x file 41
The Origin and Fall of Satan
In the history of the cosmos, there never has been and never shall be
a greater treachery. The creature who was the most magnificent
demonstration of His Creator's skill came to resent the fact that he was
simply a borrowed glory, that the role assigned him was only and always
to reflect the infinite majesty of the God who had breathed him into
existence. Thus was born in the heart of Lucifer-and ultimately in the
new created moral universe-the despicable impulse to rebel. That impulse
generated the angelic insurrection that was the most awful sedition in
the history of time.
A PRELIMINARY QUESTION
As important and seminal as that angelic rebellion was, Scripture
does not include and explicit record of the event. It is in the account
of Adam's fall (Gen. 3) that Satan first appears in the Old Testament,
but there he is the already fallen tempter who seduces the first
humans to sin.
Thus Satan's falleness is treated as fact early in
Scripture. But, for reasons nowhere made clear, the actual account of
his fall is absent from that record.
Yet the event is twice remembered in the writings of the
prophets: by Isaiah in the midst of an inspired diatribe against Babylon
(Isa. 14:11-23) and later by Ezekiel as he escoriates the king of Tyre
(Eze. 28:11-19). These two passages tell us most of what we know about
Satan's fall.
But herein lies a bit of an exegetical rub. In both
passages, the perceived remembrance of Lucifer's rebellion enters so
abruptly into contexts that do not deal with Satan at all that many
expositors have rejected the idea that the passage refer to a Luciferian
rebellion, insisting that the focus is exclusively on the human rulers
of the pagan nations being addressed.
However, it is best to understand that Isaiah and Ezekiel intended to
direct people beyond the crimes of human kings to the great archetype of
evil and rebellion, Satan himself. These passages include descriptions
that, even given the tendency of ancient rulers to hyperbole, could not
reasonably refer to any human being.
The "I wills" of Isaiah 14:13-14
would reflect a level of ostentation indicative of insanity if spoken by
a mere man, even the self-deifying pagan monarchs of Babylon. And what
king of Tyre might be described as "full of wisdom, and perfect in
beauty ... perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created"
(Ezek. 28:12, 15)?
Furthermore, the Bible clearly teaches that the wickedness of the
visible world is influenced and animated by a realm populated by
invisible, fallen spirits (Dan. 10:12-13); Eph. 6:12) and that, in their
insidious and doomed campaign to frustrate the purposes of the true
God, those evil spirits are directed by Satan, the "god of this age" (2
Cor. 4:49.
It is characteristics of biblical writers to make the
connection between the visible world and the one that is not, and to do
so in a manner so abrupt as to catch the reader momentarily off guard.
When Peter expressed horror at the thought of Jesus' death, the Lord
responded, "Get thee behind me, Satan" (Mt. 16:23; cf 4:8-10).
Similarly, the prophet Daniel leapt suddenly and without
announcement from a predictive description of Antiochus Epiphanes (Dan.
11:3-35) to a similar description of the end-times Antichrist
(11:36-45). Antiochus, the Seleucid ruler of the intertestamental
period, harbingers the greater villain who will trouble the earth in the
last days.
Thus such an abrupt and unannounced leap from the
acquisitive, self-aggrandizing, visible, political world to the
archetypal drama that played itself out in a world invisible to men-but
which gave birth to the attitudes being denounced in these passages-is
not out of place in the Scriptures.
Finally, a recurring theme of Scripture may well lie behind the
connection made in these two passages. In the early ages of fallen
Earth, the rebels at Babel determined to build "a city and a tower"
(Gen. 11:4) The city was a center of commercial activity, while the
tower was a focal point of pagan worship.
This twofold characterization
of the cosmos as an expression of selfishness (the acquisitive spirit of
unsanctified commercialism) and rebelliousness (the pursuit of idols)
resound throughout God's Word and reaches a dramatic climax in
Revelation 17-18 where unfallen angels announce the long-delayed and
much-deserved demise of religious and commercial Babylon.
It is instructive that all of Ezekiel 26-28 excoriates
Tyre, the most important center of commerce and wealth in Ezekiel's day,
while Isaiah 14 denoounces Babylon, the center of false religion
throughout Scripture. Perhaps that "city and tower" characterization of
the fallen cosmos, so important to what Scripture says about the world
in rebelion against God, helps explain the leap made by the prophets in
these passages.
As each contemplated his contemporary culture, which
most perfectly embodied one element of the fallen cosmos, each felt
compelled by the superintending Spirit of God to focus on the primeval
angelic rebellion that animated the human rebellion he was denouncing.
Thus these two diatribes that trace the wicked spirits of unprincipled
greed and spiritual rebellion help explain why those spirits obtain so
constantly throughout human history; and they anticipate the destruction
prophetically chronicled in Revelation 17 and 18.
SATAN'S PEDIGREE
From Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 emerges a rather extensive picture of Satan before his rebellion.
His Person
He was the most exalted beings of all creation (Ezek. 28:13, 15), the grandest of all God's handiwork, a radiant celestial being who most perfectly reflected the splendor of His Maker. Thus he was appropriately called Lucifer. The word comes from a Hebrew root meaning "to shine" and is used only here as a title to reference the star that shines most brightly, that resists the rising sun most heartily. The name Lucifer has become widely used as a title for Satan before his rebellion because the King James Version translators borrowed the Latin equivalent in this verse. In fact, it is difficult to know whether the term was intended as a proper name or simply as a descriptive phrase.
