Chapter 5: Satan Caused the Two Realms of Corrupting the Image 2: Hybrids, Hades, and the Mt Hermon Connection
Before Adam ate the forbidden fruit, the heavenly (spiritual) dimension and the earthly dimension were one realm—one domain, one plane of existence in which God, angels and man had open communication and relationship; There was no separation between the spiritual realm and the physical realm. There was perfect compatibility and agreement between them, an idea also found in Mesopotamian literature: “Heaven talked with Earth. Earth talked with Heaven.”[1] God walked in the Garden, and man was able to look at his face and endure God’s fire and lightning. (See Appendix 2 Angel Freewill).
Garden of Eden in Earthly and Heavenly Domains.
Man’s transgression brought decay, degeneration and death. God’s perfection and the fallen physical, earthly realm became incompatible. Now God’s fiery presence would scorch the ground like when He descended on Mt. Sinai (Ps 97:5). In the same way, the elements will melt when Jesus returns (2 Pet 3:10). Now man could no longer see God’s face and live. The Garden of Eden, where God, angels and man could commune together was gone. Open, unveiled fellowship became impossible.
This divide of heaven and Earth caused by Satan (Enlil) was recorded by the ancient Sumerians. Samuel Kramer notes: “Anu (the creator god) carried off heaven while Enlil carried off the earth and assumed most of An’s powers.”[2] Likewise, Xianhuan Wang adds: “Enlil … was at about the same time cosmologically considered the deity who separated Heaven from Earth and Earth from Heaven.”[3]
When God came in the Garden in the cool of the evening, Adam and Eve were compelled to hide themselves. Why? The first sign of disconnect was they realized they were naked. They had been clothed with light like God covers himself “with light as with a garment” (Ps 104:2). They observed the glow in which they had previously been clothed was fading; their biophotons were beginning to diminish, a concept I explored in depth in Corrupting the Image, Vol. 1.
This reality was displayed after Moses spent forty days with God and upon coming down the mountain, he “did not know that the skin of his face shone while he talked with Him” (Exod 34:29). When the congregation saw him, “The skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him” (Exod 34:30), which led Moses to “put a veil on his face” (Exod 34:33). Paul tells us that Moses “put a veil over his face so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the end of what was passing away” (2 Cor 3:13). That is, the glow in his face began to wane. Thus, once Adam and Eve transgressed, death entered their bodies and the connection to God broke. Satan’s slander which led to their transgression set in motion a chain of events that affected them and the entirety of creation.
God did not curse the ground because of Adam; rather, like a reporter, He simply presented the consequence of the degenerative decay-death reaction that Adam triggered (Gen 2:17). God said, “Cursed is the ground for your sake” (Gen 3:17). The Hebrew word “for your sake,” is ba’avurecha [בַּֽעֲבוּרֶ֔ךָ]. It comes from the root, ayin, beth, resh [עבר]. It is the same root as the word: Hebrew. It means to cross over, pass. TWOT defines it: “Because of, for, intent that, for —’s, sake.”[4]
TWOT explains Adam’s relationship with the Earth:
“ădāmâ. Ground, land, planet. Originally this word signified the red arable soil … The Bible makes much of the relationship between man (’ādām) and the ground (’ădāmâ). Initially, God made ’ādām out of the ’ădāmâ to till the ’ădāmâ (Gen 3:23, to bring forth life). The ’ădāmâ was God’s possession and under His care (Gen 2:6). Thus, the first ’ādām (the man, Adam) and his family were to act as God’s servants by obeying Him in maintaining the divinely ordained and intended relationships vertically and horizontally. As long as this condition was sustained, God caused the ’ădāmâ to give its fruitfulness (blessing) to ’ādām. Then came sin. The unit ’ādām (Adam and Eve; see also (Rom 5:12) violated the created structure. The ’ădāmâ, henceforth, brought forth thorns and thistles rather than freely giving fruit (Gen 3:17). Since ’ādām had disrupted the paradisiacal life-producing state, he was driven off the paradisiacal ’ădāmâ and sentenced to return to the ’ădāmâ (Gen 3:19). He was driven to it rather than it being given to him.”[5]
God created Adam from the adamáh; Adam was the earth-man, the federal head of creation. Adam and the adamáh were linked physically and hence their fates were linked. When Adam ate from the fruit, death, degeneration and decay happened upon Adam and upon the Earth and material cosmos as well. Decay permeated the entire creation from the invisible world of cells and DNA to all the animals, birds and fish which God had formed out of the adamáh.[6] Degeneration began within all living and non-living matter; the atoms of every tree, flower, blade of grass, rock, mountain, planet and star. The complete composition of all physical creation became incompatible with God’s fiery presence.[7]
Release of an alpha particle.
Degeneration of rocks has been observed when alpha particles escape, leaving them slightly radioactive. Nuclear physicist Dr. Robert Gentry has examined over 100,000 discolorations in minerals and discovered a process of decay that happened close to the formation of the Earth in granite rocks around the world. He writes that “in some thin samples of certain minerals, notably mica, there can be observed … concentric dark and light circles.” [8] He describes how radiohalos, which are etched within granite, Earth’s foundation rocks, “are beautiful microspheres of coloration, halos, produced by the radioactive decay of primordial polonium, which is known to have only a fleeting existence.”[9] (See Figure 17 on adjacent page). During an interview with Research Communications Network in 1997, Dr. Gentry said, “Some halos (‘polonium’ halos) imply a nearly instantaneous crystallization of Earth’s primordial rocks: and this crystallization must have occurred simultaneously with the synthesis/creation of certain elements.” [10]
Dr. Gentry’s work strongly suggests that the Earth went from a perfect and “decayless” state to one of decay very quickly and early in the history of the planet. Because God repeatedly declared the Earth and all therein to be good (Gen 1:10, 12, 18) at every stage of its creation and then very good at its completion (Gen 1:31), the process of death, decay and degeneration (radioactivity) came into effect because of Adam, because all of creation shares Adam’s fate: when Adam fell, creation fell; when Adam (mankind) is restored, creation is also restored.This is why Paul said:
For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God.For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now (Rom 8:19–22) (Emphasis mine).
BDAG Greek-English lexicon defines “corruption” (Greek word phthora φθορά) as a “breakdown of organic matter, dissolution, deterioration, corruption.” A term that encapsulates the idea of “bondage of corruption” is degeneration. Because of the Fall, the Earth itself is now in a state of degeneration, whereas before, it had been generative.
The Earth is now longing to be freed (not destroyed) into the glorious liberty of the sons of God (Rom 8:19–22), which will occur in conjunction with the resurrection and return of Jesus, when the sons of God (believers) receive their new bodies. The decay (corruption) latent in the Earth will be reversed so that we will live on the same ball of dirt that God created in the beginning. The veil in the tabernacle was a copy of the things in heaven (Heb 8:5). The tearing of the first veil (not in the holy of holies) is a picture of the literal veil that will be torn (Isa 64:1) and rolled up (Isa 34:4; 2 Pet 3:10).
