Ezekiel 28:18, commentary and pictures

Though spoken against the ruler of Tyre, the sentence exposes Satan himself, who controlled that government and worked through it as his agent.
It condemns Lucifer, the light-bearer next to Jesus in power and majesty, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty, created perfect as the anointed covering cherub on God's holy mountain in Eden, walking among the fiery stones.
His heart was lifted up by his beauty, he corrupted his wisdom, claimed his own judgment infallible, and sought self-exaltation and preeminence to be like the Most High, refusing correction.
He defiled what was entrusted to him by corrupt dealings and self-seeking traffic, turning gifts and spiritual office from the good of others and the glory of God to selfish gain.
Therefore a consuming blaze is brought out from within himself that devours him and reduces him to ashes on the earth in open sight of all beholders, a public, complete and final eradication in which evil ends forever and God's love, justice and law stand vindicated.

Identity and Original Setting

Though addressed to the king of Tyre, the pronouncement portrays Satan himself, because he fully controlled that government and worked through it as his agent. The one condemned is Lucifer, the light-bearer who shared God's glory next to Jesus in power and majesty, sealing up the sum, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. He was a very intellectual being in high position among the angels, placed as the anointed covering cherub upon the holy mountain of God. He had been in Eden the garden of God with every precious stone for a covering, walking up and down in the midst of the stones of fire, perfect in his ways from his creation till iniquity was found in him.

Sin entered when his heart was lifted up because of his beauty and he corrupted his wisdom by reason of his brightness. Standing next to Christ, he decided he was entitled to and deserved a higher position, holding his own plans and judgment as infallible, never to be revoked or changed. He sought self-exaltation to be like the Most High and to have the preeminence, and when God sought to correct him he would not be corrected but persistently chose his own way. He defiled his sanctuaries by the multitude of his iniquities and by the iniquity of his traffic, defiling what had been entrusted to him. That defiling came by corrupt dealings and corrupt use of his gifts, by commercial dealings marked by sin and violence that filled him with violence and separated him from God.

“Traffick” is an emblem of corrupt administration, the bringing of self-seeking into spiritual offices. It means using influence gained through positions of trust for selfish purposes instead of for the good of others, especially those who stand approved because their dependence is in God and they seek His glory and not their own. Such service is unacceptable to God. Spiritual service is acceptable only when its purposes and works benefit the universe and bring glory to God.

Fall, Judgment, and Eradication

His striving for preeminence led him to work upon the angels until they were deceived and to lead them in war against God, while the loyal angels would not yield the point that Christ should have the preeminence next to God.

God's sentence casts him to the ground and lays him before kings and all beholders to behold him. All who know him are astonished at him when they see this exposure. God brings forth a fire from the midst of him that devours him and brings him to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all who behold him, openly seen in full view. His ruin is made a public spectacle, complete and final, and he becomes a terror and never shall be anymore. His many iniquities and corrupt dealings defiled what had been entrusted to him, and that inward fire pictures his destruction made visible to all who witness his fall.

In the final execution of judgment upon the earth he will cease to exist and exist no more forever. The cross made certain this utter extermination and final eradication of evil. The whole universe witnesses it as proof of the nature and results of sin and the vindication of God's love, justice and law, so that evil will never again be manifest. The one once honored and pure is thus brought low, and his evil work ends in failure and ruin, making plain that he cannot overthrow God's rule or destroy those who trust in Jesus.

After his character remains unchanged in rebellion, even the countless millions he allured abandon his supremacy and turn upon him with rage after his last rebellion. His punishment is far greater than that of those he deceived, because the sins of the righteous are transferred to him after Christ removes them from the heavenly sanctuary. Like the scapegoat sent away from Israel, he is forever banished from God and His people and blotted from existence. He suffers not only for his own rebellion but for all the sins he caused God's people to commit, still living and suffering on after all who fell by his deceptions have perished. Then in the cleansing flames the wicked are destroyed root and branch, Satan the root and his followers the branches, the full penalty of the law is visited, the demands of justice are met, and his end is complete and visible before all beholders.

At the end God will vindicate His law and deliver His people while Satan, who set his heart as the heart of God, and all who joined him in rebellion are cut off, with sin and sinners perishing. He is destroyed from the midst of the stones of fire until he becomes a terror and never exists again. This destruction is not an act of arbitrary power but the reaped result of chosen rebellion. For God is the fountain of life, and one who chooses the service of sin separates from God and cuts himself off from life. By a life of rebellion he places himself so out of harmony with God that His very presence, the glory of Him who is love, is a consuming fire that destroys him.

Corruption Repeated and Exposed

The defiling of the sanctuaries is the same self-seeking course begun in heaven and still continued and advanced by the same laws. Having lost the self-sacrificing principle and unselfish care for associates, he little by little introduces a new order of things by consulting himself. That corrupt spiritual administration turns influence gained through positions of trust to selfish purposes instead of to the good of others and the glory of God. It especially targets those who stand approved, because their dependence is in God and they seek His glory and not their own.

He makes evil appear as righteousness to keep men working in his line and to pervert those entrusted with great responsibilities from allegiance to God to serve his purposes. With the angels expelled from heaven with him he now works against the truth upon minds, drawing them away from special light and the saving of perishing souls to unessential jots and tittles. He picks flaws and magnifies little differences of opinion into prominent disagreements. Watching every movement, he in disguise fills openings with strange spirits and satanic agencies to bring confusion into the ranks, hinder the advancement of the work, and give rejoicing to the enemy's camp.

His history is being repeated in strange things that have come, especially in America since San Francisco was destroyed by fire. The judgment against him also represents a wider movement that God's people will face. His self-exaltation influences people to oppose God and persecute others whenever they follow that pattern. The same refusal to yield, to change ideas, and to be corrected repeats his position, for next to Christ he decided he deserved a higher position and held his own plans and judgment as infallible and unchangeable, and when sought to be corrected he would not be corrected. Insisting one's judgment is unchangeable claims infallibility, and God has no further use for such a person unless he changes, is helped, is reconverted, and tests opinion by the pure statements of the Word. Knowledge alone in the hands of the enemy of all good becomes a power to destroy its possessors, so intellect without sanctification is dangerous while only the sanctified knowledge which God imparts tells to His glory, though many minds of superior intellectual attainments are now led captive.

His former wisdom, heavenly education and discipline in the heavenly courts, and knowledge of good as well as evil explain why writings of pagans and infidels contain thoughts of elevated character attractive to the mind. He still retains many precious gems of thought given him and places them in a framework of error to give luster to human sentiments and make attractive the utterances inspired by the prince of evil. He mingles the precious with the vile, and this mingling gives him his power of deceiving men. He has stolen the livery of heaven in order to exercise influence in his usurped dominions. Every ray of light that has pierced the darkness of the world originates from God alone, and all that is of value comes from God and belongs to Him, so man can accomplish nothing good without God.

He ascribes to God all the evils to which flesh is heir and represents God as delighting in the sufferings of His creatures, revengeful and implacable. He originated the doctrine of eternal torment as punishment for sin, because in this way he could lead men into infidelity and rebellion, distract souls, and dethrone human reason. Through accumulated misrepresentations he cast a gloomy shadow between man and God, enveloped the world in dense clouds of moral darkness and gloom, and led many so deceived to worship a false god clothed with the attributes of his own satanic character. That revelation of his true character showed that heaven knew a divine Instructor must come, and Jesus alone as the light of the world could roll back the clouds, dissipate the shadow, and reveal God to human understanding. His fall from one once honored and pure to ruin and his final defeat in failure and ruin make plain that he cannot overthrow God's rule or destroy those who trust in Jesus.