"Off The Chart” Egos Series

“Off the Chart” Egos

Isaiah 14:3-20

1. Today’s joke is short, but one of my funnier jokes. I think I shared it last in 2005. Here goes.

There is an old story about a pastor leaving a church. At his farewell dinner, he tried to encourage one of the pillar members, “Don’t be so sad. The next pastor might be better than me.” She replied, “That’s what they said last time, but it keeps getting worse.”

2. Our adversary, the devil, never gets better, only worse. The devil is not a human being, but he is a person, a fallen angel. Angels are created persons who are spirit beings; they may appear as human or in a host of other ways, but they do not have physical bodies.

3. For some reason, the Bible repeatedly merges information about Satan with something more tangible. For example, in Eden, he is merged with the serpent; in our passage today, he is merged with the King of Babylon. In Ezekiel, he is merged with the King of Tyre. In Revelation, the antichrist and a dragon.

4. Today’s text about Babylon is somewhat confusing. Both Assyrian and Babylon are centered in different parts of what is now modern-day Iraq. Assyria’s capital, Nineveh, is now called Mosul. Babylon in now called Hillah. At the time of Isaiah’s prophecy, Babylon was an autonomous region under the influence of the Assyrian Empire. It had a king, but Assyria was the major world empire, not Babylon. But Babylon would arise after the time of Isaiah to conquer Assyria, and eventually Judah.

5. The reason Assyria did not amalgamate Babylon into its kingdom was mainly out of respect. Babylon was the cradle of civilization (Tower of Babel) and was revered for its culture. The city people of Babylon referred to themselves as the people of Sumer or Akkadians. The rural areas around Babylon were controlled by another people group, the Chaldeans, who would rise to power.

6. Isaiah sees the future rise of Babylon and its seemingly impossible defeat, almost overnight. But Babylon is more than a mere city; Babylon is conceptually merged with the world, a culture that is the antithesis of the Kingdom of God. Thus in Revelation we read of Mystery Babylon.

7. There is a strong thematic connection between Satan, the god of this world, and Babylon, representative of the values and perspective of the world, or, as we say, the “culture” society.

Main Idea: Isaiah prophetically recalls the fall of Lucifer while addressing God’s judgment upon Babylon. Lucifer, whose name would be changed to Satan (“the adversary”) is conceptually linked to the arrogance of the King of Babylon.

I. The King of Babylon’s Fall is AKIN to Lucifer’s Fall (3-20).

A. Babylon was the OPPRESSOR of Israel and other nations (3-8)

B. Once in the grave, the King of Babylon is NO BETTER than other dead king (9-11)

C. Isaiah EXAGGERATES the fall of Babylon’s king by weaving into and out of Lucifer’s fall (12-20).

David Guzik comments, “In the prophetic habit of speaking to both a near and a distant fulfillment, the prophet will sometimes speak more to the near or more to the distant. Here is a good example of Isaiah speaking more to the distant, ultimate fulfillment. It is true that the king of literal Babylon shined brightly among the men of his day and fell as hard and as completely as if a man were to fall from heaven. But there was a far more brightly shining being who inhabited heaven and fell even more dramatically – the king of spiritual Babylon, Satan.”

D. Ezekiel does the SAME sort of thing, referring to the King of Tyre (Ezekiel 28:11-15).

...You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering... You were an anointed guardian cherub. I placed you; you were on the holy mountain of God; in the midst of the stones of fire you walked. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created, till unrighteousness was found in you.

II. New Testament References CONFIRM Isaiah is Talking About Satan’s Fall.

A. Jesus’ words to His 72 DISCIPLES (Luke 10:17-20)

The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!” And he said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

B. Paul’s requirement that a candidate for elder not be a NEW convert (I Timothy 3:6).

He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil.