5-6 The Anointed Cherub
Ezekiel 28:13-15: “Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God;
every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the
diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the
emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold; the workmanship of they tabrets
and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast
created. Thou are the anointed cherub that covereth and I have set
thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked
up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Thou wast perfect
in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was
found in thee”.
Popular Interpretation
It is assumed that this refers to Satan once having been in Eden, totally
perfect, but because of his pride, he had been cast out.
Comments
1.
The words “devil” , “satan” and “angel” do not occur in this chapter,
nor in the rest of Ezekiel. The context shows this is a prophecy about
the King of Tyre; the preceding chapter 27 is an oracle against Tyre,
and now chapter 28 speaks specifically about the King of Tyre. Ezekiel
chapters 27 and 28 clearly hold together as a literary unit. The city
of Tyre and the King of Tyre are described in similar terms, e.g.
"perfect in beauty" (compare 27:3 and 28:12; 27:16,17 with 28:13; 27:33
with 28:16). The passage plainly speaks of the King of Tyre, not
anything that happened at the beginning of the world.
2. It is commonly believed that Satan was thrown out of heaven into Eden,
or that he gained access to Eden in order to tempt Adam and Eve, but this
passage says that this person was in Eden before he sinned and was cast
out when he sinned. The garden of Eden was on the earth, not in heaven
(its boundaries are given in Gen. 2: 8-14), therefore the casting out
was not out of heaven.
3. The person was to “die the deaths of the uncircumcised” (Ez. 28;10),
but angels cannot die (Lk. 20:35-36). That a man is referred to is confirmed
by v. 9: “thou shalt be a man...in the hand of him that slayeth thee”.
Verse 2 defines him as the “prince of Tyrus”.
4. “Thou was perfect in thy ways,” is no proof that a super-human person
is being spoken of, seeing that the word is applied to Noah, Abraham,
Job and David (Gen. 6: 9; 17:1; Job 1:1; Ps. 18:23 & 25).
5. “Perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created,” refers
to this man being “perfect” (upright) from the time of his spiritual birth
- which is how the word “created” is used in Ezekiel 21:30 and Psalm 102:18
(cp. 2 Cor. 5:17).
6. “Thou hast been in Eden”, refers to where the king of Tyre was
in place, not in time. Pharaoh and Assyria are similarly described
as being a “cedar in Lebanon”, no “tree in the garden of God was
like unto him in his beauty...all the trees of Eden envied him...yet
shalt thou be brought down with the trees of Eden unto the nether
parts of the earth: thou shalt lie in the midst of the uncircumcised”
(Ez. 31:2,3,8,9,16,18). Thus "You have been in Eden" has
similarities with the language used by Ezekiel about Egypt in Ez.
31. Egypt is described in language which recalls the trees in the
garden of Eden, watered by many waters- and then cut down. In the
same way as the Garden of Eden was ended, so would Egypt be.
The trees in Eden are not to be taken literally, they represent the nations
whom Pharaoh and Assyria conquered, possibly referring to the fact that
they were all within the old geographical boundaries of the garden of
Eden. Pharaoh being the greatest of the trees in Eden and the most appealing
maybe, suggests that he was taking to himself the place of the tree of
knowledge, which was in the midst of Eden and probably the most attractive
of them all, seeing that it fascinated Eve so much with its tempting fruit.
Pharaoh was not literally that tree, but in the parable he was making
himself like it. Similarly the king of Tyre is likened in this parable
to the cherubim in Eden.
7. There are numerous parallels between Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28. We
have shown that Isaiah 14 was not concerning satan but about a human king.
Ezekiel 28 and Ezekiel 31, are also about such human kings, each of whom
went through the same pattern of being used by God for His purpose, getting
proud in what He used them to achieve, blaspheming the God of Israel and
therefore being punished.
8. As with Isaiah 14, Ezekiel 28 is one of a series of prophecies about
various nations, in this case about Tyre.
9. “Thou art wiser than Daniel” (v. 3) is no proof that a super-human
being is referred to; this is an illustration of Luke 16: 8: “And the
lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely: for the
children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children
of light”.
10. “Thou art the anointed cherub…and I have set thee so” (Ez. 28:14)
shows that God was in control of the cherub.
11. According to misreadings of Ez. 28:15 "Thou wast perfect
in thy ways till iniquity was found in thee" and Jn. 8:44 "the
devil was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth,
because there was no truth in him", those who believe in a
personal devil are faced with a contradiction- was the devil originally
a sinner, or, was he once perfect but fell?
12.
Eden was a geographical area on earth known to Ezekiel's readers- this
is how it is used elsewhere in Ezekiel (Ez. 27:23; 31:8,9; Is. 51:3;
Gen. 13:10). 'Eden' was not understood as a historical reference to the
garden of Eden in early Genesis, but rather to a known nation / region
of Ezekiel's time.
Suggested Explanations
1.
We have seen that “the king of Tyrus” (v. 12) is the subject of this
prophecy. Verses 4 and 5 describe him as getting rich by his trading in
silver and gold, and getting proud because of this - much more
applicable to a human king than to an angel. His sin is defined in Ez.
