The Strand Study Bible

EZEKIEL

EZEKIEL

1288

M R De Haan II in What In The World Is Satan Doing? notes:

Although the prophet was speaking to the king of Tyre, there are certain indications in the passage that he was speaking beyond the king to Satan himself. 3

Harry Rimmer in Modern Science and the Genesis Record notes:

In the first place, Ezekiel describes that primal creation, which is a different creation, and has a different aspect from the first landscape that emerges from the First Week of Genesis. We find this description in the twenty-eighth chapter of Ezekiel, where the prophet addresses God’s message to a person he calls ‘the King of Tyre.’ That this was not the human personality who then occupied the throne is clearly seen from the prophet’s description of him. He is called ‘the anointed cherub of the covering:’ which no human ever could be called. It is stated he was ‘in Eden, the Garden of God,’ and Adam was the only man of whom that could be said. He was set ‘upon the holy mountain of God’ and that could be true only of an angelic being. His spiritual nature is further shown by the description ‘perfect from the day thou wast created, until evil was found in thee.’ Isaiah, the prophet, clearly tells us who this being was when he addresses him and says, ‘How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!’ This being, then, whom Isaiah calls Lucifer, and who Ezekiel says was the power controlling the king of Tyre, was in the primal Eden. Ezekiel describes that Eden, and it is not the Eden Adam inhabited. That second Eden was a botanical kingdom, but the landscape of the first Eden was all mineral! Read Ezekiel’s words: (vs 13)… Putting together, then, the suggestive references of Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Jeremiah, we arrive at the reason for the sudden chaos that swept the earth which God created ‘not empty and unfurnished!’ Why did it so become? The answer is in Ezekiel’s stern charge, ‘Thou wast perfect from the day thou wast created, until iniquity was found in thee !’ Here is the answer: sin! Lucifer, a being of wonderful beauty and wisdom, rebelled against God, his Creator, and sought to establish himself as the Creator’s equal, at least. For this sin of rebellion he was hurled from his high place, the angels whom Jude mentions, who followed him, were ‘bound in the chains of judgment’ and the earth which was the scene of this rebellion ‘became waste and chaotic,’ with the Eternal Spirit of God brooding over the scene of Lucifer’s failure. This is not advanced as an original thought. Many eminent Bible teachers hold this view and many more are coming to accept it as the explanation of the chaotic upheaval which the earth experienced at one time. 4

Charles Ryrie in The Ryrie Study Bible notes:

This section (vv. 11-19), with its superhuman references, apparently describes someone other than the human ruler of Tyre, namely, Satan. 5

C.I. Scofield in The Scofield Reference Bible notes:

Here in vv. 11-17, as in Isa. 14:12-17, the language goes beyond the king of Tyre to Satan, inspirer and unseen ruler of all such pomp and pride as that of Tyre. Gen. 3:14-15 and Mt. 16:23 are other instances of thus indirectly addressing Satan. The unfallen state of Satan is here described; his fall is written in Isa. 14. 6

William M. Smith in Union Bible Seminary notes of Isaiah 14:12-14:

“How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:¬ I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.” Lucifer had a throne according to this description, and was therefore a king, and, if a king, must have had a kingdom. We can find no place for such a king or kingdom in the world’s history since Adam. The logical place for both is before the creation of Adam. Therefore between verses one and two of Genesis we must place Lucifer and his kingdom. Another description of this same king is found in the 28th chapter of Ezekiel. Here we find much the same language and construction as in the 14th of Isaiah. First, this is a description of the ‘prince of Tyre,’ or Tyrus, that applies, at least in part, to the ruler of that ancient city. But in verse 12 the same movement from type to antitype takes place; ‘Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus.’ This word ‘lamentation’ also has the sense of the word ‘parable;’ so Ezekiel here is taking up a parable on the king of Tyrus. Beginning with a description of what might possibly be true of the king of Tyrus, Ezekiel changes his language from the ordinary into the extraordinary, and describes what cannot possibly be a description, even in hyperbole, of the earthly king of Tyrus… This parabolic description of the king of Tyrus evidently referred to some one of whom the earthly kings referred to are only small copies. Somewhere there is a great pattern from which all wicked kings have drawn their inspiration. 7

That “great pattern,” of course, is Lucifer! If, indeed, this portion of Scripture speaks of Lucifer before and after his fall, which even Matthew Henry suggests is a possibility [Henry noted in Vol. IV, p. 918: “But, if there be anything mystical in it (as perhaps there may)…”] 8 , then we have Satan, before his fall, on this earth before man was ever created. A.C. Gaebelein in The Annotated Bible notes:

The descriptions given of Satan as an unfallen being shows that he was originally a marvelous being, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. From Jude’s epistle, we learn that even Michael still recognized in him the grandeur of his unfallen past, and did not bring a railing accusation against him (Jude verses 8-10). He was in Eden, the garden of God, and every precious stone was his covering. It is a description of Satan’s original place and of his great beauty… As the anointed, divinely chosen cherub he held an exalted position in connection with the government of the throne of God. 9