How Satan came to sin
Ezekiel 28:16 says:
Through your widespread trade you were filled with violence, and you sinned.
What is interesting is the fact that the word ‘trade’ is the translation of the Hebrew word ‘rakullah’.
According to the OLB to be translated as: merchandise, trade.
The printed Strong’s concordance translates it as: trade (as peddled).
(trade, such as: selling, handling, hawking, selling from door-to-door)
This does not refer to commerce in the usual sense of buying and selling therefore.
The ‘trade’ meant in this verse is: putting something up for sale, by going from door to door.
Trading in this manner is called: hawking or peddling.
According to the background of the Hebrew word for hawking it can be accepted that one praises one’s own merchandise when doing so, while speaking disparagingly of the competitor at the same time.
A detailed explanation of this interpretation is given in a separate study.
A better translation of your widespread trade would therefore be:
- by your widespread hawking (from: to hawk) / by your widespread peddling (from: to peddle) you were filled.
In view of the origin of hawking, slandering in Hebrew, this could also be translated as follows:
- by your widespread gossip, you were filled ….
An example of this ‘trade’ referred to in Ezekiel 28:16, with which Satan was occupied in heaven, is found with reference to Absalom, a son of King David.
We read in 2 Samuel 15:1-6:
In the course of time, Absalom provided himself with a chariot and horses and with fifty men to run ahead of him. He would get up early and stand by the side of the road leading to the city gate. Whenever anyone came with a complaint to be placed before the king for a decision, Absalom would call out to him, “What town are you from?” He would answer, “Your servant is from one of the tribes of Israel.” Then Absalom would say to him, “Look, your claims are valid and proper, but there is no representative of the king to hear you.” And Absalom would add, “If only I were appointed judge in the land! Then everyone who has a complaint or case could come to me and I would see that they receive justice.” Also, whenever anyone approached him to bow down before him, Absalom would reach out his hand, take hold of him and kiss him. Absalom behaved in this way toward all the Israelites who came to the king asking for justice, and so he stole the hearts of the people of Israel.
Absalom set himself up as a hawker, a peddler. He did not actually go from door to door, but he did go and stand at the place past which everyone came.
He accosted the people, presented his father, the king, in a bad light, and extolled his own virtues. And, as is indicated in verse 10, Absalom rebelled against his father David.
That is precisely what must have happened in heaven.
Satan did the rounds of the angels in heaven, speaking badly of God and promoting himself as ‘better’.
Conclusion:
A leading angel in heaven rebelled against God and became His adversary (Satan) through slander and gossip.
A warning:
Slander, gossip, is acting like the character of Satan.
One becomes an adversary of God in doing so.
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How Satan came to sin.