Lesson 22 The Dragon

                                            The Dragon

                 Revelation 12:3-4, 9-17; Isaiah 14:12-14; Ezekiel 28:12-19

Who is the Dragon? The first mention of the Dragon in the book of Revelation is in Revelation 12, when John is shown the great sign in the heavens of the great fiery Dragon. In the sign, the Dragon has seven heads, and ten horns, and seven crowns on his heads (v3).

No explanation is given as to the heads with the crowns, nor of the ten horns, but concerning the Dragon, he is identified as “that old serpent, called the Devil and Satan” in verse 9.  As we have covered the heads and the crowns and horns in our lessons from the book of Daniel and Revelation 12, here we will look at the identity of the one referred to as “the Dragon.”

The apostle John had been with Jesus throughout  His earthly ministry. He had been taught and given understanding of the Scriptures by Jesus Himself. John would have understood that Satan was not always a dragon or a serpent.  He would have clearly known that Satan was of a special order of created beings called “cherubim,” an angelic creation of spirit beings created for the purpose of being ministers in the affairs of God’s government over His earthly realm (Ps.104:4). God called His ministers “angels,” meaning “messengers.”

The prophet Isaiah tells us that one of God’s angel ministers conceived in his heart a desire to have God’s creation for himself, under his power of rule. He was of the order of “cherubim” and Isaiah 14 tells us his name was Lucifer (“the shining one”). In the enmity of his mind against God and His purposes, Lucifer made himself the adversary of God and therefore he is called Satan, which means “Adversary.”

Satan purposed to build a city with a system of politics, economics and religion powerful enough to overthrow God’s earthly rulers of mankind, godly men who ruled as God’s representatives. As Satan is a spirit being and does not have a corporeal body, he would need men in bodies of human flesh, whom he could mentor as his representative rulers, to take the jurisdiction over man on the earth.

In the mind of the Adversary, true representatives of God, mediating God’s power and authority on earth, must be replaced with Satan’s false rulers working with him to take over the world of mankind and God’s earth. Politics would rule, and economics would be the driving force, and religion the opiate of the people. The political, economic, religious system would work together, each part making use of the other.

On the fourth day of creation the sons of God, bene ha elohim, His angelic ministers, watched as God put His light-holders, the luminaries, in the heavens to declare the glory of God in “The Heavenly Revelation of the Son of God’s Covenant” (Gen.1:14-19; Job 38:2-7;  9:6-9; 38:31-33; Ps.19:1-6; 97:6; Amos 5:8). God’s purpose of His Covenant being to make man in His image, after His likeness (Gen.1:26).

To show how this would be accomplished, God set twelve signs in order in the heavenly constellations. Each sign was given three constellations of decans. All the work of the Covenant is seen in figures of the true Son of the Covenant and revealed there. “The Heavenly Revelation of the Son of the Eternal Covenant” is the light of the knowledge of the glory of God as seen in the face of the Anointed Son of the Covenant. To serve the Adversary’s purpose, the light of the knowledge of the glory of God must be darkened. The truth of the righteousness of God through faith in the coming Son of God must be suppressed, that man would not hear the truth that they might obey the truth to become a born son of God (see 2 Cor.4:4).

Man himself is spirit being and, therefore, designed for worship. True worship of the Son, whose glory is seen in “The Heavenly Revelation,” must be suppressed, but, as man is designed for worship, the truth must be replaced with a perversion, a false worship of “the Host of Heaven,” the stellar signs set by God Himself and named (see Deut.4:19; 17:3; 2 Ki.17:16; 21:5; 23:5; 2 Chron.33:3-5;  Ezek.8:5-16; Ac.7:43; Ps.147:4; Is.40:25-26; Amos 5:8). There in the heavens God made Himself known, that His mankind would come to know Him.

In “The Heavenly Revelation” are two figures of a serpent and one a dragon. Both serpents are decans of a sign and both figure the same reality. One is Hydra and the other Serpens.

Hydra is the first decan in the sign of Leo. Leo is a figure of “the Lion of the tribe of Judah,” Israel’s King-Priest who will come to rule forever over an everlasting Kingdom of sons of God (Ps.110:4; Lk.1:31-33; Heb.7:1-22; Rev.5:5-14). Hydra is an immense serpentine constellation extending alongside the first four signs - with the tail in Libra and extending alongside Libra, Virgo, and Leo, and having the head alongside Cancer.

In the twelfth and final sign Scorpio, the serpentine figure Hydra reappears as simply Serpens (“the serpent”). In Scorpio, Serpens is being restrained in the powerful hands of Ophiuchus (“the Serpent Holder”). In the sign Libra, the first sign, we have figured the Eternal Covenant which God made with Himself to have man in His image. God made His Covenant in eternity past, before He made a beginning of time (see Tit.1:2; 2 Tim.1:9-10).

