"How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations!" (Isaiah 14:12) In yesterday's study we found the powerful king of Babylon entering the realm of the dead to become just like all the other unbelieving dead. The pagan kings whose nations he had plundered mocked him, saying, "Now you have become just like us!" I believe verse 12 is a reference to how the king of Babylon (or all of its kings during its heydey) spoiled other nations, believing he would conquer the entire world, but all his plans came to naught because no one's power or wealth can save him from death. No one's power or wealth can save him from eternal separation from the Lord after death. Only being saved through faith in the Lord can anyone look forward to an eternity of peace and joy in the presence of the Lord.
But I also agree with all the Bible scholars who believe that verse 12 is primarily a reference to Satan himself and to how he rebelled against the Lord. In English we find the title of this entity rendered as "morning star, son of the dawn". In the original text the phrase was "light bearer", which was translated into Latin as "lux ferre", which became commonly rendered as "Lucifer". This is where the legend originated that the name given to Satan by God was Lucifer. There is, however, no proof that Satan's proper name ever was Lucifer and this one verse from the book of Isaiah is the only time that the title of "light bearer" is ever attributed to the devil. I am sure that when the Lord created him he was as beautiful as any of the other angels and I am sure he was given a job to do like all the other angels. If verse 12 is indeed a reference to Satan then it appears as if his job was to shine the light in some fashion, likely for human beings since the Bible says that all of the angels were created to minister to human beings. (Hebrews 1:14)
Isaiah 14 is the only place in the Scriptures where Satan is referred to by any sort of positive term. "Light bearer" must have been his original purpose given by God but he rejected that purpose. He did not want to serve man. He did not want to serve God either. Rather than retaining a beautiful job title such as "light bearer", he chose instead to do dark deeds for which he gained the name of "Satan", which means "accuser" or "adversary". He preferred to make himself the enemy of mankind and to accuse mankind of misdeeds to a holy God, in hopes that a holy God would destroy humans from the face of the earth and consign them to hell. We will learn, when we reach the book of Revelation, that until the end times Satan will still have access to the throne room of God. He will still be coming before Him accusing us of things we have done---and perhaps things we have not done, since he is a liar. But in Revelation he is cast out of the presence of God forever, and it will be said then that the one who has accused the people of the Lord "day and night" has been "hurled down". (Revelation 12:10)
Isaiah foretells this hurling down in our verse today when he says, "You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations!" When Satan is cast out of heaven in Revelation, he is cast down to the earth where he will make as much havoc as he can during the time known as the Great Tribulation, after which he will be judged by the Lord and cast into the lake of fire for eternity.
A great deal of prophetic end times information is contained in our current chapter and it's going to take us several days to talk about all of it. In our next session we will look at a series of statements---popularly known as the "I will" statements---made by Satan in his pride.
No comments:
Post a Comment