Part 2
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. 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. 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. You defiled your sanctuaries by the multitude of your iniquities, by the iniquity of your trading. Ezekiel 28:12-17
This passage on Satan is actually found in the middle of a lament about the King of Tyre. However, it is not just about the king, it is also about the one behind the scenes who he represented. The passage has a double meaning. At times it applies to the King of Tyre, at other times it is meant to apply to our enemy, the Devil.
This passage gives us even further psychological insight into the motives of Lucifer before he fell. Verse 12-14 describe Satan’s perfections when he was created, and verses 15-17 describe his flaws that led to his fall.
His perfections
- He was perfect (the sum or seal of perfection)
- He was wise (full of wisdom)
- He was beautiful (perfect in beauty)
- He was richly dressed – like a priest! (with every precious stone)
- He was created to be an amazing musician (timbrels and pipes)
- He was the chief cherub, the number one guardian of God’s throne.
- His position was chosen and established by God (I established you)
- The mountain of God, or heaven was his to freely live in
- He held an exalted position with kingly glittering jewelry (fiery stones)
- He was perfect in all his ways when created.
So that leads us to ask the question, since God knew, that despite all the honor and glory heaped on Lucifer, that he would turn against him, why did he create him in the first place? Why not just solve the problem by not creating it!
God made his entire creation to praise and glorify Him. Satan was no different. Satan was perfection, wise, beautiful, and an amazing musician. God created him to lead all the other angels in worship. He had the top position and you would think that he had everything anyone could want.
In an ideal world, Satan would have fulfilled his purpose! He was created to be amazing! God’s highest plan for Lucifer was to have him as His top Angel. Things could have been completely different for Satan had he made different choices. And here is what I propose: God is completely sovereign. He knows everything that will happen, and he has worked all things out to culminate as he planned it, even if I make different choices! Our different choices don’t affect God’s sovereignty. He has already planned for them; they do however, affect our destiny!
Was Satan locked in to failure by fate?
His Flaws
- Iniquity was found in him
- He became filled with violence within and sinned
- His heart was lifted up because of his beauty
- His wisdom was corrupted because he desired splendor
- His heart became filled with iniquity
God knew the choices Satan would make, but Satan was not locked in to those choices by fate! In fact, God knew the potential beauty, glory and joy Satan could have experienced had he made different choices. God planned for all potential paths! He knows what will happen if we make different choices. And He created Satan with the grandest plans in mind, same as you and I! To see how this works out in Scripture, let’s look at a couple of verses:
“Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago.” Luke 10:13–15
In this passage, Jesus said he knew the potential path that Tyre and Sidon would have taken if things were different. They would have repented. God knew their potential path. They weren’t locked in to failure, and you are not locked into fate either.
In 1 Samuel 23:9-13 David asked God what would potentially happen if he was to stay in the town of Keilah. God told him that the townspeople would betray him to Saul. David left, and the betrayal did not happen. But God knew the potential outcome of David’s choice. In this case, David chose wisely.
God, therefore told David about a potential event in the future that never happened. God’s foreknowledge extends to not only actual events that will occur, but every possible event that could occur. In each of these instances God showed his knowledge of potential events. Although these events did not happen they would have happened had circumstances been different. This illustrates the truth that God knows everything that will happen as well as everything that might happen.
In a negative way, another king was told to strike the ground with a bundle of arrows. He only struck the ground three times. Because he didn’t take Elisha seriously and strike the ground more times, he faced one future. If he had struck the ground several more times, Elisha said that he would have utterly defeated his enemies. (2 Kings 13:19). God knew the potential future he forfeited!
And here is what God said about Israel’s future: I know the plans that I have for you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Jeremiah 29:11
Satan, like us is a free creature. It is a logical impossibility for God to create him with freedom, and then restrain him from doing evil! Sin is always possible where ever an independent sentient being exists. The short answer is, God is Love and Love risks everything to grant Free Will, but Love also protects God’s Kingdom from the disease of Sin which always seeks to destroy others.
In order for a sin to occur, there has to be a standard of right and wrong that can be transgressed. The second thing required in sin is a victim. Satan had both. He knew God’s standard of holiness, and violated it. Not only that he chose to victimize Adam and Eve, thus making him morally culpable for humanities sin.