Virgo is the sign of the prophesied Son of the Covenant born of a virgin (Is.7:14). This was the first prophecy of the Son given to Adam and Eve in the garden in the east of Eden (Gen.3:15). Here in the stellar heavens is figured something that will be all through time - from the beginning in the garden with the first man and woman through the final 1,000 years of the Kingdom Age.

What is figured?

The meaning of Hydra, “the  abhorred,” is very significant. What is it that God abhors? The enemy of man - the sin, which so easily besets man and which also makes man at enmity against God in his mind.

What is sin? It is lawlessness (1 Jn.3:4). It is man choosing to exercise his will over the will of his Creator-Redeemer.

The brightest star is in the heart of the serpent Hydra. Where is the sin? In the heart of mankind. An ancient Arabic name, Al Phard, means “the separated, the put away.” Another star is named Minchar al Sugia (“the piercing of the deceiver”).

How is it that the Anointed Son of God put sin away once for all? As the last Adam He took His first creation of mankind in the first Adam into death with Himself and buried him and raised him up to walk in newness of life. Through the spirit of life in Christ man has power to choose to not have his will over the will of his Creator-Redeemer (Rom.4:25-8:32).

In Christ the creation in Adam died to the sin. In Christ one is freed from serving his own will to serve himself. If one will reckon himself dead indeed unto the sin and alive unto God, he will not let the sin reign in his mortal body and will not obey the lust of the deceit of his own heart (Rom.6:11-12).

The other constellation of Serpens is the first decan in the sign of Scorpio. The serpent is held immobile in the powerful grasp of Ophiuchus, a figure of “the Strong Man” of “The Heavenly Revelation of the Covenant Son” (see Ps.19:1-6).

Through the 1,000 years of the Kingdom Age the lawlessness of having one’s will over the will of the King-Priest will be subdued (see Rev.12:5; 19:15; Dan.7:13-27). One may do so in his heart but if one acts out the lawlessness in public, one will be put to death (Is.65:20; 66:22-24). Deceit is not permitted in the Kingdom of righteousness and peace and justice. The Dragon will have been cast into the pit of the abyss (Rev.20:1-3). The word of God will cover the earth as waters cover the seas (Is.11:9; Hab.2:14).

At the end of the 1,000 years Satan will be loosed out of his prison. He will immediately gather together those who are at enmity against God in their mind. Deceived in the imagination of their own heart, the rebel enemies will go up to Jerusalem to overthrow the rule of the King of kings and Lord of lords. Fire will come down from heaven and devour them (Rev.20:7-15). God will then have a Kingdom in which each subject has been born from above a son of God. All will be in forever living bodies and the Kingdom will go into eternity an everlasting Kingdom.

The sign next to Scorpio is Sagittarius (“the Archer”).  The Dragon, Draco, is in the sign of Sagittarius. Sagittarius is figured as “a conqueror riding a horse.” We see that figured which is prophesied in Revelation 19:11-16. Here is the victorious King-Conqueror coming as the Judge.

The brightest star in the first decan of Sagittarius has a Hebrew name Thuben (“the subtle”). Some 4,620 years ago it was the Polar star. It is still a very important star in nautical reckonings, guiding the commerce of the seas.

The next brightest star is in the head and is called by the Hebrew name Rastaban, and means “the head of the subtle, deceiver.” In Arabic it is called Al Waid, which means “who is to be destroyed.” The next star, also in the head, is called Ethanin (“the long serpent, or dragon”).

In “The Heavenly Revelation” Serpens is represented as winding in his contortions around the pole of the world with his merchandising and his deceit enticing men who will have their manner of life in the lusts of the flesh and of the mind (see Eph.2:1-3).

No one has ever seen a dragon. From of old, down through the ages, we find the dragon described and depicted in legend and art among the nations, especially in Eastern cultures like China and Japan.

“In the Babylonian belief Tiamet, the power of darkness and chaos, is the opponent of light. Tiamet is represented as a gigantic dragon. In classical mythology a dragon is often a supernatural serpent. Inner Buddhism names its deity Sheitan. Buddhists did not allow the name to be pronounced because of dread. So the Dragon was worshiped under that form and name in Babylon and many lands.” (Biblical Cycl-, McClintock and Strong)

In Old Testament Scripture the “Dragon” is also known as “Leviathan” (“the twisted one”). “O Jehovah ... the earth is full of Your riches. So is this great and wide sea, wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts. There go the ships; there is that leviathan, whom You have made to play therein” (Ps.104:24-26; 74:12-14; Job 26:13; 41:1-34).

Two Old Testament passages give us insight into this Dragon. One is Isaiah 14 and the other is Ezekiel 28. In both passages we see the god of this age as the one behind the actual king in that past age to which the prophecies were addressed. The Dragon is the one who had the power and the authority in his created world system to put the king on the throne (see Mt.4:8-9; Lk.4:5-7; Eph.6:12).

