human prince of Tyre is referred to. He was wealthy, surrounded by perfect beauty. He said in
his heart, “I am a God; I sit in the seat of God” verse 2. Compare this with 2 Thessalonians 2:3-
4. In Ezekiel 28:12 the
human type lifts to the Satanic antitype as in Isaiah 14:12. Ezekiel 28: The word of the LORD
came to me again, saying, 2 “Son of man, say to the prince of Tyre, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD:
“Because your heart is lifted up,
And you say, ‘I am a god,
I sit in the seat of gods,
In the midst of the seas,’ Yet you are a man, and not a god,
Though you set your heart as the heart of a god.
11 Morover the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
12 “Son of man, take up a lamentation for the king of Tyre, and say to him, ‘Thus says the
Lord GOD:
“You were the seal of perfection,
Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.
13You were in Eden, the garden of God;
Every precious stone was your covering:
The sardius, topaz, and diamond,
Beryl, onyx, and jasper,
Sapphire, turquoise, and emerald with gold.
The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes
Was prepared for you on the day you were created.
14“You were the anointed cherub who covers;
I established you;
You were on the holy mountain of God;
You walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones.
15You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created,
Till iniquity was found in you.
16“By the abundance of your trading
You became filled with violence within,
And you sinned;
Therefore I cast you as a profane thing
Out of the mountain of God;
And I destroyed you, O covering cherub,
From the midst of the fiery stones.
17“Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty;
You corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor;
I cast you to the ground,
I laid you before kings,
That they might gaze at you.
The last part of verse 17 drops back to the type, the king of Tyre. Lucifer was a created being
This is not speaking of a human, but a great created being. God would not say of a man that
he seals up the sum total of wisdom, beauty, and perfection. In Exodus 25:17-20 there is a
description of God’s throne in heaven from which He rules the universe. Over the mercy seat
are two cherubs, super archangels whose wings cover the very throne of God. Lucifer was a
cherub at the throne of the universe, experienced in the government of God, as God ruled over
all things. He is now on the earth, but once he was at the throne of God as Ezekiel says: “You
were the anointed cherub who covers; I established you; you were on the holy mountain of God;
you walked back and forth in the midst of the fiery stones. You were perfect in your ways from
the day you were created, till iniquity (lawlessness) was found in you.” God attributes to him
violence, perversion, sin, saying that he became proud, and his heart was lifted up because of
his beauty.
In Ezekiel 28:17, the immortal spirit antitype descends again to the human type. This king is
also a type of the one yet to come in the tremendous world
events just ahead. He will be an instrument in the hands of Satan in those events leading up to
the coming of the Messiah who will establish God’s kingdom on the earth over all nations.
Lucifer became Satan
Let’s summarize what has been covered. The earth was a perfect creation. The morning
stars sang together and the angels of God shouted for joy. In the age before Adam, angels
populated the earth. Lucifer, a great archangel, ruled over the earth. He had a throne. He had
been at the throne of God in heaven from whence he learned God’s government. God had placed
Lucifer on the earth as its ruler over the angels that inhabited it.
There was peace and happiness on the earth. The Moffat translation says, Ezekiel 28:15
“From the day you were created you lived a perfect life, till you were discovered doing wrong.”
God did not create a Satan, but a beautiful, perfect archangel, Lucifer. He gave him the right to
make decisions and choices. He gave him free moral agency. He gave him and the angels a
mind to think and reason. They could choose and make decisions. Whenever God creates a
being with intelligence, He always gives them the freedom to make decisions.
God does not, indeed cannot, create character. Character, the ability to make the right
decisions (to make good choices) and then have the will to follow those best decisions, is built
through making the right decisions and following up on them.
Lucifer allowed his beauty and wisdom to fill him with vanity, with self-glorification, with
desire and a competitive spirit. He became desirous of God’s
glory and power, and resented God’s authority over him. He led his angels in an invading army
to take over the throne of God and to rule the universe. He intended to replace God.
Lucifer was no longer a light bringer, a bringer of truth and righteousness. But he became a
com-petitor, an adversary, and an enemy. ‘Satan’ means competitor, adversary. The angels
that followed him became demons. They still inhabit this earth as demons today. Jesus spoke
of Satan being cast out of heaven in Satan’s rebellion against God. Luke 10: 18 And He said to
them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.
The earth became chaotic and in confusion
What caused the chaos and confusion in the earth before Adam was the rebellion of Satan
and his angels and their lawlessness. The chaos in the universe was the result of that great
spiritual rebellion. The battle was fought before the creation of man.
In six days God remade the earth, setting it in order, and created human beings on it
Adam had the opportunity to take over earth’s throne and restore the government of God on
the earth. Had he obeyed God and developed God’s character he would have been given
immortality (life from the tree of life) and would have been made ruler of all the earth. But
Adam rejected that opportunity and obeyed Satan instead. So Satan is still on the throne today
as the god of this world (I Corinthians 4:4).
Christ, the second Adam, has qualified to take that throne, and He will soon come to restore
the kingdom of God and rule the entire earth Acts 3: 18
But those things which God foretold by the mouth of all His prophets, that the Christ would
suffer, He has thus fulfilled. 19 Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be
blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, 20 and that He
may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, 21 whom heaven must receive until the
times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets
since the world began. God placed the cherub Lucifer, skilled in the government of God, on the
earth as its ruler. Lucifer refused to do God’s will and rebelled against Him with one third of
the angels. He thought he had found a better way and wanted to substitute it for God’s way.
(Send for the booklet “Is God the Author of Competition”) So he disqualified himself as ruler
of the earth by his rebellion.
Adam had the opportunity to take his place. But Adam failed to obey God and obeyed Satan
instead. Man came under the rule of Satan, and the whole human race has been in bondage to
Satan and his angels ever since.
Jesus came 4,000 years later to do God’s will and to gain the right to replace Satan. In the
great temptation, he refused to obey Satan. He quoted the scriptures for their true meaning and
obeyed God. Then He told Satan, “Get out of here,” and Satan obeyed Him. After His
crucifixion, He went to heaven to await the time God the Father has chosen for Him to return to
the earth and take over its rulership. God’s laws and ways will be restored to all the earth, and
the earth will know peace and prosperity that it has not known since Adam made the wrong
choice.
Jesus Christ will replace Satan as ruler of the earth when He comes again.
Did God create Satan? God created a cherub, a beautiful, perfect archangel, Lucifer. God
created Lucifer with the ability to make decisions, to choose – Lucifer transformed himself into
an adversary, a Satan, by choosing to rebel against the ways of God.
Lucifer became a competitor, an adversary, a Satan because he chose to be one.
