Tim Maas Retired Quality Assurance Specialist with the U.S. Army

I would say that the main analogy being drawn by this passage between the literal/historical king of Tyre and the angel Lucifer is in relation to the pride that had led, or would lead, to the downfall of each. In the case of the king of Tyre, this pride was the result of the wealth that he accumulated due to the abundance of trade or commerce in which Tyre was engaged. I don't see a necessity to attempt to somehow further equate the specific activity of each. The emphasis is on their pride.

October 27 2023 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report

Dave Mohler Preacher's kid.

The opening verse of Ezekiel 28 tells Ezekiel to "say [to] the prince of Tyre" regarding the condition of his evil heart. Then in verse 12 Ezekiel is told to take up a lamentation [for] the king of Tyre where in these latter verses the attributes of the one whom God is describing is so unmistakably that of Satan that it must be strongly considered as the correct interpretation. The similarities between Satan and the king of Tyre would not escape the king's attention and therefore are a forewarning of his ultimate end. Is he given an opportunity to repent? We are not told. Here is a message to the king of Tyre that he, just like the Pharisees in Jesus' day, is following after "your father the devil".

For the king of Tyre, who increased his riches by supposedly some unscrupulous trading schemes and then took great pride in those riches, likewise, Satan developed self pride because of his beauty and corrupted his wisdom for the sake of his splendor. He too was engaged in an abundance of trading and became filled with an internal violence and sinned. Revelation 12:4-9 states that the serpent's tail "...drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth". Did his "trading" have some part in pulling away these former angels to follow him? Some tend to think that God created Satan as an evil being. But God was fair with Lucifer as he was with Adam and Eve and gave warning.

Notice in Ezekiel's passage that Satan, before his fall, was apparently given every opportunity to observe and realize first hand the incomparable power and supremacy of God. He was given the wisdom to understand and contemplate all that God showed him, indeed, sealing up the sum of beauty and wisdom. God showed him the uniqueness and splendor of Eden where life abounded, where life begat life and everything was very good. This creation of God was clearly outside of the realm and ability of any angel to create. When the morning stars shouted together for joy at the beginning of time, surely Satan was there and was awed by the enormity as well as the minute detail of the creation process and the 'natural laws' that God instituted as a dynamic of His creation. 

Satan apparently so well understood the majesty and splendor of it all that he wanted the place of God because he understood the incomparable position of worship that God deserved. It was not enough that he held the highest position of any created thing. And God reminded him that he was not deity, he was created. He was clothed in the greatest possible beauty. He was given a highly privileged and meaningful experience in that "You were on the holy mount of God" and "thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire" and "wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created". He revealed to Satan the very fundamentals of his creation, a very privileged insight into His handiwork. 

Satan was clearly warned that he was not deity but wanted the worship that belonged only to God anyway. His fall was a declaration of war against God that continues to this day. Referring to Jesus in 1 Corinthians 15:24-26: Then comes the end when He will deliver up the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power.

December 23 2023 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report