The prophet Isaiah recorded the thoughts of Lucifer’s heart: “How are you fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How are you cut down to the ground, who did weaken 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 sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the 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, to the sides of the pit. They that see you shall narrowly look upon you, and shall consider you, saying, Is this the man who made the earth to tremble, who did shake kingdoms, who made the world like a wilderness, and destroyed its cities, who did not open the house of his prisoners?” (Is.14:12-17). Ezekiel’s prophecy also speaks of Lucifer being cast out of God’s kingdom above (Ezek.28:11-19).

So sure is the prophecy of the Lord given through Isaiah that it is given in the past tense as though it had already taken place. It has not yet taken place. When John saw the vision of Lucifer, the old serpent, called the Devil and Satan, being cast out of heaven in the form of a dragon, it was yet future, and still is (Rev.12:7-12). Also future is the Dragon being cast into the pit of the abyss after his world system is burned up, where he will spend the 1,000 years of the Kingdom Age, after which he will be loosed for a short season and then be cast into the lake of fire, where he forever be for all eternity (Rev.20:7-10).

Through the prophecies of Isaiah and Ezekiel we understand that Lucifer was warned as to the end of the desire of his heart if he proceeded to carry it out. Satan has purposed to begin fulfilling his desire by taking the kingdom of this earth and its inhabitants. Satan persuaded one-third of the angelic creation to follow him and to war for God’s creation of the earth and the flesh beings upon it (see Rev.12:3-4). Satan’s angels are called “demons” (see Mt.9:34; Lk.11:14-20; Jas.2:20).

“You have been in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone your covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold” (Ezek.28:13a). (1967 Scofield Study Bible, KJV)

“Eden” translates into English as “delight.” The place of delight in Ezekiel is not the geographical location on earth. This is not the garden that the Lord God planted eastward in Eden. In that garden there were trees of every kind and the two named trees in the middle of the garden - the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. There a river went out of Eden to water the garden. From the garden the river parted and became four heads. The rivers are named and the geographical location is given. Two of the rivers survived the Flood of Noah’s day, the third river, the Hiddekel, the ancient name for the Tigris, and the Euphrates (Gen.2:8-15).

The garden on earth is referred to as “a garden” (Gen.2:8), “the garden of Eden” (v15), and “the garden” in verses 1, 2, 3, 8, 23 and 24 of Genesis 3. It is not called “the garden of God” [Elohim]. The garden on earth was planted by the One with a more personal relationship with His creation of man. The garden planted eastward in Eden was planted by the Lord God, Jehovah Elohim. The name Jehovah relates Elohim, the Creator, to His Eternal Covenant.

The Eden (“delight”) in Ezekiel 28 is called “the garden of God” and it is on the holy mountain of God [Elohim]. In Scripture, “mountain” is a symbol for a “kingdom” (see Is.2:1-4; Dan.2:34-35, 44-45).  Elohim is the Creator of the angelic creation. They are His sons by right of creation (see Job 1:6; 2:1; 38:7). He has created an Eden, a garden of delight, in their habitation. The holy mountain is the seat of God’s government in heaven.

In His garden on His holy mountain God does not have trees. There is no earth to root trees and no river to water the garden. In God’s garden there are “stones of fire,” a mysterious thing. Nine stones are named, and gold, but no explanation is given. These are gem stones. Gem stones are beautiful and costly and precious. Gold is a setting for the stones.

The gem stones named remind us of the stones set in the breastplate of the high priest of the Aaronic order of the Levitical Law of the sacrifices and offerings (see Ex.28:15-21; 39:8-14). This gives us a clue to the stones of fire in the garden of God on His holy mountain.

In the economy of Israel, God’s representative government on earth, the twelve tribes of Israel were represented on a breastplate worn by the high priest of the Levitical order. The high priest himself represented God’s Son begotten from the dead as the King-Priest after the order of Melchizedek (Ps.110:4; Heb.6:11-22). Each tribe was represented on the breastplate by a precious stone. Each stone represented the begotten Son in His person and work of salvation. The key to understanding is in the colors of the stones, as well as in the prophetic blessings of Jacob given to his twelve sons on his deathbed and also in the Song of Moses and his blessings for the tribes (see Gen.49:1-33; Deut.33:1-29). The stones were set in gold, as “gold” signifies “the outshining of the glory of the Son of the Covenant.”

As the Lord is a God of order, we would expect the “stones of fire” to also represent “Messiah’s work of the Law of the Covenant.” Psalm 104 is our clue. Psalm 104 is a praise psalm to the God of creation. “Bless the Lord, O my soul. O Lord my God, You are very great; You are clothed with honor and majesty, who covers Yourself with light as a garment; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain; who lays the beams of His chambers in the waters; who makes the clouds His chariot; who walks upon the wings of the wind; who makes His angels spirits, His ministers a flaming fire” (vv1-4).

The angelic creation was brought forth before man was brought forth (Job 38:7). The angels were to minister to the heirs of salvation (Heb.1:14). They would be ministers of the Covenant Son in His work of building a Kingdom of sons of God. The designated gems, the stones of fire, would represent the Covenant Son in His person and work. Set in gold, the glory of the Son shines forth as declared in the stellar heavens.

