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"Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty" (28: 12).
The "Companion Bible" renders this "Thou art the finished pattern", and the Hebrew
word for sum means a "measure" or a "standard". In Ezek. 43: 10 the word is
translated "pattern".
"Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God" (Ezek. 28: 13).
When speaking of the fall of another boaster, namely Pharaoh, Ezekiel reverts to this
same "Eden" saying:
"All the trees of Eden, that were in the garden of God envied him" (31: 9).
Then, because of his pride, he is thus addressed:
"To whom art thou thus like in glory and in greatness among the trees of Eden? Yet
shalt thou be brought down with the trees of Eden unto the nether parts of the earth" (18).
The Garden of Eden of Gen. 2: and 3: belongs to this present creation, and into this
garden the "Serpent" entered. It may be that before the world was overthrown there was
in that earlier creation a garden of God in Eden, for the somewhat strange passage quoted
from Ezek. 31: suggests that it was the scene of a rebellion and judgment anterior to
the sin of Adam.
Spurrell translates 28: 13, "Thy covering veil was adorned with every
precious stone", and the list of precious stones there given call to mind the breastplate of
Aaron, the foundations of the New Jerusalem, and of the vision already described in
Ezek. 1: 26-28, and that seen by John in Rev. 4: 3-6. This "covering" or "veil" is the
Hebrew mesukah. The masculine form masak is used in twenty-two out of twenty-five
occurrences of the "hanging", "covering", or "curtain" of the tabernacle (Exod. 26: 36;
35: 12; Numb. 3: 26).
All the hangings of the tabernacle were associated with approach. This "anointed
cherub" appears to have held a holy office, and we read that he was upon the holy
mountain of God, yet by reason of iniquity, his heart being lifted up because of his
beauty, he was cast out as profane, and finally will be brought to ashes and never be any
more. A fuller exposition with much more attention to detail in found in The Berean
Expositor, Volume XV, pp. 113-128, 130-133, which should be consulted if available.
We feel sufficient has been brought forward to justify the teaching that:
Satan, now fallen, and yet to be destroyed, once held a high position before the overthrow
of Gen. 1: 2.
He aspired to be like God, and was cast out as profane.
He was the anointed "cherub", and so the connection between the serpent of Gen. 3:
and the "cherubim" of the same chapter is intentional.
The fall took place before the present "firmament" existed, and hence, the sphere from
which he fell, namely "Heaven" as distinct from "the firmament", must be
referred to as "far above all heavens" or the "heavenly places" of Eph. 1: 3.