What Is the Origin of Satan?

 •  9 min. read  •  grade level: 10
 
The fullest light on this mysterious subject is presented to us in highly symbolical language in Ezek. 28, where we read of the Prince of Tyrus and the King of Tyrus, the latter very definitely being a description of Satan, the former his human understudy. Satan ever seeks expression through human agents, hence the connection between the Prince of Tyrus and the King of Tyrus in this Chapter. Any agent of Satan is marked by possessing the same traits that mark Satan himself.
So we find the Prince of Tyrus using very extravagant blasphemous language. This is seen in the rebuke administered to him: " Because thine heart is lifted up, and thou hast said, I am a God, I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas; yet thou art a man, and not God, though thou set thine heart as the heart of God " (Ezek. 28:22Son of man, say unto the prince of Tyrus, Thus saith the Lord God; Because thine heart is lifted up, and thou hast said, I am a God, I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas; yet thou art a man, and not God, though thou set thine heart as the heart of God: (Ezekiel 28:2)).
This is what Satan aimed at, to be God, and sit in the place of supreme power, and this is what his human understudy aims at.
The language the Prince of Tyrus used reminds us of the pretentions of the erstwhile paper-hanger, Adolph Hitler. He too regards himself as a man of destiny, and he is almost, if not quite, regarded as a god. One cannot understand the phenomenal meteoric rise to such immense power and success apart from satanic power. His schemes are too grandiose for any human mind
In India I met a lady doctor, the daughter of a Polish rabbi, a strong character, and an earnest Christian. She loathed Hitler and all his works. Yet she told me that when in Berlin she heard him three or four times. She would begin by feeling very antipathetic, but before long she would be swept off her feet by some weird supernatural power, and could not release herself from this malign power as long as she was in his presence. For the first three or four minutes he would speak like an ordinary man, and then his face would take on a different and terrible look, and in an instant the audience would be gripped by a power which she and many others believe to be satanic.
It is worth recounting this experience as illustrating the link between the Prince of Tyrus and the King of Tyrus (Satan). The Prince of Tyrus was clearly a man. The divine judgment upon him was that he should die the death of the uncircumcised at the hands of strangers.
But when we come to the description of the origin of the King of Tyrus, we can only come to the conclusion that it describes the origin of Satan himself
" Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. Thou hast been in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the emerald, and the carbuncle and gold; the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day thou wast created " (Ezek. 28:12,1312Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord God; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. 13Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. (Ezekiel 28:12‑13)).
Then we are told he was the anointed cherub that covereth, that is that defendeth, a word used for the cherubim covering the mercy seat. He walked upon the holy mount of God. He was perfect in all his ways till iniquity was found in him.
" Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee " (Ezek. 28:1717Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee. (Ezekiel 28:17)).
Could this be a description of anything but the fall of Satan? He was evidently the highest creature that God in His wisdom created. Alas! pride was his ruin, and pride is designated in Scripture as " The condemnation of the Devil " (1 Tim. 3: 6).
Our Lord described him as a murderer and liar."Ye are of your father the Devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it " (John 8:4444Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. (John 8:44)).
This then we believe is the Scripture revelation to us of the origin of Satan, and his fall. The details are few and scanty, but what we do know is very impressive and awe-inspiring. For such a wonderful creation of God to fall from his high estate, carrying with him a mighty following of angels, is terrible to contemplate.
We shall see now how Satan's own temptation and fall determined the manner of his approach to our first parents, and even to our Lord Himself when he dared to tempt Him. SIN IN GOD'S UNIVERSE BEFORE MAN'S FALL
The condition of this earth as depicted in Gen. 1:22And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. (Genesis 1:2) is, "The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep."
It is clear that the earth was not in this condition when first created, for we read, " For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God Himself that formed the earth and made it; He hath established it, He created it not in vain [not as waste, N. Trans.], He formed it to be inhabited " (Isa. 45:1818For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the Lord; and there is none else. (Isaiah 45:18)).
Gen. 1 describes the work of reconstruction and repair to fit this earth for the reception and residence of man. Evidently there must have been something catastrophic to account for the condition of this earth as described in Genesis 1:22And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. (Genesis 1:2). What was it? Does Scripture give us any light as to this?
It has been suggested that the fall of Satan brought about the ruin of this planet. This suggestion has been largely received in certain circles. At the best it is pure speculation, and the writer has always thought it to be most highly improbable.
Another suggestion has been made with more show of evidence. Scientists teach that an ice age occurs every ten thousand years or thereabouts, when all life, be it animal or vegetable, perishes. There are certain evidences that favor this idea. Glaciers all over the cold parts of the earth—Switzerland, Canada, Siberia, China, Northern India, etc.—testify to a great ice age. That there should be fossil remains in the arctic regions of Hudson's Bay Territory of a tropical nature indicates that there must have been some mighty convulsion of nature in bygone ages. Again in North Siberia, a place of eternal winter, tens of thousands of the bodies of hairy elephants, animals belonging to the tropical zone, have been found embedded in the ice. All of them are seen to be facing one way, some with the very food they were eating still in their mouths, pointing to the fact that they were overwhelmed at one and the selfsame time by some extraordinary catastrophe. Since that time the ice has been the imperishable coffin in which their carcasses have been entombed, preserving their flesh, so much so that dogs will greedily eat it when offered to them. It looks as if the very axis of the world had been altered to bring about these changes.
We state these things so that we may approach the subject of Satan's temptation of our first parents without speculation, and attempting to be wise above that which is revealed.
SATAN'S TEMPTATION OF OUR FIRST PARENTS
When this earth was ready for man's creation and residence, sin was already in God's universe. Here was Satan's chance to oppose God. He approached our first parents under the guise of a serpent. We have Scripture warrant for identifying the serpent in the narrative as Satan. We read: "And the great Dragon was cast out, that old Serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole earth " (Rev. 12:99And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. (Revelation 12:9)).
"And he laid hold on the Dragon, that old Serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years " (Rev. 20:22And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, (Revelation 20:2)). " I fear, lest by any means, as the Serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should he corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ " (2 Cor. 11:33But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. (2 Corinthians 11:3)).
Many think that the serpent as originally created by God was a beautiful creature with an erect carriage, and able to express itself in language. Whether it be so, or not, whether speech was the serpent's, or Satan's in possession of the body of the serpent for his own purposes, we cannot say, but it is clear that the approach to Eve did not terrify her, as anything unusual. Up to then no sin had come into God's fair creation. Creatures were then in all the innocence and grace of sinless creation. We gather this must have been so when we are told that the fall of man involved the fall of creation..
" The creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of Him who hath subjected the same in hope " (Rom. 8:2020For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, (Romans 8:20)). Thank God, it is not always to be so, for the Scripture goes on to say in view of the advent of our Lord to reign upon the earth, " The creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God " (verse 21).
In that day our Lord says,
We are told that the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field. We must attribute this subtlety to Satan, who may have possessed the body of the serpent, and controlled its actions and speech.