Psalm 104 is a praise to the work of the Lord. Verse 31 declares, “The glory of the Lord shall endure forever; the Lord shall rejoice in His work,” and the psalm ends with, “Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth, and let the wicked be no more. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Praise the Lord” (v35).

It is interesting that it is in this psalm, Psalm 104, that the shipping trade is mentioned (v26), and as we have seen, it is in connection with leviathan. Back in Ezekiel 28 the Lord has Ezekiel taking up a funeral dirge concerning Lucifer. At that day of the prophecy of Ezekiel the king of Tyre is Satan’s man in the economy of his world system. And the Lord is about to destroy the king of Tyre and his glorious kingdom built through the merchandising of his shipping trade. Satan has been the mentor of the king of Tyre. The Lord intends, through the prophecy of Ezekiel, for Satan to see that his own funeral dirge is foreseen in the destruction of what he has built using the kings of Tyre. In the prophecy the Lord is speaking to Lucifer of his beginning in the holy mountain of God, his Creator.

The Lord continues, “The workmanship of your timbrels and of your flutes was prepared in you in the day that you were created.” “Timbrels” and “flutes” speak of “wind movement and music.” The angelic spirit beings, in their very movement, are musical, which is a means of expressing their joy and their praise in their Creator and His work.

“You are the anointed cherub that covers, and I have set you so,” the Lord reminded Lucifer, who has become the Deceiver and the Lord’s Adversary. “You were upon the holy mountain of God; you have walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire” (Ezek.28:14).

First the Lord spoke of every precious stone being the covering of the anointed cherub. The Hebrew for “covering” has the meaning of “a hedge,” “a closing in.” That is God controlling the bounds of life upon God’s holy mountain. The angelic creation were brought forth and hedged in to the ministry of the work of God’s Eternal Covenant to be worked out in time upon the earth. The precious stones “the boundaries” of the work, the angelic ministers were set to, was the work of the Covenant Son with whom they would minister and to whom they would minister. The work and the glory was declared in “The Heavenly Revelation of the Son of the Eternal Covenant” and seen in the stellar constellations.

And in the work, the angelic creation were not only covered, but were set to cover, Satan having been one of them in his creation. We have much the same meaning in the Hebrew word in verse 14 translated “that covers.” The basic meaning is to “fence in,” “to join together,” “to shut up.”

During the earthly ministry of the Covenant Son there would be times when the attending, unseen angelic protectors would be required to close in and join together and fence Jesus in that He might escape out of the hands of wicked men.

Upon the holy mountain of God formerly Satan had walked up and down among the stones of fire. He himself being one. “Walked up and down” is a metaphor for “conduct.” In his beginning Lucifer conducted himself among the stones of fire on the holy mountain of God as one of the ministering spirits of the Lord.

In chapter 15 of “The Revelation of Jesus Christ” as seen and written by the apostle John we have a most enlightening discovery. Seven angels came out of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven. They came out of the temple in heaven having the seven plagues, the seven golden bowls of God’s anger to be poured out on the earth to finish the judgment and be done with sin. The angels are described as being clothed. Angels are spirit beings and do not have corporeal bodies and therefore do not wear clothing. Our Bibles say they “were clothed in pure and white [shining] linen, and having their breasts girded with golden girdles” (Rev.15:6).

In the Greek language there is one letter difference in the word for “linen” and the word for “stone.” In Scripture, “pure white linen” is symbolic of the “righteousness of God one becomes through faith in God’s Anointed Son, who became sin for us.”

The angelic creation are sons of God by right of creation only. They have no destiny to become the righteousness of God. As they have no body, there is no redemption planned and no birth as a son of God in Jesus Christ.

In the Revelation of Jesus Christ the Holy Spirit intentionally chose the word “stone” as the “clothing” of the angels. The angels are covered in stone; pure white [shining] would be the “jasper” (see Rev.4:3). The angelic creation share the likeness of their Creator. Not hard gemstone, but “like” jasper, “clear.”

In heaven the angelic beings surround the throne of God (Rev.4:6-11; 5:11-14; Is.37:16). “Our God is a Consuming Fire” (Heb.12:29). Not fire as we know the destructive force, but One to consume and transmute into His likeness. “God is light” (1 Jn.1:5). He dwells in “the light which no man can approach unto” (1 Tim.6:16).

The angelic beings dwell in the light of the Consuming Fire. In the likeness of clear jasper, each one would be as a prism flashing forth the colors of the One who is light and whose person and work is represented as precious gems. Each angelic being as a stone of fire.

The angels carrying the bowls of anger were said to also have “their breasts girded with golden girdles” (Rev.15:6).  As the angels do not have bodies, again it is symbolic as being signified to John. In the breast is the heart. The “physical heart” becomes symbolic. We speak of “the heart” in metaphorical terms.

The heart of man is the inner man, the personal being with intellect to think, and emotions to desire and have feelings, and a will to choose whom one will serve - the righteousness of God or the sin. We are clothed in a tent of human flesh and blood. Man looks on the outward appearance. God looks on the heart - the inner man (1 Sam.16:7; Heb.4:13).

