The Original State & Fall of Satan (2)

We are deep in our study on what the Bible teaches about angels and we are currently in a section of that study which has to do with the primary evil angel Satan himself. What we have done so far is kind of an introductory part of the study to Satan. We have talked about his nature, his personality, the fact that he is a person and his names. Tonight we are going to start really getting into the meat of what the scriptures teach about his career, where he came from and what happened to him and what he is doing in the world now. Tonight we talk about the original state and fall of Satan, how he began and how he fell from that beginning. To introduce that, let me cover some basics first. We kind of need to set some parameters, some basics that we know and then we will dig into some of the details. But the basics that we know are these, we know that Satan being an angel, Satan had to start as a good angel. We know that because God created all the angels. Look at the verse on the screen, we are going to put a few verses on the screen and then we will look at a couple of passages tonight. We have seen this passage before but in Colossians 1 the Bible says that in him that is in Christ all things were created, things noticed in heaven and on earth and then he lists visible and invisible and characterizes the invisible by whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities. Those are different categories of angels as we saw in our section on the angels themselves. All things have been created through him and for him, he is before all things and in them all things hold together. So God created all things including invisible beings, including angels and we know that if God created all things all things were created holy. God did not create anything evil because what's the statement that is made after the six days of creation when God looked over everything he had made, what statement and Genesis is made? He looked over all of his work and behold it was very good. So there was no evil yet in the universe. So God created all angels. Obviously at that point none of them were fallen angels. None of them were evil angels. So that's kind of where we have to begin but we know that Satan did fall and we know that it had to do with pride. 1 Timothy 3.6 in giving the qualifications for spiritual leaders in the church Paul says he must not be a recent convert or he may become conceded and fall under the same judgment as the devil. So the judgment the devil underwent and the punishment that he underwent because of whatever sin he did is likened here to the possibility of a spiritual leader becoming conceded or falling under the influence of pride and suffering the same consequences of that. We know that that Satan's fall from his original holy position had something to do with pride. Okay. No, that's kind of a basic parameter that will work within a little bit later. We also know that Satan when he fell must have enticed other angels to follow him and other angels fell with him. We know that because Satan has some angels that are called his angels this verse in Matthew 25 verse 41. Then he will say Christ will say to those on his left this is that the judgment of the nations at the end of the tribulation. The part from me you who are cursed into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. So the devil has some angels that evidently are his which means he's over them they followed him. So he was originally created holy because God created all things holy and he created all angels at the same time. So he fell through some act of pride and he evidently took some other angels with him. The Bible seems to indicate that a third of all the angels fell with Satan when he fell from heaven. Look at this verse and this is again kind of a broad parameter that will work within. It's tailed. We've been in Revelation 12 a good bit. You remember it's the story of the dragon. It's very metaphorical language picturesque language symbolic language. The dragon who stands for Satan he's identified in verse 10 as Satan is out to kill the child of the woman the woman's visual the child is Christ. And so he says it's tail this dragon's tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. Now in the book of Revelation in particular the word stars often refers to angels back in chapter one. Jesus is seen as holding the seven stars in his hands and they are identified as angels. And then he talks about stars being the angels or messengers of the churches in chapters two and three. So it's a common word for angels in the book of Revelation. So this seems to indicate that the dragon carried with him swept along with him out of heaven a third of the angels when he fell. So that's kind of the basics that we know of Satan's original state and fall from other scriptures. We're going to look at two primary scriptures here in just a moment. But those are kind of the basics of the details originally created holy. Some something to do with pride caused him to fall. He took any other angels with him possibly as many as a third of the original number of created angels. Now given that general information that that scripture seems to teach about Satan. Satan's original state and fall there are two major passages that are connected usually with the original state and fall of Satan that really fill in the details. There's some question about their interpretation. There are different views on them. So we're going to explore them fairly much in detail. The first one is in Ezekiel 28. So let's look at Ezekiel 28 where we find the privileges and perversion of Satan. Now when you get to Ezekiel 28 some of you are familiar with this passage. You have to first of all deal with the identification of the persons in this passage. It's clear that the passage begins by referring to a ruler of tire. And so there are two views as to who is in view in Ezekiel 28. The first view is that the whole passage versus one through 19 of Ezekiel 28 refers to this king of tire. So the first view has to do with the king of tire. And basically this view says that the king of tire is referred to by two