After God announced the consequences of man’s actions, God had to remove Himself from his own creation, lest his fire destroy it. [11] This removal is what the Scriptures call the veil. It is what marks the boundary between our earthly, physical domain and the spiritual domain. Isaiah first spoke of its removal:
“And He will destroy on this mountain the surface of the covering cast over all people, And the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever, and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces” (Isa 25:7–8).
The prophet Isaiah also pined: “Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down” (Isa 64:1). Whatever the veil is, it can be torn and removed. There are four other distinct places where the veil (heavens) was opened:
Ezekiel: “I saw the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God” (Ezek 1:1).
“Jesus came up … and the heavens were opened to Him” (Matt 3:16).
Stephen: “I see the heavensopened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!” (Acts 7:55–56).
John: “I saw heavenopened … Jesus was on a white horse” (Rev 19:11).
Layering techniques in animation can help us visualize the separation. In the Figure 18 graphic, there are four distinct cel layers (cel animation is the art of creating 2D animation by hand on sheets of transparent plastic called “cels”).[12] The superposition of the cels creates the composite picture for the animated story. Before the fall of Adam and Eve, the heavenly or spiritual layer and the earthly layer were superimposed, creating a shared composite picture. After the Fall, those of us in the earthly layer can no longer see into the heavenly layer. When Jesus returns, the layers will merge back together.
Animation in Layers.
Comparison of Heavenly and Earthly Dimensions.
Thus, Adam and Eve witnessed the veil close like a great curtain, and the realm behind it became blocked from their sight. Spatially, nothing had moved; the realms were on top of one another, yet separated dimensionally by a veil, like a membrane, barring passage between the domains. God had to drive them from the Garden and place a barrier to the tree of life, lest they take of it and live forever in their fallen state (Gen 3:23–24). Mankind has searched the world over and that tree is nowhere to be found because it does not exist in our realm or dimension, which is our plane of existence. Since that time, the cosmos has existed as two realms—the one in which we live, and the other where spirit-based beings live and where God’s presence is manifest. The one realm split into two: the earthly dimension is what Satan rules, he is the god of this world; the heavenly or spiritual dimension is where God rules. (God rules all, of course, but Satan has authority in the earthly realm.)
When the Garden and the heavenly domain disappeared before their eyes like a scroll being unrolled in front of them,[13] this might have been the first time hot tears streamed down their cheeks; it would also be the last time they would see God’s face.[14]
The closing of the veil not only protects creation from God’s fiery presence, but it also severely limits Satan’s access to this domain. Satan and his rebels can still see us,[15]and their proximity can be felt (Job 4:15). They can afflict man with disease as well as control the weather (Matt 8:16, 24), as we will explore in detail later. They are able to gain more access through occult séances, blood sacrifices (in their honor), drugs, and perhaps under other conditions for brief durations. However, Satan’s communication between the realms is greatly limited. We will see how he and his rebels will continue to strive to maintain communication and open the Gates of Hades.
God wants to reunite the celestial realm with the earthly realm so that we can walk and fellowship with God and enjoy the pleasures at his right hand. Satan wants to prevent the day when Jesus opens the heavens and his heavenly tabernacle so that fire descends upon the Earth. Jesus was pining for that day when he said: “I came to send fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!” (Luke 12:49). When Jesus comes back, “He will destroy on this mountain the surface of the covering cast over all people, And the veil that is spread over all nations” (Isa 25:7). The sky will recede like a scroll (Rev 6:14), and he will “rend the heavens and come down” (Isa 64:1). The veil between heaven and Earth, between our domain and God’s, will dissolve and the two dimensions will become one again.
[1] The Xianhua Wang Metamorphosis of Enlil in Early Mesopotamia Pg. 152
[2] Kramer, Samuel Noah The Sumerians The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1963. Pg. 37-41.
[3] Krebernik transcribed Obv. Col. 2 lines 5-9 of IAS 113 as, “UDKIŠ.NUN GAL nu-nám-NAGAR GAL du11-TUKU DU6-GAG-GAG UD UNU-ta LAGAB ki UD-ta LAGAB, as dEn-líl en nu-nam-nir en du11-ga nu-gi4-gi4 an ki-ta bad ki an-ta bad” Xianhua Wang The Metamorphosis of Enlil in Early Mesopotamia. Pg. 100.
[4] TWOT ‘ābûr is a preposition and conjunction always used with the prefix bĕ to express causal, purposive, and resultative relationships in agreement with the meanings of the root term ‘ābar “movement from one to another,” as from purpose (or cause) to accomplishment (or result).
Satan’s Slanderous Revolt Chapter 4 of Corrupting the Image 2
Satan became enraged by the notion that he, the great Angel, must be a servant to Adam, made of dust. So the root of jealousy and bitterness began festering within him. We see this egotism in ancient Sumerian texts. One said of him: “Enlil’s commands are by far the loftiest … He is the one that decides the fate, etc. He alone is the prince of heaven, the dragon of the earth.” [1]
Adam and Eve were childlike in their understanding of the great cosmos, and their wisdom could not compare to his. Even so, he was charged with watching over the creatures made of dust, guiding and serving them in any way needed. This obviously brought out the worst in him. His snake-dragon qualities are again on display in ancient Mesopotamia via Ninurta, one of his syncretisms.
Lord Ninurta … has perfected heroship, Dragon with the “hands” of a lion, the clawsof an eagle … Lord Ninurta, when your heart was seized (by anger), You spat venom like a snake.[2]
Instead of presenting himself as a servant set-apart as a living sacrifice, so to speak, and becoming like his Creator—which was both acceptable to Adonai and was his reasonable service—he began to think more highly of himself than he ought. Incensed with jealousy toward Adam, he lifted up a powerful weapon to defame the name of his Creator. How ironic that the very gift of unparalleled beauty caused him to become self-centered and to relinquish true wisdom. Instead of embracing humility, which would have led to honor, he chose pride and arrogance, which ultimately led to his fall toward destruction.
His deadly, slanderous weapon was a simple question: “Has God indeed said? (Gen 3:1). This tiny question was an insidious, but subtle slander of God’s character. He was asking, can you really trust what God said? Next, he told a lie about the consequence of eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, “You will not surely die” (Gen 3:4), and then proceeded to truthfully tell the purpose of the tree: to be like God.[3] “For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Gen 3:5).
We know that his last statement was true for God himself says as much: “And the LORD God said, behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good (tov טֹ֣וב) and evil (ra רָ֔ע) (Gen 3:22, KJV). God wants beings that are like Him and with whom He can interact lovingly—that requires freewill[4]—that everyone has the chance to choose for Him or against Him.[5] Adam and Eve could have 1) refused to eat, thereby exercising their freewill choice, and their eyes would be opened to the knowledge of good—what God delights in, and the knowledge of evil—what God does not delight in (See Appendix 2, Evil), but withoutdeath, and they would be permitted to stretch out their hands and take from the tree of life and live forever; or 2) they could (and did) eat from the tree, have their eyes opened to the knowledge of good and evil with the consequence of severing their connection with God (which is death, decay, and degeneration entering their bodies and souls) and thereby being banned from eating from the tree of life and being banished from the Garden of Eden.
