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The Meaning of Life
Chapter 5: Paradise Lost
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Author’s Choice |
Article Perspective: |
Grow in Christ |
Paradise Lost: Introduction
The previous chapter revealed how the first man and woman had been placed in a garden paradise that provided for their immortality. This chapter details the events that brought about mankind’s expulsion from paradise.
Satan: The Guardian Cherub?
The Bible has little to say regarding Satan’s existence and status before the creation of the world.
Ezekiel 28 begins by prophesying how God was going to cause a king of Tyre to be overthrown because this king made himself out to be a god worthy of the treasures of the nations. In verses 11-13, this king’s situation is compared to the beauty found in the garden in Eden.
Is it possible that the splendor of the king of Tyre is being compared to that of Satan who, unlike any earthly king, once literally existed in Eden? That would mean that Satan, upon being created, had the “seal of perfection.” He would have been a flawless beauty who was adorned with precious gems and filled with wisdom. |
Again the word of the LORD came to me saying,
“Son of man, take up a lamentation over the king of Tyre and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD,
“You had the seal of perfection,
Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.
“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. |
Ezekiel 28:11-13 (NASB) |
| In Ezekiel 28:14-15, the king of Tyre is revealed to originally have been a righteous ruler who had been anointed by God. However, in referring to the king of Tyre as “the anointed cherub who covers,” was God comparing the reign of this earthly king to Satan’s reign? If so, Satan would have been a cherub whose behavior, at least in the beginning, was perfectly aligned with God’s will. Satan would have even possessed a God-ordained leadership role in heaven as “the anointed cherub who covers.” |
“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. |
Ezekiel 28:14-15 (NASB) |
| Corrupted by his beauty and position, the king of Tyre became violent and sinned. If “the anointed cherub who covers,” is indeed a reference to Satan, then Satan, at some point, also became corrupted by his beauty and position, filling him with violence and causing him to sin. |
“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;
“Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty;
You corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor |
Ezekiel 28:15-16a, 17a (NASB) |
In Isaiah, perhaps a similar comparison is being made between an evil Babylonian king and Satan. In the following passage, a king of Babylon is referred to as the “morning (or day) star.” It is an English translation of the Hebrew word “הילל (helel),” which also means “the shining one” or “light bearer.”
Note: Rather than employing an English translation of הילל (helel) here, the King James and New King James versions of the Bible capitalize the untranslated Latin word for “morning star” found in the Latin Vulgate: “lucifer.” The Latin word “lucifer” was often used to refer to the planet Venus, which shines brightly before and with the rising of the even brighter sun. The Nova Vulgata also uses the Latin word, “lucifer.” Additionally, The Book of Mormon, in 2 Nephi 24:12, quotes Isaiah 14:12 using the same Latin word. |
“How you are fallen from heaven,
O Lucifer, 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.’
Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol,
To the lowest depths of the Pit. |
Isaiah 14:12-15 (NKJV) |
Rebellion: Fallen Angels and the Fall of Man
Satan rebelled against God, seducing a third of the angels and the first man and woman to follow him.
Whether or not Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 contain intentional references to Satan, the book of Revelation clearly states that in heaven Satan and his angels fought a war against the archangel Michael and his angels. After losing the war, Satan (a.k.a. “the great dragon” and “the devil”) and his angels (“a third of the stars in heaven”), were cast out of heaven and sent to the earth.
Note: The Hebrew, Greek, and Latin words for “Satan,” “שׂטן,” “Σαταν,” and “Satan (or Satanas),” respectively, all mean “adversary.” |
Then another sign appeared in heaven: and behold, a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads were seven diadems.
And his tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth.
And there was war in heaven, Michael and his angels waging war with the dragon The dragon and his angels waged war,
and they were not strong enough, and there was no longer a place found for them in heaven.
And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. |
Revelation 12:3-4a, 7-9 (NASB) |
| After the king of Tyre sinned, he was overthrown (i.e. cast as profane “from the mountain of God”). This is a possible reference to Satan’s expulsion from heaven. |
“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. |
Ezekiel 28:16 (NASB) |
| After the king of Babylon made himself out to be a god, he was also removed from his throne (i.e. “cut to the ground’) and “brought down to Sheol” (a place of darkness containing the spirits of those who have died), “to the lowest depths of the Pit.” |
“How you are fallen from heaven,
O Lucifer, son of the morning!
How you are cut down to the ground,
You who weakened the nations!
Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol,
To the lowest depths of the Pit. |
Isaiah 14:12, 15 (NKJV) |
| The following passage explains how Satan, whom Revelation 12 states is the devil as well as the serpent spoken of in Genesis 3, led mankind astray. For the evil he committed, the serpent received a curse, forcing him to eat of the dust of the ground for the remainder of his days. |
Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?”
The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat;
but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’”
The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die!
“For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.
Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.
They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.
Then the LORD God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?”
He said, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.”
And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”
The man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate.”
Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
The LORD God said to the serpent,
“Because you have done this,
Cursed are you more than all cattle,
And more than every beast of the field;
On your belly you will go,
And dust you will eat
All the days of your life;
And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her seed;
He shall bruise you on the head,
And you shall bruise him on the heel.”
To the woman He said,
“I will greatly multiply
Your pain in childbirth,
In pain you will bring forth children;
Yet your desire will be for your husband,
And he will rule over you.”
Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’;
Cursed is the ground because of you;
In toil you will eat of it
All the days of your life.
“Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you;
And you will eat the plants of the field;
By the sweat of your face
You will eat bread,
Till you return to the ground,
Because from it you were taken;
For you are dust,
And to dust you shall return.”
Now the man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all the living.
The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.
Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”—
therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken.
So He drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life. |
Genesis 3 (NASB) |
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