names. Verse two, Son of Man say to the ruler or prince of tire. This is what the sovereign lord says. And then down in verse 12, Son of Man take up a lament concerning the king of tire and say to him, this is what the sovereign lord says. So in this view both prince or ruler and king refer to the same person and the whole passage is just talking about a human ruler, the prince or king of tire. tire was a city in Phoenicia on the coast was well known in Old Testament times. The other view of this passage however is often called a dual reference view. In other words this passage has a dual reference both to a human king and the power behind him Satan. So that's the dual view. The human leader, the human king is referred to in verses one through 10. That's the prince or ruler of tire. And then the real authority behind him, the real king behind him, the superhuman leader behind him is Satan in verses 11 through 19. I think there is good support for that second view that this passage although it is initially referring to the king of tire or the ruler of tire then moves on to the ultimate spiritual authority behind him which is Satan. I think there are several good reasons to support that view. Let me give you quickly four and then I'll stop talking for a minute and give you a chance to ask questions or make some clarifications. The first support for that view is the different titles that are used that I've already pointed out. The human ruler is called prince or ruler. The other reference is to the king. So those two different titles could refer to two different people. Obviously they could refer to one person a king is a ruler. So they could refer to one person. So that's not the strongest of the arguments. But the second reason that supports this view that two people are in view is the different natures of these two titles. The ruler is quite clearly called a man. Look at verse two. Son of man say to the ruler of tire this is what the sovereign lord says in the pride of your heart you say I am a god. I sit on the throne of a god in the heart of the seas but you are a mere mortal and not a god though you think you are as wise as a god and then in verse nine. Will you then say I am a god in the presence of those who kill you you will be but immortal not a god in the hands of those who slay you. Obviously this is a man not he's only a mortal. That's quite clear. But the other being this king that is addressed in verses 12 through 19 is called twice a cherub. Look at verse 14. You were anointed as a guardian cherub for so I ordained you and then then in verse 16 second half of the verse I drove you and disgraced from the mount of god I expelled you guardian cherub from among the fiery stones. I remember a cherub is an angel. It's a category of angels we saw that when we were in our section studying angels. So quite clear the prince is referred to as a mere mortal. He is a man a mere mortal. This being however is called a cherub. That seems quite different. The third support for this view is the the superlatives that are used of this king in verse 12. Middle of the verse this is what the sovereign lord says you were the seal of perfection full of wisdom and perfect in beauty those are pretty amazing statements to be made of a mere mortal. And then the fourth support for this second view is the moral perfection of this king down in verse 15. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till wickedness was found in you. So in his original state before something happened he was blameless morally perfect. And that just doesn't seem to fit with a mere mortal so I think there's good reason to believe that the prophet Ezekiel begins his prophecy against a human ruler and then under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit moves beyond that human ruler to the real authority behind him who is Satan. And what he's describing in verses 11 or 12 through 19 is the original state and then a couple of hints about the fall of Satan himself. Now we'll see a little bit more what that all involves but let me stop right here and see if you have any questions. Yes. I've not seen anything that that the stars would refer to anything else because the the dragon is clearly identified as Satan. So you know you're talking about the fall of Satan from heaven and what would the stars represent if they represent something else I've not read anything that indicates like there were literal stars in the heavens or any other beings. I think it's pretty well universally accepted that they refer to angels. Yes, I do. I think the scriptures would support the fact that the fall of Satan occurred after man was created because man was created on day six of creation. And it was at the end of day six that God looks over all his creations as it's all good. And I don't think he would have said that if there had already been a rebellion in heaven and there was already a fall of Satan. So we're going to talk about this a little bit later the timing of his fall, but it had to be after the six days of creation. But before Genesis three because he's already using the serpent to tempt Eve in the garden. So somewhere in between is when he fell. And we don't know how much time took place between Genesis one and two and Genesis three, but somewhere in that time frames when he fell. Okay, good. Any others? All right, let's look at the initial privileges of Satan. If this passage is referring to Satan and I think there's good reason to believe it is, then what were his initial privileges? What was his original state in other words? It's described quite clearly in this passage. First of all, notice his nature. His nature was that he was a cherub. He was an angel. Again, verse 14, you were anointed as a guardian cherub for so I ordained you. You were on the holy mount of God. You walked among the fiery stones and in that number 16 through your widespread trade, you were filled with violence and you send. So I drove you and disgraced from the mount of God and I expelled you, guardian cherub. So he's twice referred to as a cherub, which indicates something about his nature. A cherub, as we saw earlier in our study, is the