(remember, these are unedited/draft show notes, not a transcript — listening is always better…and if you listen AND follow along below, you’ll see why)
Focus Question:
Who’s the King of Tyre?
Intro:
Our focus question today is “Who’s the King of Tyre?”, and let’s be clear about one thing up front — he’s the actual king of Tyre. That said, as I mentioned yesterday, some theologians think this is also a reference to Satan. And I asked a dear friend of mine to weigh in, Jeff Olson, at CoreLifeTraining.org (whose new book you should check out, too…link in today’s show notes, program #1233). And in our Bottom Line segment today as we look at this, I’ll not only share with you why, but a useful perspective for why we should even care about this passage.
New Testament segment:
Revelation 8 introduces another of those twists that keep theologians in knots. And it’s yet another that it is profitable just to listen to God’s word even when we may not connect all the dots. Today you’ll hear about the seventh seal, the first six of which we heard about in ch 6, but then you’ll start hearing about trumpets — and theologians disagree about whether these were after the seals, during the seals (embedded if you will, during the seventh), and things like that. And I’m going to go on record (again) in arguing that just feasting on God’s word will be used by the Holy Spirit in each of us somehow, sometime.
Passage: Revelation 8-9
Translation: CSB (Christian Standard Bible)
Verses: 34
Words: ~775
Old Testament segment:
As we get into Ezekiel today, first you’ll hear about the King of Tyre, but then you’ll hear a description Ezekiel share a lament that shares imagery of angels and the Garden of Eden. Listen for it — this’ll be what we come back to.
Passage: Ezekiel 28
Translation: CSB (Christian Standard Bible)
Verses: 26
Words: ~759
Wisdom segment:
Passage: Psalm 94
Translation: CSB (Christian Standard Bible)
Verses: 23
Words: ~377
The bottom line:
So in addition to my friend Jeff (whose knowledge of the OT makes mine look sick) saying he leans in the direction of a reference to Satan, one commentary from Lamar Cooper puts it this way:
(An) approach, favored by several of the church fathers, is to understand for the background of the lament an account of the fall of Satan not given in Scripture but alluded to elsewhere, especially in Isa 14:12–17. Ezekiel would have been relying on his listeners/readers’ familiarity with such an account, and they would have understood the comparison between the fall of Satan and the fall of the king of Tyre.(1)
12 Shining morning star,
how you have fallen from the heavens!
You destroyer of nations,
you have been cut down to the ground.
13 You said to yourself,
“I will ascend to the heavens;
I will set up my throne
above the stars of God.
I will sit on the mount of the gods’ assembly,
in the remotest parts of the North.,
14 I will ascend above the highest clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.”
15 But you will be brought down to Sheol
into the deepest regions of the Pit.
16 Those who see you will stare at you;
they will look closely at you:
“Is this the man who caused the earth to tremble,
who shook the kingdoms,
17 who turned the world into a wilderness,
who destroyed its cities
and would not release the prisoners to return home?” (Is 14:12–17, CSB)
Another apologist goes on to describe the similarities, a few of which are… (here I summarize https://www.blueletterbible.org/faq/don_stewart/don_stewart_82.cfm).
So, do we know? No. So what does this mean to us?
One, remember the Bible is full of allusions. Just like if you and I spend a lot of time together in the Bible, our conversation may refer to something we both know.
Two, if we look at the passage in terms of the universal principle, what’s the message? Besides the fact that Tyre set itself against Israel and therefore God, it’s clear that their materialism brought a false sense of security. We don’t have to be kings, queens, and rich to develop undue pride or a sense of security in our stuff, jobs, retirement accounts, or our own smarts. Satan’s fall was due to pride, and more than one of us have deal with that, too.
ForTheHope is a daily audio Bible + apologetics podcast and blog. We’ve got a passion for just keepin’ it real, having conversations like normal people, and living out the love of Jesus better every single day.
Roger Courville, CSP is a globally-recognized expert in digitally-extended communication and connection, an award-winning speaker, award-winning author, and a passionately bad guitarist. Follow him on Twitter -- @RogerCourville and @JoinForTheHope – or his blog: www.forthehope.org.
Sources and resources:
(1) Lamar Eugene Cooper, Ezekiel, vol. 17, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1994), 264–265.