"Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 explicitly link the start of the cosmic struggle to God’s sanctuary.
José Bertolucci has shown how in each passage there is a movement from the local, historical realm of earthly kings to the heavenly supernatural realm describing Lucifer/Satan and the rise of the great controversy.....has disclosed this conceptual shift in Ezekiel 28—from earthly “prince” (Hebrew nagîd, the king of Tyre, verses 1-10) to cosmic “king” (melek, the supernatural ruler of Tyre, Satan himself, verses 11-19), whose judgment as fallen cherub comes at the climactic center of the whole book. The origin of evil in Lucifer the covering cherub is solidly supported from Scripture.
These portraits of the first cosmic battle are intricately linked with the heavenly sanctuary, and suffused with sanctuary imagery. Ezekiel 28:14 introduces the antagonist as “the anointed cherub who covers.” In the light of the parallel with its earthly sanctuary counterpart this language ushers us into the Holy of Holies of the heavenly sanctuary, “the holy mountain of God.” Isaiah 14:13 calls it the “mount of the congregation”—implying the original worship function of the sanctuary before sin. The heavenly sanctuary, on the holy mountain, was the location of God’s throne where unfallen beings assembled to worship Him.
It was there, in heaven’s Holy of Holies, that Lucifer first tainted the universe with sin. Ezekiel 28:16 states that he did an abundance of “trading” (Hebrew rekullah). Ezekiel draws on a verb that signifies going from person to person dealing in goods or in gossip. Unexplained pride and jealousy led Lucifer to slander God’s character, misrepresenting Him as unfair and autocratic. Eventually he openly revolted against his humble Overlord. The great war had begun, a cosmic war over worship that started at the place of worship—the celestial sanctuary.
Cast out to this earth, as Revelation 12 also depicts, Lucifer “defiled [his] sanctuaries by the multitude of [his] iniquities” (Eze. 28:18). In a twofold battle strategy he both attacks God and His loyal sanctuary worshippers, and operates rival, counterfeit sanctuaries.
Using a serpent, he instigates on earth the same moral conflict he started in the heavenly sanctuary. His location at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is no coincidence.
The language of Genesis 1 and 2 points toward the Garden of Eden as the earthly counterpart of the heavenly sanctuary.
We could list many more similarities. But it seems clear that Satan’s assault on Adam and Eve occurs at a place that is the Holy of Holies of the earthly sanctuary, “the midst of the garden” (Gen. 2:9). His location is consistent with his behavior in the heavenly sanctuary. So is his strategy, slandering God as arbitrary and manipulative. His gossip wins over Adam and Eve, and the great controversy enters human existence.
In their sinful state Adam and Eve are no longer able to meet with God face to face in the garden. The garden gate becomes the new place of worship. And there, as before, the great controversy rages—again over the issue of worship. Infused with Lucifer’s pride and with gossip about God, Cain will not worship as God prescribes. His rebellion, like Lucifer’s, leads to violence, even murder. The battle rages in the story of Cain and Abel: the issue is true worship, and the battlefield is the place of worship, the sanctuary.
--Leviticus 16, high point of the Hebrew sanctuary rituals that contrasts Yahweh and Azazel, protagonist and antagonist in the cosmic drama;
--or Job 1 and 2, featuring the adversary scoffing in the divine assembly (Job 1:6; 2:1);
--or Zechariah, where Satan as malicious witness accuses Joshua in a sanctuary setting (Zech. 3).
Throughout salvation history the counterfeit challenges the true—by frontal attack, by distortion, or through separate, rival sanctuaries that often remarkably resembled God’s sanctuary designs, but with
two conspicuous differences.
Yahweh Himself gave the sacrifices of Israel’s sanctuary (“I have given it to you” [Lev. 17:11]), to propitiate His own wrath. These sacrifices pointed forward to God’s self-sacrificing gift of the Lamb—His Son—to atone for the sins of the world.
Thus Satan’s counterfeit sanctuaries continued his gossip against God by distorting two essential features that revealed the heart of God’s character and the true nature of worship—
--Yahweh’s holiness in distinction to human sinfulness,
--and Yahweh’s covenant love in providing for a substitute and mediator to bridge the gap between His holiness and human sinfulness.
Calvary was the altar of the heavenly sanctuary (Heb. 8:3-5; 13:10), where Christ’s death was as antitype of the paschal lamb (John 1:29), as well as the fulfillment of all the Old Testament’s prescribed sacrificial services (Ps. 40:6-8; Heb. 7-10). Victorious in battle, Christ sits as king/priest in the heavenly sanctuary (Heb. 1:3; 8:1).
But while “D-Day” of the cosmic war is over, “V- [Victory] Day” is still future. He is seated “in heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion” (Eph. 1:20, 21). But His church still wrestles “against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12). The rule of the antichrist, or “man of sin,” predicted in Bible prophecy constitutes the period of “mop-up” operations between the “D-Day” and “V -Day” of the cosmic battle.
When the struggle against slander, the long continuing controversy over character, is finally ended, only the battle scars remain—nailprints in the hands of the Chief Commander of heaven’s forces—forever bearing witness to the falsehood of that original gossip, by showing that “God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16)."
