The other day I found an excellent sermon series on Ezekiel. Click here for some amazing research and details about the prophecies and some of their fulfillments against the Gentiles through Chapters 25-35.
What caught my eye though was Chapter 38 and the fact that the King of Tyre (Satan) was the driving force behind the Prince of Tyre (the acting ruler at the time).
In his sermon titled Lucifer's Life Story, Pastor David Legge breaks down some of these verses for us....
This spirit being is described as being bejewelled with every stone fitted in beautiful settings of finest gold, and the only time you find these jewels mentioned again in scripture is in the book of Revelation, where the saints of God who stand in the glories of God and worship God are covered in these same jewels! This great angelic leader, this spirit being, is covered in the same - a mass of brilliant colour. I was trying to imagine this today in the study - from the tip of his toe, jewels and diamonds sparkling; and you look at him, a technicolour of absolute brilliance!
One thing that we know about gems and diamonds and precious stones is that they have no light of their own. If you take a diamond into a dark room you will see nothing. But they reflect another's light, and this is speaking spiritually of this creature - he is one who reflects another light. His beginning was... to reflect the very Light of the universe - the Light of God. It may have been that in the beginning, before his fall, he was given charge over creation - I don't know, the word of God doesn't tell us.......
Verse 13 says 'the workmanship of his tabrets and his pipes' - and that's musical language, that's a musical instrument. Musical instruments were originally created, I hope you know, to be a means of praising and worshipping God. But what God is saying here is that Lucifer had no need of musical instruments, for - if you like - he had a built in organ to praise God, he had his own pipes and his tabrets. The prophet is saying that Lucifer, because of this beauty, he was a musical instrument. He himself was an instrument of praise and glory to God. He didn't look for someone to play the organ, he was not just singing a doxology, he was a doxology to God! That would lead us to believe that this Lucifer was in charge of praise in heaven. You can see the picture beginning to be painted of his person.
Then we see further, in verse 14, his privileges. He is described: 'Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth...thou wast upon God's holy mountain'. Now let me say this: in the Old Testament Scriptures there were only three types of people who were anointed. There was the prophet, the priest, and the King....this spirit being is described as being the guardian cherub, the anointed cherub. Now a cherub, and we've learnt this in our studies, is an awesome angelic being whose purpose is to protect God's holiness. You remember when there was the fall in the Garden of Eden, and man sinned, there was a cherubim stood before the gate of the Garden with a fiery sword to make sure that they didn't get in and eat of the Tree of Life and live forever in their sin. He was guarding the glory and indeed the holiness of God, they vindicate God's righteousness, they protect and defend God's mercy - and indeed they execute God's government within the word of God.I'd like to cast your mind back to the book of Exodus, where the children of Israel were told to build an Ark - not Noah's Ark, but the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark was to sit in the Holy of Holies, and Moses was told by God in Exodus 25 and verse 20 that God's glory, the Shekinah that we've already looked at in this book, it would dwell and His presence would hover between the cherubim on the top of the Ark. I hope you're seeing the picture. In Exodus 25 the presence of God hovers above the cherubim, and here we have this vision of this cherub who is called 'The Cherub That Covereth', 'The Cherub That Guardeth'. This is a fearful thing, a fearful being that's symbolic of the holy presence of God, of God's inapproachability. It's amazing! Do you know what this means? I believe this means that in eternity past, before earth existed when there was the angelic creation, this individual spirit being - Lucifer - had the responsibility to hover over and guard the very throne and presence of Almighty God. He covered God's presence!
If you look at verse 15 that would prove that to us I think: 'Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee. By the multitude of thy merchandise' - and at the end of verse 16 - 'O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire' - Hebrews says our God is a consuming fire. It means that Lucifer was in the very presence of God walking over the fiery coals of God's presence, hovering over, protecting the presence and holiness and righteousness of God. He was anointed in this place of great authority, and the amazing thing to me is this: he probably had unrestricted access to the glorious presence of God. (emphasis mine)
We saw a graphic picture of [the cherubim] in verse 10 of this chapter... they bore the likeness of a lion, a calf, an eagle, and a man - and you remember looking at how those four faces reflected the absolute completeness of the nature of our blessed Lord Jesus Christ, prophetically how Matthew in his gospel presents our Lord Jesus as a King like a lion, the King of the jungle. Mark's gospel presents Him as the Servant King, the calf like the ox, the serving animal of the field. Luke's gospel presents Christ as the perfect man in His humanity and in His humility, and that's the face of the man again in the cherubim. Then the face of an eagle, that speaks of the skies, speaking of His divinity.
