Isaiah 14:12-15

I am sure that you understand that God is talking here about Satan who was the leader of the attack that was mounted against God long before man was created.

Is it not clear how all of this fits together now, especially with those verses that we saw in Peter and in Jude; how clear it becomes when putting this together with Revelation 12, that what occurred was that God assigned the angels to the earth, that they were under their commander, Helel, who was the sum total of all that God could create by fiat and cram into a created being; that he was perfect in his ways until iniquity was found in him. We see a picture of a being of awesome beauty, of awesome power, of tremendous intelligence, also though a creature of free moral agency.

Something happened to that great being and he began a campaign of deceit. He began to separate from God a number of the angels, undoubtedly using the reasoning that they should have more; that God should treat them better; that God was being unfair; that they did not have the liberty, the freedom, or the power that was due them, because he said, "I will be like the Most High."

There are some commentators who say that what the Hebrew says in reality is, "I will be God;" not just like God, but I will be God. You can see what he wanted. He wanted to have complete power, authority, and control. He did not want to be under another. He did not want to be submissive. He did not want another being pulling his strings or controlling him.

He wanted to sit, as it were, on the mount of the congregation. So he said, "I will make war. I will ascend into heaven." So they left their first estate. They left the realm of their authority and they mounted up a war and attacked God, but were defeated and they were cast down. Their first domain became a place of restraint, a silo, a pit. They were now chained there, giving an indication that as a result of their rebellion, they no longer had the liberty that they had previously, but were now held in restraint. A great deal of their free moral agency was taken away from them.

Isaiah 14:12-15

Now we can spend a lot of time dissecting these verses because I think there is a lot in here. But I want to focus on how many times direction is mentioned throughout these verses. And let us keep in mind what pride means and even what it means to be proud.

Verse 12 starts out with "How you are fallen from heaven." We know and understand that heaven is above. It is significantly higher than our position, say, down here on earth. Now this shows that Helel was once at a high level or position, and of course we understand this from what we can read in Ezekiel 28. Verse 12 goes on to say that "You are cut down to the ground." Another directional sentence, for a lack of a better way to put it, showing that Satan was brought down to ground zero, as it were.

Why did this happen? Verse 13 reveals that Satan's heart became wicked and pride entered and puffed up his own thoughts of who and what he was. And he said, "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." Let us look at how many times directional prideful words were used. He says exalt above, farthest sides of the north, ascend above the heights, and then we can include the Most High because there is a sense here that Satan wanted to be above the Most High, which is not possible because God is the Most High.

Now in these scriptures, we are shown the direction and effect that pride has on our thoughts. Pride moves us to step out even above the place or position that God has created for us and given to us. Pride causes us to first think that we are somehow up here when in fact we are down here. Once the prideful thoughts come in, eventually there is an action that follows those close behind. What is interesting is that in I Timothy 3:6, Paul warns of promoting novices lest they be puffed up with pride. And here we can see the mention of pride growing or puffing up. It has action.

Isaiah 14:12-15

Perhaps he knew God was eventually going to create man into this kind of a being with these thoughts beginning to arise about how beautiful he was and how intelligent he was, and how powerful he was, and what an important position he had, and that he was going to have to serve these clay things made in the image of God, and prepare them to actually be higher than him? What a put-down! I do not know that it was that way, but it is certainly possible that it was and maybe, if this indeed was part of the mix of his thoughts, his pride motivated him to stop that plan. It was plowing the way, it began to move him in another direction. He felt that he had a better way and that better way began with knocking God off his throne.

Isaiah 14:12-15

Here we see God's indictment of Hillel, who was one of the angels that shouted for joy at the creation of this world but now weakens the nations. His weakening of the nations comes in the determination of his pride to violently take rather than to produce and enhance. It is this infection that he spread throughout mankind. It is in this world we find ourselves set apart to live unleavened lives in a way totally opposite of Satan's way of get, that only produces division, war, and destruction.