Trinity Baptist Church

Ezekiel Series

Fall of the Anointed Cherub

Ezekiel 28:12-19

 

There are three main divisions to the book of Ezekiel.

The first 24 chapters have to do with the fall of Judah. These were prophecies that God gave to Ezekiel before Jerusalem fell.

 

Then chapters 25-32 give us the foes of Judah; those enemy nations around God's people.

 

When we come to chapters 33 right on into the conclusion, we have the future of Judah. It's going to be a brighter picture because God reveals to Ezekiel a brighter day coming for the people of God.

 

I have selected this 28th chapter, right in the midst of the second main division, which has to do with a series of judgments which God pronounces upon the pagan nations around Judah and Jerusalem. He pronounces judgment upon the Ammonites beginning back in chapter 25.

 

Then he mentions judgment against the Edomites. Then when you come to the 26th chapter he begins a series of prophecies and judgments which God reveals to him directed against Tyre. King James

spells it Tyrus.

 

In this 26th chapter is one of the most remarkable examples of fulfilled prophecy in all of the Bible. One of the ways we know the Bible is true is by fulfilled prophecy. For instance, there are prophecies in the Old Testament about the first and the second coming of Jesus.

 

Someone has said that there are over 300 prophecies, about the first coming of our Lord, given to us in the Old Testament. When Jesus came, every one of those prophecies, to the minutest detail, was fulfilled. Fulfilled prophecy is one of the great evidences for the inspiration and the authority and accuracy of the word of God. The prophecy which is made here in chapter 26 against Tyre was fulfilled to the exact detail.

 

Notice down in verse 3 he gives the first prophecy. "O Tyre, I will cause many nations to come up against thee." 

 

In verse 4 he makes a second prediction. "And they shall destroy the walls of Tyre, and break down her towers."

 

The third prediction: "I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her like the top of a rock."

 

The last part of verse 12 says, "And they shall lay thy stones and thy timber and thy dust in the midst of the water."

 

Down in the 5th verse is a fourth prediction. "It shall be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea."

 

Down in verse 14 there is a fifth prediction. "And I will make thee like the top of a rock: thou shalt be a place to spread nets upon; thou shalt be built no more."

 

All five of those prophecies were exactly fulfilled.

 

 

Tyre was about 100 miles north of the city of

Jerusalem on the Mediterranean Sea and was the chief seaport of that area. There were actually two cities of Tyre. They built one on the coast and then they went a half-mile out into the Mediterranean and there they built a second city on an island so that when they were invaded, they would make their way out to that island fortress.

 

Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, came against Tyre and later Alexander the Great of Greece came against Tyre, just exactly as the Bible predicted. The walls were destroyed just like Ezekiel predicted.

 

Then they scraped the dust from her and made it like a top of a rock. In other words, they tore down the stones and the timber and the dust in the midst of the water (verse 12). Alexander did every bit of that.

 

Then it says it would be a place for spreading of nets. In other words, fishermen would spread out and clean their nets on that rock that was left. Tyre

means rock. So every one of these predictions was fulfilled. God did just exactly to Tyre as He said He

would do.

 

Finally in verse 14 he says that it would be built no more. And it has never been rebuilt to this day. It is a remarkable example of fulfilled prophecy.

 

As you move on in this discussion of Tyre and what God says to Ezekiel about it, you come to the 28th chapter.

 

In the 1st and 2nd verse he begins the prophecy with a message to the prince of Tyre. That is, to the earthly ruler of Tyre.

Then when you drop down to verse 12, you will notice he changes the terminology a little bit. Now, he has a lamentation against the king of Tyre.

 

Obviously, the primary reference to the ruler of Tyre is to that earthly ruler. But as you read the verses which I have read to you and we are going to study, it becomes very apparent that no earthly ruler is represented by these statements.

 

There was an earthly ruler; an earthly prince of Tyre. But it is obvious that he is possessed by and energized by and directed by a more sinister, higher spiritual power.

 

We know, according to Daniel, that rulers of the pagan nations have demon princes that work through them.