The angelic creation are all heart, so to speak. We might say, all personal being. They have a heart of gold. They are girded to carry out their ministry to the glory of God. All is for the glory of God. And God has set them so. God’s ministering spirits only mind the things of God and His work.

Lucifer, when he was perfect in his ways, walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire - as one of them. The Lord reminds him, “You were perfect in your ways from the day that you were created, till iniquity was found in you” (Ezek.28:15).

“Perfect” does not mean “absolute perfection.” It has the meaning of “blameless.” Lucifer was blameless until the iniquity of his heart was found in him. In the prophecy of Isaiah, the iniquity of Lucifer is seen as expressed in each “I will” said in his heart (Is.14:13-14).  Lucifer was not straight with the Lord God. In him was a twisted plan to have a city and take over God’s earthly realm through God’s creation of man and to have the kingdom for himself.

The Lord God gave freedom of choice concerning the will to two of His creations. First to His angelic creation, and then to mankind in bodies of human flesh. Each personal being of either of these creations had freedom to choose to obey and serve the lawlessness of the sin of serving self - or - of choosing to obey the truth of God and serve the righteousness of their Creator.

We have the record of the proving of man’s heart in Genesis chapter 3. We do not have a record of the proving of the angelic creation. In Revelation 12:3-4 we do have a record of the rebel cherub drawing one-third of the angelic creation to follow him in his plan that seemed to him so full of wisdom and a perfect beauty of a plan which surely he could seal and consummate it.

The cherub Lucifer, anointed as a minister of the Son of the Covenant, found other personal beings of the angelic creation who were anointed for the ministry they were set to by the Lord, who were willing to serve their own personal desires. They willingly and willfully chose to follow the rebel and also became adversaries of the Lord and His Anointed Son of the Covenant.

The angelic creation had “The Heavenly Revelation of the Son of the Eternal Covenant” signed in the heavens. The Lord had made clear to His angelic ministers the work He had set before them. Had they believed the truth shared with them? Would they willingly fulfill the office to which they were anointed? Each one would have understood it was a onetime decision. There would be no turning back. As already stated, no redemption has been provided for the angelic creation since they do not have bodies to be redeemed. Each personal being is spirit being, the life of spirit having been shared with each one in his creation.

If an angel decided to follow the Deceiver and Adversary, he would have been self-deceived also and he would have become an enemy against God in his mind. As self-deceived and self-serving and at enmity against God in his mind, that angel would no longer profit God in the work he was set to. A place must be prepared for these angels to spend eternity in the end.  A “lake of fire” was prepared for the Devil, the Deceiver, and his angels (Mt.25:41; Rev.20:10).

The Lord is just and righteous and fair. He would have warned those who were thinking to follow the Deceiver of the destruction in the end when the Lord had consummated His Covenant to have a Kingdom of sons of God, conformed to His image and sharing His likeness.

The Lord could permit Satan to build his world city in opposition to God’s Kingdom. Satan could build it on God’s earth. The city of politics and economics and religion would furnish God’s creation of man in human flesh an alternative to the truth of the Kingdom God is building, a Kingdom of born sons of God. Man is permitted his freedom of choice. Would he believe God and obey the truth to be born of the incorruptible Seed, the Word of God, who lives and abides forever - or - would he believe the lie? Would one in the flesh, born of Adam’s seed, be drawn away from the Lord God through his own desires of the flesh and of the mind and choose to walk according to the course of Satan’s world? (see Eph.2:1-3). Men must be warned that following the course of the prince of the power of the air ends in a lake of fire prepared for Satan and his angels (Rev.20:15). The end of that course is destruction.

Iniquity was found in the anointed cherub when he waited for Cain to rule over the sin of his own heart. When Cain went out from the presence of God, the Devil had found a man who would build his city (see Jn.8:44; 1 Jn.3:12). Cain went east of Eden and began building, and kept on building the system of a civilization of politics, economics and religion (Gen.4:16-17). The city is built through merchandising for power and wealth. We see this in the first city. In time, the ambitious Lamech was born. With his sons, Lamech built a family dynasty. As recorded in verses 19 through 24 of Genesis 4, the wealth and the power of the city were in one family. We can see who the politicians were at that time.

In Ezekiel’s lamentation, it is by the multiplied merchandising of Satan’s strategies that they of the city have filled the midst of the city with violence. In the context of Ezekiel’s prophecies against the kingdoms of the cities, recorded in chapters 25 through 32, we understand the lamentation upon the one behind the merchandising.

Through Ezekiel the Lord was prophesying of coming judgment on the nations of this world, with an eye to the final judgment of the world system. Beginning in chapter 26, the word of the Lord came to Ezekiel telling him to take up a lamentation against Tyre and Sidon, but principally Tyre. The city kingdom of Tyre was situated an island city of great beauty rising up like a mountain out of the sea of the beautiful blue waters of the Mediterranean.

