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In the lamentation of the king we have not the display of riches, but their source, or the means by which they were acquired. The king seals up the sum: all angelic, all created, glory was in him; and he is called the covering cherub, the anointed cherub, full of wisdom, perfect in beauty, and God set (created) him so. “Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth, and have set thee so; thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created till iniquity was found in thee.” Fullness of wisdom in the king, delegated wisdom in the prince. The lamentation for the king contains a description of Satan before he fell. And the power and wisdom which he retained after his fall are used against God and His truth, and to this end work in the prince of Tire to accumulate riches so that this earth may not appear smitten with a curse. Satan is really the king, and the source of the wisdom and riches of Tire. The prince is the human agent for the king to show his power, who, from his titles here, may have been the highest among the angels, before iniquity was found in him.
In like manner the king of Babylon is but Satan's instrument, only the hualan agent is not so distinguished from the source of his power as in Tire. In the judgment on Babylon we have not the destruction between the city and the judgment on its king: “the golden city is ceased “; and the king who said, “I will ascend above the heights of the clouds” yet to be “brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.” He is also called Lucifer—(daystar) or son of the morning. And when he is laid low, the earth is at rest. Does not this look onward to millennial rest when Satan will be bound for a thousand years? (Isa. 14:4-20.)
The king of Babylon and the prince of Tire use similar language. The king of Babylon said, “I will be like the Most High,” and the prince of Tire said, “I am God.” But why the distinction between the king and the prince in the judgment on Tire? and blending Satan with his human agent in the judgment on Babylon? Perhaps because idolatry and persecution which were developed at Babylon are more Satanic, and the human instrument more completely in his hand. Perhaps also another reason is that the riches of Tire will one day be used for the Lord, whereas the judgment on idolatrous Babylon is that it will never be restored.
The words addressed to the king of Tire are inapplicable to a mere man, however clothed he might be with power. Some of the qualities here enumerated may be said of Adam; but there is a glory here which cannot all apply to Adam innocent. The king was full of wisdom and perfect in beauty; and the gems, which adorned the high priest's breastplate and which men prize, are used figuratively to express his covering. He walked in the midst of the stones of fire; he had been on the mountain of God. But his heart was corrupted on account of his beauty: iniquity was found in him, and he was cast to the ground. This is not oriental exaggeration, but the Holy Spirit describing by means of human things and words the past glories and magnificence of him that now seeks to use his wisdom and power in leading the world against Him Who created it. But he was perfect once. He was adorned with every precious gem; as the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God is, in figure, similarly adorned. So, neither could Satan's primeval beauty, as beyond earthly conception, be described but by joining together incongruous imagery borrowed from the earth; though only a shadowy sense of glory may rest on the mind from his walking in the midst of the stones of fire.
Thus we see Satan using all the forces of this world—its rule and order, its religion and its commerce—to blind the eyes of the lost to its ruin. Only the grace that came by Jesus Christ can open the eyes of the blind. Infidelity and the absorbing power of Mammon are leading men on to destruction. But the worst form of idolatry is yet to be developed. The world is preparing for the man of sin. By means of commerce evil spreads, and the great manipulator of this world's forces brings all together and mixes or crystallizes them in the golden cup of great Babylon.
But while Satan is heading all up that may conjointly oppose the manifestation of the Son, is there to be no divine testimony to the truth? was the prince and god of this world to have his Babel, his Egypt and Assyria, his Babylon and his Tire in time past, and no place or city to be for God? Nay, not so. God had His city, His Jerusalem, which, though now under judgment for her sins, will rise again when all that expresses the power and malice of Satan will be judged and no more seen. From the root of Jesse comes forth a Branch Who vindicates the righteousness and judgment of God—the faithful and true Witness, for Whose sake God retains and watches over Jerusalem, and will yet make her the witness of His truth and glory.
But before the earth rejoices in that bright day, a fearful manifestation of the pride and opposition of man will be seen; and God will send a strong delusion on the inhabitants of the earth which will bind them as with fetters—a judgment on the earth before the eternal judgment. All that springs from the world as a system is in opposition to God. Power (which was given of God) was strengthened by idolatry, and idolatry enforced by power. But the clay mixes not with the iron. Democracy and all the evil passions of men are rising: rule, and order, and men are like a troubled sea; and the rulers, fearing what may be, and hoping to stave it off, bow to them. Power is spreading among the masses, and all are becoming not less antagonistic, but more indifferent, to the truth. This, in its turn opens the door for infidelity; and then is the last phase of man—worship of man as God—the end of that pride and independence first seen at Babel.
Meanwhile to draw away man's attention from eternal things, the open instrument is commerce, and the lust of gain dominates the vast majority; and the denial of God, in various ways, like a black cloud, is settling down thick and fast on Christendom.
Yet, is there no testimony at this present time, in the increasing darkness? Yes, God has a city, a city which has the foundations. The past Jerusalem had not. Abraham saw one which had. Believers know Him Who is the foundation, and they are the living stones, and the city is from above, called the holy city, the new Jerusalem. There are faithful now, as there were righteous in the times of the prophets. The testimony is not without witnesses, feeble though they are. But he that overcomes shall be clothed in white raiment, and reign with Christ. R. B.
(Concluded).