4234—"IN THE MIDST OF THE STONES OF FIRE"
What is meant by Eze. 28:14, last clause, "Thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire"? Under the symbol of the king of Tyrus, a portion of the twenty-eighth chapter of Ezekiel is talking about Satan. He is said to seal up the sum, "full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty." It is said of him that he has been in Eden, the garden of God. The text tells of the wonderful beauty that infinite power and wisdom had given to the person of Satan. Among other things, it says that he had walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. The Scriptures speak of God dwelling in light which no man can approach. 1 Tim. 6:16. When Christ comes, it is said, the wicked will be destroyed by "the brightness of His coming." 2 Thess. 2:8. And again, "The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ." And the prophet Ezekiel had a view of this exceeding brightness in which God dwells, for he says, in describing God sitting upon His throne, "I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and it had brightness round about." Eze. 1:27. The second verse of the eighth chapter of Ezekiel also speaks of the brightness surrounding the person of God "as the appearance of fire." In Revelation 22 we are told that the city of God will not need the light of the sun, for the throne of God and of the Lamb will be there, and will give the light. In other words, the brightness of the person of our divine Father, the infinite Creator, shines above the brightness of the sun. This indescribable glory that shines from the person and the presence of the Father, and of His Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, is beautifully reflected in all the precious stones and gems that adorn the dwelling-place of God, the city of the great King. Shut away in this dark world of sin, we have but little conception of the brightness that surrounds the infinite King of eternity. We have little conception of the immortal power that will be given to the redeemed, and that is now possessed by the unfallen beings, which enables them to behold the great shining of His glory. To our enfeebled and darkened conceptions, God speaks of it as flaming fire, and it was in the midst of this blazing and flaming glory that Satan had walked, and from which he deliberately departed through sin. And it is into the presence of this great glory that the redeemed are to be finally brought.