He was the most exalted beings of all creation (Ezek. 28:13, 15), the grandest of all God's handiwork, a radiant celestial being who most perfectly reflected the splendor of His Maker. Thus he was appropriately called Lucifer. The word comes from a Hebrew root meaning "to shine" and is used only here as a title to reference the star that shines most brightly, that resists the rising sun most heartily. The name Lucifer has become widely used as a title for Satan before his rebellion because the King James Version translators borrowed the Latin equivalent in this verse. In fact, it is difficult to know whether the term was intended as a proper name or simply as a descriptive phrase.
His Place
Ezekiel stated that this exalted angel was "in Eden, the garden of God" (28:13). The reference is not to the earthly Eden that Satan invaded to tempt mankind but to the throne room where God dwells in absolute majesty and perfect purity (cf. Isa. 6; Ezek. 1). Ezekiel 28 also calls that place "the holy mountain of God," where Lucifer walked "in the midst of the stones of fire" (v. 14). These descriptions are not appropriate to the eartly Eden, but they fit the throne room of God as represented elsewhere in
Ezekiel stated that this exalted angel was "in Eden, the garden of God" (28:13). The reference is not to the earthly Eden that Satan invaded to tempt mankind but to the throne room where God dwells in absolute majesty and perfect purity (cf. Isa. 6; Ezek. 1). Ezekiel 28 also calls that place "the holy mountain of God," where Lucifer walked "in the midst of the stones of fire" (v. 14). These descriptions are not appropriate to the eartly Eden, but they fit the throne room of God as represented elsewhere in
Scripture.
His Position
Satan is denominated "the anointed cherub that covereth (protects) (v 14). Cherubim are the highest rank of angelic authority, and their role is symbolically to guard the throne of God. (Compare the carved cherubim flanking the ark of the covenant-the throne of King Yahweh-in the tabernacle or Temple, Ex. 25:18-22; Heb. 9:5; cf Gen. 3:24; Ezek. 10:1-22.)
Satan is denominated "the anointed cherub that covereth (protects) (v 14). Cherubim are the highest rank of angelic authority, and their role is symbolically to guard the throne of God. (Compare the carved cherubim flanking the ark of the covenant-the throne of King Yahweh-in the tabernacle or Temple, Ex. 25:18-22; Heb. 9:5; cf Gen. 3:24; Ezek. 10:1-22.)
Lucifer was anointed (consacrated) by the deliberate decree of
God (Ezek. 28:14, "I have set thee (established you) to the
unspeakably holy task of guarding the throne of the all-glorious
Creator. He is described as a being endowed with matchles beauty,
clothed in radiant light, equipped with limitless wisdom and capacity,
but also created with the power to make real moral decisions. Thus
Satan's most basic moral obligation was to remain loyal to God, to
remember always that no matter how exalted his station, he was
nonetheless a creature.
SATAN'S PLUMMET
At this point we encounter one of the deepest mysteries of
the moral universe as revealed in Scripture: How came sin to enter the
universe? It is clear that sin entered in connection with Satan's
rebellion, but how did the wicked impulse arise in the heart of one
created by a perfectly holy God?
In the face of such a cunundrum, we
must acknowledge that the secret things do, in fact, belong to God; but
what stands revealed belongs to us (Dt. 29:29) And three such clearly
revealed realities deserve to be emphasized.
First, Lucifer's fall was a result of his bottomless, wicked
determination to usurp the glory that belongs to God alone. This fact is
made explicit in a series of five "I will" statements recorded in
Isaiah 14:13-14. Herein lies the essence of sin-the desire and
determination to live as if the creature were more important than the
Creator.
Second, Satan is entirely and exclusively responsible for his wicked choice. There is an inscrutable dimension to this. Some have argued that God must share the responsability for this (and every other) crime because, if He had desired to do so, He could have created a world where such rebellion was impossible.
Second, Satan is entirely and exclusively responsible for his wicked choice. There is an inscrutable dimension to this. Some have argued that God must share the responsability for this (and every other) crime because, if He had desired to do so, He could have created a world where such rebellion was impossible.
Others say had God created
such a lockstep world, it could not have included moral agents made in
God's image and possessing the power to make real choices-and thus to
choose to worship and love God.
There is truth in that observation, but
there is mystery also. The record makes it clear that pride caused
Lucifer to fall into an awful snare (Isa. 14:13; Ezek. 28:17; 1 Tim.
3:6) but nothing explains how such damning pride could arise in the
heart of an unfallen and perfect creature of God.
However, there is no mystery as to whether Satan is fully and justly
responsible for his crime.
Ezekiel 28:15 states explicitly that Lucifer
was perfect from the day he was created, "till iniquity was found in
thee." The moral culpability is his and his alone.
Indeed, the Bible
affirms throughout that God sovereignly rules the moral universe and
causes all things-even the wickedness of men and angels-to answer to His
perfect purposes but that God must not and will not be regarded as
responsible for that wickedness in any sense.
Finally, by reason of his rebellion, Satan became the
archenemy of God and of all that is godly. His fall-and that of those
spirits who joined him-is irreversible; there is no hope of redemption.
Satan has been finally and irretrievably disfellowshipped by a holy God.
To be sure, the Devil still has access to the judicial throne room of
the universe in his divinely assigned role as accuser of the brethren
(Job 1-2; Zech. 3; Lk. 22:31; Rev. 12.:10); but it is access absent of
community with or acceptance by God.
By reason of treachery, which was
the most awful in the history of the cosmos, Satan and his angels can
anticipate only condemnation and eternal punishment (Mt. 25:41).
Douglas Bookman
© The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry