achieve it.]
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In another place it is written, “How are you fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How are you cut down to the ground, which did weaken the nations! For you have said in your heart, ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars [the angels] of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north [where the throne of God is]: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High’. Yet you shall be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit [the grave]”. Isaiah 14:12-15.
The results of Satan's rebellion were to be a lesson TO THE UNIVERSE through all coming ages, a perpetual testimony to the nature and terrible effect of sin. The working out of the rule of sin, its end product upon both men and angels, would show what must be the fruit of setting aside the divine authority. It would testify that with the existence of God's government and His law is bound up the well-being of all the creatures He has made. Thus the history of this terrible experiment of rebellion was to be a perpetual safeguard to all holy intelligences, to prevent them from being deceived as to the nature of transgression, to save them from committing sin and suffering its result – death – separation from God.
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Ezekiel 28:
6 Therefore thus says the LORD GOD; Because you have set your heart as the heart of God; 7 behold, therefore I will bring strangers upon you, the terrible of the nations: and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of your wisdom, and they shall defile your brightness. [It is this attitude that brings war.]
8 They shall bring you down to the pit [the grave], and you shall die the deaths of them that are slain in the midst of the seas. 9 Will you yet say before him that slays you, “I am God [immortal]”? But you shall be a man [a created being], and no God, in the hand of him that slays you. 10 You shall die the deaths of the uncircumcised [the unsaved] by the hand of strangers: for I have spoken it, says the LORD GOD.
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Here the Son of God was explaining the perpetual see-saw of the kings of the north and south through the nations of that time. Satan was preparing his religious arm to take over his civil arm and thus cause much destruction and misery. He enjoys exalting men and women to the peak of sinfulness (claiming to be gods), and then thrusting them down into the depths by another group, making the victor feel superior. He had revealed his plan in his conversation with Eve. “And the serpent said to the woman, ‘You shall not surely die: for God does know that in the day you eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and YOU SHALL BE AS GODS, knowing good and evil’.” Genesis 3:4-5.
This attitude is mentioned again in the New Testament as a characteristic of the king of the north. Paul wrote, “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day [the second coming] shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sits in the temple of God, showing [telling] himself that he is God. Remember you not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?”
2 Thessalonians 2:3-5.
The prophet was asked to carry on;
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Ezekiel 28:
11 Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 12 Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyre, and say to him, Thus says the LORD GOD; You seal up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty.
13 You have been in Eden the garden of God;
every precious stone was your covering [your ornaments], the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of your tabrets and of your pipes [your organs and veins etc.] was prepared in you in the day that you were created.
14 You are the anointed cherub that covers; and I have set you so:
you were upon the holy mountain of God;
you have walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.
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It was a being of wonderful power and glory that had set himself against God. He had “sealed up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty”. He had been the covering cherub as depicted in the sanctuary building. “And when Moses was gone into the tabernacle of the congregation to speak with Him, then he heard the voice of One speaking to him from off the Mercy Seat that was upon the ark of testimony, from between the two cherubims [angels]: and He spoke to him”. Numbers 7:89. Thus Lucifer had stood in the light of God's presence, on His “mountain” of authority, beside His throne. He had been the highest of all created beings, and had been foremost in revealing God's purposes to the universe. After he had sinned, his power to deceive was the more deceptive, and the unveiling of his character was the more difficult, because of the exalted position he had held with the Father.
In so deceptive a way did Lucifer work that the sentiments that he planted could not be dealt with until they had developed in the minds of those who received them. Therefore the author of evil was left alone, able to fully develop his character.
The influence of mind on mind, so strong a power for good when sanctified, is equally strong for evil in the hands of those opposed to God. This power Satan used in his work of instilling evil into the minds of the angels while he made it appear that he was seeking the good of the universe. As the anointed cherub, Lucifer had been highly exalted; he was greatly loved by the heavenly beings, and his influence over them was strong. Many of them listened to his suggestions and believed his words. “And there was war [of words] in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not [nobody won]; neither was their place found any more in heaven”. Revelation 12:7-8.
However, God had an answer to the problem – He sent His Son into the midst of it – apparently helpless and at Satan’s mercy, who then attempted to dispose of Him. However, Christ could not be overcome, but chose to yield up His life on Calvary after He had accomplished the work which He came to do, and with His parting breath exclaimed, “It is finished”. John 19:30. The battle had been won; not by might (selfishness), but by love (unselfishness). His right hand and His holy arm had gotten Him the victory without the use of force. As a Conqueror He planted His banner on the eternal heights. Was there not joy among the angels? All heaven triumphed in the Saviour's victory. Satan was defeated, and knew that his kingdom was lost.
How?
To the angels and the people of the unfallen worlds the cry, “It is finished,” had a deep significance. It was for them as well as for us that the great work of redemption had been accomplished. They with us share the fruits of Christ's victory. Not until the death of the Son of man was the character of Satan clearly revealed to the angels or to the unfallen worlds. The arch apostate had so clothed himself with deception that even holy beings had not understood his principles. They had not clearly seen the nature of his rebellion. Now it was revealed without a doubt.
Speaking to some of Satan’s followers, Christ had said, “You are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father you will do. He was a murderer [a killer] from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own: for he is a liar, and the father [originator] of it”. John 8:44. After the events of Calvary all the inhabitants of the universe saw that this was so.
Satan and his followers (the GREAT beast) were fully revealed. See note 1.
When Lucifer first sinned God could have destroyed him and his sympathizers as easily as one can cast a pebble to the earth; but He did not do this. Why? Because rebellion was not to be overcome by force. Compelling power is found ONLY under Satan's government. The LORD's principles are not of this order. His authority rests upon goodness, mercy, and love; and the presentation of these principles is the means to be used. God's government is moral, and truth and love are the prevailing powers. The destruction of evil comes from within, and it will be Satan’s own followers who finally cause each other’s deaths.
“And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the LORD shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour”. Zechariah 14:13. History shows us repeated instances of this.
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Ezekiel 28:
15 You were perfect in your ways from the day that you were created, till iniquity was found in you. [Iniquity is righteousness twisted for selfish reasons.]
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Satan had warred for the mastery in heaven, and had lost the battle. His heavenly honour and supremacy, with the part he had taken in the government of heaven, were abandoned when he left heaven. Since that time Satan and his army of confederates have been the avowed enemies of God in our world, continually warring against the cause of truth and righteousness. Satan has continued to present to men, as he presented to the angels before the crucifixion, his false representations of God and His Son, and today he has won the greater part of the world to his side. Even the professedly Christian churches have become allies with the great apostate, for they believe in a god who uses force.
Since then:
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Ezekiel 28:
16 By the multitude of your merchandise they [all your thoughts and works] have filled the midst of you with violence, and you have sinned: therefore I will cast you as profane out of the mountain of God [they left of their own accord, Jude 1:6]: and I will destroy you, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. [How? Here’s one way –
http://www.geocities.com/weprotest.geo/BibleReadings/genesis/genesis_06a.html ]