Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28: Could It Be Satan? A Couple of Responses

Here are a couple of comments I give to all students for an assignment meant to read Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 on whether these seem to be texts about the fall of Satan. I require first a careful reading of the passages in whole as well as the surrounding passages noting the specifics of referent for the oracles as well as terms and phrases within the oracles and how they are meant to indicate the one being described and confronted.

A response concerning the “morning star” of Isaiah 14: The Hebrew was poorly translated into the Latin with “Lucifer” (and followed by the KJV) thus giving us a long history of a misreading as if this was about some evil being we name “Lucifer” or Satan (this is the ONLY text where the word “Lucifer” would have been used and given rise to the false idea as a name of Satan). “Morning star” was used as something pointing to divine blessing. It is also exclusively used as a name for Jesus in the NT: 2 Peter 1:19 and Revelation 2:28; and 22:16. In other words, it is never used of “Satan” anywhere in scripture unless we misread Isaiah 14 as such a reference.

A response to Luke 10:18 as if it were connected to Isaiah 14: Jesus says he “saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning” to his disciples on their return from a mission trip where they drove out unclean spirits, healed the sick, and raised the dead. It was not a claim about any original fall of Satan. It is about the victory of King Jesus over that enemy and all the works of death and chaos at work undoing the goodness of God’s creation and intent to set all things right.

A response to Edenic language in Ezekiel 28: Note that the cherub in Genesis 3 is placed to guard the way back. Yet it is the one likened to a cherub in Ezekiel 28 that is cast down from the mountain. Ezekiel 28 does not refer to any serpent (though interestingly the following chapters in Ezekiel will call the Pharaoh a sort of watery serpent/dragon to be fished from the river and given as food to the birds). Eden language is not sufficient since it is used a number of times in Ezekiel (as well as the imagery) just to refer to the idyllic beginnings of blessing by Yahweh. Further, it is part of the overall rich metaphoric imagery of Ezekiel to paint vivid and exaggerated prophetic pictures to communicate his message (easily noted throughout his book).

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