“You were in Eden, the garden of God; Every precious stone was your covering: The ruby, the topaz and the diamond; the beryl, the onyx and the jasper; the lapis lazuli, the turquoise and the emerald; and the gold, the workmanship of your settings and sockets, was in you. On the day that you were created they were prepared. You were the anointed cherub who covers, and I placed you there. You were on the holy mountain of God; You walked in the midst of the stones of fire. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created until unrighteousness was found in you. By the abundance of your trade You were internally filled with violence, and you sinned; therefore I have cast you as profane from the mountain of God. And I have destroyed you, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor. I cast you to the ground; I put you before kings, that they may see you. By the multitude of your iniquities, in the unrighteousness of your trade you profaned your sanctuaries. Therefore I have brought fire from the midst of you; It has consumed you, and I have turned you to ashes on the earth In the eyes of all who see you” (Ezek 28:13-18).
Sometimes we bring our theological pre-commitments with us into familiar passages, and assume we understand what we’re reading. This passage is Ezekiel 28 is a classic example. Most of us assume this a description of Satan’s fall from grace in the Garden of Eden. But there are several problems with this interpretation. First, if this is Satan, why is he described as a cherub covered with precious stones (vv. 13-14)? The only other being in Scripture covered with these stones is Israel’s high priest (Exod 28:17-21). And in the story of the Garden of Eden, Adam, not Satan, is described as the original high priest of creation (Gen 2:15). And the role of the cherubim in Genesis 3 was to guard the entrance into the Garden of Eden (Gen 3:24), a job that originally belonged to Adam, not to Satan (Gen 2:15). Second, where in the story of the Garden of Eden does it say that God cast Satan from the mountain of God, i.e., the Garden of Eden (v.16)? In the story of the Garden of Eden, only Adam and his wife were cast from the Garden of Eden because of their sin (Gen 3:23-24). Third, why does the text describe Satan as profaning his sanctuaries (v. 18)? When we consider the Garden of Eden as the original sanctuary, it was Adam, not Satan, who profaned God’s sanctuary by eating the forbidden fruit (Gen 3:6).
This passage in Ezekiel 28 is not a description of the fall of Satan. It describes the tragic fall of Adam, and with him all of humanity. God created us to be a royal-priesthood (Gen 1:26-28; Exod 19:6), to be guardian’s over his sanctuary (Gen 2:15), and to walk together with him in the holy of holies (Gen 3:8; Lev 26:12; Deut 23:15). All this was tragically lost when Adam sinned.
But O the beauty and the power of the gospel! Through faith in the Messiah Yeshua, the image of God is completely restored!
The gospel isn’t just about the forgiveness of sins. It’s also about the restoration of our calling to be a royal-priesthood to the glory of God!
“They will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads” (Rev 22:4).
“You shall also make a plate of pure gold and shall engrave on it, like the engravings of a seal, ‘Holy to the LORD.’ … It shall be on Aaron’s forehead, and Aaron shall take away the iniquity of the holy things which the sons of Israel consecrate, with regard to all their holy gifts; and it shall always be on his forehead, that they may be accepted before the LORD” (Exod 28:36, 38).
