Jennings' Satan, VI: The Cherub that Covereth--Continued

SATAN.

CHAPTER VI.
THE CHERUB THAT COVERETH--Continued.

Contents.
Reminder of creature-hood--Further dignities
--The Sin--Traffic--how could the word apply
to Satan?--The sentence--Summing up.


But returning to Ezek. xxviii, surely no mere man at least, be he king of Tyre or any other, could be entrusted with so exalted an office as the protection of the Throne of God; and if not a man, who should it be but that highest of created spirits, he who is now called the Devil or Satan?

The words “I have set thee so” are a strong reminder of creaturehood. “Thou didst not attain this high dignity by thy skill or effort: I gave it thee; thou didst owe it altogether to Me.” The words suggest, what is elsewhere plainly told us, the sin of this Cherub; the disowning this supremacy of God.

“Thou wast upon the holy mountain of God.” It would seem equally impossible for the words to have any meaning in connection with a heathen king of Tyre on earth; but, if not, are we not forced to so see some “holy mountain of God” other than Horeb, or Zion, or any other?

If my reader will turn to the following scriptures, Exod. iv. 27, Ps. ii. 6, iii. 4, xliii. 3, lxviii. 15, Isaiah ii. 2, xi. 9, he will perceive that, in prophetic language, a mountain figures “government.” Sinai is government on the principle of law. Zion is government established in grace (Heb. xii). The basal underlying idea in both is height; for as a mountain rises above the surrounding land, so does government above the people who are governed.*[*Similarly J. N. D. in Syn. Vol. II p. 416, “He had been also where the authority of God was exercised--on the mountain of God.”]

The verse in Ezek. we are considering would then mean “thou hast been given a place in the very government of God, a place of highest dignity and most exalted privilege.”

“Thou didst walk up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.”

If our God is a consuming fire, these precious stones are, in picture, the displays of His holy sin-hating character. Even there, in perfect peace, this glorious cherub had walked in full harmony with the environment of those burning glories. The phrase “to walk up and down” carries with it the idea of living habitually; so that it is here equivalent to saying this was “thine own place,” for which thou wast suited, thy home.

“Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till unrighteousness was found in thee.” Of what child of poor fallen Adam could this be said with any truth at all? Think, my reader. But this cherub was perfect, whole hearted in whatever he did: he filled acceptably the place in which God had set him: and of this time of Satan’s existence we may have an intended illustration in the first happy days of Saul’s reign, but there comes a day when there was some turning aside (as the word means) from this straight course. What that unrighteousness was we are not in this verse told; but we shall not go far before we find it.

V.16 “By the abundance of thy traffic, they filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned.” [Pember translates “by the multitude of thy slanders.” The root idea of the word is “to go about”: this may be, in order either to traffic, or to slander; but it has a bad significance in either case. Self is the centre. Comp. v. 5 “by traffic thou hast increased thy riches, and thy heart is lifted up because of thy riches.” Comp. too Rev. iii, “Because thou sayest I am rich.”]

But how could this apply to Satan? Does it possibly point to some unholy traffic, whereby other angelic creatures were seduced from their allegiance to their Creator to give their adhesion and devotion to this Cherub, thus putting him in the place of God? Is this the “wealth” of a proud spirit? As Absalom, also a rebel against the throne, stole the hearts (mark) of the men of Israel--that was the traffic that made him rich. Certainly a spirit being such as the one here pictured, would care nothing for mere material possessions; it would be folly to think it; but what the riches that men traffic for do for them, something would effect correspondingly for him. Riches give men dignity, power, superiority of position, deference; and something of this, although of quite another character than that accorded him by his creation, this Cherub by his skillful traffic gained. Nor need we eliminate entirely the idea of “slander” from the word, for it was by slandering God he subsequently gained the ear of our first parents in Eden, and this may well have been the method previously successful with the angels that followed him. And the case of Absalom, if there were any correspondence in the two rebellions, certainly confirms this, for did not he impugn the righteousness of the King’s government in his words: “See, thy matters are good and right; but there is no man deputed of the King to hear thee.” * * * “Oh, that I were made Judge in the land” * * * “I would do him justice.” Is not this intended as a shadow of unseen things?

As the sense of power over his fellows increased, so independence, pride, the possibility of attaining even a higher place than was his, must have grown: “and thou hast sinned” is the divine and most solemn verdict.

Therefore have I cast thee as profane out of the Mount of God; and I have destroyed thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.

A sentence not yet actually executed (for we find him long afterwards in heaven), although pronounced. He, too, as all others sooner or later, must go “to his own place,” which is no longer the holy mount, but that awful environment in harmony with his changed condition or character from the Stones of Fire to the Lake of Fire!

V. 17. “Thy heart was lifted up because of thy beauty; thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness.”

Here we have a very clear and express statement as to what the iniquity was that was found in him: it was pride, puffing up, exactly in conformity with 1 Tim. iii. 6, “lest being lifted up with pride, he fall into the fault (Grk. krima, Eng. crime) of the devil.” Here was the first sin that broke the calm of eternity, and stirred up that storm that has not ceased to rage, with ever increasing violence since; and shall, till He quells it forever by His word, “Peace be still!”

But note, his wisdom, which was to maintain the creature-place of dependence--was “corrupted”; an element of ruin has come into his being. His “prudence” has become “craft.” The very endowments of His Creator are made the basis of self-exaltation; and his wisdom is no longer that: it is corrupted. So, in restoration the first step, “the beginning of wisdom” is “the fear of the Lord,” lowly self-judgment before Him; and the taking simply our own true place of having sinned.

“By reason of thy brightness”; that is, his own splendor, his own beauty occupies him, and is the cause or ground of those lofty thoughts that result in his fall.

How closely Absalom resembled him in this, too, may be seen in 2 Sam. xiv. 25:“But in all Israel there was none to be as much praised as Absalom for his beauty; from the sole of his foot even to the crown of his head was no blemish in him.” One special feature of his beauty is told us; it was his luxuriant growth of hair (verse 26). By that hair he was caught--his beauty, too, became his destruction. Surely such correspondences are not without any significance.
   
We need not follow our prophecy in Ezek. xxviii further, for now it seems to turn back again to earthly things, and the spirit-being once more recedes.

I have thus, somewhat more hurriedly than I would have liked but for the fear of overtaxing patience, run over this important Scripture. To sum up, it has given us, and I think convincingly, these points:

1st. By its setting and language it can apply to no child of fallen man--that is impossible.
2d. It must therefore necessarily refer to a spirit or angel.
3d. This angel or spirit, whoever it was, was personally the topstone of that primal creation.
4th. His office was to protect the Throne of God, to forbid the approach of evil, or any unrighteousness.
5th. Iniquity was found in him, and that iniquity was self-exaltation.
6th. Sentence of expulsion from his place is pronounced, although not actually, or at least fully, executed.