Blogging Bible Study: Digging in the Desert - The First Fall

 Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

So, there really is only one verse in Isaiah in the the next topic w/ a 'desert' verse, but it's a doozy  and needs a good bit of context....

How you have fallen from heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations!  You said in your heart, "I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the throne of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain.  I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High."

But you are brought down to the grave, to the depths of the pit.  Those who see you stare at you, they ponder your fate: "Is this the man who shook the earth and made kingdoms tremble,  the man who made the world a desert, who overthrew its cities and would not let his captives go home?"   -- Is. 14: 12 - 17, NIV 84

Now, in a broader sense, this passage is plopped into a longer passage regarding the fate of the king of Babylon (14:4).  But the phrase 'you have fallen from heaven' and the description 'morning star, son of the dawn'  is generally accepted by Bible scholars as a reference to Lucifer, aka Satan, and his fall from his place.

Not that the King of Babylon is exempt from these verses; no, these verses are also addressing the force or power behind the atrocities committed by the King of Bablyon. Two with one, so to speak.  

This is the attitude of Lucifer, and it also is the temptation that he feeds men...be above God!  Be like the Most High!  Break out of submission to Him!  (see Genesis : 4-5 for the first time he waved that mirage in front of humans).  So Lucifer...and the ones he deceives...all have that in common.  'I will ascend... I will raise my throne (authority)...I will make myself like the Most High.'

Only...it's a false dream, a fake aspiration, a house of cards.  It doesn't work.  No-one can be 'like the Most High', because the Most High is completely other-than anyone or anything else. Lucifer discovered this; his attempt failed and he was cast down to earth.  But he uses that same deception to fool humans...who also suffer a similar fate in the end.   

But I also see a reminder in this passage that there is a bigger narrative running than we see in the immediate now.  The ambitions of humans to aspire to be in control, be exalted, be supreme...is just an echo of that same ambition in the Enemy. His power is limited, so he tries again and again to achieve dominance through human agents.  Sometimes, he appears to succeed for a season, making the world a desert, overthrowing cities and taking captives, but in the end, it all crumbles.

We're in this for the long haul.