Based on Ezekiel 28:1-19 (New King James Version)
“The word of the Lord came to me again, saying, ‘Son of man, say to the prince of Tyre, ‘Thus says the Lord God: ‘Because your heart is lifted up, and you say, ‘I am a god, I sit in the seat of gods, in the midst of the seas,’ yet you are a man, and not a god, though you set your heart as the heart of a god (Behold, you are wiser than Daniel! There is no secret that can be hidden from you! With your wisdom and your understanding you have gained riches for yourself, and gathered gold and silver into your treasuries; by your great wisdom in trade you have increased your riches, and your heart is lifted up because of your riches),’ ‘Therefore thus says the Lord God: ‘Because you have set your heart as the heart of a god, behold, therefore, I will bring strangers against you, the most terrible of the nations; and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of your wisdom, and defile your splendor. They shall throw you down into the Pit, and you shall die the death of the slain in the midst of the seas. ‘Will you still say before him who slays you, ‘I am a god’? But you shall be a man, and not a god, in the hand of him who slays you. You shall die the death of the uncircumcised by the hand of aliens; for I have spoken,’ says the Lord God.’’ Moreover the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ‘Son of man, take up a lamentation for the king of Tyre, and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord God: ‘You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering: The sardius, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and emerald with gold. The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes was prepared for you on the day you were created. ‘You were the anointed cherub who covers; I established you; you were on the holy mountain of God; you walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones. You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, till iniquity was found in you. ‘By the abundance of your trading you became filled with violence within, and you sinned; therefore I cast you as a profane thing out of the mountain of God; and I destroyed you, O covering cherub, from the midst of the fiery stones. ‘Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor; I cast you to the ground, I laid you before kings, that they might gaze at you. ‘You defiled your sanctuaries by the multitude of your iniquities, by the iniquity of your trading; therefore I brought fire from your midst; it devoured you, and I turned you to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all who saw you. All who knew you among the peoples are astonished at you; you have become a horror, and shall be no more forever.’’”
In today’s passage, we not only see God’s dealings with a person, with the prince of Tyre, but we also see the revelation of what happened with Satan. The Lord reveals this event through a person so that we can understand what happened with the enemy, what happened in the past with a person that had similar attributes, and what will happen with those that follow the same path. To be able to understand better the issue, the Word speaks to us in a multifaceted manner to help us understand that we have no escape if we decide to sin in such a way before God, because the same way that Satan fell is the same way every person will fall if they follow the same steps, no matter who it is, no matter what they have, no matter what they do; no one will escape God’s justice that will inevitably come upon everyone sooner or later.
The Word opens another window for us that reveals even more of what was in Satan’s heart, before turning into the Satan we know today. It tells us this: “How you are fallen from heaven, o Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations! For you have said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.’ Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, to the lowest depths of the Pit.” Isaiah 14:12-15.
This is what we need to understand. The enemy is a being that was created, made by God. So then, starting from there, he already has his limitations because he is simply not God. God is God, and the God that the Bible explains is a Deity that is composed of Three Persons, as it is written: “For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one.” 1 John 5:7. God was not created, but rather, He has always been. This is something that just needs to be accepted, because if this reality is not accepted, then that is where the way to perdition starts. As it is written: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one!” Deuteronomy 6:4. This is the beginning of everything. There is only one God and there is none other like Him, or rather, like Them. You do not need to understand something in order for it to be true. There are things that simply are, and they need to be accepted, and this is what is most important, the all of life, the all of man. If this reality is not accepted, then there is no salvation, no eternal life; there can only be the expectation of eternal punishment, whether a person wants to believe it or not. Satan did not believe it and look how things turned out for him.
What was and is Satan’s problem? He fell into believing the greatest foolishness anyone could ever believe, in believing that he could be God; he fell in the foolishness of pride. He chose to become proud with the very attributes the Lord gave him. Instead of simply acknowledging the reality that God is God, and that everything he had was given to him by God, and that he owed Him only service and subjection as the God that created him and made him great, he became proud in his foolishness, and believed something that simply could not be. The Word teaches us the following: “These six things the Lord hates, yes, seven are an abomination to Him: A proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that are swift in running to evil, a false witness who speaks lies, and one who sows discord among brethren.” Proverbs 6:16-19. What heads up the list is a proud look. When there is a proud look, then everything inside a person is wrong, without exception, because the Word also teaches us this: “The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!” Matthew 6:22-23.
So then, can we be proud? If we desire God’s blessing and salvation, there cannot be any pride. How do we show pride? By not acknowledging God for who He is, by not obeying Him, by looking to fulfill our own will and focusing on our own wishes and vanities instead of looking to fulfill God’s will. And finally, when there is no faith, no surrender, no submitting to God, a person is believing that they are like God, because they believe that God cannot do anything to them, or that God will serve their desires, or that simply God does not exist. That is how hardened a heart has become when there is pride, and that is the same way the reality of eternal punishment will occur, whether they want to believe it or not. God is God and He needs to be treated as such. So then, are you believing yourself to be something you are not? Lord bless! John