Ezekiel 28:16

There is more difficulty about verses 11-19. Is it the same person or a different one? I am inclined to think it is the same person historically, but with a deeper reference to Satan's fall built into it. This may be one reason why the Spirit of God changes "prince" into "king."

As the civilised world came up out of the mud of image-worship, it was caught in the net of trade. It became aware of the riches that commerce would pile up. Satan uses Tyre to display the glory and riches of the world, and so Tyre becomes an instrument against God. Through commerce Satan tries to make the curse ineffective. The earth was to bring forth thorns and thistles, and man was to eat bread by the sweat of his brow. Satan would get around that sentence by gathering the different products of the earth and filling the eye and the mind with them. He would try to hide the thorns by spreading a carpet of Tyrian merchandise over them.

"You were an anointed guardian cherub" shows that God charged him with carrying out His judgments, and with understanding as he did it — the anointed cherub. "You were on the holy mountain of God" — the seat or symbol of His holy authority. He had walked "in the midst of the stones of fire." That seems to picture how familiar he was with the display of God's moral glory. Before that glory, evil burns up and disappears. And yet, perfect as he had been, his heart became lifted up because of his beauty, and iniquity was found in him.

But all these advantages were the occasion of his fall, and gave it its character. For the privileges we enjoy always give our fall its character. From where have we fallen? — that is the question; for it is failing in that place, while we still had it, that degrades our condition. And no temptation came from outside, as it did in man's case. That circumstance did not take away man's guilt, but it did change the character of his guilt. "Your heart was proud because of your beauty." He exalted himself against God, and God cast him out as profane from the mountain of God. His spirit was independent and secure, until God threw him to the ground and humbled him.

Can it be doubted, however, that in this sentence God had before Him the fall and ruin of His arch-enemy? Many fail to see such hints, past or future, and above all fail to see Christ in the prophecies. That failure often leads souls who are not settled in the truth to bring foolish charges against God's word. They imagine eastern exaggeration. Those who know the truth find the deepest reason to thank God for His grace, which binds all His revelations into one harmonious whole.

An overseer of a local assembly, among other things, must not be "a novice, so that he may not become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil." … This passage gives a remarkable insight into the cause of the devil's fall. He was puffed up with pride. The temptation came either from the position he held or from his own beauty and excellence. For that reason God passed judgment on him. The same danger, as the Spirit of God warns us, might beset a "novice" if he obtained office in the assembly. He might be lifted up with pride, and fall as the devil had fallen.