The book of Ezekiel describes Satan’s actions: “You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, till iniquity [avlata עַוְלָ֖תָה] was found in you.”(Ezek 28:15) This word means “to deviate from and hence to do what is opposite of the character of God.”[6] Satan originally did what was in accordance with the character of God until one day he deviated. TWOT makes it clear that it is not just a philosophical departure from an ideal—but it is an action or deed.
In Hebrew, the basic meaning of this root means to deviate from a right standard, to act contrary to what is right. The verb is a denominative from āwel/‘awlâ and occurs only twice in the Old Testament … In Isa 26:10 it describes the activity of the people of Judah who act unjustly (KJV; “perversely,” RSV) in contrast to upright behavior… an act or deed that is against what is right … behavior contrary to what is right.[7]
Satan was perfect until he misbehaved, acted out and committed a deed that was contrary to God’s righteous standard. The next verse in Ezekiel reveals his deviation was “by the abundance of [rekhulatkha רְכֻלָּתְךָ֗]” (Ezek 28:16).
The big question, of course, is what exactly does rekhulatkha mean? It has been typically translated as “trading”, which is a possible translation.[8] But is it the best interpretation?
The word comes from the root [rakhal רכל] which according to BDB Hebrew-English Lexicon means: “to go about (meaning dubious) 1.a. trafficker, trader.” Rekhulatkha, based on the original root [rakhal רכל] (H7402) means “slander, slanderer, tale bearer, informer … someone who goes about as a talebearer spreading gossip or things that are in some way destructive … a scandal-monger (as travelling about).”[9]
Gesenius notes its phonetic relationship to the word ragal [רָגַל] “to go on foot” and how it carries the meaning of “to traffic.” The secondary meaning is “for the sake of slandering, whence [rakhil רָכִיל] slander.”[10]
We therefore have a definition for [rakhil רָכִיל] as someone who goes about as a slanderer, spreading gossip or things that are in some way destructive. In other words: spreading malicious information. This sounds exactly like what Satan did in the Garden. Revelation 12:9 reveals more about Satan’s various titles, calling him the dragon and the serpent of old—the latter a clear reference to Genesis 3—and then mentioning the term “devil.”
The word devil comes from the Greek diabolos [διάβολος] “slanderous, backbiting”, derived from diaballo [διαβάλλω] “throw or carry across” (wrestling).[11] The Liddle Scott Jones Classical Greek Lexicon describes exactly the alternate meaning of rekhulatkha [רְכֻלָּתְךָ֗] that we have proposed.
διαβάλλω: — throw or carry over or across in wrestling, pass over, cross, put through, set at variance set against, bring into discredit, to be filled with suspicion and resentment against another, attack a man’s character, calumniate, accuse, complain of without implied malice or falsehood, reproach a man with, misrepresent, speak or state slanderously, give hostile information, without any insinuation of falsehood, lay the blame for a thing on, declare it spurious, deceive by false accounts, mislead, divert from a course of action. (Emphasis mine).[12]
Satan, filled with suspicion and resentment against God, was going about to the other angels subtly discrediting and misrepresenting God and attacking his character. In other words, his iniquity was slandering God. According to Ezekiel 28:16, it was not a one-off offense but in fact, an abundance of slander. The lesson we glean is God did not cast Satan to the ground for one aberrant thought, but for an abundance of misbehavior.
This alternate reading of Ezekiel 28:16, of “slandering” versus “trafficking”, fits much better with the anointed cherub who covers. He was not trafficking merchandise. He was giving hostile information about God and misrepresenting his character. Dr. Robert Luginbill, in his book, The Satanic Rebellion,also sees the problem with translating rekhulatkha as “your trading”.[13]
The only thing he could have traded was slander. The translation “slander” maintains the meaning of “going about” and includes the nuance of “misrepresenting, attacking character”, and it is confirmed by Satan’s Greek title diabolos (devil) which means slanderer. Based on the aforementioned, my translation is therefore: “By the abundance of your [rekhulatkha רְכֻלָּתְךָ֗] slandering you became filled with violence within, and you sinned” (Ezek 28:16).
This provides a different perspective; Satan was not hawking his merchandise: “Hey, guys you need to get the latest Angel-phone!” God did not come in with an anti-trust case against him. It was not like God said: “Satan! You are selling too much. I have to stop your monopoly.” That was not it. With whom would Satan trade, anyway? The other angels?
Figure Committing Suicide.
Satan subtly slandered God in the Garden of Eden because he did not want to serve anyone, but instead wanted all to serve him. He persuaded Adam and Eve to curse themselves, (See Appendix 5 Balaam), to put the gun to their own heads and dig their own grave, as in Figure 15. He used slander to incite Adam to eat the fruit God forbad, knowing Adam would “surely die” (Gen 2:17), and he would subsequently commit all his progeny to perpetual death (Rom 5:12; 1 Cor 15:21–22). Adam’s transgression caused an imbalance, a debt, a legal lien upon the Earth which must be balanced or paid (we will explore this in detail when Jesus takes the scroll in Revelation 5). Thus, Adam’s dominion, prerogative and hereditary right to the Earth were forfeited and consequently, Satan would occupy the Earth in place of its legal and rightful possessor. Satan usurped Adam’s rulership which is proved by Jesus calling Satan the “ruler of the world” (John 14:30).
Perhaps the most heinous part of Satan’s plot was that Adam and Eve did not suspect anything because they seemed to already know and trust Satan. He came to Adam and Eve as God’s chief steward, prime minister and high priest who oversaw everything and was charged with protecting the sacred place they occupied. They had no reason to question his motives. They had known him since the day of their creation. Satan was therefore able to come to them in his unfallen, glorious state and they listened.
It is important to understand that he came to them with evil intent in his heart. However, unlike the movie, “Minority Report”, in which people could be incarcerated for future crimes they had not yet committed, in God’s economy, a person must first commit the crime in reality before they do the time. Jesus’ statement: “Whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matt 5:28).Lust is a craving to have something or someone that is not yours. A decision to perpetuate and continue this line of thinking eventually leads a person to committing an action. However, it must be pointed out that there is no specific punishment for lust. (See Appendix 7 Leaven). The many consequences for lusting might include neurological pathways forming that affect the brain or harmful chemicals being released in the brain that lead to depression, addiction and dangerous behaviors. Left unchecked, lust will eventually lead to adultery. However, only real adultery is punishable in God’s economy.
Thus, Satan lusting about being like God was not enough to deserve judgment; he had to do the deed and slander was the key.