28:15,16: "The iniquity of your trading... by the multitude of your
trading... you have sinned". The sin in view wasn't some Angelic
rebellion against God.
2. Tyre occupied a privileged position in its relationship to Israel.
David and Hiram had been close friends (2 Sam. 5:11; 1 Kings 5:1,6,7,10),
and Hiram and Solomon had made a league in which Hiram supplied
materials for the building of the temple (1 Kings 5:12,17,18). The
language of Ezekiel 28:13-18 is taken from Israelitish worship and
used symbolically for the relationship of Israel and Tyre (by implication
suggesting the divine favour which rested upon Tyre because of its
association with Israel). Consider the following:
a) ‘Every precious stone was thy covering’ (v.13); ‘thou hast walked
up and down in the midst of the stones of fire’ (v. 14). This is an allusion
to the stones set in the breastplate of the high priest of Israel (Ex.
39:10-14).They were ‘stones of fire’ because of the way they would shine
when exposed to the brilliance of the Shekinah glory of the sanctuary.
They symbolized the twelve tribes of Israel (Ex. 39:14). The king of Tyre
walked in the midst of these stones of fire when he moved among the children
of Israel (as in the preparation of the materials for the temple). The
position of Israel in the divine purpose provided a ‘covering’ for Tyre
on the basis of the decree in Genesis 12: 3: “I will bless them that bless
thee, and curse him that curseth thee’. God blessed the house of Potiphar
because of Joseph: ‘...the LORD blesses the Egyptian’s house for Joseph’s
sake; and the blessing of the Lord was upon all that he had in the house,
and in the field’ (Gen. 39:5). Similarly, Tyre was ‘covered’ by Israel.
b) ‘Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth’ (v. 14). The cherubim
were figures of beaten gold at either end of the mercy seat (Ex. 37: 7-9).
Their wings overshadowed the mercy seat with which they were of one piece
(Ex. 25:19-20). Although the translation of the Hebrew is uncertain (accepting
the A.V.), the suggestion may be that Tyre as a great mercantile power
was privileged to cast its ‘wings’ over Israel. It was the abuse of this
exalted position that was a factor in the ruin of Tyre (vs. 4-5).
c) “Thou wast upon the holy mountain of God’ (v. 14). This holy mountain
is Mt. Zion, the future site of God’s house of prayer for all people (Is.
2: 2-3; 56: 7). This ‘holy mountain of God’ is on the earth, not symbolically
in heaven as J.W.’s assert (see Ez. 20:40).
d) ‘Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities’
(Ez. 28:18). This verse may imply that Tyre had set up forms of
worship similar to that of Israel. Hiram was ‘ever a lover of David’
and rejoiced with Solomon in the building of the temple ( 1 Kings
5: 1-12). The king of Tyre would so doubt have learned about God’s
kingdom in Israel from these two kings of Israel. Or, the verse
may be interpreted this way: Tyre’s sanctuaries were in Israel when
the divine presence and favour were manifest. But Tyre failed to
appreciate its privileged association with Israel. When Nebuchadnezzar
came down into Jerusalem (586 B.C.), the prince of Tyrus said: ‘Aha,
the gate of the peoples is broken, it has swung open to me; I shall
be replenished, now that she is laid waste’ (Ez. 26:2 R.S.V.). In
so saying, Tyre had spoken her own nemesis according to the decree
of Genesis 12: 3: ‘I will...curse him that curseth thee’. Tyre,
in her self-centred, mercantile interests, had profaned the sanctuaries
and was herself to be reduced to ashes.
e) ‘I will bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour
thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all
them that behold thee’ (v. 18). Tyre could not with impunity violate her
privileged relationship with Israel. When Nadab and Abihu treated the
sacred as secular, ‘there went out fire from the LORD, and devoured them,
and they died before the LORD’ (Lev. 10: 2). Similarly, Tyre had failed
to make a difference between the holy and unholy. It was, therefore, to
be reduced to ashes - devoured like Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 19: 24-25).”
The above points are taken from Ron Abel, Wrested Scriptures,
(South Croydon: C.A.T., 2005 ed.) pp. 171-173, Section 8.
3. The question still has to be answered as to why there are so many
allusions to the events in Eden in this chapter. It appears that the prophecy
of the fall of Tyre is being consciously framed to mirror the fall of
man, e.g. v. 2: “thou art a man”; “man” is Adam
in Hebrew, as if God is saying to the prince of Tyre, “You are like
Adam in this parable”. Verse 17 tells how he will be brought to the
ground - as Adam had to return to the dust. The passage is often skim
read, leading to the assumption that the King of Tyre is being likened
to the serpent in the Garden of Eden, or to some Satan figure who fell
from Heaven at that time. But careful reading shows that the King of
Tyre is being likened to Adam in Eden, not to the serpent. Careful
attention to the Hebrew text supports this further. "Thou art the
anointed cherub... and I have set thee so" (Ez. 28:14) would be better
rendered: "I had provided you with a guardian cherub", or "I put a
terrifying angel there to guard you" (G.N.B.); "I will destroy thee, O
covering cherub" (Ez. 28:16) is better "The guardian cherub banished
[or, destroyed] you", or "the angel who guarded you drove you away"
(G.N.B.)- with reference to the cherubim keeping Adam from re-entering
Eden. These translations are justified at length in a fascinating
article at http://assemblyoftrueisrael.com/Documents/Kingoftyre.html .
