EZEKIEL, ISAIAH, & REVELATION
Then war broke out in Heaven.
Michael and his angels fought against the dragon,
and the dragon and his angels fought back.
—Revelation 21:7
As the boy waited for the man to find his place, he stared off into the distance to watch the trees dancing in the wind.
“Here it is,” said the man, opening to Isaiah and skimming through the chapters.
The boy watched the summer unfolding a little longer as the man found his place.
“Here we go. And just for context, Isaiah is a prophet who began having visions of God and became a messenger for the people of Israel. During his time, the Israelites were being threatened by the western expansion of the Assyrian empire, a dependency of Babylonia. I only mention this to say that the prophecy I’m about to read describes a message Isaiah receives from the Lord about the destruction of Babylon. Specifically, this part here is a taunt over the defeat of the king of Babylon.” And with that, the old man read aloud:
“In the place of the dead there is excitement over your arrival. The spirits of world leaders and mighty kings long dead stand up to see you. With one voice they all cry out, ‘Now you are as weak as we are! Your might and power were buried with you. The sound of the harp in your palace has ceased. Now maggots are your sheet, and worms your blanket.’”567
“Okay, what does this have to do with Satan?” said the boy, his attention waning.
“Listen to this next part, where Isaiah turns his focus from the Earthly realm toward the heavenly realm,” said the man, reading aloud again:
“How you are fallen from Heaven, O shining star, son of the morning! You have been thrown down to the earth, you who destroyed the nations of the world.
“For you said to yourself, ‘I will ascend to Heaven and set my throne above God’s stars. I will preside on the mountain of the gods far away in the north. I will climb to the highest heavens and be like the Most High.’
“Instead, you will be brought down to the place of the dead, down to its lowest depths. Everyone there will stare at you and ask, ‘Can this be the one who shook the earth and made the kingdoms of the world tremble? Is this the one who destroyed the world and made it into a wasteland? Is this the king who demolished the world’s greatest cities and had no mercy on his prisoners?’”568
“Then He resumes talking about the Earthly realm again,” said the man, reading on:
“The kings of the nations lie in stately glory, each in his own tomb, but you will be thrown out of your grave like a worthless branch. Like a corpse trampled underfoot, you will—”
“Is that it?” said the boy. “Where’s the part about Satan?”
“That was about Satan, my boy. Hidden in the text about the king of Babylon is an allusion to Satan’s rebellion, trying to set his throne above God’s stars. Didn’t you catch it?”
“I caught what you read, but God begins by saying it was about the king of Babylon, and He ends by saying it was about the king of Babylon. There was no mention of Satan anywhere in there. This just seems to be a metaphor for a guy whose ego got so big he considered himself a god, even above God, so the real God brought him back down to Earth by killing him off somehow.”
“Yes, well, that’s admittedly the feeling of some,” said the man, “sure. But many Christians believe this verse is a subtle allusion to the rebellion that took place in Heaven before Satan was thrown down to Earth, as it says here.”
The boy raised an eyebrow. “But we saw what happened in Genesis. Satan said, ‘You should try some of that fruit.’ And Eve said, ‘Sure, why not.’ Then God got upset and kicked everyone out. That’s it. The serpent went slithering away on its belly. There wasn’t any grand rebellion with other angels mentioned.”
“Well, it wasn’t mentioned there per se,” said the man, “but many take this to be a description of unseen, unmentioned events in Heaven around the time.”
“Mhm,” said the boy. “And what was the verse in Ezekiel you mentioned? I think we’d better review that one too. With context please. Clearly, it’s important when pulling random quotes from other books of the Bible without some background.”
“Of course, of course,” said the man, flipping back to the Table of Contents. “Ezekiel gives us a bit more detail into the rebellion as well.” He ran his fingers down the page in search of Ezekiel until he found it.
The boy stared back into the trees and felt the breeze on his face while the man was searching for the verse he intended to read.
