Ezekiel 28:16, commentary and pictures

Ezekiel 28:16 speaks of Lucifer, the anointed covering cherub, under the lament over the king of Tyre, whom God cast as profane out of the mountain of God and destroyed from the midst of the stones of fire because his traffic filled him with violence and sin. Before his fall he was created perfect in wisdom and beauty, the light-bearer next to Christ sharing the Father and Son's glory, set upon the holy mountain in Eden and walking in the midst of the stones of fire. His multitude of merchandise was his corrupt dealing and self-seeking activity, springing from ambition and selfish desire to exalt self, take God's place, and pursue his own advantage, which defiled his sanctuaries. His heart was lifted up by his brightness, so he coveted worship due God alone, worked in secrecy with deceptive insinuations against God's law, drew many angels into sympathy until disaffection ripened into open war, and was with one-third of heaven cast out without excuse for his sin. God will bring forth fire from his midst to devour him to ashes before beholders until he shall never be any more, when as root with his branches he suffers for his own rebellion and the sins he caused, and the universe sees God's justice upheld and love vindicated.

Subject and Heavenly Setting

The lament over the king of Tyre speaks primarily about Lucifer, the fallen covering cherub, whose sin and expulsion are set forth in the verse. Satan is presented as the actual king of Tyre because he fully controlled that government and made the nation his agent.

Before his fall he was created perfect, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty, the light-bearer sharing God's glory. He was first of the covering cherubs, anointed and set by God upon the holy mountain of God in Eden the garden of God. He walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire with the ceaseless beams of glory resting upon him, holy and undefiled. He was once an honored angel holding the position of covering cherub, glorious in beauty and holiness.

He stood next to Jesus Christ in power, majesty and honor, highest in power and glory next to Christ. He stood in the immediate presence of the Creator, united in the immediate presence of the Father and the Son, from whom he received light and glory. Christ held the first place next to God as the only begotten Son, one with God to do His will and united with God. Christ was appointed ruler, including ruler of the world then in prospect which Lucifer sought to govern, and Lucifer's demand to be next to God in efficiency and above Christ, with Christ made second to him, was denied.

For his sin God cast him as profane out of the mountain of God, cast him to the ground, and destroyed him from the midst of the stones of fire. His corrupt dealings brought violence and sin, and the verse places his fall after God had made him honored and perfect and presents his expulsion and destruction as the result of his sin. He and the angels who sided with him, angels of great power who sought a place above Christ, were expelled from heaven and the courts of God and became fallen angels. His present exclusion from the place of honor contrasts with the exaltation of Christ.

Merchandise, Violence, and Sin

The multitude of merchandise is his traffic, trade, dealings and activity, and by that multitude the midst of him was filled with violence, he sinned, and his sanctuaries were defiled. That violence-filled traffic brought his casting as profane out of the mountain of God and his destruction and removal as the covering cherub from the midst and from among the stones of fire. The fall came after he had been made honored and perfect, with heart lifted up and wisdom corrupted by brightness, so expulsion and destruction were the result of his own sin. That traffic is corrupt administration, self-seeking in spiritual service, which is unacceptable to God. It is the same spirit seen in planning for personal advantage while weakening confidence in God's work, where selfish ambition and self-interest lead to sin and rebellion against God.

His sin arose because ambition and selfish desire ruled him, bringing violence, expulsion from God's mountain, destruction, loss and ruin. The selfish spirit that once ruled him still leads people away from unity and truth and can lead others, including heavenly beings in principle, toward similar spiritual ruin when allowed to rule and when ideas driven by that spirit are followed. That selfishness was seeking power and self-exaltation and trying to take God's place, for which he was cast out because of his sin. The multitude of merchandise also means commercialism, for restrained from carrying out his plans in heaven he determined to be his own god and to do a great work on this earth through commercialism, laying plans to turn the world into a place for his strange devisings. After coming to this earth he entered with great zeal into commercialism by the multitude of merchandise, and under his leadership men today plunge the world into commercial strife to make the world uncivilized and to act out strange things God has not ordained.

