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The Bible Breakdown
Ezekiel 28: The Devil's Back Story
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The More We Dig. The More We Find.
Well, everybody, welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, pastor Brandon, today. Ezekiel, chapter 28, and today's title is the Devil's Backstory the Devil's Backstory. Now I want to go ahead and give you a disclaimer today. Today is one of the most controversial scriptures in all of the Bible. There are hardly any scriptures that are more controversial than this. However, many people who've never studied the Old Testament very much don't know this one. But as soon as you get into it, you realize there is a wild debate that goes on over this, and we're gonna dive right into the middle of it today. So, if you have your Bibles, wanna open up with me to Ezekiel, chapter 28. And while you're doing that, if you're new around here, make sure you take just a moment to sign up for all the things. Make sure on YouTube that you like, share and subscribe to the YouTube channel. Make sure that you leave us a five-star review and follow us on the podcast. Make sure you sign up for our daily Bible updates, for RLC Bible to 94,000. And then also make sure you're going to Facebook. Over there at the Facebook discussion, bible Breakdown discussion, there's an amazing team, just so faithful and doing devotions every single day and just helping us see God's word in fresh and new ways. I'm so proud of them. They do a great job and you should go and engage with them, comment on the post, ask questions and let's just continue to build this community together, because the more we dig, the more we find.
Speaker 1:Once again, if you have your Bibles and you are ready with me to dive into this controversial chapter, don't forget about what's going on, and that is, first of all, the overall idea of Ezekiel. The overall theme is God's promise of renewal, and some of us have probably been going. I don't see any renewal happen here, pastor. It's just getting, you know, as we would say from down south, badder and badder. Okay, you know, and it is in a way, but remember that this is a long journey, and that's one of the things that we forget about in life sometimes is that it takes a long time to do a big thing. And for the first several chapters and the first several years of Ezekiel's life, he is writing about the destruction of Jerusalem, the mourning of God over this, and now we're beginning to see a shift and God is beginning to judge all of these evil nations around the nation of Israel and what we have been looking at over the past few chapters is how God has been judging the city of Tyre, this massive coastal city that was just a world power at the time, but God is judging them. Was just a world power at the time, but God is judging them.
Speaker 1:And the reason why this chapter is so controversial is because the Old Testament prophecy happens in layers. Let's talk about this for just a moment. So you have multiple layers because this is a different type of genre. Now, genre is the type of literature that is here. For instance, in the New Testament you've got the first four books Matthew, mark, luke and John. The genre is biography, and so it's telling the story of Jesus. Then you have Acts, which is also biography, and then you have the letters of Paul to the churches.
Speaker 1:These are what's called didactic literature, which is one person telling somebody else what to do, and it's more complicated than that, but that's the basic idea, and so you read those differently. Then you have the wisdom literature in the Old Testament, which is Psalms, proverbs, ecclesiastes, song of Solomon, like that, and you're not taking these things as literally telling us what to do. It is describing us what wisdom looks like. Psalms teaches us how to relate to God. Proverbs teaches us how to relate to God, proverbs teaches us how to relate to people, ecclesiastes teaches us how to relate to life, and Song of Solomon teaches us how to express love, and so these things are not necessarily meant to be taken word for word, literally, but it's helping us to understand worldviews, right?
Speaker 1:Well then, when you get into prophecy, it's called apocalyptic literature, and so in apocalyptic literature, they use all kinds of symbolisms and metaphors, and you've seen a lot of these, right? Especially when, oh Lord, remember that chapter when we were talking about how the two different cities were like two prostitute sisters, right? Okay, yeah, metaphor and symbolism to help us get our minds around the complex principle of God dealing with the multi-layered complexity of his nation, of the nation of Israel, like helping us understand this reality. So it's a lot of that kind of stuff. Well, because of that, there's layers. So you've got layer one, which is you know, we're going to talk about in a couple of days how God relates a nation falling to a tree falling over. Well, layer one will be what does it look like in your mind when a tree falls? That's layer one. Layer two is that's what it's going to be like when the nation is Assyria, when Assyria has fallen and Tyre has fallen. So that's layer two. Layer three sometimes has to do with a future event that hasn't happened yet. So it's just layer upon layer, and that's why we have to read God's word over and over again, as it helps us to understand the deeper layers.
Speaker 1:Well, let's get back to chapter 28. And chapter 28 is primarily about God judging the king of Tyre or the princes of Tyre, and how they think that they are awesome. They think that they are God, but they're not, and God's gonna judge them. But there's another layer here, and what many theologians and I mean many theologians think is that God is not only through Ezekiel, talking about this prince of Tyre and how he thinks he's awesome, but he's really not, but he's also giving the backstory about what happened to Satan. All the.
Speaker 1:You notice, the Bible never says in Genesis 1, 2, and 3, when God created angels. And so many theologians believe that when the Bible said in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, it was during that time when God created angels. And then, of course, later it says he said let there be light. That was the beginning of time, space and everything we see, and then eventually it keeps going from there. But before he created the world. That's when most historians or theologians think God created angels. Well, by the time we get to the Garden of Eden, the devil's already fallen, because he appears to Eve in the form of a serpent and everything goes crazy from there, right. So he's already fallen by the Garden of Eden. So when did that happen? Because the first sin didn't happen on earth, it happened in heaven the sin of pride from Lucifer, which was the devil's original name. And so many people think now that I've thoroughly confused you. Many people think that this is a description of what happened. So you ready Now that we're primed?