highest class of angels gathered around the throne of God, worshipping him, leading heaven in worship of God. And also, verse 12 refers to him as a perfect being. You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom, perfect and beauty. So that would seem to indicate the original state of a holy angel created by God perfect. So that's his nature. Notice his position in verse 14, his position is referred to in the word anointed. You were anointed as a guardian cherub. Now anointing in the Old Testament in particular has to do with installation into an office. Kings were anointed into their office. Profits were anointed into their God-given office. And so anointing has to do with placing someone in a high office. And so if he was anointed as a guardian cherub, that seems to indicate that he not only was a cherub of the highest order of angels, but he had a kind of ruling position among the cherub. He may have been the leader of the cherub. And the fact that he was a guardian cherub indicates that he was one of those probably around the throne of God itself. And so you're getting the feel here that, you know, Satan had a very high position in heaven. So his nature cherub, his position seems to be of some kind of ruling or authority over those cherubes. And then notice his habitation, this is part of his initial privileges as well, his habitation is in verse 13. You were in Eden, the Garden of God. Every precious stone adorned you. And he lists a bunch of them there that some of which are a little difficult to pronounce, but we lists nine of them there. Your settings and and mountings were made of gold on the day you were created, they were prepared. So he was in Eden. And immediately you think, oh, so he was on earth. Well, no, not maybe not. The term Eden here may refer to heaven, kind of using earthly terms, because it is quite clear in verses 14 and verse, verses 14 and 16 that he was in the mount of God, which is a reference to the place where God rules heaven. He says you were anointed as a guardian cherub, again, cherub or cherubim are angels that are around the throne of God. You were on the holy mount of God. Verse 16, I expelled you from among the fiery stones. I drove you in disgrace from the mount of God. So it's quite possible that Eden here is used figuratively of the place, kind of using earthly terms to describe the perfection and beauty of the place where God dwells in heaven. Okay, so that that quite probably is his habitation is in heaven as a guardian cherub around the throne of God. One other thing that's mentioned about his initial privileges is his perfection. And we've already seen that in verse 12 and 15. Verse 12 probably has to do with his person or nature. Verse 15 probably has to do with his ways. You were blameless in your ways. So he was he was perfect in both personal and moral qualities in his original state. Pretty high privileges of this, this being that we now know as Satan. Questions, comments about his initial privileges in heaven, Vicki? That's a great question. Why is anybody guarding his throne? And the idea here with the word guard is not to protect or shield. It's just the idea of encircling the idea of of exalting his glory. And in that sense, the term guardian or guard is used of one who exalts the glory of God. It's not that he needs to be protected from anybody. But kind of the word guardian kind of gives us that idea. Doesn't it? That he has to guard against someone. Pardon me? Yes. Yes. Yes. You know, just like it's almost like a royal court. Okay. The king sitting on a throne and he has guards around him. Well, nobody's ever going to get in there to attack him. It's not that he needs those guards, but they're there for kind of the pomp and circumstance, if you will. And in the same sense, these guardian cherubs are part of the royal court that surrounds and exalts God's glory. That's kind of the idea. Okay. Other questions, comments? I thought someone would ask, was giving you opportunity. I thought someone would ask, what are the fiery stones? What what's this deal with all the fiery stones and stuff in heaven? Is there hot coals around the throne of God or what what was that? And then all those nine stones that are listed, by the way, which which are very similar to the stones in the high priest's breastplate that is later or is later described in the book of Exodus. But the whole idea of fiery stones, again, is just symbolic of the presence of God. If you read, if you read Exodus 24, where Moses goes up on the mountain to receive the 10 commandments and he takes some of the elders with him and they go up and the Bible says they see God. They see a representation of God, God comes down in a form that they can handle. But it's mentioned that there was one of these stones. This, what is it? Lapis, LaZulla. How do you say that? Yeah, Lapis or Lapis, LaZulla. That is one of the stones that God is under God on the mountain where he gives, a mountain sign, where he gives the law. And then it talks about other stones and as the people of Israel looked at the mountain, it was fiery. So the idea of fiery stones is used in the Bible just to symbolize the glorious, majestic presence of God. And so the idea of fiery stones in heaven, again, it's just a metaphorical picturesque way of describing the very presence of God in his majestic glory. It's not that there are hot rocks around the throne. Exactly. Yes. And so when he says, I cast you away from the fiery stones, he's highlighting the fact that you were this close to me. You were in my presence right around the throne and you lost that. That's the point. Yeah. Okay. So those are the initial privileges of Satan. You know the question about those. All right. Notice then the perversion of Satan. What happened? What happened to him? What got twisted around, which is what the word perversion means? Verse 15. Notice you were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till wickedness was found in you. Or sin was found in you. It's not explained what that sin was in indefinite terms here in this passage. The only clue is down in verse 17. Your heart became proud on account of your