 

There seemed to be orders of demonic rank assigned to various nations of the world. They work through these earthly rulers to bring about satanic purposes and intentions. So when we come to the 12th verse, this cannot be fulfilled by any earthly ruler. So it becomes apparent that what you have here in shadow form is a biography of Satan himself. We have given to us the origin and the fall of Satan.

 

How did Lucifer, beautiful, powerful angle become Satan, the prince of darkness? There is a lot about this we do not understand. It is in shadow form.

Some of the statements here are not clear and are not apparent to us.

 

 

 

 

But as you read this passage of Scripture, God gave to Ezekiel, that eccentric prophet of another day, an unfolding and a revelation of the history of non other than Satan himself.

 

Here's a remarkable thing. We have this in Ezekiel 28, but also in Isaiah 14. You have a similar passage of Scripture revealed to Isaiah. It is a remarkable thing in addition to fulfilled prophecy, to study your Bible and to see how various writers, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, wrote. And their writings are so harmonious and so parallel.

 

Of course, that is what we would expect. We believe that beyond the human authors of the scripture, there is a divine author of the Scripture, the Holy Spirit. The Bible says in the New Testament, "Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit."

 

So there is a divine author of the Bible. He inspires the human authors so it just stands to reason that God the Holy Spirit puts all these writers' writings together and they are perfectly harmonious and perfectly parallel.

 

Let's move down through these verses and see what we can learn about the fall of the anointed cherub.

 

This anointed cherub is -

 

Twice it makes reference to the creation of this being. At the end of verse 13 it says, "Thou wast

created." In the midst of verse 15 he says, "Thou wast created." 

He is called in verse 14, the anointed cherub. We have already encountered the cherubim. When you see "im" on the end of a word in your King James Bible, it is the plural. So a cherub is one cherub; singular. Cherubim are more than one cherub.

 

We have encountered the cherubim in the visions that God gave to Ezekiel in the beginning of his prophecy. We saw that the cherubim constitute an order of angelic beings. You will read in the Bible about cherubim and seraphim and then you will read about arch angels and angels.

 

We have here an anointed cherub; an angelic being, created by God Himself. We find the cherubim in many places in the Bible.

 

We find them in Genesis 3 when Adam and Eve sinned and were expelled from the Garden of Eden, the cherubim, with flaming swords, stood guard on Eden.

 

In the tabernacle, when they built those beautiful tapestries, there were representations of the cherubim. In the temple, the same thing was true.

 

We come to the New Testament and in the book of The Revelation, we have the cherubim given to us in the prophecies of John. So we have an angelic being, a created being.

 

In verse 12 we are told that this created cherub, this anointed cherub, is full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. A high order of created, angelic beings. Perfect in beauty; magnificent in beauty.

 

 

Evidently here is an angelic being that is created in a high order and enjoys magnificence and splendor and tremendous rank and responsibility in the unseen spirit world.

 

In verse 14 Ezekiel says about that anointed cherub,

"Thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire."

 

Here is this being enjoying high rank in the heavenly hosts.

 

In verse 13 it says, "Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God." 

 

Don't misunderstand that statement. That is not a reference to Genesis 3 and the garden of Eden there.

Satan was in that garden, too.

 

But this is a reference to some prehistoric Eden. How do I know that is not the Eden of Genesis 3? We know it because of the description given to us in verse 13. He says that in that Eden, where Satan was before history began, every precious stone was a covering. He lists a number of precious stones; about ten of them.

 

This is not what you find in the garden of Eden in Genesis 3. The Eden there is an Eden of plant life. We have trees in that garden. But here is a prehistoric Eden that is made up of precious stones.

 

When you come to the book of The Revelation, chapter 21, and see the new Jerusalem, the heaven you and I are going to, you will find many of these stones are mentioned again.

We know there is going to be a restoration of this pristine Eden that is given to us in the Word of God.

 

I think what this Eden represents is the dwelling place of God. Just as the temple and mercy seat were earthly representations of the heavenly, the earthly Garden of Eden was a physical representation of a heavenly garden that will one day become the home of the saved.

 

So here is an anointed cherub. He walked in a prehistoric Eden among precious stones in the midst of great beauty and great splendor. He has precious stones for his covering.

 

Many of these stones were also in the breastplate of the high priest. When the high priest had a breastplate, he had twelve stones on it. Those twelve stones are represented here in many ways. So it seems that this anointed cherub who was high rank in the angelic hosts had some kind of priestly functions.

 

He leads in the worship of God in heaven somehow. I think we are given a little inkling, a little suggestion, of what he must have done.

 

Look in the middle of verse 13. It says, "The workmanship of thy timbrels (percussion instruments) and of thy pipes (wind instruments) was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created."

 

 

 

 

 

Over in Isaiah 14, verse 11, it talks about means stringed instruments. So this anointed cherub, who is of high rank in heavenly affairs, who has some worship function, does something that is in relation to music.

 

What I personally believe is this anointed cherub was the leader of the praise music in heaven. Music is a vital part of heaven. You can't read the book of The Revelation and not find out that music is going to be a great part of heaven. We are going to sing when we get to heaven. If you don't sing down here, we are going to send you to a six-months music school when you get to heaven because you are going to sing when you get to heaven. That's why we ought to sing down here. We ought to get tuned up. Don't you agree with that?

 

If you can't sing, the Bible says to make a joyful noise unto the Lord. Just go on and make your noise.

The rest of them will drown you out. It won't matter.

The Lord loves to hear the nightingale just as good as He loves to hear the robin sing. Music is an important part of the worship of heaven.

 

Music is an important part of the world today. Music is greatly influential. There is tremendous power in music. Aristotle said about music, "Music has the power to form character." Music can do great good or music can do great evil. Music can lift a heart toward God or music can drag a soul toward hell.

 

 You listen to the music of a culture and you will discover where that culture is headed. That's what concerns me so much in America today. The music of our culture has gotten just about as bad as it can possibly get.

I want to encourage you to be very careful about your music. Music can be used of Satan to send the wrong kind of messages and signals to your mind and to your heart. Satan teaches lessons in music and they are false lessons. They are untrue lessons.

 

And it’s not just secular, worldly music. He’s got the church fighting over music styles and preferences. 

 

Satan was evidently heaven's music angel to lead the heavenly hosts in praise to God. That's why I think Satan uses music to his dastardly, depraved ends in our world. He had musical training. He had musical interests. He had musical skill. He was a created being, walking on the mountains of God, up and down in the midst of the stones of fire, covered over with all of these dazzling, precious stones.

 

He was a created being and his responsibility, in verse 14, was to be the anointed cherub that covers. He was appointed and anointed for the assignment of guarding the holiness and the glory of God.

 

The second truth we learn about Satan in this passage is that Satan became

 

 

Look at verse 15

 

He became a corrupted being. Something took place that corrupted this anointed, high-ranking cherub.

 

Look at verse 16

 

By the way, Isaiah says that his name was Lucifer which means the shining one.

So Lucifer, the anointed cherub, was created and then he was corrupted. Iniquity was found in him.

 

There are at least three things mentioned in verse 16, 17, and 18. Violence is mentioned in verse 16. In

verse 17, arrogance is mentioned. In verse 18,

irreverence is mentioned.

 

By sin on top of sin on top of sin, he violated that holy position in the sanctuaries of God where he ministered.

 

Go to Isaiah 14 and I'm going to show you how the fall of Satan came about. We have this parallel passage beginning in verse 11. "Thy pomp is brought down to the grave and the noise if thy viols (stringed

instruments); the worm is spread unto thee and the

words cover thee." 

 

The Living Bible paraphrases that "Now, maggots are your sheets and your blanket."

 

Verse 12 says, "How art thou fallen from heaven, o

Lucifer." He became a corrupted being.

 

Verse 13 says, "For thou hast said in thine heart. . ."

 

Then you have a series of "I will" statements from old Lucifer. "I will ascend into heaven." "I will exalt my throne above the stars of God." "I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation in the sides of the north." "I will ascend above the heights of the cloud." "I will be like the most high." 

 

Five times he said I will and every one of those I wills is directed toward his unwillingness to take the position which God had assigned to him.

Rather he decided “I'm going up”.

 

Pride became the downfall of the devil.

 

The Bible says, "Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall." The Bible warns us about pride. You get proud of yourself; you get to thinking you are really "hot stuff." God says you better be careful: you are heading for a fall.