After speaking with Adam and Eve about what happened, God turned to his once trusted prime minister and proclaimed the consequence of his action: he would lose his blessed status among animals and would instead be cursed above all others, he would lose his beauty and splendor, and he would lose the fiery-nature he enjoyed as a cherub.
We have looked at three major passages: Genesis 3, Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28, that deal with the fall of Satan. In all three, Satan is in the Garden of Eden, and God pronounced the immediate judgment of being cast to the ground and the future consequence of his slander. We note the several similarities by comparing them in the chart on the next page.
Table 4 Comparison of Passages of Satan Cast to the Ground
Gen 3:1, 14 the serpent was more cunning than any beast of…the LORD God said to the serpent: “Because you have done this, You are cursed more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you shall go, And you shall eat dust All the days of your life.
Isa 14:12–15 “How you are fallen from heaven, O Heilel, son of the morning! you are cut down to the ground (Eretz) … For you have said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation On the farthest sides of the north;I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.’Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol.
Ezek 28:13–18 You were in Eden, the garden of God… You were on the holy mountain of God…I cast you as a profane thing out of the mountain of God; And I destroyed you, O covering cherub, from the midst of the fiery stones…I cast you to the ground, I laid you before kings, That they might gaze at you…I brought fire from your midst, it devoured you
In Eden
On God’s mountain
In Eden & On God’s mountain
Has exalted position
Has exalted position
Has exalted position
Blessed above animals
Great rank implied
Cherub – over animals
Had great wisdom
Great wisdom implied
Had great wisdom
Cast to ground / belly
Cast to ground
Cast to ground
Slandered God
Slandered God
Slandered God
Comparison of Passages of Satan Cast to the Ground
We may infer from God’s judgment that Satan did not expect to lose his legs and be cast to the ground. Until then, he possessed the most glorious body imaginable—he was the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty” (Ezek 28:12). As high priest, he was covered in dazzling stones, but all of that was lost when he fell. Paired with his fire also being taken away, losing his legs may imply the loss of mobility and specifically, the loss of the ability to come through the veil.
God then declared:
“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed [zarakha זַרְעֲךָ] and her seed [zarah זַרְעָהּ]; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel” (Gen 3:15).
“You, shall bruise his heel” means that Satan is going to injure the Messiah, the Seed of the woman. “He shall bruise your head” means the Messiah would inflict a mortal blow to Satan. This was essentially a declaration of war. God had just given hope to mankind and an ominous prophecy of doom to him. Satan did not underestimate his adversary; he has repeatedly done all he can to seal his control over the world forever. To maintain his control, Satan had to cause man to love him and slander his Creator to the point that they hate or ignore Him, and then get man to lust after himself and his fallen angels so his kingdom could openly manifest on the Earth.
[1] The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature (http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section4/tr4051.htm)
[2] Amar Annus, The God Ninurta in the Mythology and Royal Ideology of Ancient Mesopotamia, State Archives of Assyria Studies, Volume XIV Helsinki 2002. Pg. 183
[3] Being like God is a good thing: we shall be in His likeness (Psalm 17:15), “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4) “we shall be like Him,” (1 John 3:2) You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy, (Lev 19:2, see also Lev 11:44-45; 20:7, 26; 1Pet 1:16). Disobeying God was bad.
[4] God created them with capacity to love but could not force them. Love must be freely chosen to be authentic. Likewise, He could create them with the ability to choose but could not force them. Choice, by definition, must be self-determined.
[5] In order to choose, there must be a real, authentic negative option, thus “evil.” God said they could freely eat from any tree in the garden. Yet Adam eating from merely choosing to eat from an apple tree versus a pear tree would not constitute a self-governing choice because those trees had God’s blessing. Adam needed a real negative option that he would choose to NOT take. Thus, to eat or NOT to eat from the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil provided them the opportunity of self-determination, of self-governance; to choose – freely, without any compulsion on God’s part.
[8] This word rekhulatkha, (translated as “trading”) has caused confusion about Satan’s history. A popular theory, is the Gap theory which asserts Satan was in charge of an unrecorded, pre-Adamic empire eons ago found in the gap between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2. Advocates suggest verse two be translated “And the earth became formless and void…” According to Hebrew Grammar, “ve’ha’aretz hayta” indicates a parenthetical statement due to the word “and” followed by the subject followed by the verb, which is not the standard biblical Hebrew order. Hebrew והארץ היתה vehaaretz hayta is known grammatically as a copulative clause. (See Kautszch and Cowley 1910:484) The vav (or waw) attached to the noun (the earth) acts as a type of parenthetical statement (See: Joüon, PG., & T. Muraoka 2005) thus: “… God created…the earth. (Now the earth was without form, and void.)” Earth in Gen 1:1 included all unorganized raw material God had created in no particular shape or form: “The earth was without form, and void (תהו ובהו tohu vavohu)” (Gen 1:2a) These words do not suggest that the earth was a wasteland waiting to be recreated. According to TWOT tohu vavohu, “Refers not to the result of a supposed catastrophe…but to the formlessness of the earth before God’s creative hand began the majestic acts.” (TWOT Tohu, See also: Fields 1978:58).
[12] Ibid. See also Thayer’s: διαβάλλω: 1. to throw over or across, to send over; 2. to traduce, calumniate, slander, accuse, defame. BDAG διάβολος, to engagement in slander, slanderous, one who engages in slander
[13] Robert Luginbill, The Satanic Rebellion: Background to the Tribulation, Part 1: Satan’s Rebellion and Fall. http://ichthys.com offers the following translation: “In your extensive conspiring, you were filled with wickedness, and you sinned.” (Ezek 28:16)
In Acts 7:43, Steven recounted Israel’s history (drawing from Amos 5): “You also took along the tabernacle of Moloch and the star of the god Rompha, the images which you made to worship”(Acts 7:43 NASB). Due to a scribal error in the letters, the Hebrew k, כ [kaph], was replaced by the Hebrew r, ר [resh], and in Greek, ph (φ) substituted for v. [i] Thus the Hebrew Chuin or Kewan, was rendered in the Septuagint, as Ῥαιφάν [Raiphan]. To be clear, there was no ancient god known as Remphan. It is the result of a scribe misreading some letters that are easy to confuse, and out came the fictitious Remphan.
Unfortunately, the star of Israel’s false god to whom Stephen and Amos referred, has been erroneously associated with the six-pointed Magen David (Star of David). However, the pagan star in question is NOT the Magen David. Rather, it was the Star of Ninurta, which has eight points, as we have seen, not six points.
