It is written:
“The word of the LORD came to me. He said, 12 “Son of man, sing this sad song about the king of Tyre. Say to him, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says: “‘You were the perfect man— so full of wisdom and perfectly handsome. 13 You were in Eden, the garden of God. You had every precious stone— rubies, topaz, and diamonds, beryls, onyx, and jasper, sapphires, turquoise, and emeralds. And each of these stones was set in gold. You were given this beauty on the day you were created. God made you strong. 14 You were one of the chosen Cherubs who spread your wings over my throne. I put you on the holy mountain of God. You walked among the jewels that sparkled like fire. 15 You were good and honest when I created you, but then you became evil. 16 Your business brought you many riches. But they also put cruelty inside you, and you sinned. So I treated you like something unclean and threw you off the mountain of God. You were one of the chosen Cherubs who spread your wings over my throne. But I forced you to leave the jewels that sparkled like fire. 17 Your beauty made you proud. Your glory ruined your wisdom. So I threw you down to the ground, and now other kings stare at you. 18 You did many wrong things. You were a very crooked merchant. In this way you made the holy places unclean. So I brought fire from inside you. It burned you! You burned to ashes on the ground. Now everyone can see your shame. 19 “‘All the people in other nations were shocked about what happened to you. What happened to you will make people very afraid. You are finished!'” (Ezekiel 28:11-19)
There is a spiritual war taking place. The forces of God are at war with the forces of Satan in our universe.
Yet who is the devil, really?
The Bible here compares the wicked king of the nation of Tyre with another powerful being who once fell from a high position of grace. Many scholars and theologians through the ages have come to believe that this being contrasted with the king of Tyre is none other then Satan himself. Scholar Michael Heiser tells us:
“Was Adam an “anointed guardian cherub”? Where do we read in Genesis 3 that Adam was filled with violence, or that his sin was propelled by the fact he was egotistically enamored of his own beauty and splendor? When was Adam cast to the ground to be exposed before kings (v. 17 )?…There are more details. The anointed cherub ultimately gets cast out of Eden, out from “the midst of the stones of fire.” We already know from other data that Eden is the place of the council. The “stones of fire” is another clue in that direction. This phrase is associated in other Jewish texts ( 1 Enoch 18:6–11 ; 1 Enoch 24–25 ) with the supernatural, mountainous dwelling of God and the divine council….The “ground” to which this haughty divine being is cast and where he is disgraced is also of interest. The Hebrew word translated “ground” is ’erets . It is a common term for the earth under our feet. But it is also a word that is used to refer to the underworld, the realm of the dead (e.g., Jonah 2:6 ), where ancient warrior-kings await their comrades in death ( Ezek 32:21 , 24–30 , 32 ; Isa 14:9 ). Adam, of course, was already on earth, so he couldn’t be sentenced there. And he didn’t wind up in the underworld. Yet this is the sort of language we would expect if the point was the expulsion of a heavenly being from the divine council. Lastly, some scholars have suggested that the problematic term “sealer” (Hebrew ch-w-t-m ) might be a cryptic reference to the serpent figure of Genesis 3 . If their suggestion is correct, the point of confusion becomes a clever signal that Adam is not in view. 9 There is a rare phenomenon in ancient Semitic languages where the final letter m is silent (the “enclitic mem ”). 10 If the m is made silent in (in effect, removed from) our confusing word, the word becomes ch-w-t , which means “serpent” in Phoenician and other Semitic languages. 11 That noun in its lemma form is ch-w-h.” (Michael Heiser, The Unseen Realm: Recovering The Supernatural Worldview Of The Bible, 1393-1441 (Kindle Edition); Bellingham, WA; Lexham Press)
The Bible here teaches us about the origin of the serpent of Genesis 3 (Satan). He is a real being, a created angel who chose to rebel against God. What led to his decision to turn against God?
Very simply, he fell in love with his own beauty and became the first idolater.
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