Speaker 1:Ezekiel, chapter 28, verse 1, says this this message came to me from the Lord, son of man. So, broski, give the prince of Tyre this message from the sovereign Lord. In your great pride, you claim I am God. I sit on a divine throne in the heart of the sea, but you are only a man and not a God. Though you boast that you are a God, you regard yourself as wiser than Daniel and think no secret is hidden from you. With your wisdom and understanding, you have amassed great wealth, silver, gold for your treasuries. Yes, your wisdom has made you very rich and your riches have made you very proud. Therefore, this is what the Lord says Because you think you are wise as a God, I will now bring against you a foreign army, the terror of the nations. They will draw their swords against your marvelous wisdom and defile your splendor. They will bring you down to the pit and you will die in the heart of the sea, pierced with many wounds. Will you then say I am a God to those who kill you? To them who will be no God but merely a man? You will die like an outcast in the hands of foreigners. I, the Lord, have spoken. Then this further message came to me from the Lord, son of man. This is the funeral song from the king of Tyre. Give him this message from the sovereign Lord. Here it is.
Speaker 1:This is kind of the back story. You were a model of perfection, full of wisdom and exquisite in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God. Your clothing was adorned with very precious stone red, carnelian, pale green, peridot, white, moonstone, blue-green, beryl, onyx, green, jasper, blue, lapis lazuli, turquoise and emerald, all beautifully crafted for you and set in the finest gold. They were given to you.
Speaker 1:On the day you were created, I ordained and anointed you as a mighty angelic guardian. You had access to the holy mountain of God and you walked among the stones of fire. You were blameless in all you did, and from the day you were created until the day evil was found in you. Your rich commerce led you to violence and you sinned. So I banished you in disgrace from the mountain of God. I expelled you, o mighty guardian, from the place among the stones of fire. Your heart is filled with pride because of all your beauty. Your wisdom was corrupted by your love of splendor, so I threw you to the ground and exposed you to the curious gaze of kings. You defiled your sanctuaries with your mighty sins and your dishonest trade. So I brought fire out from within you and it consumed you. I reduced you to ashes on the ground, and all in the sight of those who are watching. All who knew you were appalled at your fate, for you have come to a terrible end and you will exist no more.
Speaker 1:Then another message came to me from the Lord. Son of man, turn and face the city of Sidon and prophesy against it. Give the people of Sidon this message from the sovereign Lord, I am your enemy, o Sidon. I will reveal my glory by what I do to you, when I bring judgment against you, and reveal my holiness among you. Everyone watching will know that I am the Lord. I will send a plague against you and blood will be spilled in your streets. The attack will come from every direction and your people will lie slaughtered within your walls. Then everyone will know that I am the Lord. No longer will Israel's scornful neighbors prick and tear at her like briars and thorns, for then they will know that I am the sovereign Lord. Can you see now starting to turn lands and where I have scattered them? And they will reveal to the nation of the world my holiness among the peoples and they will live safely in Israel and build homes and plant vineyards. And when I punish their neighboring nations if threatened them with contempt, they will know that I am the Lord, their God. Wow, there's a lot there, but did you notice there at the very end, how God is starting to turn? And instead of judgment against Israel, he's saying but I'm going to bring them back, so that promised renewal is beginning.
Speaker 1:Let's go back to the other for just a moment. There's no way we can dive into the depth of the theological richness of this chapter, but I don't want to leave you halfway there. So did you notice that at first Ezekiel, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is talking to the prince of Tyre, but then he shifts and he starts talking about the king of Tyre? And he's talking about him in a way where he's saying you are in Eden with God and he's like well, on one end you go. No, I mean, this random king was not. So.
Speaker 1:That's where a lot of theologians say he's shifting to talk about the spiritual ruler of Tyre and he starts talking about Lucifer. And notice how he's saying that when God made you, you were perfect, that you were a guardian over the presence of God, until sin was found in you. Because at that moment you began to say the devil began to say I should be sitting on the throne, but then immediately he was cast out of heaven. There was no war where the devil was trying to come against God and it was a close fight. At the very end, no, no, no. As soon as sin happens, boom, he was gone. The devil is no match for God, but the reality of it is is at one point Lucifer was a guardian over the holy things of God and he was in close proximity to the holiness of God, and sin was found in him the sin of pride and so many theologians think that's the background of what ended up happening to Lucifer.
Speaker 1:And so if you want to look further into this, you can go and do some research, and I would highly recommend going to gotquestionscom it's a great way to look into some of this, and you can go on my blog and look up some different things, ask questions and if you don't see anything you want there, email us and I would love to try to help point you in the right direction as much as I can. But I think the main takeaway for us would be to be so very careful over what we put as important in our life. At some point, the devil was looking at the glory and presence of God, but somehow, instead of thinking of the glory of God as an honor to behold, he began to be jealous of what God had, and we can think about that and we go. How crazy is that? But how often do we see the goodness of God in our life? We see God work miracles in our life and do wonderful things, but instead of celebrating all that we see, we start thinking about what we don't have. And if it can happen to the devil who's in the presence of God, it can happen to any one of us, and so we must always be careful to remember, to be thankful and to never take for granted what's around us.
Speaker 1:Let's pray together right now. God, thank you so much for today. Thank you, god, for the deep things of your word that always keep us hungry and wanting more. I pray, god, that we will never become obsessed with learning about the enemy. He's a defeated foe and that's most of all we need to know about him. But let it call us back again and again to look at your glory and look at your splendor and to realize what a great God we serve. We thank you today for all things. In Jesus' name, we pray Amen. And then what God's word says in Ezekiel, chapter 34, verse 14, say it with me. If you know it, I will put my spirit in you and you will live again my prayer. You'll experience the newness and fullness of God every day. I love you. No-transcript.
