Ezekiel 28:9

The prince of Tyre — also called the king — was, according to the Jewish historian Josephus, Ithobalus. The Phoenician records call him Ithobaal II. He was the consummation of the pride and wealth of Tyre; the terrible pride of the city headed up in him. His heart was so lifted up that he claimed to be a god and that he occupied the very seat of God. He boasted of greater wisdom than the wisdom of Daniel. He is a picture of the final Antichrist, the man of sin. Behind the wicked prince and king, another power is seen: Satan.

Here is an address to the prince of Tyre. In it we see the effect on him of his heaped-up wealth and the power that came with it: it lifted his heart to a place more than human… Monstrous as all this is, it is still only the natural growth of what happened in the Garden of Eden itself, when the evil one's temptation was plainly, "you will be like God."

He claimed to be God; now he would feel what it is to be man in weakness. The sword of the terrible stranger would stain his brightness, and he would die the deaths of those killed in the heart of the seas. The sea would prove no safe refuge then, but his most shameful grave. He should die the deaths of the uncircumcised, of men farthest from God.

God did not need to put out any open display of divine power against him. The power of men was enough. Would he keep up an argument for his own divinity while facing the weapons of the men who were about to put him to death?

Nebuchadnezzar walked in his palace, admired his own splendour, and said, "Is not this great Babylon, which I have built?" But the Lord was watching that evil. While the proud, self-important word was still in his mouth, the man who exalted himself was brought low.

Ezekiel 28 depicts the prince and the King of Tyre, both judged for their pride. The one who is the prince of this world's glory (see John 14:30, John 16:11) appears here as a man… There is little doubt that in what follows, in Ezekiel 28:11 to 19, the King of Tyre stands for Satan — the prince and god of this world. He was a creature of God, yet his heart was lifted up. He ruined his own brightness, turned away from God, and became the enemy of God and man. His advantages had been the occasion of his fall.

God had been hidden, so to speak, during the time of the other beasts, but His providence still acted… The open revolt had not yet taken place. The fourth beast had not yet said, as Isaiah 47:8 puts it, "I am, and there is no one besides me." Compare what God says to the prince of Tyre: "Will you still say, 'I am a god,' in the presence of those who kill you?" (Ezek. 28:9). God's judgment on this fourth beast will fall on man in open rebellion against Him.

Man sought independence by sin, and gained a conscience that was already bad, which made him look down, while his pride still claimed everything… The Son of God emptied Himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and humbled Himself by becoming obedient even to death on a cross… A man-god was Satan's bait and man's ruin. The God-man dying in obedience and for redemption is the triumph of truth and grace.