Sikkuth, of course, sounds nothing like Ninurta; so, why does it represent Ninurta? The name Sukuth was a Hebraized form of the Babylonian Shukudu (“the Arrow”), a name of Sirius,[ii] the brightest star in the night sky. It was associated with the god Ninurta.[iii] Thus, the star was associated with Sirius and Saturn, and had nothing to do with the Magen
Ninurta with 8-pointed star-bow-ancient.eu/image/6317/cylinder-seal-with-Ninurta
David. Amar Annus notes the following about arrow epithets used for Ninurta:
The arrow (šukudu) … is astronomically Ninurta’s star Sirius (see CAD s.v.), and the Arrow might be a metaphor for Ninurta himself … The terrible arrow of Marduk is compared to a merciless lion … šiltahu 5.[iv]
Ninurta is the Arrow (= Sirius), the great warrior, who slit the throats of the enemies of Assurbanipal with his pointed arrowhead
Ninurta himself is an ‘arrow’.
“Ninurta’s identity with the star is explicit in a šu-ila prayer which begins with the words atta Kaksisa Ninurta ašared ili rabûti “you are Sirius, (that is) Ninurta, the first among the great gods” (Mayer 1990: 467ff).” [v]
In other words, Ninurta is known as the Arrow, and the Arrow, in an astronomical setting, is the star Sirius. The imagery of gods as stars reminds us of the language of Revelation in which angels are frequently symbolized as stars. In John’s vision of Revelation, Jesus has seven stars in his right hand. Jesus reveals the mystery: “The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches” (Rev 1:20). Thus, there are seven stars or seven angels (messengers) to God’s redeemed people. It is interesting that another word for “arrow” (mulmullu, Sumerian mul.mul) is related to the Pleiades. Amar Annus explains that:
The Pleiades were thought to bring war and destruction – “the warlike gods, who carry bow and arrow, whose rising means war.” It is worth noting that the month of Ningirsu in Astrolabe B, Iyyar, is also referred to as “the month of the Pleiades, the Seven Great Gods”.[vi]
[i] 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, Volume 23: Variations include as Ῥομφά, Ῥεμφάν, Ῥεμφάμ, Ῥαιφάν, Ῥεφάν [Rompha, Remphan, Rempham, Remphan]
[ii] “The arrow (šukudu) mentioned by Tiglath-pileser I is astronomically Ninurta’s star Sirius (see CAD s.v.), and the Arrow might be a metaphor for Ninurta himself. In SAA Anzu III 10-11, both the same word for ‘arrow’”… Amar Annus, The God Ninurta in the Mythology and Royal Ideology of Ancient Mesopotamia, State Archives of Assyria Studies, Volume XIV Helsinki 2002. Pg. 102
[iv] Amar Annus, The God Ninurta in the Mythology and Royal Ideology of Ancient Mesopotamia, State Archives of Assyria Studies, Volume XIV Helsinki 2002. Pg. 104
[vi] Amar Annus, The God Ninurta in the Mythology and Royal Ideology of Ancient Mesopotamia, State Archives of Assyria Studies, Volume XIV Helsinki 2002. Pg. 104
Satan the Anointed Protective Cherub Chapter 3 of Corrupting the Image 2
Son of man, take up a lamentation for the king of Tyre, and say to him, “Thus says the Lord GOD: You were the seal of perfection, Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty” (Ezek 28:12).
In chapter one, we discovered that the king of Tyre was not a reference to a human king, but to Melqart / Heracles, one of the many syncretisms of Satan. Because the passage is about Satan, what God has to say about the anointed cherub is all the more significant. In just six Hebrew words, Satan was revealed to be the “seal of perfection, Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.”
Seal of Perfection [חוֹתֵ֣ם תָּכְנִ֔ית]: God described him as being the seal of measurement / proportion. A seal, chotem [חוֹתֵ֣ם], was the hot wax applied to the outside of a scroll to make sure that it stayed closed. It was the finishing touch applied to the completed work that was perfect and needed no changes.
This description, coupled with the word measurement / proportion [תכנית tochnit], means Satan was the absolute greatest of God’s creatures. His proportions were pristine, sublime and impeccable. His form was exquisite in every capacity. He was the meter stick against which others would be measured. He was the gold standard by which all others would be judged; the measure of the appearance of perfection, second only to God himself. It is hard to imagine what this truly means in real terms. But he was absolutely it: the seal of perfection.
Full of Wisdom [מָלֵ֥א חָכְמָ֖ה]: God also created Satan completely full of wisdom [maleh chochma מלא חכמה]. Satan was not lacking in any area of understanding. If he were a cup, God filled him to the very brim and could not fill him anymore. As a result, Satan perfectly understood the workings of God’s creation. He understood the laws governing the Earth, the stars and life itself. He understood the process of photosynthesis, cellular biology, quantum physics and the science beyond our grasp. He had no need to learn, for he already possessed the knowledge of all the systems God had created.
Yet there is an infinite distinction between God and Satan. While God gave him perfect wisdom, Satan has always lacked a complete perspective because he does not know the future. Like a good chess player, he can make incredibly good predictions and can model the future with great accuracy just as humans can model the trajectory of rockets and get to the moon. Still, he can never know all variables which might come into play. God is the only one who knows the future, which means Satan must learn the future as it unfolds before him.
I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me,declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose (Isa 46:9-10).
Perfect in Beauty [וּכְלִ֥יל יֹֽפִי]: Lastly, God created him “perfect in beauty” [kalilyofi כליל יפי]. The Hebrew kalal means “entire, full, all.”[i] Thus, Satan was lacking nothing in his appearance. He was 100% in the beauty department. We must not overlook the weight of this statement: Perfect in beauty. God’s beauty is overwhelming. “Your eyes will see the King in His beauty; They will see the land that is very far off” (Isa 33:17). King David pined, “One thing I have desired of the LORD … To behold the beauty of the LORD, And to inquire in His temple” (Ps 27:4). Satan’s beauty was like the beauty of his Creator and exceeded the beauty of all other created beings.
In those mere six Hebrew words, we learned: Satan was the measure and the standard of perfect form; He was completely full of wisdom and lacked none; and he was absolutely complete and possessed the entirety of beauty. God withheld no aesthetic quality when He created him;[ii] He endowed Satan with phenomenal and outstanding beauty that equaled Him in splendor. These descriptions give us insight into why Satan thought he was on equal footing with his Maker. He was like God, or at least he thought so. These qualities would eventually spark his rebellion and will lead to the creation of the Beast.
“You were the anointed cherub who covers; I established you; You were on the holy mountain of God; You walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones” (Ezek 28:14).
Satan belonged to a special class of beings known as the cherubim. The Akkadian cognate verb of cherub means “to bless, praise, adore. As one of the characteristics of the cherubim was adoration of God, this derivation would appear suitable.”[iii] Thus, a significant role Satan played was to bless, praise, and adore God, and this is precisely what the cherubim do “day or night, saying: ‘Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, Who was and is and is to come!’” (Rev 4:8).