Please see the significance of this: apparently Lucifer was created, among other purposes, but one purpose was to demonstrate the earthly work of Christ as pictured in the four Gospels - the glory of Christ's humanity, deity, servitude and kingship!
Isn't this entire picture of the at-one-time perfect angel Lucifer incredible? He goes on....
That is his beginning, his person, his privileges, and then we look at his downfall where it all went wrong, and its cause. The cause of his downfall is found in verse 17, where God says: 'Your heart was filled with pride because of all your beauty'. This is the first sin, and the self-creation of the first sinner in all of the universe. The people say: 'Why did God create the Devil?', God didn't create the Devil, God created a perfect, moral, spiritual, glorious being! The Devil created the Devil when he sinned, and when his heart was inflated with pride.....
Pride is a deadly enough sin to destroy the most powerful, wise, holy and awesome being that has ever been created - how much more do we need to make sure that we are not walking independently of the Lord in self-righteousness, self-sufficiency and pride? We must make sure, as God's people, that we are dependent upon God, that everything is handed into the hands of God. What we need to face is the question: are we living in Satan's sin of self-dependence, or are we puffed up with self-importance? We need to remember that we are only sinners saved by grace, and whatsoever we have received we have received from the hand of God and there is nothing in ourselves! (emphasis mine)
He has some strong views on Harry Potter (I haven't read any of the books and don't have an opinion one way or the other as of now), and seems to think the end times must be approaching quickly (though he does not give any dates or predictions) - but overall I have found his research to be very informative and I'm sorry I didn't find this series earlier in our readings of Ezekiel. I might have to go back and re-read some of them yet.
Tomorrow's passage: Jeremiah 39:11-40:6, 2 Kings 25:8-21, Jeremiah 52:12-27, 2 Chronicles 36:15-21, Lamentations 1
9 comments:
I was intrigued by that description of the "king of Tyre," too. Sounds like, next to God Himself, Lucifer was pretty much the most important being. But like we've seen even among the Israelite and Judahite kings, those who accomplish much, who are blessed much and have amazing success, are also the ones most easily susceptible to the sin of pride.
My new Life Application Bible (squeeeeeee!) says: Two of the most difficult sins to resist are pride and sexual immorality. Both are seductive. Pride says, "I deserve it"; Sexual desire says, "I need it." In combination, their appeal is deadly. In fact, says Solomon [in Proverbs 2:16-17 where I was reading yesterday], only by relying on God's strength can we overcome them.
Lucifer's head was not filled with God's wisdom and therefore, he fell ~ SPECTACULARLY! ~ as a result of his pride. If our heads are not filled with God's wisdom and our hearts are not filled with God's love, we will, too.
Interesting how THAT ties in with some Revive Our Hearts messages in recent weeks about what our greatest influences are. Nancy's guest Mary Kassian gave the sobering statistic that the average women spends 10 hours a day consuming mass media ~ newspapers, magazines, TV, movies, radio, Internet, etc. TEN HOURS PER DAY!! That's easily 33% more than time spent on SLEEPING!! But it goes to show what the "average woman" is filling her head and heart with. It's really no wonder we've become an incredibly self-serving culture. Virtually every single TV or print add suggests/screams how you DESERVE to treat yourself to a new this or that. It's something you probably can't afford and don't need, but you've worked hard and you deserve a little indulgence. God's Word says falling for that line is a sign of pride ~ foolish, empty-headedness.
OUCH.
"Lucifer was created, among other purposes, but one purpose was to demonstrate the earthly work of Christ as pictured in the four Gospels - the glory of Christ's humanity, deity, servitude and kingship!"
...i'm not sure what that means. Could you explain?
I went on to read his Harry Potter segment. He does come accross as a bit of a Harry Potter conspiracy theorist. IT's like the movie "23", once you get the idea that there is a corelation somewhere, you start to see the number everywhere. There is of course plenty of truth to what he says. And in many conspiracy theories, there is some truth.