Tyre had designs on having God’s city, Jerusalem. The Lord was sending Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, the king of kings from the north, to destroy Tyre and make it a desolate city (Ezek.26:7). The lamentation became a funeral dirge.

The lamentation continues in chapter 27 under the metaphor of an overloaded ship sunk by the east wind (Ezek.27:25-26). The east wind is the king of Babylon. Laden with all the wealth of the nations who traded with her resulted in Tyre’s great pride in her material wealth.

The ships of Tyre became vulnerable to Babylon. The city and the ship are all to end, never more to be. All the cargo and all the wealth of the proud city and the shipwrights, the merchants, the soldiers and everything else on board the ship will sink in the heart of the sea on the day of her shipwreck. Suddenly all sunk, Tyre to be no more. All who had handled the oars to man the ship and move it forward, so to speak, stood stunned and shocked and bitterly mourned Tyre (Ezek.27:26-36; see Rev.18). All of the plunder has become that of Nebuchadnezzar and his kingdom which, in that day, was considered the heart of the sea of humanity.

In chapter 28, Ezekiel was to take up a lamentation against the prince of Tyre, the ruler. Here in this chapter there are two princes. There is the human prince who sits the throne and there is the prince of this world, the one who is the god of the age (Jn.12:31; 2 Cor.4:4). The prince of this world is the one who has the power and the authority to seat a prince on a world throne. The two princes are so closely identified that they can be spoken of as one ruler.

According to the Jewish historian Josephus, the reigning king of Tyre at that time was Ithobaal II. His name shows the king to be a worshiper of Baal. In this false religion, the king is considered to be a god incarnate.

The word to the prince of Tyre: “Thus says the Lord God [Adonai Jehovah]: Because your heart is lifted up, and you have said, I am a god [el, deity], I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas, yet you are a man, and not god, though you set your heart as the heart of God. Behold, you are wiser than Daniel. There is no secret that they can hide from you” (Ezek.28:2-3).

The passage is full of irony. Daniel did not claim wisdom of his own. Daniel was a revealer of the secrets of God (Dan.2:24-30). Through Daniel God laid out the future of Gentile dominion and the destruction of all Gentile power in the end (Dan.2:44-45; 7:1-12:7). Does the one behind the throne think that he can thwart those purposes revealed to Daniel?

“With your wisdom and with your understanding you have gotten riches for yourself, and have gotten gold and silver into your treasures. By your great wisdom and by your merchandise you have increased your riches, and your heart is lifted up because of your riches” (Ezek.28:4-5).

Throughout the East the majesty and glory of the people, the kingdom, were gathered in their monarch, who was worshiped as a god. The ruler is considered the embodiment of the community. Their glory is his glory. Their pride is his pride.

This ruler, the prince of Tyre, was also the embodiment of a government opposing itself to the Divine Sovereign of the universe. Mentored by the evil one, the prince has led his people into the world system, which lies in the evil one. The wisdom of merchandising for wealth and glory and world power is sourced in the spirit of this world, where the creature is served rather than the Creator, the true Master and Owner of all (see Rom.1:18-25; Jn.8:44).

The mystery of iniquity has ever been working down through the ages (2 Thess.2:7a). It is the working of the evil one and his world system. The prince of this world and of the power of the air, the wicked spirits in high places ever working, world rulers of darkness cooperate in the system (Eph.2:1-3; 6:12; 1 Jn.5:19).

There is judgment because of iniquity. Ezekiel 28 verse 6: “Therefore, thus says the Lord God [Master of the Universe]: Because you have set your heart as the heart of God, behold, therefore, I will bring foreigners upon you, the terrible of the nations, and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of your wisdom, and they shall defile your brightness. They shall bring you down to the pit, and you shall die the deaths of those that are slain in the midst of the seas” (vv6-8).

The beauty and the brightness of glory through the accumulated wealth of all the trade relations throughout the ancient Near East has caused the arrogant pride and the self exaltation of the prince of Tyre and his kingdom. It has also brought a rebuke of God and a judgment upon the proud ruler and his kingdom.

Continuing to address this proud ruler, the Lord [Adonai] asks, “Will you yet say before him who slays you, I am a god? But you shall yet be a man and not God, in the hand of him who slays you. You shall die the deaths of the uncircumcised by the hand of foreigners, for I have spoken, says the Lord God [Adonai Jehovah]” (Ezek.28:9-10).

In the end, the proud ruler of Tyre and his kingdom would be humbled by God bringing them to a horrible, disgraceful death of the uncircumcised at the hands of ruthless, uncircumcised foreigners. Phoenicians practiced circumcision, so to be slain as an uncircumcised male would be to die a barbarian’s death. God was mocking the ruler and his claim to divinity. He might claim to be deity before his captors, but they would consider him a mere human being, a man, and mortal in their hands.

The ruler would claim to be a god but the Lord God declared that he would be a mere mortal in the hands of the foreigners who would come cut off the kingdom of Tyre and take away the wealth of the riches gained through merchandising.

