As published in the chapter: “The Misdirection of the Choir Director” of
Defacing the Music: What Slips in the Grooves When God Gets Removed (2017)
Tuning Pitch Forks
The way we abuse
It, the misuse of music
Is tuned with pitch forks.
Many of you may have been waiting for me to make a certain reference to a certain association with music. I’ve spent this entire book talking about the influences and infiltrations of music: good and bad. I started off this book stating that there is no gray area in music: it is either for God or against God. It either provides a place that God can inhabit and is glorified… or not. The “or not” portion along with the list of spiritual replacements that we’ve created in music point to the father of lies who stands in direct opposition to the Father of Light: the adversary a.k.a. satan a.k.a. the devil a.k.a. lucifer.
The connection between lucifer and music is an old one, apparently. Jazz, R&B and Rap music have all inherited the nefarious title of “the devil’s music” as given by previous generations but without any real explanation. Well… there is one explanation that you may have heard amongst churched folk. Whenever I’ve had any in depth conversation about today’s music with churched folk, inevitably, one person always hits the same note: “Well, you know Lucifer was the choir director in heaven, so…”
To that statement I am replying with a resounding… So WHAT now?!! Sure, there is a foundation for that argument to be made when you see the foolishness that often goes on in church choirs, but that’s really about human organizational behavior. Folks acting foolish typically leaves the back door open for the devil to slide through in ANY setting where human beings are involved. If they went and read a book like StrengthFinder 2.0, they might just learn a thing or two about how to help people engage one another with their differing strengths. Yes. The devil is all up in the details of such division, but to say that he was the choir director in heaven is Biblically and COMPLETELY unfounded.
While I want to make a definitive point with this book regarding the evil influences of music; I refuse to do so by cosigning or aligning with groundless falsehoods. Doing so will set up the content of this book to be unjustly refuted. As such, I’d like to take some time to straight up dispel this misnomer.
So while I DO want to blame the mishaps of music on the boogie, MAN… I choose to build my case based on Biblical facts – not conjecture and hearsay.
When I first heard this statement about the choir director in heaven, much like Hip-Hop, it got my attention but not enough to really engage it. It wasn’t until I became baptized in the Word and was taught how to let it interpret itself that I began to delve into the source material of where this statement came from. The analog to that experience is, again, very similar to how I was baptized in words of poetry during my freshman year in college which then drew me into a deluge of Hip-Hop – forming the doubly-enforced foundation of this book.
Go with me, if you will to Ezekiel 28:13:
‘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 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.’
Apparently, people saw the words “tabrets” and “pipes” and got carried away. I know this for a fact because I once taught a class of pre-teens in church and challenged them to find out the scriptural basis for this choir director nonsense. Several students came back with this scripture as directed to them by misdirected parents.
Before I dispel this misdirection, allow me to allow the Bible to build.
If you were unversed in scripture or new to Christianity (sad to say, these are not as mutually exclusive as they should be), you might not get the reference to Eden at the beginning of verse 13. We should never assume things when reading Scripture. Rather, we shouldn’t add things that aren’t there based on our own knowledge. We should look for clues in the Bible that support and explain itself. SO… when it reads “Thou hast been in Eden…” we need to understand who this “thou” is.
There’s a hint in the context of chapter 13 – found in the verses that follow:
‘Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I 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.’
– Ezekiel 28:14-15
The word “cherub” means “angelic being.” Whatever this angelic being was, it was found to be perfect in its ways until iniquity was found in it. Recall that “iniquity” is another word for “sin.” Reading from verse one, we are provided even more context regarding the sin being attributed to this angelic being:
‘Son 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 28:1
In all truth, this verse is clearly addressed to a prince of Tyrus. The prophet Ezekiel was instructed to rebuke this prince who had started (ego) trippin’. Like many heathen kings of his day, the success he had garnered with the praise of the people caused him to think a little too highly of himself as he took on the title and status of a god to the people. That’s a direct attack on the throne of God! God saw those shots fired and sent back some warning shots of His own.
Ezekiel was given words from God to speak to the prince “formerly known as a man” as if he were this cherub found in Eden. Are you following, so far?
Let me ask a question… what angelic being do we know that aspired to be God and sit in His seat? I’m glad you asked! Like to hear it?… here it go!:
‘How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.’ – Isaiah 14:12-15
Do you see this language spoken by yet another prophet of God? It almost mirrors the language found in Ezekiel 28:1! Do you see how we’re allowing the Bible to interpret itself! Ain’t it grand?!! One more piece of evidence to establish who this cherub found in Eden is. Now, I could just go to Genesis and begin looking – after all, Eden is first mentioned “in the beginning”… but the name of the serpent is never given there. I’d rather go to the opposite end of the spectrum and quote a scripture from Revelation to identify this cherub once and for all:
‘And 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 12:6
And just for good measure…:
‘And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.’
– Luke 11:18
There it is! The identity of the cherub has been revealed… oh… but that’s only a PART of what this chapter is all about. Let’s stay on track! Hang in there, I’ll make this next point quickly.
So the devil was an angel in heaven named lucifer who thought he was perfect and had a covering of precious jewels. We’re told in verse 13 that the arrangement of these jewels was in an array of tabrets and pipes. This language is where people start hearing music incorrectly. Nowhere else is music or choirs referenced in this scripture or in the Bible, for that matter, as it relates to the devil.
Tabrets evoke an image of tambourines in people’s minds, apparently. Pipes, well, evoke (organ) pipes. However, IN CONTEXT of what is being spoken about (jewels and precious stones), we begin to see what these words are.
Looking up the words in the Aramaic/Hebrew language, we receive even more clarification that tabrets and pipes are “tambourines” and “grooves,” respectively. This may look like the smoking gun that I’ve just used to shoot myself in the foot but WAIT… there’s more! While it is true that when you see tabrets and pipes coupled together in other places in scripture, they are listed along with instruments that invoke musical praise – I set you up! I intentionally took “grooves” out of context from the full and complete definition of pipes to prove the dangers of lifting words out of context. Here is another “Strong” definition of pipes as it relates to the precious stones that covered lucifer; as seen from the transliteration of the Hebrew word used in Ezekiel 28:13:
Pipe: groove, socket, hole, cavity, settings; technical term relating to jeweler’s work
That makes sense, does it not? You may agree with me momentarily but for those who have held on to this untruth, you may still be unwilling to let it go… “What about the tambourines, though?!!” What about them, indeed?!! When you think of precious stones today, what comes to mind? We love to encrust jewelry such as necklaces, rings, bracelets and watches with rocks, right? Let’s look at that last entry. Where do we put rocks on a watch? Aside from putting them in the face of the watch, we put them on the bezel: the circular, segmented ring that encompasses the face of the watch. Take a moment to visualize what a diamond-encrusted bezel looks like. That, my friends, is your tambourine. Contextually, that makes more sense than throwing in musical instruments in the middle of a section of scripture that’s talking about jewels – not music.
There it is. You can continue to say lucifer was the choir director if you want; but now you will be doing so with a knowing that you are spreading a falsehood. Won’t you help me help God spread His worship-filled word in spirit and in TRUTH?!!:
‘But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.’ – John 4:23-24
#StopOverChargingYourTabret