In order to create sentient beings, by the very nature of this type of creation, they have to be able to choose for themselves. Thus the one moral quality God did not impart to them was his Divine Holiness which, is, among other things the inability to sin. God has it we don’t.
Why did God create Satan if he knew that Satan would turn against Him? Because God knows all potential futures, and we are not locked into a fatalistic plan. God knows all potential futures, and because he is so incredibly wise and powerful, all futures are part of his intricate and amazing sovereign plan. None of us is locked into a fatalistic future. We can all choose differently.
Is Satan Redeemable?
I want to revisit the idea that God can even use evil in his plan for his purposes. When thinking of Satan, we might as well be asking, why did God create Adam and Eve if He knew that they were just going to sin? Why create us humans at all if he knew we were going to go bad. If you were God, and if that is what you would do in His place, you have just contemplated suicide. You just condemned yourself! If that is you, why not help God out by annihilating the entire human race? I just don’t think that’s the best course of action, and neither did God.
There is a stark contrast between Adam and Lucifer, isn’t there. Adam was created in simplicity in a garden. He was a minimalist who lived in nature taking only what he needed. Lucifer was created in splendor in a king’s court. He was royalty and he had everything he could have ever dreamed of! Both had all that they needed, but both came from very different backgrounds!
And both sinned. We have been asking why would God allow sin to disturb his perfect kingdom of light and beauty? The next question is, “Why not discipline Satan and restore him and fix the sin problem? Why didn’t God take these steps so there would be no angelic or human sin?
God can redeem those who are redeemable. And apparently, for some reason, Satan is not redeemable. We aren’t told what that reason is. Maybe it is because he was created to be in the very presence of God and rejected it. We don’t know. But humans are! We can be redeemed.
The Bible presents no opportunity for the fallen angels to repent and be forgiven. Jesus came for the salvation of humanity, not of the angels (Hebrews 2:16). Nor does the Bible indicate that it is possible for more of the angels to sin. The angels who remain faithful to God are described as the “elect angels” (1 Timothy 5:21). God gave Satan and the angels the same choice He gave Adam and Eve, to obey Him or not, but we each had different consequences.
Here is a suggestion: When God created men and angels he had a choice. He could have made us like machines and we would never have strayed. Thus God would have had a perfect universe. But he didn’t do it that way. Apparently, God places an extremely high value on independent thinking, feeling, beings who want to have fellowship with Him voluntarily.
Instead of making them holy, he created them in a flawless or ideal state, but only they could chose to stay that way or stray away! This is somehow part of God’s all-wise plan. And I might suggest that reason is that God desires worshipers who will voluntarily love and worship him in Spirit and truth. That’s why the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind and all your strength!
Satan did not pass that test.
There is a curious phrase in verse 13. It says, “You were in Eden, the garden of God.” I take that to mean that Satan had not yet sinned until after Adam and Eve were created. Maybe it’s a stretch, but follow me:
In six days, God created the entire universe. In Job Chapter 38:4-7, God is asking some deep question:
“Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding. 5 Who determined its measurements? Surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? To what were its foundations fastened? Or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
It looks like the angels were created sometime before the earth was. So Lucifer, Gabriel, Michael and all the other angels got to watch the universe come into existence. It must have been incredible. What a sight to see the Sun, moon, stars, planets and finally the earth created with a word! What power! What a seat! And then to see the trees, the flowers, oceans and animals all burst into existence! The angels must have been awed…
Until God’s crowning creation: And on the sixth day God created man. Men were different than angels. Angels were created to be God’s servants, but men and women were created to be God’s friend. The angels purpose was to guard God’s holiness and do his bidding. Man, on the other hand was made to have fellowship with God and to reign with Him.
Maybe, just maybe, Lucifer had his first wayward, jealous thought. The more he thought about it, the more he realized that he was not going to allow puny men and women to outshine him! Perhaps one of reasons Satan rebelled is because He wanted what humans had, and what humans would one day receive; to reign with Christ! And thus, Satan became not only the adversary of God, but the bitter enemy of mankind. And that’s why Satan sinned, and why God chose to punish him the way he did.