4. Another approach is suggested by recent archaeological discoveries
in Tyre. A large cherub-sphinx with a king’s head and animal’s body
set on a base of sculptured mountains was discovered, evidently
a deification of a king of Tyre. With Hiram’s knowledge of the true
God, it seems that subsequent Kings of Tyre came to put themselves in the position of
God, seated between the cherubim on Mount Zion, in the same way
as the king of Assyria effectively aspired to the same thing - Phoenician
inscriptions have been uncovered calling the king of Tyre “Lord
of the Heavens”. Even more amazingly, the jewels described in v.
13 were all found embedded in this sphinx-cherubim. The three jewels
of the breastplate missing from the list in v. 13 were also missing
from the sphinx. Inscriptions also describe Tyre as the “garden
of God”, and reliefs of cherubim guarding Tyre as they did Eden
have been found. Thus the king of Tyre had set up a blasphemous
system of worship copying that of the temple and of Eden, with himself
as God in the midst of it. Harry Whittaker makes a distinction between
"the prince of Tyre" (Ez. 28:2) and "the king of
Tyre" (Ez. 28:12). which he sees as a reference to the Tyrian
god Melkart ("King of the city"). He suggests that Tyre
had installed a system of Yahweh worship similar to that which was
in Jerusalem (perhaps a result of Hiram's relationship with Solomon
and assistance in building Yahweh's temple)- but this had become
mixed with the worship of Melkart (1). “Thou sealest up the sum” (v. 12). The Hebrew for “sum” can also mean
“pattern, imitation” - as if God is saying that He is aware that this
replica of His system of worship has been pushed by the king of Tyre as
far as it can go - “thou sealest up the sum” (imitation of God). No wonder
a prophecy like Ezekiel 28 was necessary to expose his sin!
According
to the Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary: "This feeling of
superhuman elevation in the king of Tyre was fostered by the fact that
the island on which Tyre stood was called "the holy island"
[Sanconiathon], being sacred to Hercules and Melkart, so much so that
the colonies looked up to Tyre as the mother city of their religion".
"The city was thought of as rising from the waters like the rock-throne
of God" (2). This would explain why the King of Tyre is criticized for
saying "I am a God, I sit in the seat of God" (Ez. 28:2). It would also
explain all the allusions to Israelite worship- he was setting himself
up as a rival to Zion, dressing himself in clothing featuring all the
jewels in the High Priestly breastplate (Ex. 28:15-20); the word used
for his "workmanship" with those jewels in Ez. 28:13 is used in Ex.
31:3,5; 35:31 of the workmanship of the tabernacle and associated
garments. Note how Ez. 27:22 says that Tyre traded in "all precious
stones". The King of Tyre claimed to be "perfect in beauty" (Ez.
28:12)- just as Zion was described earlier in Ezekiel in the same terms
(Ez. 16:14).
5. In section 1-1-1 and Digression
3, we noted that the Genesis record alludes to various incorrect pagan
myths which Israel had encountered, and seeks to deconstruct them and
refocus their terms upon the real issues- sin and sinful people. Ez.
28:11-19 is perhaps another example. Here, the king of Tyre is likened
to a cherub dwelling in Eden, the garden of God. However, the Genesis
record stresses that the cherubim dwelt not in the garden,
but east of it. It would therefore seem that Ez. 28:11-19 is alluding
to some pagan story of the garden of Eden, and re-focussing the myth
upon a real, known human being on earth- i.e. the king of Tyre. Other
examples of this kind of re-focussing of pagan myths onto the real enemies- sinners and sinful nations- are to be found in section 1-1-1.
Cassuto points out that the Ezekiel reference to the cherub 'walking in
the midst of the stones of fire' is an allusion to Ugaritic poetry
which speaks of 'stones of fire'. Ezekiel does the same thing in Ez.
31:8,9, where he references pagan ideas about Eden, the cherubim etc.,
and re-focuses them upon Pharaoh, king of Egypt. It could even be
argued that Ezekiel's detailed visions of the cherubim in Ez. 1 and 10
are a deconstruction of Babylonian and underlying Canaanite myths about
the cherubim- showing who the cherubim really are.
Notes
(1) H.A. Whittaker, The Very Devil (Wigan: Biblia, 1991)
p. 33.
(2) Ralph Woodrow, Was Satan Once An Angel In Heaven?
(Riverside, CA: Ralph Woodrow Evangelistic Association, 1968) p. 7.
Woodrow was one of the few, if not the only, popular American
Evangelical preacher of the 20th century who spoke out against the
popular view of Satan.