The king and the slain of the kingdom will be brought down to the pit by the swords of the invader. The life blood of the mortal body being shed, the body will be left lifeless and the soul of spirit being must depart the dust tent and leave it to return to dust.

The “pit” is a reference to a place in “Hades,” the place God prepared for the spirit of man after he has departed the lifeless tent of his mortal body. There must be a place to go while awaiting the resurrection. In the Old Testament this place is called “Sheol” in Hebrew. “Hades” is the Greek name.

Sheol/Hades is divided into two compartments, with a great gulf fixed between them so that one could not pass over from one to the other. We know this from Jesus’ description in Luke 16:19-31. Jesus’ account is of two specific men and one, the righteous one, is named. This is not a parable. Jesus does not name names in a parable. The departed spirit of Lazarus, a righteous man, is taken to the compartment of the righteous, called by the Jews “Abraham’s Bosom.” After the Babylonian captivity, it was called “Paradise.” The other compartment is for the unredeemed, unrighteous dead.

After Jesus had finished the work of redemption on the cross, the gates of Hades did not open for one of His (Mt.16:18). For a member of the Body of Christ, “absent from the body, at home with the Lord” (2 Cor.5:6-8). During the Church Age no spirit beings are taken to Abraham’s Bosom in Hades. The compartment for the unbelieving, unrighteous spirit beings is continually receiving those who have departed their lifeless bodies.

In Ezekiel 28, when the proud prince found himself in Sheol, he would learn that he is only a man and not a god with power and glory and riches, only a man, a creation of the living and true God. Satan knew that he had a mere man on the throne in Tyre. In Satan’s world system, men are expendable. When Satan finds himself in the pit, he will know his power and his authority was not enough to seal up the beauty of his plan (see Rev.20:1-3).

The funeral dirge for the prince and his kingdom being ended, Ezekiel is to take up a lamentation for the true king of Tyre, the mentor of the prince, the one behind the throne, the true power and authority of the wisdom of the world merchandising.

In showing the deplorable ruin of the beauty and brightness of the prince of Tyre and the extent of the ruin of his kingdom, what is seen is a foreshadowing of the world kingdom Satan is building and will have accomplished through the Global Society, the new kingdom of Babylon (Rev.17 & 18).

The poetic language is full of suggestion. Poetical and pictorial passages in Scripture are based on literal happenings. The significance of the use of poetical pictorial passages in Scripture lies in the illustrative power of the language. The effectiveness of the message is, in this way, being illustrated to the heart and feelings of the reader or the hearer, to receive the very spirit of the message for reality.

Ezekiel 28:11: “Moreover, the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyre.” First there was the lamentation, the funeral dirge, for the great city kingdom of Tyre (Ezek.27:2). Then the funeral dirge for the prince, the ruler of Tyre (Ezek.28:2).

Though Ezekiel speaks of “princes” throughout his prophecies, here in this passage alone, he uses the word nagid. “Nagid” is a term frequently used in the Old Testament for a charismatic “ruler.” The idea of prominent leadership is conveyed by this more general term, i.e., man at the top. “King” would be more specific. This king claims to be a god, i.e., divinity.

Finally the lamentation for the one with the power and the authority of the world city who gives the prince his throne, Lucifer himself. “Thus says the Lord God: You seal up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty” (Ezek.28:12b).

Here are concepts already conveyed by what is said of the prince of Tyre (Ezek.28:2-7). You are sealing - or closing up - a sum - a measure - a plan, a pattern full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. The measure - when the pattern has reached full wisdom and perfect beauty, it is complete, sealed.

“And you have sinned. Therefore I will cast you as profane out of the mountain of God, and I will destroy you, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire” (Ezek.28:16b).

Lucifer sinned in his heart. He was deceived and enticed by his own desire. He persuaded one-third of the angelic beings to follow him. The sin in his heart came out in his action. He is no longer blameless. He has put himself outside the sacred. The stones of fire have been brought forth and made a holy order. Each one set apart unto God as ministers in the work of the Son of the Covenant as the things done in the Eternal Covenant are carried out upon earth.

God has His holy angels on the mountain of His holy sanctuary. Satan, the Adversary, has his angels. Cast as profane out of the mountain of God, they operate from the heavenlies - the realm between the holy mountain of God and the earth.

We know from the book of Job that Satan can still report to God before His throne (Job 1:6; 2:1), but he is destroyed from the stones of fire. We have the record in Revelation 12 where he goes to war with Michael and his angels to hold on to his place in the heavenlies, but he and his angels are cast down to earth in the middle of the trial to come upon the whole earth (vv7-17). We also have the record in Revelation 20:10 when he will, with his angels, be cast into the lake of fire. So we have the final end of the rebel ministers of the angelic creation.

“Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty. You have corrupted your wisdom by reason of your brightness. I will cast you to the ground. I will lay you before kings, that they may behold you. You have defiled your sanctuaries by the multitude of your iniquities, by the iniquity of your merchandise. Therefore I will bring forth a fire from the midst of you. It shall devour you, and I will bring you to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all those that behold you. All they that know you among the people shall be appalled at you; you shall be a terror, and never shall you be anymore” (Ezek.28:17-19).