beauty and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor. So I threw you to the earth. I made a spectacle of you before kings. So obviously it involves pride. Again, your heart became proud. You corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor proud because of your beauty. So whatever happened involved pride and self glory. He was glorying in his own perfection and beauty and wisdom. Remember first Timothy 3.6 the caution against pride in spiritual leaders because that's what brought Satan down. And if you're not careful, you can also fall just like he did. So obviously I had something to do with pride. But there's more to it than that. Look at verse 16. Through your widespread trade, you were filled with violence and you sinned. And then verse 18. By your many sins and dishonest trade, you have desecrated your sanctuaries. Now the idea of widespread trade and dishonest trade, the idea of trade, the Hebrew word actually has to do with soliciting someone to an evil cause. This widespread trade, this trade is not I'll give you something, if you'll give me something, it's the idea of a solicitation to partner with me in what I want to do to rebel against God. So that would indicate the persuasion of other angels to follow him in his rebellion. Again that kind of goes along with what we saw in Revelation 12, the third of the angels he swept along with him out of heaven. So that was his perversion. It was some kind of fall that had to do with pride. And he obviously pulled some other angels with him. He trafficked among the angels and sold them a bill of goods about his rebellion against, against God. His punishment in verse 16, middle of the verse, so I drove you in disgrace from the Mount of God. I expelled you, guardian cherub from among the fiery stones. I was expelled you from my presence. So he was cast out from his privileged position near the throne of God and banished from that position. Although other scriptures indicate he still has access, right? Job 1, Revelation 12, as we've already seen, he still has access to accuse us before God, but he no longer stays there. He has to come and go. He was cast out of his position there of being around the throne of God all the time. So that's his short term punishment. There is a long term punishment that is awaiting him and that we saw described in Matthew 25, 41 where Jesus says to those who are going to be cast into hell, you're cast into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. So the lake of fire is the place where Satan himself will eventually spend eternity and that's described in Revelation 20 where he's thrown into the lake of fire as well. So that's his punishment, ultimate punishment. Okay, questions then about the Ezekiel 28 passage and what it describes about the initial state, the privileges Satan had in heaven and his fall. Barry? It's a great question and involves some degree of mystery. To the first part of the question was it the first expression of evil in the universe, I would say yes. Because death comes through man's sin and that seems to be the first expression on planet earth is Adam's sin, Adam and Eve and Genesis 3. So this occurred before that this must have been the first expression of evil. The other part of your question, how could this happen with a perfect being? Was there some flaw in him? And that there's some degree of mystery there because all the angels were created holy. I think I've mentioned this before theologians like to refer to it as unconfirmed holiness. In other words, they still had before them a choice as to which way they could go. Once Satan rebelled against God and the other angels who chose to go with him chose they were confirmed in their unholiness and good angels were confirmed in their holiness. There's no indication in the Bible that evil angels can be saved or good angels now can fall. So that seems to have ended with Satan's rebellion. But what was there in him that caused him to rebel? That's the question. And we're going to see that in a little more detail in Isaiah 14. It had to do with pride but where did that come from in a perfect being? And that's the mystery. We can only go back so far and then our knowledge stops. We don't have any information. Tommy and then I think Blaine. Yeah, he knows now for sure. I don't know that he would have known then when he felt what his ultimate doom would be. Yeah, it could be, but I mean, even though he knows now he's still battling hard to do everything he can to defeat God and his kingdom. And so he will not give up. That's just he is intrinsically evil so he cannot do anything else. Yeah, yeah. I mean, we know that Satan is not omniscient. Okay. He does not know everything like God does. So does he know the future? I don't think so. Can he foretell with some precision what might happen? Yeah, because of his great experience through the ages. But when Satan first fell, I don't think he could have foreseen what would happen to him in the future because he's not omniscient. But he knows now because he knows what the Bible says. Yeah, Blaine, you had a question. Right. Yeah, that's true. Adam was created perfect as well. And yet God allows his created beings to have choice as to whether they will follow evil or good. And Satan and a third of the angels chose evil and Adam and Eve chose evil. Yeah, it's good point. Jean and certainly that is one of the greatest byproducts of Satan's fault. He does become the ultimate example to us of evil and rebellion against God. I think we have to be a little careful about saying that's the reason why God created him as though Satan is not responsible. He was just a puppet. And I know you weren't saying that, Jean, but we have to be careful not to take that leap because Satan is responsible for his own for his own fall. But he does, he does provide us the perfect example of what happens when you rebel against God. Yes. No. He can never be forgiven. He can never be saved. There's no indication in the scriptures that that demons can ever repent and be saved. No examples of it. No teaching that gives any indication of that. Okay. All right. Very good. Got a few minutes