In my post on The Origins of Evil, I write about how evil and sin entered the world. One of the things mentioned is the falling of Satan and to explain this, I go through Ezekiel to describe what kind of angel Satan was before the fall. However, like many before, I'm sure some wonder: how can we know that the King of Tyre represented Satan or the Devil? Well, I decided to make a separate blog post to address this very question. Let's dig in the Word!
Under the symbolic name of “King of Tyre,” Ezekiel wrote of an angelic being:
"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. You 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.
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. You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, Till iniquity was found in you. Ezekiel 28:12-15
When studying the Bible, we learn that the Bible uses a lot of symbols and comparisons to explain certain things. Over time, as Bible students, we learn to figure these things out by God's leading. The reason why we know the king of Tyre is a symbolic name for an angelic being is that the passage mentions a few things that make it impossible for this king to be the actual person. There are three main points that we will look at to find our conclusion.
1. "You were in Eden" v.12
For one, it reads that this being was found in Eden. As some of you may know, the only beings that were in the garden of Eden were God, certain angels, the serpent (or the devil, a fallen angel) and Adam & Eve. This automatically rules out the king of Tyre. So we're left with a few options: it was an angel or Adam or Eve. It couldn't be God because God is the One speaking here.
2. "You were the anointed cherub who covers" v.14
Then we're told that this being was the anointed cherub who covers. A cherub in the Bible represents an an angel, who directly attends to God or seen as guarding the throne of God. This implies that the "king of Tyre" could not have been human but had to be an angelic being considering. So which angel are we talking about?
3. "Till iniquity was found in you" v.15
Here we have the depiction of an angel, perfect from the day he was created, until what was found in him? Iniquity or moral wrong, moral wrong. In other words, until sin (transgression of God's moral law) was found in him. So we're talking here about an angelic being who sinned against God. A fallen angel. We will eventually learn that this fallen angel was Lucifer who became Satan meaning adversary. Keep on reading on the Origins of Evil to find out how we know that this fallen angel is indeed Satan.
I hope this helped to clarify certain doubts and feel free to ask questions if there are still some misunderstood things.
May God guide you as you keep studying His word and bless you abundantly!
Much love and smiles,
Nahisha :)
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