He held his ideas of commercialism as an exalted, unchangeable theory that he wove into his experience, refusing to give them up or exchange them, refusing to harmonize with Christ, and determined to carry out his own plans. His rebellion took the ground that a decision once made is never to be altered, so anyone who holds that human opinions should be immortalized and will never change his views or receive counsel and admonition from his brethren is patterning after Lucifer. He had coveted Christ's position, and when he could not have it he became desperate, rebelled, sinned through desire for supremacy, and was expelled from heaven as profane, though once the most glorious angel in the heavenly courts. Unless people stand loyal and true by the side of Prince Emmanuel they will be ensnared by that commercialism and, like ministers who would not follow given light and have departed from the faith, will follow the fallen angel. But God forbade his plans and made him understand that there is a Ruler in the heavens over the inhabitants of the world, and the Lord remains Ruler of heaven and earth to carry out His divine will.

Pride and Rebellion's Course

His heart was lifted up because of his beauty, and his wisdom was corrupted by reason of his brightness. He misused the great abilities, intelligence and excellence that came from God, driven by ambition to be first and unwillingness to accept restraint, placing his own judgment above all others. God was not responsible for the iniquity found in him, for he was created perfect as the covering cherub until iniquity was found in him, and his traffic was associated with violence and defiled his sanctuaries.

Not content with his honored place above the heavenly host, he coveted the homage due the Creator alone and desired supremacy and equality with God. He insisted he must be next to God in efficiency and above Christ, wanted Christ to be second to him, wanted his throne above God's, and treated his own plans and judgment as infallible and unchangeable, never to be revoked. He became ambitious for the more exalted honors bestowed upon Christ, grew envious of Christ, told the angels who honored him that his position demanded honor he had not received, and claimed he should be exalted equal in honor with Christ and be first in the councils of heaven.

He indulged the desire for self-exaltation little by little, allowing jealousy of Christ's exaltation as One equal with the Father to arise. He questioned why Christ should have the supremacy and be honored above him, regarded glory given by God as his own, and spread jealousy and evil surmising because he himself was not in the position of God. That craving and jealousy extinguished his glory and led to his fall, declaring that man is bound and fettered if he makes God first and last and best in everything.

He worked with mysterious secrecy under appearance of reverence for God, concealed his aims, and used deceptive insinuations and seemingly innocent suggestions to win allegiance. He insinuated doubts that the laws governing heavenly beings were arbitrary, detrimental to the heavenly universe and in need of change, an unnecessary restraint, seeking to undermine confidence in God's law and make its supposed defects appear so plain that heaven would claim the law could be improved. He urged that holy angels should obey the dictates of their own will to reach a higher state of existence, claimed he sought not self-exaltation but liberty for the inhabitants of heaven, disguised his disaffection as theirs, accused others to appear righteous and portray God as unjust, and used sophistries, false representations and misrepresentations to blind minds.

He diffused discontent until many angels sympathized, winning allegiance before his purposes were fully known so that even loyal angels could not fully discern his character nor see to what his work was leading. His disaffection ripened into open war in heaven for preeminence and mastery, with loyal angels refusing to yield that Christ should have the preeminence next to God. He lost the battle, and he and a large company, one-third of the heavenly family, were thrown out, expelled from heaven, and heaven was closed against them.

His rebellion was sin without just cause, for he had once served God in harmony but came to regard his wisdom as his own and himself as worthy of God's honor and power. There was no withdrawal of divine influence from him and not the slightest deficiency in God's government that could give reason for disaffection, until his disaffection there had been no occasion for God to speak of allegiance to His laws, and his splendid head in contrast to his envious heart has no excuse. Why sin was permitted cannot be explained by man.

When God sought to correct him he would not be corrected but persistently followed his own way and his own judgment as unchangeable. He refused to yield his will to God's will and to harmonize with Christ, holding his ideas as an exalted theory woven into his experience and taking the ground that a decision once made is never to be altered. Justice decreed he could no longer claim God's mercy and love or be trusted with honor and supremacy in heaven's government, and these with the part he had taken in the government of heaven were taken from him.

He became dissatisfied with what God had not revealed and disregarded what God had revealed about the work assigned to him. He rejected God's authority despite warning that his Creator could punish his audacity and rebellion. His self-sufficient rebellious spirit was already present while in the heavenly courts.

Final Destruction Foretold

The verse foretells the covering cherub being cast down as profane and destroyed from the place of honor because of his sin. That casting out from God's mountain stands in contrast to the exaltation of Christ to honor. Its judgment against the proud ruler is applied to Satan's final defeat, when God brings him down and exposes him before others.

God will bring forth fire from his midst to devour him and bring him to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all beholders. He is cast to the ground and laid before kings to behold him. He is made an astonishment and a terror, and he shall never be any more. At the end God thus vindicates His law and delivers His people, while Satan and all who joined him in rebellion are cut off.

After the wicked turn against him and perish, Satan as root with his branches is destroyed in the cleansing flames. He suffers for his own rebellion and for the sins he caused God's people to commit, with punishment greater than those he deceived. The universe then sees God's justice upheld. This extermination is not arbitrary power but the reaped result of their own continued choice. God is the fountain of life, and choosing the service of sin separates from God and cuts off from life in alienation from Him, so that by continued rebellion Satan and his followers place themselves so out of harmony with God that His very presence who is love is to them a consuming fire that destroys them. The delay until the end lets character develop and principles be revealed, so that with redemption completed and the perfection of His law seen, sin having manifested its nature and Satan his character, the extermination vindicates God's love and leaves the universe eternally secure.

Doctrine and Scripture Connections

The verse gives the authentic history of the fall of the covering cherub, the first departure from truth and the introduction and origin of sin into the universe and into the world. He is the originator of evil and the author of envy, jealousy, deception, strife and every sin that has cursed the earth, who perverted his intellect, separated himself from God, and fell from an exalted work of veiling God's glory to become the author of sin. His rebellion developed through deception and concealed motives and seemingly innocent suggestions until its evil nature became plain, as God permitted it to unfold so all could see to what it led. Without this Bible account of the true early history of the origin of the earth, the creation of man and his fall, the mind is left to fables and conjectures, to bewildering and unreliable human false theories, to the tyranny of superstition and falsehood and to enfeebling of the intellect by entertaining error.

His sin was violating God's law and the principles of God's government, and opposition to the law of God had its beginning with him in the courts of heaven. He fell from heaven because he transgressed God's law, and that fall from a high and holy estate disproves the doctrine of once in grace always in grace and demonstrates the sure result of disobeying God's law. Because of his sin Christ covenanted with God to lay aside His kingly crown and royal robe, to clothe His divinity with humanity, and to come to earth to stand at the head of humanity. By his subtlety he led human beings into degradation, bringing wounds of sin that cost the life of the Son of God to heal and to redeem sinners.

Educated and disciplined in the heavenly courts, he has knowledge of good as well as of evil, with light, learning, excellencies and mighty intellect retained after expulsion but perverted and turned against God and humanity. Though cast out from the mountain of God he has stolen the livery of heaven to exercise influence in his usurped dominion, and his agents sometimes display remarkable wisdom from that heavenly training. He still retains many precious gems of thought given him by God and places them in a framework of error to give luster to human sentiments inspired by the prince of evil, mingling the precious with the vile, and that mixture gives him power to deceive. This is why the writings of pagans and infidels admired by the world contain thoughts of elevated character attractive to the mind, and why supposedly wise men presenting doctrine contrary to the Bible fabricate bewitching theories to infatuate minds, captivate them, turn them from obeying truth, and lead souls to ruin. Knowledge alone in the hands of the enemy of all good thus becomes a power to destroy those who hold it, so that many minds of superior intellectual attainments are now led captive, while only sanctified knowledge imparted by God tells to His glory.

Having fallen, the same seducing spirit who was once in the heavenly courts visited the holy pair in Eden and counseled them to partake of the forbidden fruit. Before the first parents faced his plots, heavenly messengers warned them by explaining the history of his fall and his effort to overthrow the divine government. After being cast out he worked to claim Adam and Eve by deceiving them with false accusations against God, leading them to transgress the laws of God so that sin was introduced into the world and the image of God in man was defaced. Through continued practice he gained increasing knowledge of transgression and energy in wickedness, using his powers to hurt and destroy God's people, with greater joy as a fallen apostate the more suffering he caused. From intense hatred for the God he dishonored he planted his standard on earth and established a rival empire in which all powers of evil combine to oppose God's influence, to eclipse every ray of light, to efface God's likeness from men, and to plant his throne between the human worshiper and God, leading men to invest their God-entrusted talents in building up his kingdom so that Satan and not God is worshiped.

Warnings and Present Application

The chapter speaks primarily of Lucifer, the covering cherub created perfect who sinned when iniquity was found in him, whose traffic was filled with violence and whose heart was lifted up until his wisdom was corrupted by his brightness, for which God cast him as profane out of the mountain of God from among the stones of fire. That judgment also describes a broader movement of evil that God's people will witness, warning them to heed the light God has given lest they be deceived. The works began with war in heaven for the preeminence, when he worked with the angels until they were deceived to war against God while the loyal would not yield that Christ should have the preeminence next to God. The strange things that have come, especially in America since the destruction of San Francisco by fire, are repeating those same works of Satan, bringing confusion and last-day delusion.