R.Davidson
José Bertolucci has shown how in each passage there is a movement from the local, historical realm of earthly kings to the heavenly supernatural realm describing Lucifer/Satan and the rise of the great controversy.....has disclosed this conceptual shift in Ezekiel 28—from earthly “prince” (Hebrew nagîd, the king of Tyre, verses 1-10) to cosmic “king” (melek, the supernatural ruler of Tyre, Satan himself, verses 11-19), whose judgment as fallen cherub comes at the climactic center of the whole book. The origin of evil in Lucifer the covering cherub is solidly supported from Scripture.
These portraits of the first cosmic battle are intricately linked with the heavenly sanctuary, and suffused with sanctuary imagery. Ezekiel 28:14 introduces the antagonist as “the anointed cherub who covers.” In the light of the parallel with its earthly sanctuary counterpart this language ushers us into the Holy of Holies of the heavenly sanctuary, “the holy mountain of God.” Isaiah 14:13 calls it the “mount of the congregation”—implying the original worship function of the sanctuary before sin. The heavenly sanctuary, on the holy mountain, was the location of God’s throne where unfallen beings assembled to worship Him.
It was there, in heaven’s Holy of Holies, that Lucifer first tainted the universe with sin. Ezekiel 28:16 states that he did an abundance of “trading” (Hebrew rekullah). Ezekiel draws on a verb that signifies going from person to person dealing in goods or in gossip. Unexplained pride and jealousy led Lucifer to slander God’s character, misrepresenting Him as unfair and autocratic. Eventually he openly revolted against his humble Overlord. The great war had begun, a cosmic war over worship that started at the place of worship—the celestial sanctuary.
Cast out to this earth, as Revelation 12 also depicts, Lucifer “defiled [his] sanctuaries by the multitude of [his] iniquities” (Eze. 28:18). In a twofold battle strategy he both attacks God and His loyal sanctuary worshippers, and operates rival, counterfeit sanctuaries.
Gossip and War in Eden
Scripture opens with Lucifer already fallen, lurking in Eden.Using a serpent, he instigates on earth the same moral conflict he started in the heavenly sanctuary. His location at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is no coincidence.
The language of Genesis 1 and 2 points toward the Garden of Eden as the earthly counterpart of the heavenly sanctuary.
We could list many more similarities. But it seems clear that Satan’s assault on Adam and Eve occurs at a place that is the Holy of Holies of the earthly sanctuary, “the midst of the garden” (Gen. 2:9). His location is consistent with his behavior in the heavenly sanctuary. So is his strategy, slandering God as arbitrary and manipulative. His gossip wins over Adam and Eve, and the great controversy enters human existence.
In their sinful state Adam and Eve are no longer able to meet with God face to face in the garden. The garden gate becomes the new place of worship. And there, as before, the great controversy rages—again over the issue of worship. Infused with Lucifer’s pride and with gossip about God, Cain will not worship as God prescribes. His rebellion, like Lucifer’s, leads to violence, even murder. The battle rages in the story of Cain and Abel: the issue is true worship, and the battlefield is the place of worship, the sanctuary.
Rival Sanctuaries Everywhere
A brief review of Satan’s continuingly defiant challenge may include--Leviticus 16, high point of the Hebrew sanctuary rituals that contrasts Yahweh and Azazel, protagonist and antagonist in the cosmic drama;
--or Job 1 and 2, featuring the adversary scoffing in the divine assembly (Job 1:6; 2:1);
--or Zechariah, where Satan as malicious witness accuses Joshua in a sanctuary setting (Zech. 3).
Throughout salvation history the counterfeit challenges the true—by frontal attack, by distortion, or through separate, rival sanctuaries that often remarkably resembled God’s sanctuary designs, but with
Yahweh Himself gave the sacrifices of Israel’s sanctuary (“I have given it to you” [Lev. 17:11]), to propitiate His own wrath. These sacrifices pointed forward to God’s self-sacrificing gift of the Lamb—His Son—to atone for the sins of the world.
Thus Satan’s counterfeit sanctuaries continued his gossip against God by distorting two essential features that revealed the heart of God’s character and the true nature of worship—
--Yahweh’s holiness in distinction to human sinfulness,
--and Yahweh’s covenant love in providing for a substitute and mediator to bridge the gap between His holiness and human sinfulness.
Calvary was the altar of the heavenly sanctuary (Heb. 8:3-5; 13:10), where Christ’s death was as antitype of the paschal lamb (John 1:29), as well as the fulfillment of all the Old Testament’s prescribed sacrificial services (Ps. 40:6-8; Heb. 7-10). Victorious in battle, Christ sits as king/priest in the heavenly sanctuary (Heb. 1:3; 8:1).
But while “D-Day” of the cosmic war is over, “V- [Victory] Day” is still future. He is seated “in heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion” (Eph. 1:20, 21). But His church still wrestles “against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12). The rule of the antichrist, or “man of sin,” predicted in Bible prophecy constitutes the period of “mop-up” operations between the “D-Day” and “V -Day” of the cosmic battle.
When the struggle against slander, the long continuing controversy over character, is finally ended, only the battle scars remain—nailprints in the hands of the Chief Commander of heaven’s forces—forever bearing witness to the falsehood of that original gossip, by showing that “God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16)."
R.Davidson
