Today’s reading: Ezekiel 28; Ephesians 4
I was taught, years ago, that Ezekiel 28 was about one of two figures, Satan, or the literal king of Tyre, but reading through it today, especially in light of what I wrote about yesterday, I don’t think either of those fits the bill nearly as well as a third figure.
I think the dichotomy between these two options goes back to missing information. On the one hand, while the text is clearly describing a divine being (who was in the Garden of Eden, etc.), many prefer to strip the supernatural out of the Bible, and thus call that figurative language applied to the actual human king of Tyre. On the other hand, many others are willing to accept the supernatural, but limit spiritual rebellion largely to Satan, as though he is the only rebellious divine being. For my part, I fully accept the supernatural, and I also believe the Bible when it tells us that there has been more than one divine rebel over the years. Yes, you have the Satan figure, generally tied back to the snake in the garden, but you also have the rebellious angels of Genesis 6, and, more importantly for our purposes this morning, those members of God’s divine council that were put over the nations at Babel, but who failed to lead their people in righteousness.
My whole post yesterday was about how the nations were divided at Babel, disowned by God, and placed under lesser spiritual beings, members of God’s divine council, to be their gods instead of Yahweh. Psalm 82 is all about the judgement of these gods for how they led the nations they were charged with. Take a look at Psalm 82:
God has taken his place in the divine council;
in the midst of the gods he holds judgment:
“How long will you judge unjustly
and show partiality to the wicked?
Give justice to the weak and the fatherless;
maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute.
Rescue the weak and the needy;
deliver them from the hand of the wicked.”
They have neither knowledge nor understanding,
they walk about in darkness;
all the foundations of the earth are shaken.
I said, “You are gods,
sons of the Most High, all of you;
nevertheless, like men you shall die,
and fall like any prince.”
Arise, O God, judge the earth;
for you shall inherit all the nations!
Despite being gods, sons of the Most High, these beings will die like men for their failure to rule their nations justly. More than that, it is in the judgement of these gods that God will re-inherit all the nations of the earth. God placed members of His divine council, lesser spiritual beings than Himself (being He created), over the nations when He divided and disinherited humanity at Babel, but their refusal to steward the nations as the Lord would have will see them judged, losing their charge of the nations, and those nations will come back into the inheritance of the Lord.
When you read Ezekiel 28 with that context, there is a clear third option for the "king of Tyre" in this chapter; the god of Tyre. Yes, there is a human ruler on the throne, the "prince of Tyre" in the first half of chapter 28, and he will be judged for his actions, but the real power pulling the strings in Tyre is the god of Tyre, and he too will be judged for what he has led his people to do to Israel.
This also fits with what Ezekiel says of him being thrown down before kings. If the divine being placed over Tyre is called the king of Tyre, then we are not suddenly talking about human kings that this god is thrown down before, but the gods of the other nations. God warned these divine beings in Psalm 82 that they would be judged for their mishandling of the nations, but that judgement is still future. A future judgement for all the gods doesn't stop God from judging one of those gods here though as an example to the rest. When the god of Tyre tries to take an opportunistic shot as Israel, he is thrown down as a warning to the other gods not to overstep their authority into God’s domain.
Reading Ezekiel 28 in this light, it really just makes so much more sense of why the condemnation of this spiritual being occurs here, and why his condemnation is tied to the actions and judgement of the human prince of Tyre as well.
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