Judging from his vesture, Satan had the role of high priest. He was covered with an array of precious stones, inlaid in sockets of gold and silver. The King James translation tells us he was covered in [tupekha תפיך] and [nekbekha נקביך], meaning timbrels and pipes which gives us the misleading impression that Satan was the worship leader in heaven. I remember when I was a kid, I heard that in a sermon from a Baptist minister, who of course was using the King James Version. I like the King James, but there are better translations for these two words. Regardless of Satan’s musical abilities, these two words more accurately suggest mountings and sockets for the stones he wore—an idea more properly conveyed in the ESV, NET and other more modern translations.
According to Brown Driver Briggs Hebrew Lexicon (BDB), nekbecha [נקב] “1. groove, socket, hole, cavity, settings. a. technical term relating to jeweller’s work. – Origin: a bezel (for a gem).” It is a receptacle in which you would set something. Interestingly, the same word Nekeva, means “female,” which could relate to something like a female-fitting connector which holds something else.
Though the Masoretic text is a reliable and foundational text, the variant reading of the Septuagint may supply us with crucial details regarding the stones covering Satan and the function they served. In the following Table 3, we compare the Septuagint of Ezekiel 28 with Exodus 28, and we have a match. We infer that Satan’s stones were in a breastplate like that of Israel’s high priest. It must also be noted that the stones are nearly the same as the stones of the foundations of the New Jerusalem; though, the meaning of some of the words is uncertain which causes the translations to drift a little.[iv] If the reading of the Septuagint is correct (twelve stones instead of nine), then we can be fairly confident that Satan’s covering stones were in fact a breastplate, and he served the function of priest in some capacity.
Table Comparison of the Stones in Ezek 28 Septuagint and Hebrew Text
New Engl. Transl. (Exod 28:17–20) Priest’s Ephod
Septuagint (Ezek 28:13 LXXE) Stones covering Satan
Rev 21 twelve gates & stones
First Row
Ruby (sardius NKJV), a topaz, and a beryl (emerald NKJV)
sardius1, and topaz2, and emerald3
Match
jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate
Second Row
a turquoise, a sapphire, and an emerald;
carbuncle4, and sapphire5, and jasper6, and silver, and gold [metals not stones – see 4th row]
Match
the fourth emerald, the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian
Third Row
and the third row, a jacinth, an agate, and an amethyst;
and ligure (beryl?)7, and agate8, and amethyst9
Match
the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz
Fourth Row
a chrysolite, an onyx, and a jasper. enclosed in gold
and chrysolite10, and beryl11, and onyx12…
Match
the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst
The presence of twelve stones in his breastplate makes more sense when we consider that God, in his perfection and authority, established the twelve tribes of Israel and the twelve apostles. There are twelve months in a year, twelve stars in the ancient zodiac as recorded in the book of Job, twelve hours of the day, and twelve hours of the night from Egyptian and Sumerian history. The New Jerusalem, the mountain of God, has twelve gates and twelve foundations which may have been what the twelve stones on Satan’s breastplate represented. There is a clear indication of divine perfection in Satan’s twelve-stoned emblem of authority.
When we contemplate which priestly office Satan may have held, we remember that there was no sin and hence, no need for blood sacrifices. Certainly, officiating sacrifices was one of the major duties of an earthly priest, though it was by no means the only duty. Their other roles were to make pronouncements on behalf of God, to instruct people in his ways (2 Chr 17:3–9; Neh 8:2–3), and to sing praise to God (2 Chr 29:30). Our theory that Satan performed priestly duties is substantiated by the fact he was called “the anointed cherub [keruvmimshakh כְּר֔וּב מִמְשַׁ֖ח] who covers” (Ezek 28:14).
The word anointed is of course the same as mashiach (messiah), which refers to pouring oil on someone’s head, which in turn meant the person had been chosen for leadership.[v] When Samuel anointed (mashakh) Saul by pouring oil on his head, it signified how a formerly regular guy was given a special purpose. In the case of Saul, it meant: you are going to be God’s appointed leader, the visible leader for the people; you are going to now be the one to whom the people will look for leadership. The same was true for David.
Therefore, Satan’s role as priest was to serve as the leader to communicate God’s instructions, directives and will to others. Just as priests taught and interpreted God’s commands, Satan likely would have been tasked with those priestly responsibilities.
Satan was “in Eden, the garden of God” (Ezek 28:13). [גן עדן Gan Eden], the Garden of Eden, means an enclosed, protected area (gan[vi]) of pleasure (Eden). It was necessarily a sacred space, for after Adam and Eve sinned, “the LORD God sent him out of the garden of Eden” (Gen 3:23).
Satan was charged with overseeing the sacred place: You defiled your sanctuaries” (Ezek 28:18). The word “your sanctuaries” [mikdesheikha מִקְדָּשֶׁ֑יךָ] is from the root: qoph, daleth, shin: the same as kadosh, which is what the seraphim (possibly cherubim) chant day and night before the throne of God. It is the same word that is used of the temple. TWOT explains:
Miqdāsh denotes that which has been devoted to the sphere of the sacred. When it refers to the sanctuary, it connotes the physical area devoted to the worship of God. This area was sacred because it was the place where God dwelled among the people (Ex 25:8) and its sanctity was not to be profaned (Lev 12:4; 19:30; 20:3; 21:12, 23). The word Miqdāsh may refer to the abode of God in Ps 68:35 [H 36], but some commentators see this as the temple in Jerusalem. Metaphorically the word is used to refer to a place of refuge (Isa 8:14).[vii]
It was in this enclosed, protected, sacred place which Satan was charged with protecting, that the conflict occurred. (See Appendix 2 Angel Freewill).
So far, we see that Satan’s job and official charge was to be an “anointed protective / guardian cherub” stationed in the Garden of Eden. What caused him to rebel?
When a murder victim is found, one of the big questions is to determine motive. What drove the murderer to do what he did? What was Satan’s motive? Satan was endowed with the gift of unparalleled beauty and wisdom. To understand why Satan staged a coup and was willing to throw away his exalted position and rebel against his Maker, we need to go recreate the scene[viii] of the crime and see if we can spot the motive.
To set our stage, we need to consider a few parameters. Just before God created Adam, it says in Genesis: And God saw that it was good” (Gen 1:25). After the creation of Adam, we read: “Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good” (Gen 1:31). Thus, on both sides of the creation of Adam, the coast was clear, nothing wicked was on the horizon. It was an “all systems go.”
We might do well to employ the principle of Occam’s razor which posits that if the simplest explanation works, we should use it rather than looking for a more complex one. Therefore, if the text says that God saw everything He had made, and if nothing is hidden from God(Prov 15:3; Jer 16:17; Luke 8:17), then it stands to reason that all things in all of creation which were “framed by the word of God … which are seen … not made of things which are visible,” (Heb 11:3) were also “very good”.
The “very good” stamp, then, was also affixed to the angelic host, including Satan. Therefore, the preflight checklist came back “very good”. With this in mind, let us recreate the scene of the crime.
God created Satan as the greatest of all his creatures—surpassing every other in beauty and wisdom. God held nothing back. God anointed him, that is, He called him to be a leader, God’s principle agent. He was second only to God, just as Joseph was given authority to be ruler of all Egypt and was second only to Pharaoh.
“You shall be over my house, and all my people shall be ruled according to your word; only in regard to the throne will I be greater than you” (Gen 41:40).
Thus, God established Satan as his anointed, his special agent, his viceroy and prime minister, authorized to do his bidding, to speak on his behalf, and to “sign God’s checks.” Satan was steward of all God’s house. When Satan spoke, it was as if it was God Himself, just as Joseph spoke and acted on Pharaoh’s behalf with absolute authority.
Joseph’s eminence would not have threatened or lessened the power, authority and right of Pharaoh’s heir to the throne. Even if Joseph would have had an exceptionally lengthy career before Pharaoh’s heir took the throne, Joseph’s position would have remained the same. In the same manner, Satan could be Prime Minister and God’s son, Jesus, would still hold the special place as the true heir of God’s throne.
Satan was never given God’s throne; rather, he was authorized to act, speak and decree on God’s behalf, just as Joseph acted, spoke and decreed on Pharaoh’s behalf. Joseph was well pleased to occupy the position endowed him and never thought of overthrowing Pharaoh. He recognized that his great power, exalted position and absolute authority were granted to him by Pharaoh; he could never occupy the throne of Pharaoh for he was not Pharaoh, nor would he ever be the son of Pharaoh.
God’s modus operandi is to enable and empower his creatures. He could do everything by Himself if He desired. He does not need us. It is like when you put together a shelf from IKEA and your little ones say, “Daddy, can we help?” You do not really need their help and chances are, they might make the whole process longer, but it is more enjoyable with them. This seems to be why He created us.
In Daniel 4, King Nebuchadnezzar was informed through a dream that he would be judged for his arrogance. The message is not from God directly, but by “decree of the watchers” (Dan 4:17). God empowered the angels or watchers to make decisions on his behalf. They were not and are not merely loudspeakers relaying God’s dictations, though they may do so on occasion. Rather, they are intelligent, reasoning creatures whom God allows to act autonomously and independently of Him.
Satan was a member of an ancient guardian class; and being of highest rank, he was the highest of the highest, outranked only by God Himself. He had authority to act as God’s viceroy. With the wisdom to know that God was and is the most powerful, why did he throw it all away? He had been given everything, why spoil it?
God gives us the answer: “Your heart was proud because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom on account of your splendor” (Ezek 28:17 NET).
It was Satan who corrupted his own wisdom: he was the active agent. Nothing happened to him; he was not passive in the transformation. He was the one who caused the decay of his endowment of wisdom due to his arrogant confidence in his own beauty. This means that he made a conscious choice. He was not preprogrammed to be bad or to fall from God’s grace. He mindfully chose to stage a coup against his Creator and rightful King. Why?
The bottom line is that Satan did not want to serve others: He wanted everybody to serve him. He looked at himself in the mirror and said, “Whoa, good-looking. Where did you come from?” He looked at his SAT and GRE scores and was like, “Wow, 100%. What do you know? I really am all that.” He looked at his resume: “First in charge of God’s kingdom. Wow. I deserve of all this stuff. And you know what? Creation should bow down to me. Creation should serve me because look at all that I have. Look at all that I am.” It would be easy to come to that conclusion because of his splendor and beauty.
However, it was not an outside force acting upon him that corrupted him. We read: you corrupted your wisdom, because of your beauty. He chose to corrupt what he knew to be true because he was looking at himself. Being full of wisdom, he must have heard his own voice say, “Who gave you these things? Wasn’t it God, the Creator of heaven and Earth who made you, who spoke you into existence? Will He not forever be a million billion trillion times greater than you? Even infinitely greater than you? Even though He gave you all this amazing stuff, you are still nothing compared to God, compared to the Creator. How can you possibly boast?”
In reality, Satan had no reason to be proud. Sure, he possessed unimaginable beauty. On a scale of ten, he was a ten. We get the impression that he may have equaled God in beauty. He also possessed unparalleled wisdom. He was full, which meant that he lacked nothing. It seems impossible that he could be as wise as God, yet the text says that he was full (not lacking) in wisdom. Thus, when he compared himself with God in terms of beauty, he equaled God. When he compared himself with God in terms of wisdom, he apparently thought he equaled God, as well. When he noted his authority, he acted as if he were God. It is not hard to understand how he could reach the conclusion that he was not just an agent empowered by God, but was also worthy to be praised and revered as God and in place of God.
Ironically, he proved himself to be nothing like God; looking like God on the outside is no big deal … He created him as such. To truly be like God, he needed to choose to act like Him. We too must choose to lay down our lives, our self-interests and to be servants to one another. We must learn to act with love, which is sacrificial service toward one another. (See Appendix 7 Leaven).
“If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you” (John 13:14–15).
The path to truly being like God required Satan and the other angels to sacrificially serve others, especially those lower than themselves; This feat is perfectly demonstrated by Jesus going to the cross. Satan was unwilling to do this. Satan boasted in the attributes he shared with God, but the one that he was required to demonstrate himself, which was to sacrificially love and serve; he refused. He set the example that rulers of the nations would later practice, as Jesus said: “The rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them” (Matt 20:25).
Satan refused to be a servant to those lesser than himself. Serving the one up the chain of command and submitting to one stronger than yourself is expected, required and merits nothing special. In contrast, God requires us to lay down our lives and become the servant of all. Whom could Satan have served? For starters, certainly every other angel was lesser than him in rank, beauty and wisdom. If Satan had within his character the attribute of servant-leadership, he could have served them, and of course, Adam.
Let us imagine the Garden of Pleasure: the light of the sun pokes through the majestic canopy of trees, home to animals of every sort. The rich scent of oranges, passion fruit, peaches and fresh flowers permeate the untainted air. The garden is painted with vibrant colors. Hummingbirds flit from tree to tree drinking in the sweet nectar. A lovely glow emanates from every living thing.
God lovingly fashions a form from the adamáh (soil) with his powerful hands and tenderly bends over and breathes his Spirit into the nostrils of the dirt creature (Gen 2:7, John 20:22). “Adam!” God calls him. He has a reddish hue like the adamáh[ix] out of which he had been taken. After absorbing the light from God, Adam emitted a strong whitish glow. Not only does Adam share in God’s image and likeness, but God has actually breathed his own life-force into him!
Satan was the anointed protective / guardian cherub stationed in Eden to watch over Adam, the son of God (Luke 3:38) who also had God’s seed (DNA / information, 1 John 3:9). Satan was the exalted, standard of perfection chief steward, but Adam was the heir of God’s creation (not throne). God gave Adam “dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves on the earth,” (Gen 1:28). The Psalmist explains how man is the heir in a wonderful way:
For You have made him a little lower than the angels, And You have crowned him with glory and honor. You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet (Ps 8:5–6).
