““How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, You who weakened the nations! For you have said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation On the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.’”Isaiah 14:12-14 NKJV
Reflection: why does God hate a prideful heart?
We are familiar with the complete opposites of light and dark. It is simple to validate for ourselves that they cannot coexist. And, it is also simple to validate which one is the stronger one. Where there is light, darkness has to flee. And in a way, we can apply the same principle to pride and fear of the Lord. And, it is pretty easy to understand that pride is “of the flesh”, while fear of the Lord is “of the Spirit”. The very first temptation was of pride as we can read about in Genesis 3. The serpent tempting Eve with fruit that God had clearly forbidden. So why did Eve ignore God’s command? Let’s read it.
“Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”” Genesis 3:1-5 NKJV. The lie, the false promise that this fruit would “make them like God”. This was the very reason why Satan the devil’s was cast out of heaven, and has remained at war with God ever since.
It is interesting to read the echo of this same temptation, this image of the heart of Lucifer, described in Isaiah 14. While the prophecy is about the “magnificent” king of Babylon, even called “Lucifer”, we see the character of the devil himself in these verses. That, in a way, this evil king had almost personified the devil. We see his wish described as “For you have said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation On the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.’”Isaiah 14:12-14 NKJV. Therefore, the God Almighty, the Lord of hosts, would bring him down, “Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, To the lowest depths of the Pit.” Isaiah 14:15 NKJV. We can see this fulfilled in history with the fall of the king, his empire and city of Babylon.
But what really struck me today were the parallels between Genesis 3 and Isaiah 14, first of the temptation in the garden, and this prideful, magnificent king of Babylon. And, we can easily draw parallels to the time of Jesus and the religious leaders who had built a synagogue which Jesus called the synagogue of Satan”. And, of course, this imagery stretches to our time, and all the way to the end times, read Revelations 18-19. We see godless “kings” rise in our time, with the same ideology as what Isaiah wrote about, whether they are kings of countries and landmass, kings over faith and religion, or even kings of technology, which is perhaps even more relevant for us today. The pride of the flesh still there, lurking in all of us, and leads to the fall of man.
Paul wrote “I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.” Romans 7:21-25 NKJV.
And, to avoid falling for the temptations of the flesh, Paul therefore wrote “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.” Romans 8:1 NKJV