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Redemption.
New Series.
#4.
The Anointed Cherub.
pp. 113 - 128
Ezek. 28: is devoted to the sin and the judgment of the Prince of Tyre, the type
(verses 1-10), and the sin and judgment of the King of Tyre, the antitype (verses 11-19).
We learn from Josephus that the Prince of Tyre was Ithobalus II, which in Hebrew
becomes Ethbaal. Ethbaal means Baal's Man! The name of this Prince is suggestive of
his character, while it is equally suggestive to remember that an earlier Ethbaal was the
father of "that woman Jezebel" (I Kings 16: 31).
"Ye shall be as God."
The serpent's words to Eve in Gen. 3: find an echo in Ezek. 28: The mystery
of iniquity presses on to its goal, which is expressed in the same words--"as Gods"
(II Thess. 2: 4; Rev. 13:). Ezekiel is commissioned to say unto the Prince of Tyre:--
"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 . . . . . . . Wilt thou say before Him that slayeth thee, I am God?"
(Ezek. 28: 2-9).
This Prince had prided himself in his wisdom:--
"Behold, thou art wiser than Daniel; there is no secret that they can hide from thee"
(Ezek. 28: 3).
By this wisdom the Prince had gotten riches, and by his traffic he had increased them.
This led to pride, and pride of a blasphemous character. His end is to be slain:--
"Thou shalt be a man, and no God, in the hand of Him that slayeth thee" (Ezek. 28: 9).
Not only should death be the end of his blasphemous claim, but his very glory should
be brought to ignominy:--
"They shall profane thy brightness" (Ezek. 28: 7).
The false and the true.
The word "brightness" as a feminine noun occurs nowhere else but in verse 17. It is
one of a series of parallels which show that the Prince of Tyre, a man who aspired to
Divine honours, is in his turn a type of the King of Tyre, who was more than man, who
aspired to Divine honours. The verbal form of the word translated "brightness" is used of
the glory of God's presence in several passages, a striking one being Psa. 50: 2:--