“Ezekiel was also a priest and a prophet who recorded first-person visions and revelations he received from the Lord,” said the man, skimming the chapters to find his place. “What I’m about to read was a vision in which God shows Ezekiel the downfall of Tyre, a neighboring city of Jerusalem. The Lord tells Ezekiel to ‘sing this funeral song for the king of Tyre.’ Here, listen,” said the man, reading aloud again:
“You were the model of perfection, full of wisdom and exquisite in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God. Your clothing was adorned with every precious stone, red carnelian, pale-green peridot, white moonstone, blue-green beryl, onyx, green jasper, blue lapis lazuli, turquoise, and emerald, all beautifully crafted for you and set in the finest gold. They were given to you on the day you were created.
“I ordained and anointed you as the mighty angelic guardian. You had access to the holy mountain of God and walked among the stones of fire. You were blameless in all you did from the day you were created until the day evil was found in you. Your rich commerce led you to violence, and you sinned. So I banished you in disgrace from the mountain of God. I expelled you, O mighty guardian, from your place among the stones of fire.
“Your heart was filled with pride because of all your beauty. Your wisdom was corrupted by your love of splendor. So I threw you to the ground and exposed you to the curious gaze of kings.
“You defiled your sanctuaries with your many sins and your dishonest trade. So I brought fire out from within you, and it consumed you. I reduced you to ashes on the ground in the sight of all who were watching. All who knew you are appalled at your fate. You have come to a terrible end, and you will exist no more.”569
The boy furrowed his brow. “I take it this was another oppressing ruler?”
“Yes, exactly,” said the man, flipping back a page and running his finger down a few lines. “Tyre is believed to be one of the oldest cities on the Mediterranean coast. The rulers there had a relationship with Jerusalem around the time of David and Solomon. Earlier in the text, Ezekiel tells us that Tyre has rejoiced over the fall of Jerusalem by saying, ‘Ha! She who was the gateway to the rich trade routes to the east has been broken, and I am the heir! Because she has been made desolate, I will become wealthy!’570 But more importantly, I’m pointing out those direct references to the garden of Eden, the mountain of God, and an angelic guardian. Surely you can’t deny that much, can you?”
The boy squinted his eyes before shaking his head slowly. “I don’t know, man. I hear you, but like, why would angels be covered with stones? They’re not even physical beings. Meanwhile, kings are notorious for covering themselves in jewels. Isn’t it more likely ‘the garden of God’ was a metaphor for the paradise the king had created for himself? On Earth though. I have to imagine kings can live a pretty sweet life before they start to take it for granted.
“I feel like the reference to the king of Tyre being a ‘guardian’ is more in the sense that they had an alliance and were supposed to look out for each other. In the beginning, he was blameless in his ways, but then he kicked Jerusalem when they were down and took advantage out of greed. So God was like, ‘You were on top of the mountain, but then you screwed My people, so I kicked you off.’
“And that line about dishonest trade leading to violence? Who would Satan have been trading with? Was he a spiritual being selling physical diamonds to other spiritual beings, and they got in a fight over it? I’m not really seeing the Satan angle in either of these. I think they’re just two poetic metaphors describing what was going on in those times.
“Considering ‘God’ slash Ezekiel slash Isaiah never actually referred to these people as Satan, like the way Satan is referred to in other stories, I don’t think we should just go around connecting dots that may not necessarily be there. I think that’s the danger in referencing different books and connecting dots out of context that look like dots but might not actually be dots, ya know? These guys seem to be describing tyrannical kings whose egos blew up so much that they saw themselves as gods, so God humbled them. But that doesn’t mean they’re alluding to events in Heaven. That seems like a stretch of the imagination we’re not supposed to make in my eyes.”
“Well,” the man cleared his throat, “I’m willing to concede that what I mentioned is an interpretation. But it’s another interpretation held by many, I’ll say that much. But I’ve heard your argument as well.
“To be honest, though, without these two hints into Satan’s background, we don’t get much information on Satan’s story from the Old Testament at all. He makes only two more brief appearances571 after Genesis and Job.”
The boy gave a slow nod. “Do we need to go over those as well?”
The man shook his head. “Probably not worth the time in those cases. They’re brief mentions where his nature is synonymous with what’s seen in Job, as an adversary or tempter, but not much more insight into his background is given. The next time we see him appear is in the Gospels, testing Jesus in the wilderness.”
“Mhm. I will just point out though,” said the boy, “that if you’re reading these snippets as describing a rebellion, based on the relationship between God and Satan we see in Job, Satan would have had to ask permission to throw a rebellion.”
