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There can be no doubt but that we are here facing a revelation of tremendous import.
This mighty being, now cast out as profane and doomed to become "ashes on the earth",
was once the "standard". We anticipate a future article by pointing out that all the glories
which were for a time vested in this anointed cherub are to be found in their perfectness
and indefectibility in Christ. Christ is set before the church as "the perfect man", and the
measure is "the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ". The LXX in this place
translates "sum" by homoiosis, which means "similitude" (cf. James 3: 9). This is the
word which the LXX uses in Gen. 1: 26, "Let us make man . . . . . after our likeness".
When we read that Christ was "the image of the invisible God", or "the brightness of
His glory, and the express image of His Person", we realize that Ezek. 28: 12
contains something of an echo of these statements.
Wisdom and beauty.
Following the statement already considered, the prophet continues:--
"Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty" (Ezek. 28: 12).
There is evidently emphasis here, for although Ezekiel contains forty-eight chapters,
the words "wise" and "wisdom" occur only in chapter 27: and 28: There must
therefore be something peculiar in this attitude. Of the Prince of Tyre the prophet says:--
"Behold, thou art wiser than Daniel . . . . . with thy wisdom . . . . . thou hast gotten
thee riches . . . . . by the greatness of thy wisdom . . . . . hast thou multiplied thy riches . . .
. . they shall unsheath their swords over the beauty of thy wisdom and profane thy
brightness" (Ezek. 28: 3-7).
So runs the record of the Prince. Speaking of the King the prophet says:--
"Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty . . . . . . . thine heart was lifted up because of
thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness" (Ezek.
28: 12-17).
This resplendent being, as to wisdom full, as to beauty perfect, was God's sealed
standard at the time. The meaning of the words, "Thou sealest up the sum", may be
illuminated by reference to the government standard of weights and measures. Encased
in materials that maintain an even temperature, and buried deep in a cool cellar, safely
resting under lock and key, lies the Imperial Yard Measure. This "seals up the sum", and
to it as to a "finished pattern" all yard measures throughout the realm must conform.
Eden lost and restored.