Satan calculated that if he killed the heir, the world would be his, just as Jesus described in a parable about the evil vinedressers: “But those vinedressers said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours’” (Mark 12:7). If Adam, the heir, died then he as the chief steward would be the heir. Abram said that very thing to God when he had no genetic heir:
But Abram said, “Lord GOD, what will You give me, seeing I go childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” (Gen 15:2) Then Abram said, “Look, You have given me no offspring; indeed one born in my house is my heir!” (Gen 15:3)
If Pharaoh had a son, it did not affect Joseph the prime minister. The throne always belonged to Pharaoh and his son, completely apart from the role of the prime minister. When God gave dominion of his creation to Adam, it did not reduce Satan’s role, responsibilities or prestige in the least. Yet, Satan could not bring himself to serve someone lesser in rank and lesser in nature.
He likely understood the Earth and all its fullness will forever technically belong to God,”[x] but legally, he would be Lord of the Earth since Adam could not regain dominion due to death. Hence, Satan would adversely take possession of the Earth and would remain the ruler of the world indefinitely.[xi] He would rule through the “the power of death” (Heb 2:14).
Ironically, the one who held the greatest position, who was a seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty, was not willing to truly be like God. He thought he was like God, because he had the externals, but these externals were gifts from God. He chose not to be like God when he refused to humble himself and love.
What does love really look like? Is love just giving a bouquet of flowers? Is love taking that special romantic interest out to dinner? Maybe. But really not. Those romantic gestures are easy; Anybody can do that. Love, real love, is sacrificial service to one another. This kind of servanthood is not in the sense that you are taken as a slave and now you serve your master; rather, it is where you voluntarily lay down your rights, priorities, options and prerogatives to sacrificially serve another person.
Satan deviated from God’s characteristic of being a servant, which is the expression of love. For the sake of his beauty, Satan corrupted his wisdom despite knowing that “whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Matt 18:4). He rejected what he knew to be true about God so that he could put forth his own agenda: that all would serve him. We can translate all these actions into one word: Self. Satan’s kingdom is about self, about pride.
As the greatest, most sublime of God’s creatures, full of wisdom, he knew that to be great required him to serve. Adam and Eve were the test God put in Satan’s path to grant him the opportunity to be a servant so he could keep his office of prime minister.
Satan, as God’s chief steward, was tested for faithfulness as Paul wrote: “Moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful” (1 Cor 4:2).His test for greatness was simple, as Jesus eloquently put it, “whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave” (Matt 20:27).
Joseph was tested for thirteen years before he was raised up as the second most powerful man in Egypt. Unlike Joseph the faithful steward, Satan refused to serve and lusted for the throne, as well:
“How you are fallen from heaven, O Heilel [Hêlēl הֵילֵ֣ל], son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, You who weakened the nations! For you have said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation On the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High’” (Isa 14:12–14).
By seeking God’s throne, Satan by necessity, shifted his focus from serving God and serving others (lesser than himself), to serving himself. He claimed to be equal with God, something no creature can ever claim against his Creator. And unlike Abram’s faithful steward, Eliezer of Damascus, who was going to inherit all things until Isaac came along, Satan calculated he could arrange for Adam, the heir, to have a little “accident” and die before fully taking possession of his inheritance.
Satan’s scheme would leave Adam and humanity without an inheritance until Jesus later came in the form of a servant (Phil 2:7) as the last Adam (I Cor 15:45), and would reconcile the sons of Adam with God (Col 1:22). He would demonstrate how he was committed[xii] to serve ones lesser than himself to regain the inheritance Adam had lost (John 3:16; 15:13).
Hence, we have a motive to our crime scene: Satan would destroy mankind before he would bow in service to a man made of dust; he refused to be a servant to others. His post as the chief ministering spirit was to serve those who needed to inherit salvation. When God created Adam and Eve, they were innocent and were not dying, but neither did they have complete immortality yet as they were not immune to sin. In other words, they could have lived a long time in their innocent state, but at some point, they presumably would have had the opportunity and need to eat from the tree of life in order to seal them as immortals. Satan understood their situation very well and saw an opportunity to stage the ultimate coup and overturn God’s kingdom of sacrificial love, and thereby ensure that his own greatness could be recognized and adored. Once he crossed this threshold, he could never go back. Ever. There is no room for the exaltation of self in God’s kingdom. With raging malice in his heart, he set out to defile the sanctuary with his deadly weapon: slander.
[i] TWOT 985 כָלַל (kālal) I, perfect, make perfect. (ASV, RSV similar.)
[iii] TWOT: Cherub. See also http://www.assyrianlanguages.org/akkadian/ to bless; to praise; to dedicate (an offering), to thank, to congratulate; cherub.
[iv] ISBE “Precious Stones” That the Hebrew texts used for the Septuagint, Vulgate (Jerome’s Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) and English Versions of the Bible were not identical in all the verses in which there is mention of precious stones is especially clear from an analysis of the respective descriptions of the ornaments of the king of Tyre (Eze 28:13). In the Septuagint, 12 stones are mentioned; as already stated, they have precisely the same names and are mentioned in precisely the same order as the stones of the breastplate described in that version, the only difference being that gold and silver are inserted in the middle of the list. On the other hand, in Vulgate (Jerome’s Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) and English Versions of the Bible descriptions of the ornaments, only 9 of the 12 stones of the breastplate are mentioned; they are not in the same order as the corresponding stones in the breastplate as described in those VSS, silver is not mentioned at all, while gold is placed, not in the middle, but at the end of the list.
[v] “To anoint an individual or an object indicated an authorized separation for God’s service. Moses anointed Aaron “to sanctify him” (lĕqaddĕshô, Lev 8:12; cf. Ex 29:36 for the altar). Note the expression “anointed to the Lord” (I ). māshaḥ, while representing a position of honor, also represents increased responsibility… though the agent might be the priest or prophet, writers speak of anointed ones as those whom the Lord anointed (e.g. I Sam 10:1; II Sam 12:7). Such language underscores that it is God who is the authorizing agent; that the anointed is inviolable (I Sam 24:8ff.); and that the anointed one is to be held in special regard (cf. I Sam 26:9ff.)…one may infer that divine enablement was understood as accompanying māshaḥ. TWOT
[vi] [גָּנַן] (gānan) defend. (ASV and RSV also render “put a shield about,” and “protect.” גַּן (gan) enclosure, garden. גַּנָּה (gannâ) garden.מָגֵן (māgēn) shield. TWOT Harris, Laird R.; Archer, Gleason L.; Waltke, Bruce K.; Moody Publishers, Chicago: 1980. Entry 1580
[viii] When Satan fell is a question often influenced by a person’s view of the creation event itself. This chapter is intended to provide a simple explanation based on all of the biblical and relevant creation science available not to advocate for the Gap Theory, Old Earth Creation or Young Earth Creation view.
[ix] TWOT ădāmâ: describes the connection between soil and Adam: “ădāmâ. Ground, land, planet. Originally this word signified the red arable soil”.
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