Cast out of heaven with the angels expelled with him, he was not made a beast but watches every movement and works upon minds through those evil angels and disguised satanic agencies to divert from the work of saving perishing souls. His work is to bring in unessential jots and tittles, to fill places of influence, to enlarge little differences into prominent disagreement, and to bring confusion into the ranks. These fallen angels are now at work to steal away true conviction of the Holy Spirit, to deceive all who will give heed, and to delay and hinder the work of God. Since failing to dethrone God and take the place of the Most High, he has worked to make people believe that God is arbitrary and harsh in His dealings, misrepresenting God and stirring rebellion against Jesus Christ, heaven's Commander, by presenting false representations of Christ and of God as he presented to the angels. Though once honored in heaven and full of wisdom and beauty, he became envious, sowed doubt and disaffection, broke confidence and communion with God, accused others to appear righteous, and now works to destroy people and ruin souls.

His fall warns that pride, self-exaltation, ambition for position and honor, and contempt for God's law lead to dishonoring God, turning from allegiance to truth, opposing God, persecuting others, and falling as he fell. He complained against God's government and sought to overthrow heaven's established order, desiring to take the honor and position given to Christ and to be first and above restraint, misusing the great abilities God had given him. The same ambition and motives lead many people to fall, for Lucifer now tempts people to follow his example by exalting themselves and inventing things contrary to God's order. Past religious experience does not protect anyone unless it deepens knowledge of God's glory, and men must discern the signs of the times and cease following their own ideas lest they join fallen angels and fallen men in that same self-exaltation. Church membership alone does not save; a person must receive the seal of God and be made complete in Christ.

Anyone who refuses correction repeats Lucifer's sin, for though next to Christ in the heavenly courts he decided he was entitled to a higher position and treated his own plans and judgment as infallible, never to be revoked. When God sought to correct him he would not be corrected but persistently chose his own way and judgment as unchangeable, refused to yield and harmonize with Christ, held his exalted theory woven into his experience, and took the ground that a decision once made is never to be altered. God does not endorse that claim, justice decreed he could no longer claim God's mercy and love, and God has no further use for one in the same refusal unless he gives up the idea and changes. Such a one becomes unacceptable to God, needs reconversion, must not take a position hastily on important subjects without first searching the Word to know if an opinion is infallible from its pure statements, must receive counsel and admonition from brethren, and must not be allowed to spoil the church. However great the wisdom, capabilities, talents, abilities and intelligence entrusted to a man may appear, if Christ does not abide in his soul and sustain and nourish his life he will lead in false paths, is not a safe guide for God's people, is to be feared and turned from to the living God.

Knowledge alone does not protect, for Satan was a very intellectual being who occupied a high position among the angelic throng and finally became a rebel. In the hands of the enemy of all good such knowledge becomes a power to destroy those who possess it, and many minds of superior intellectual attainments are now being led captive by his power. Only sanctified knowledge imparted by God is of the right quality and tells to His glory. It enables youth to discern God, to cultivate faculties for efficient service, to unlock the treasures of His word, to ennoble and elevate the soul, to partake of the divine nature through connection with Christ, and to obtain power to resist Satan.

In contrast to proud self-exaltation stands Christ, the higher Being next to God, who left the royal courts and consented to live the life of humanity that He Himself might experience all the afflictions wherein humanity must partake. Humanity must therefore humble itself as Christ humbled Himself. The lesson is to exalt God and Jesus Christ, not oneself. True conversion is proved not by mere theoretical knowledge of truth but by self-denial, self-sacrifice, and obedience to the words of God, exposing unconverted hearts that suppose they should occupy the place of Christ and even of God.

The verse belongs to the Bible's account of the fall of Satan as a beautiful heavenly being, not the grotesque fiend shown in some pictures, who disguised himself when approaching Christ in temptation. His splendid appearance is constantly exalted, yet his splendid head and envious, rebellious heart show a contrast, and his iniquity has no excuse and cannot be explained. The angels in heaven looked to Lucifer and placed confidence in his greatness, and in doing so lost the sense of the presence of Christ and God. Confidence must never be placed in human greatness in the same way, looking to man as the angels looked to Lucifer, especially when false sentiments must be met.