left. We can at least get started in Isaiah 14. Isaiah 14 is kind of the companion passage to Ezekiel 28. So let's look back over there. Isaiah 14. It is very similar in that there is a king that is addressed. But boy, there sure does seem to be someone else behind this king because of the way that the king is described. So again, in Isaiah 14, which we're titling the particular sin of Satan, this passage gets more specific about what he actually did, how he actually sinned and pride. But you have to start again with this dilemma of the identification of the person's here. Who is the prophet Isaiah talking about? And again, you've got the same thing as Ezekiel 28. You've got two basic views. The first view is that the whole passage from verses three through 21 is announcing judgment on the king of Babylon. Now, look if you will at verse three on the day the Lord gives you relief from your suffering, turmoil and from the harsh labor forced on you speaking of Israel on that day verse four, you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon. So it's quite clear that the address is made to the king of Babylon. And there are those who say the whole passage is referring simply solely to the king of Babylon. And the unusual language in verses 12 through 17 that we're going to look at in a few moments, those who take the view that this is only referring to the king of Babylon say that that unusual language is simply a poetic exaggeration of the king of Babylon. Still referring to the king of Babylon, but it's talking about his power and his fall in poetic hyperbole or exaggerated terms. Well, it is interesting that in verses 12 through 17, especially verses 16 through 18, he is still called a man. And so that is a pretty strong support for this view. He is still called a man. It's not quite as clear the distinction between man and cherub as we saw in his equal 28. However, the second view, the dual reference view does have some strong arguments for it as well. In the dual reference view, verses 4 through 11 refers to the literal king, the human king of Babylon. But in verse 12, he begins to refer to again the ultimate ruler behind this king who is Satan. Now, there's an interesting twist on this view, which I think has a lot of credence. And that is that the king of Babylon referred to here is not the Old Testament king of Babylon, but the king of a future Babylon. Remember, Revelation speaks of a kingdom called Babylon in the tribulation led by the Antichrist. Chapter 17 and 18 of Revelation talk about both a religious Babylon, verse chapter 17, and a political Babylon in Revelation chapter 18. And I believe that it's quite possible that the reference to the king of Babylon here is to the future king of Babylon over a future Babylon. In other words, the Antichrist. And then verses 12 through 17 refers to the ultimate power behind the Antichrist who is Satan himself, and that is very clear in the book of Revelation, especially chapter 13, where Satan is behind the rule of the Antichrist. Now, in support of that is the fact that the whole passage beginning in verse 1 seems to refer to a future time when Israel is restored to being the leader among all the nations. Look at the language beginning in verse 1. The Lord will have compassion on Jacob. Once again, he will choose Israel, and will settle them in their own land. Foreigners will join them and unite with the descendants of Jacob. Nations will take them and bring them to their own place. And Israel will take possession of the nations and make them male and female servants in the Lord's land. They will make captives of their oppressors and rule over their oppressors. On the day the Lord gives you relief from your suffering and turmoil from the harsh labor forced upon you, you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon. Now, verses 1 through 3 are quite clearly describing the conditions of the millennium. When Israel is restored to her land and she is the ruler over all the other nations of the earth, that never happened in the Old Testament. And it will not happen until the millennium. And so that seems to be a reference to the kingdom of Christ. And if that's the case, then the idea is on the day when you come into my kingdom, you will be able to look back on what happened in the tribulation time and issue this taunt against the king of Babylon that tormented you. Who is it that tormented them in the tribulation before the millennium? The Antichrist. So I think there's really good reason to see this king of Babylon as the Antichrist of the future king of Babylon in the tribulation time. And thus makes it even more clear that the ruling power behind this Antichrist is Satan himself. And so in that way, I think a good case can be made for verses 12 through 17 referring to Satan. And some of the terminology will see Morningstar and so forth also seems to be referring to Satan in his original perfection, his creation as an angel. Okay. Comments or questions just about those views of the who's who's being talked about here, the person involved, any questions about that. Okay. We're going to have to stop here. This is a good place to stop because if we go any further, we're going to get into the actual expression of his sin and and don't want to leave you hanging on that. So we'll stop here and get into that next time. Okay. Let's pray. Father, we are thankful for your word and the opportunity to study your word to learn more about your plan and purpose for this universe. And all that you have done from eternity past up through the present time and even what you've revealed to us about the future. There's a grand scope of your majesty in your word and we worship you and thank you for what we see of your greatness. And even as we look at the incredible state and fall of Satan, it magnifies once again who you are in your greatness, your holiness, your majesty. And we thank you and worship you that you are more powerful than him. And we know that you are the one who has judged him. And thus we know that you will you will have the victory over him ultimately. We hold onto that hope in Christ. It's in his name. We pray. Amen.