The prophecy of the lamentation continued. It is the funeral dirge for the great city built through merchandising. Ezekiel is looking into the far future at the great demise of the “Great City” called “Babylon the Great.” In the visions shown him, the apostle John was given to see the end prophesied by Ezekiel, that we might have more details than given in Ezekiel.

To John was given the Revelation of Jesus Christ; that is, the unveiling of Jesus, the Anointed Son, in His second coming to earth to establish His Kingdom of righteousness and peace. At that time Satan will have his great city system of politics, economics and religion unified in a universal Global Society under one man as the head of all nations and kindreds and languages and peoples - a monarchy. We see in Revelation 14 that it will be called “Babylon” (Rev.14:8). And from chapter 18 of Revelation, we see that it was the great global city system built through merchandising through a global economy, as the kings of the earth and the merchants are the ones most lamenting its destruction.

The reason for the funeral dirge in Ezekiel 28 was to reveal Lucifer’s heart being lifted up because of his thinking he had a beauty of a plan, full of wisdom, and that he could seal the deal. Satan overestimated the man in the flesh upon whom he must depend to seal up his plan. The city must be built through unregenerate man in the flesh.

Through his brightness, Lucifer corrupted his wisdom. The wisdom of God was made known to His created angelic beings. Satan thought to come to men as an angel of light and persuade men to build the city through merchandising. He should have believed in the wisdom of God and His Eternal Covenant. Satan corrupted himself to end up in the lake of fire with nothing (Rev.20:10).

The Dragon’s self-deification will bring him down in disgrace. By the multitude of his iniquities and the dishonesty and ill-gotten gain of his merchandise he has defiled his sanctuaries, his world cities built through greedy, power hungry men.

The Lord Himself will see to the righteous judgment of a just recompense. He will cast the Dragon to the ground and lay him before the kings whom he has deceived into building his world system into a great Global Society. All the while he has it in his heart to devour the society with his ten nation federation and the little horn beast prince as the king, his representative.

When the kings of the earth see how they have been tricked into giving up their sovereignty, God will call them to the War of the Great Day of God Almighty (Joel 2:1-11; Rev.14:6-16:21). They will come together against the new king of the great city Babylon and in the nuclear war of the Great Tribulation they will destroy the new kingdom of Babylon, the beauty of Satan’s strategy, his wisdom to complete his plan of a world city of all peoples and nations. God will bring forth this fire in the very midst of the Dragon’s new kingdom and it will burn Babylon to ashes, never to be anymore. This is covered in our lessons of chapters 17 and 18 of Revelation.

With the destruction of his global society so carefully built, the Dragon, that old serpent, who is the Devil and Satan, was laid hold of by an angel come down from heaven, and bound, and he was cast into the pit of the abyss, where he was shut up, and a seal set upon him, that he should no more deceive the nations until the 1,000 years of the Kingdom Age be fulfilled. And after that he must be let loose a little season (see Rev.20:1-3).

All that know him, the world rulers who served Satan’s cause, will be appalled (Ezek.28:19). Satan’s identity of himself was as the king of the great world kingdom. That was not to be or ever will be.

Isaiah prophesied that when Satan is brought down to Sheol, to the sides of the pit, they that see him shall narrowly look upon him, and ask, “Is this the man who made the earth to tremble, who did shake kingdoms, who made the world like a wilderness, and destroyed its cities, who opened not the house of his prisoners?” (Is.14:16-17).

The man of flesh, who dwells on the throne of his kingdom, and the old Dragon, his mentor Satan, are closely identified in the prophecies (see 2 Thess.2:3-9; Rev.13).

Ezekiel 28 ends with a glorious prophecy of the future regathering of God’s people Israel back to their land and the receiving of their inheritance of the kingdom promised to their forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The Lord God will then gather His people from where they are scattered and they shall dwell safely in their land that He has given them, and they shall know the Lord, their God (Ezek.28:25-26). And they shall be His people.

Though this concludes our lesson, we have added -

                    Other Bible Version Listings of Stones in Ezekiel 28:13

New King James Row 1: sardius, topaz, and diamond Row 2: beryl, onyx, and jasper Row 3: sapphire, turquoise, and emerald	New American Standard Row 1: ruby, topaz, and diamond Row 2: beryl, onyx, and jasper Row 3: lapis lazuli, turquoise, and emerald
English Standard Version Row 1: sardius, topaz, and diamond Row 2: beryl, onyx, and jasper Row 3: sapphire, emerald, and carbuncle	New International Version Row 1: ruby, topaz, and emerald Row 2: chrysolite, onyx, and jasper Row 3: sapphire, turquoise, and beryl                                                                      -or- Row 1: carnelian, chrysolite, and emerald Row 2: topaz, onyx, and jasper Row 3: lapis lazuli, turquoise, and beryl