I SAW SATAN FALL! Series
2. A PRIDE EXAMPLE
Isaiah 14:12-15
If you grew up reading this passage in the KJV, you would no doubt remember the passage saying, “How art thou fallen O Lucifer, son of the morning?”
Walter Kaiser states that “The key word hêlēl, meaning “Howl” which would read (“Howl, son of the morning, for your fall”). It is connected with the verb to shine and so a howling star would be a “bright star,” the one which marks daybreak. The Latin term for hêlēl, became Lucifer.
But is this passage referring to the king of Babylon (referred to in verse 4), or does it refer to Satan?
Have you ever known in the Bible where a prophet has referred in one place to two different events? Say one in the near present and one in distant future? Sure. Isaiah does it a lot with speaking of the present king in Israel and of the Messiah to come.
When Isaiah prophesies that a virgin will conceive and give birth to a son… he speaks of a present unwed woman and of Mary the mother of Jesus. When Isaiah speaks of a king coming who will have the government on his shoulders he speaks of the coming king in Israel (Josiah) and again of the Messiah.
When Isaiah saw the king of Babylon, he saw a king who possessed an enormous amount of disgusting pride and arrogance. This king’s aspirations far exceeded his stature and ability, and when he did this it paralleled the ultimate ruler with an exaggerated sense of his own accomplishments: Satan.
Just as there was a long messianic line in the Old Testament, and everyone who belonged to that line were small snapshot photos of The One to come and yet not that One (like David and Solomon), so there was an anti-messianic line of kings in the line of antichrist and Satan. The king of Babylon was one in a long line of earthly kings who stood opposed to God and all that He stood for.
That’s what is happening here: Isaiah is speaking truth in a limited sense of the king of Babylon, but truth ultimately to the one who would totally fulfill this line of evil, arrogant kings. Just as the king of Babylon wanted equality with God, Satan’s desire to match God’s authority had precipitated his fall. All this served as a model for the antichrist, who would imitate Satan. And this Babylonian king, in his craving for power, was one evil king in long line of evil kings.
Ezekiel 28:11-19 is another example, where a prophecy against the king of Tyre also speaks of Satan. The prophet Daniel predicted the coming of Antiochus Epiphanes (Dan 11:29–35) who sacrificed a pig on the altar in the Jewish Temple (the abomination that causes desolation). In the midst of the passage, however, Daniel leaps over the centuries in verse 35 to link Antiochus Epiphanes to the antichrist of the final day, since they shared so much as members of the line of the anti-messiah.
Look at Isaiah 14:12-14 again. How many times does the word “I” occur in this passage?
5x. Five times the phrase “I” is used before what the Daystar, Son of the dawn dude said he was going to do.
Do you think there could possibly be a connection between the use of the word “I” and this king’s fall as well as Satan’s fall?
Prov. 16:18 Pride goes before destruction; a haughty spirit before a fall.
Prov. 29:22, A man’s pride will bring him low.
Pride blinds.
Pride destroys.
Before the fall = Pride begins in blinding.
After the fall = Pride ends in destruction.
Blinding and Destroying are each examples of Satan path.
So things in our life that lead towards:
Blindness, Falling and Destruction are what?
Are all a part of SATAN’S plan for you!
Could it be that Satan’s plan is just the opposite of God’s plan for your life? Well, we’d have to look at what is God’s plan for you?
What is the opposite of Blindness vs. Sight
Jesus was sent…“To restore sight to the blind”
What does it mean to be blind = can’t see
There are two kinds of blindness in the Bible:
1. Literal vision blind with the eyes (like blind Bartemaus), and
2. Figurative soul blindness with the heart (like the Pharisees)
When Jesus healed blind people physically, it was always to give an example of another kind of blindness. When Jesus healed people, what did he often tell people it really was that actually healed them? THEIR FAITH!
“Acc. To your FAITH be it unto you!” And they were healed!
The Pharisees said it was by Beelzebub he healed the blind.
Jesus called the Pharisees “blind guides.”
Jesus read from the scroll of Isaiah about himself (kind of cool) and said, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
So if FAITH means SEEING, then what means BLINDNESS?
Unbelief; and where unbelief is, SATAN is, and he will keep you blinded (un-faithed) as much as he can to things of God!
The Bible says, The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see [WHAT?] the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. 2 Cor. 4:4f.
Hebrews 11:5 tells us, “Now without faith it is impossible to please him, for the one who approaches God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.”
Those who seek God, approach God, want to please God must have faith!
And if you are not seeking God, it proves that you have no FAITH! It proves that you are BLIND. And it proves that you have not left Satan’s path! Satan still has a hold in your life!
2nd, What is the opposite of FALLING vs. ________________
Jesus told us the story of the wise man who built his house upon the rock and the foolish man who built his upon the sand. And it fell, and great was the FALL of it! Matthew 7:27. The wise man’s house did not fall, because it had been FOUNDED on a rock! It was established, it had a foundation, it was made stable!
Where on this planet can you find a place to build a firm foundation? I believe there is no place on this earth where you can build a foundation, nor or you to build one! I have an example: Abraham. Hebrews 11:8f
By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. 9 By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.
Abraham was looking for a city that was founded by a one of a kind architect! God Himself!
Our true position as children of God is in the heavenlies! Look at Ephesians 1 & 2
1:3 “in the heavenly realms”
1:20 “seated Christ at the right hand in the heavenly realms…”
2:6 “seated us with Christ in the heavenly realms in Christ…”
So what is the opposite of FALLING?
SEATED! You can’t fall when you are seated…and definitely cannot fall when you are seated next to Christ on the throne of God, because it’s really big!
3:10-12 His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.
Sight = faith
Seated = founded
3rd, the opposite of DE-STRUCTION vs. CON-STRUCTION
See it works just the opposite:
Before the fall = blindness.
After the fall = destruction.
Before the foundation = there has to be faith
After the foundation = there is fullness
Ephesians 3:14f
For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15 from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
1:22-23 And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.
4:11f
It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12 to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. 16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
The fullness of God’s measure is prayed for upon us
The fullness of Christ’s measure is administered upon us
The church, the body of Christ, is the fullness of Jesus in every place!
That is God’s desire for us, that is Christ’s design for us, then this must be the destiny we must work towards!
If pride is Satan’s way and it leads us to FALL because we are BLINDED and ends in DESTRUCTION,
What is the way that leads to a FIRM FOUNDATION because we have FAITH and ends in Christ’s FULLNESS?
What is the opposite of pride?
James 4:4f
…don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. 5 Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely? 6 But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:
“God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
Let’s make the application real for us today. Let’s do exactly what James tells us to do to make this stick and HUMBLE ourselves and seek God.
Let’s confess our pride, our Satanic ways and leave them behind.
Let’s ask for eye salve for our blindness!
Let’s beg for a revelation to our hearts of how we have allowed ourselves to walk the road of destruction and beg for the grace to remove us from our pride and blindness and that road and be brought back into the EVERLASTING HIGHWAY!
