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With this assurance therefore we can turn back to the first chapter and seek to gather
something from Ezekiel's description that shall help us to appreciate the high dignity and
office of that one who was once called "The anointed cherub".
Like the Greatness.
There is considerable difference of opinion as to the meaning of the Hebrew word
cherub. The word never occurs as a verb. The word rab indicates whatever is great. "It
is the formal name of magnificence or majesty and dominion", says Marius de Calasio.
The particle ki indicates likeness, and suggests the emblematic character of the
Cherubim, and would mean "like the greatness", or "like the majesty". If this be the
meaning of the name we can understand more fully how the cherubim are connected both
with Satan's sin and with God's glory.
Lucifer, son of the morning.
Just as Satan is addressed under the title "King of Tyre" by Ezekiel, so he is spoken of
as the "King of Babylon" by Isaiah, and just as the King of Tyre is called "The anointed
cherub", so another superhuman title is used in Isa. 14:, "Lucifer (margin Day Star),
son of morning". His downfall is clearly indicated in the following accusation:--
"For thou hast said in thine heart.
I WILL ascend into heaven,
I WILL exalt my throne above the stars of God,
I WILL sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north,
I WILL ascend above the heights of the clouds,
I WILL BE LIKE THE MOST HIGH" (Isa. 14: 12-14).
The great leader of heaven's host in the "war in heaven" is Michael. Michael in
Hebrew means "Who is like God?" and is as it were a challenge. A blasphemous echo of
this is found in Rev. 13: 4, when the world pays homage to Satan and the beast saying,
"Who is like unto the beast?" In blessed contrast with the anointed cherub of Ezek.
28: is the Son of God Who, as Phil. 2: 6 & 7 reveals:--
"Being originally in the form of God, thought it not a thing to be grasped to be on an
equality with God, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a slave."
Much that is said of the Lord Jesus Christ will stand out with twofold vividness when
we give full scope to the fact that He came to "undo the works of the Devil", and that
every title He bears, every word He uttered, every manifestation of meekness or of power
in death or in life had in view the undoing of the effect of Satan's sin and fall.
When Satan came to the man and woman in the garden, what was the bait of his
temptation? The very self-same thing that had brought about his own wretched state--
"Ye shall be as God!" When the same tempter came to Christ in the wilderness, once
again he revealed his own heart and undoing. As we must devote a separate study to this
phase of the subject we leave these hints for the time being.