 

Satan didn't want to just cover the throne of God. He coveted the throne of God. He wanted to be God. That's the bottom line of Satan. He wants to be God.

 

That was involved in the temptation of Satan when Jesus was in the wilderness. Satan came to the Lord Jesus Christ in the wilderness and in the temptations he finally said “I'll show you all the kingdoms of the world, I'll give you all of those kingdoms if you will fall down and worship me.”

 

That's what the devil wants you to do. He wants you to worship him. He wants you to fall down before him. 

 

Pride. It was pride that brought him down. Notice what God says in verse 15. Here's the devil saying, "I will, I will. I'm going up, I'm going up."

 

God says in verse 15 “no, you are not. "Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell." You are not going up; you are going down.

 

There is an unchangeable spiritual principle in the

Bible which says ”when you exalt yourself, you are

going down. When you humble yourself, you are going up.

What happened to Jesus? Philippians 2 says He became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. He humbled himself and it says that God highly exalted Him. He gave Him a name that is above every name. Jesus said I'm going down. God says, ”okay, you are going up.

 

The Bible says ”humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God that He might exalt you in due time. You just be willing to be what God wants you to be and serve where God wants you to serve and God says - you humble yourself and when the time comes, I'll lift you up. You don't have to lift yourself up. God will take care of it.

 

Satan became a corrupted being. A corrupted cherub.

 

The first thing we see is that he was a created cherub. Second we see that he is a corrupted being.

Now we see that he is

 

 

Verse 16 says, "Therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God." Verse 17 says, "I will cast thee to the ground."

 

We know, according to this and to other passages in

Scripture, that when Satan sinned and was cast out of heaven to the earth, Jesus said in chapter 10 and verse 18, "I beheld Satan as lightening fall from heaven."

 

We don't know exactly when that was. I have tended to believe personally that that took place between

Genesis 1, verse 1 and Genesis 1, verse 2.

Many disagree with that. But I personally have tended to believe that something happened between Genesis 1, 1 “in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”, and verse 2 where it says ”the earth was without form and void.

 

Isaiah 14, verse 17 says that when Satan fell, he made the world a wilderness. We do know this.

 

Somewhere between Genesis 1 and Genesis 3, verse 1, when Satan is in the Garden of Eden tempting Adam and Eve, Satan fell from heaven. So he is cast out of heaven to this earth.

 

But this is just a temporary stopping place. He's headed somewhere else. But while he is here on this earth, the Bible says that he has a kingdom. The

Bible says he has a synagogue.

 

Revelation 2 talks about t he synagogue of Satan. He has children. The Bible talks about those who are children of the devil. Everybody is not a child of God. There are the children of God and there are the children of the devil. He has ministers. Second Corinthians 11 talks about Satan's ministers who transform themselves as ministers of righteousness.

 

Not everybody standing in a pulpit is of God, ladies and gentlemen. Not everybody on television is of God either. Satan tempts people. He seeks to ruin and wreck people. He is a thief. He is a liar. Don't fall for the lies of the devil. He is a condemned being. He is on his way. It's just a matter of time.

 

 

 

 

Turn to I John 3. When Jesus died on the cross, verse 8 says this. "He that committeth sin is of the devil for the devil sins from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil." That means to take down the equipment of the devil; to dismantle the devil. When Jesus died on the cross, He dismantled the equipment of the devil.

 

Turn to Hebrews 2. It gets even better. Verse 14 says this, "That through death   he might destroy him that had the power of death (the devil)." The word, destroy, is a different word. Now it means to put him out of business. The devil is a condemned being. He is already kicked out of heaven. God is going to kick him out of this earth.

 

When Jesus died on the cross, He put him out of business. The devil doesn't know it yet.

 

When I was a boy we would kill chickens at home. Have you ever seen a chicken with its neck chopped off running around? You can chop that chicken's head off and it will run around for a while. In a little while it falls over. That chicken was dead all along, it just doesn't know it.

 

The devil is running around like a chicken with its head cut off. He's dead and doesn't know it. He's already on the way to hell. One of these days he is going to be thrown in the lake of fire and that's the end of the devil.

 

Aren't you glad for a book that gets rid of the devil?

 

Let's bow our heads in prayer.