The man furrowed his brow. “What do you mean?”
“Well, we see Satan is bound by the limitations and permissions God grants him when it comes to Job. That’s what I meant when it’s not a war when one side has to ask permission from the other to attack. I don’t see why their relationship would be any different in these other stories. So I don’t really understand how we’re supposed to read into the whole rebellion thing.
“Like what? Satan takes his usual seat at a cabinet meeting, and he and God have a little back-and-forth. Then Satan proposes throwing a rebellion, and God says, ‘Okay, but just don’t overthrow Me.’ So Satan abides by that rule the same way he did when God said, ‘Just don’t kill Job’? Is that how it goes down? It doesn’t really add up.”
“I guess I never saw that particular angle,” said the man, stroking his beard as he considered his stance. “I didn’t want to open this can of worms, but I think we’d better visit Revelation. The text clearly spells out a war in Heaven there.”
The boy swallowed as the man flipped back to the Table of Contents another time. “For context, the book of Revelation is probably the most complex book to understand. There are a few differing opinions of what may be unfolding overall, but the gist of it is that it starts off with the author describing a vision of the risen Jesus, who stands among seven burning candles that represent seven local churches in Asia Minor.
“Jesus knows the churches are suffering persecution and need encouragement to persevere, so He calls on John to write letters of encouragement to each of them. The message is that the dangers of compromise in faith are greater than the threat of persecution, but the rewards of remaining faithful to Christ are far greater also. He delivers a promise for a united Heaven and Earth for those who turn to Him, and the damnation of all those who don’t.
“Some believe the book of Revelation contains a secret code that predicts the end of the world, but at its core, it’s a message for those facing persecution and hardship that shows how every kingdom will eventually become like Babylon. The book is filled with symbolic imagery that points to the return of Christ as the king of kings, where He will save His people and usher in the new creation. This promise is meant to inspire generations of God’s people to remain faithful amidst the persecution and hardship they may be going through.
“Now, there are a couple of mentions of Satan between different chapters, so I’ll just read the text pertaining to what’s relevant here.”
“Alright,” said the boy. “I’m listening.”
And with that, the man began to read:
A great sign appeared in Heaven. A woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth.
Then another sign appeared in Heaven. An enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads. Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child the moment he was born.
She gave birth to a son, a male child, who ‘will rule all the nations with an iron scepter.’ And her child was snatched up to God and to His throne.
The woman fled into the wilderness to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days.
Then war broke out in Heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in Heaven. The great dragon was hurled down, that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.572
“Wow,” said the boy. “Lot goin’ on there. How does all this play into what you were saying before?”
“Here’s the best interpretation I can offer you,” said the man. “The woman represents the spirit of the church, who bore Christ into this world. Being clothed with the sun designates the heavenly kingdom of God, with the feebler light of the moon she stands upon, representing the ever-changing belief systems that oppose the Christian faith. The crown of twelve stars upon her head represents the twelve tribes of Israel, while the pain of giving birth depicts the struggles endured by Israel leading up to Christ emerging on the scene.
“The dragon, as you know, is the emblem of Satan, and here it represents the heathen Roman empire, and all of its agents who governed on Earth. It’s red for the color of bloodshed, suitable for the characteristic practices of the Roman empire. The seven heads, ten horns, and seven crowns depict some combination of rulers or provinces of Rome, though who or what exactly each represents is debated. The third of the stars swept down from the heavens shows the persecution or seduction of many of the ministers and teachers of Christianity by pagan officials.
“The dragon himself keeps a watchful eye on the woman so that it may devour the child the moment it’s born. It’s a similar theme to the one seen in Exodus, where Pharaoh mandates that all Hebrew boys be killed, or the order Herod gives to execute all children under the age of two in Bethlehem in an attempt to kill the son of Mary. I believe the child being snatched up to God here is a reference to the resurrection, in that Death hoped to devour Christ, but instead, he was restored to God’s throne
“The war that broke out ‘in Heaven’ is to be understood as those persecutions the primitive church endured in the early years. The pagans were, of course, in the end, routed in this battle. Christianity overcame them by preaching the gospel, holding onto faith, and having patience. Eventually, paganism found no place in the same territories where the church resided. So paganism, and Satan, who had long governed in Rome, were hurled out of all power and authority, along with all the idol gods who were worshipped, and all of their idolatrous priests and rulers, putting an end to the power of heathen emperors.”
