Subject: To whom is Isaiah 14 directed? |
Bible Note: Lucifer is not Satan. The context into which verse 12 fits begins in verse 4 where God told Isaiah to “take up this parable against the king of Babylon, and say, ‘How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased!’” The chest-pounding boast of the impudent potentate was: I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; and I will sit upon the mount of congregation, in the uttermost parts of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High (vss. 13-14). Nowhere within the context of Isaiah 14 is Satan depicted as Lucifer. In fact, quite the opposite is true. The Babylonian ruler was to die and be buried—fates neither of which Satan is destined to endure. The king was called “a man” whose body was to be eaten by worms, but Satan, as a spirit, has no physical body. The monarch lived in and abided over a “golden city” (vs. 4), but Satan is the monarch of a kingdom of spiritual darkness (cf. Ephesians 6:12). And so on. If you want to believe Satan is Lucifer, you have freedom to do that - but don't blame it on the Bible. In Christ, SRP |