The best thing I think he mentions is on being aware of truth. Shunning a book for it's authors intent or issues would ruin a great deal of our fiction time, as would reasearching artist of our favorite music. Lewis Carrol is a debated pedifile and on the other end, Louisa May Alcott is strongly critisized as well by many well intended Christians for her staunch Humanistic views (see here: http://www.balaams-ass.com/journal/homemake/alcott.htm)
I think it's quite simple. If Potter makes you kid want to practice the accult, heavens....get rid of it. If reading Alcott makes you daughter a feministic humanist...do the same. If you arm causes you to sin, cut that off too.
Beyond that, talk with your kids A LOT. We have a daughter who is really a fan of fantacy literature (she also loves Lewis and Tolkien and many other stories involving these practices though admittedly at different levels but they have thier own Christian critics). We have read to her the scripture about how those who practice these things will not inherit the kingdom of God. It does infact say "practice".
I know Christian parents who don't let their boys get into superhero's at all because they will be sucked into the sin of pride of man and his strength instead of the strength of biblical Godly heroes. Well...there is some truth to that too....but my son loves Superman none the less.
oh, and when i say "makes your kid want to practice" I don't mean in pretned play. Kids will pretend to kill eachother (as in cowboys and indians or good guy bad guy), go to war against each other. I know parents who don't let kids pretend these things anymore and it saddens me. If your five year old wants to dress up in his older sister's dresses, don't fret about that either. He's not pretending to be a drag queen and he won't practice it in real life (well, not from you letting him play that). I was legalistice years ago about so many things and would not let my kids pretend harry potter spells. My husband and I dove into the issues deeply in discussion and realized it was like playing other things we would not want them to really do. I think each couple has to pray about what to let thier kids do.
Now I think it's just hillarious when my son tries to say the Harry Potter famous "expelliarmus!"and it came out "smell your armpits!"
I like what Randy Alcorn said "enjoy entertainment but don't get your theology from Star Wars" (he is a fan of Star Wars, which is another pandora box of Christian opinion)
We all need to decide what we should believe, I just think we should really think and pray a lot about it before we draw lines and know why we draw them.
Okay...im done;)
I have read all the Harry Potter books and personally plan to read them with my children when I feel they've reached an appropriate age, along with The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia.
I haven't read any anti-Harry Potter articles or anything, so I don't really know what the objections are other than the casting of spells part, but from reading the books myself, I got themes of friendship, loyalty, trust, and love (non-romantic, although in later books there is some adolescent dating drama), as well as standing up for others and doing the right thing, whether it is popular or not.
There is a dramatic differentiation made between good and evil, and it is also very clear that the "magical world" is not real or based in reality. In my personal opinion, a child should be at least 11 or 12 before reading the books, as some of the content could be frightening and over the heads of younger children, especially as the series progresses, and by the age of 11 or 12 a child is well aware of the difference between real and make believe.
Anyway, Harry Potter aside, as it is unrelated to today's reading, I really appreciated the explanation of the references to Lucifer. I know very little about Lucifer and his fall from Heaven and this was very interesting for me to read - thanks, Tammy!
Alicia, I think the quote you asked about refers to all cherubim, not Lucifer in particular. It's talking about the four faces of the cherubim as described at the beginning of Ezekiel and how they relate to the four ways Jesus is portrayed in the gospels - Christ's kingship is represented by the face of a lion, servitude by a calf, deity or divinity by an eagle, humanity by a man.
Alicia - what Miriam said. :) Lucifer is called a cherubim in this passage, and the cherubim is described in Ezekiel 1 with the 4 heads representing the 4 ways Jesus is portrayed in the gospels.
Thank you. Yes, I saw the correlation to the cherubs but I did not see how Satan was created for this purpose. I had to think about that for a while. Here is what twisted my head around.
The very reason Christ would come was for the problem of sin. Yet, Satan, as an angel, and with the angels was created with a purpose for a solution to a problem that did not exhist yet. He represtented the redemptive that would work for what he was about to do. That's pretty screwy crazy if you really think about it!
I think is great though because it proves what Randy Alcorn talks about in If God Is Good (sorry for mentioning him so much!:)
and that is the fact that we too often think of Christ as the fix for something that went wrong, when in fact, the whole fall and redemptive story were the plan of God to display his Glory more fully.
SO....
really, the fact that Lucifer represented a redeptive story to come is pretty poetic I'd say.
Interesting thought.
I'm sure there were several purposes for Lucifer's creation!
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