My Thoughts on the Prince of Tyre in Ezekiel 28
Ezekiel 28 has God telling Ezekiel to take an oracle against the prince of Tyre at that time. The oracle in Ezekiel 28:1-10 says the following:
The word of the LORD came again unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, say unto the prince of Tyrus, Thus saith the LORD God; Because thine heart is lifted up, and thou hast said, I am a God, I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas; yet thou art a man, and not God, though thou set thine heart as the heart of God: 3 Behold, thou art wiser than Daniel; there is no secret that they can hide from thee: 4 With thy wisdom and with thine understanding thou hast gotten thee riches, and hast gotten gold and silver into thy treasures: 5 By thy great wisdom and by thy traffick hast thou increased thy riches, and thine heart is lifted up because of thy riches: 6 Therefore thus saith the LORD God; Because thou hast set thine heart as the heart of God; 7 Behold, therefore I will bring strangers upon thee, the terrible of the nations: and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of thy wisdom, and they shall defile thy brightness. 8 They shall bring thee down to the pit, and thou shalt die the deaths of them that are slain in the midst of the seas. 9 Wilt thou yet say before him that slayeth thee, I am God? but thou shalt be a man, and no God, in the hand of him that slayeth thee. 10 Thou shalt die the deaths of the uncircumcised by the hand of strangers: for I have spoken it, saith the LORD God.
The KJV Study Bible has a note that identifies this prince of Tyre as Ethbaal III (591/590-573/572 B.C.). It would be important to note that Ethbaal III, claimed to be a god. There were many kings who claimed to be a god. The Pharaohs of Egypt claimed to be a god which resulted in generations of incestuous marriage that wrecked the bloodline. Later on, you had the Roman Emperors who tend to claim divinity. Nero and Domitian were persecuting Christians because they believed themselves to be gods. The Japanese Empire, for some time, claimed that the emperor was divine until Hirohito finally declared he wasn't divine. The Chinese emperors claimed to hold the Mandate of Heaven and were usually worshiped as part of the imperial cult. All these were from Babylon and every world had a different variation of Babylon Religion in them. It's no surprise that Ethbaal III would later claim himself to be a god - because many kings before him also did!
It would be interesting that a Proverb would later compare the Prince of Tyre to Satan himself:
11 Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 12 Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord God; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. 13 Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. 14 Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. 15 Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee. 16 By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. 17 Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee. 18 Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffick; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee. 19 All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee: thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any more.
Just reading that makes me wonder where in the world did we decide to draw Satan as a red monster with two horns carrying a pitchfork? That caricature of Satan is a very inaccurate picture of Satan. Some Satanists do a poor job in depicting Satan. For example, Baphomet (another name for Satan) is pictured as a goat demon than how the Bible would describe Satan. Some Satanists wear shirts that depict Satan in the artist's caricature. Chick Publications (which I no longer subscribe to due to its toxicity similar to Jesus-is-Savior) tends to draw Satan as a monster in many of their tracts as both an attractive angel of light and a horned monster. Later, in Revelation, Satan is both a red dragon (figuratively) and a serpent to describe him. Yet, the Bible doesn't say that Satan is a red monster with two horns and a tail. Though, the pagans did worship horned deities such as the bull-headed Moloch or the half-goat god Pan in Greek mythology which may have inspired the caricature of Satan. Satanists today tend to put an image of Satan that we're most familiar with - as a horned monster. Yet, the Bible still describes Satan to be a magnificent creature who can also appear in the form of an angel of light. It's usually easy to avoid a Satanist because most of them dress up so badly. However, it's hard to avoid a man of Satan who dresses up like how a Christian ought to dress. It's dangerous when Satan himself decides to use Christian decency as a clever disguise to infiltrate it. Satanists are too busy openly attacking Christianity and what they think are Christian groups. Some Satanists even attack Roman Catholicism (as well as other related groups) thinking that they're part of Christianity. What Satanists don't realize is that their lord and master is infiltrating churches, not as the monster they think he looks like. Instead, Satan usually uses his guise as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14). Sometimes, you'll never know you're dating the wrong person if that wrong person is very clever in concealing their sinister nature. It's easy to avoid an obvious bad boy or bad girl. However, a bad boy or bad girl pretending to decent is very hard to avoid.
It's really no different than the oracle that was set against the King of Babylon back in Isaiah 14. Isaiah 14:12-14 recounts the account of the fall of Lucifer (or translated as Morning Star or Day Star, though I prefer to use Lucifer for better specifications) as the King of Babylon was condemned for his arrogance. Satan himself lifted his heart and thought he was better than God. The oracle against the prince of Tyre, Ethbaal III, comparing him to Satan was very fitting. Satan thought he could go against God. Satan and his angels were rightfully thrown out of God's presence for that. Satan is rightfully called the Devil because the word "devil" means diabolos meaning "prone to slander, false accuser, slanderer". Satan in Hebrew is Sawtawn or Satanas in Greek both mean adversary or archenemy. Lucifer is the Latin word for light-bringer or light-bearer. Lucifer in his arrogance is rightfully called Satan and the Devil because he disgraced his position as a light-bearer and became the devil (slanderer) because he is the father of lies.
The prince of Tyre had indeed deserved the title because he spoke such a great lie. This prince of Tyre lied to people that he was a god even when he was but a man. It's really a common thing that some religions do believe that man can eventually become a god in one way or another. The prince of Tyre in his arrogance had lied that great lie. That great lie that the prince of Tyre propagated that he was a god had him worthy of being compared to the Devil. After all, to be a devil is to be slanderer or deceitful person. Today, we can call a person as a devil not because he or she is literally a devil but because he or she is a slanderer. Jesus said in John 6:70 that one of the twelve is a devil. Jesus didn't mean that Judas Iscariot was a literal devil. However, Judas Iscariot was a diabolos that he was a slanderer. We get the word diabolic from diabolos or diablo. To be diabolical means to be outrageously wicked or fiendish. A fiendish person is usually an expert slanderer and a con artist. A fiend is very self-serving and arrogant. Whoever thought of creating the world diabolic knew the right word to pick it from the Greek word diabolos. The prince of Tyre was indeed a diabolic person. Judas Iscariot and Ethbaal III were humans yet in their degenerate character were worth comparing to that of a literal devil.
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