The boy nodded. “Okay, so this was something like a poetic metaphor using a dragon to describe Rome. But these weren’t supposed to represent actual events that occurred with the Satan figure we’ve seen so far. Satan himself didn’t lead a rebellion in Heaven in the same sense that he slithered into the garden, or that he sat with the divine council, or that he had that little chatsy with Jesus in the desert.”
The man cleared his throat. “Well, I suppose not exactly in that sense, no. But in another sense, it mirrors exactly what was going on in the spiritual realm, as Satan’s influence pervaded Rome and was waging war on the spirit of Christianity.”
“Mhm,” said the boy. “In a sense. I kinda see what you’re saying. But also, there still wasn’t an actual war in Heaven in the sense that Satan was throwing a rebellion against God. The point I’m trying to make is that Satan is the adversary of humanity, acting in the Earthly realm, but he’s never been trying to overthrow God. Obviously, there’s room for confusion when you read these verses out of context, especially when you weave them with Ezekiel and Isaiah out of context, but as soon as you read them all within the background in which they’re written, it becomes clear that Satan has always been playing the role God designed him to play, on Earth, under God’s influence and control. At least that’s what I’m seeing anyway.”
“Well,” said the man, “he’s the adversary of God in the sense that he’s opposing God’s chosen people.”
The boy gave a nod. “Alright, just do a little thought experiment for me, will ya?”
“Sure,” said the man.
“Hypothetically, if you felt so inclined, do you think you could overthrow God?”
“Well, I would never—”
“Of course not,” said the boy. “How can you overthrow someone that’s all-seeing, all-knowing, all-powerful, and exists in and throughout everything and remains unseen to everyone? That’d be like trying to strangle the wind. There’s nothing to overthrow. And even if you felt so inclined, the moment you set out to do so, God would see it coming and could remove you from existence with the snap of His fingers. There’s no motivation to try and overthrow someone like that. Let’s give Satan a little credit in that he’s more cunning than any beast of the field. He’s got a silver tongue that can infect the minds of even the greatest men.”
“And what’s your point with all this?” said the man.
“My point is that Satan is, at the very least, a pretty sharp dragon. So why would something blessed with that kind of divine knowledge and power be so foolish as to try and overthrow his Creator, knowing very well that God could uncreate him with the snap of His fingers? It’s suicide.”
The man gave a slow nod. “Alright. My turn. Here’s a little thought experiment for you. It has to do with Satan’s ultimate demise. I’ll spare you the reading in place of a summary, but in Revelation, John also goes on to prophesize about a future in which an angel comes down from Heaven holding a great chain. He locks ‘that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan,’ as it says, into an abyss for a thousand years. He’s set him free for a short time after, when Satan will raise up an army, but then fire will rain down from Heaven and devour it, and Satan himself will be cast into a burning lake of sulfur.
“Now my question for you, my boy, is why would our just and loving God, if Satan is merely an obedient ticket cop for the divine council as you suppose, punish Satan with eternal torture in a lake of fire?”
The boy raised a finger in the air. “Okay, first of all, lemme just say that I’ve changed my stance on the ticket cop theory. Slightly anyway. That was before I knew Satan was also a dragon and the serpent in the garden. But I do still think he’s designed to play a role. And based on the assumption that this angel is supposed to be Christ... Am I right there?”
“That’s what many presume,” said the man, “yes.”
“Well, based on the assumption that Christ was God and this is Christ, then God always had Satan on a chain, just like we saw in Job. Now He’s just pulling the chain a little tighter and locking him into this ‘abyss,’ I think you called it? But that just supports my claim that Satan was never a rebellious threat to God to begin with. God could have yanked that chain into the abyss at any time. But he allowed Satan to roam around for a while, serving his purpose. But I think in order to understand Satan’s end, we have to go back to his beginning.”
“Uh huh,” said the man. “And where are you going with this?”
“Back to Eden, of course,” said the boy.
“I figured that much,” said the man. “I meant, where are you going with this?”