The evil of pride

Isaiah 14:12-15 (NLT)

How you are fallen from heaven, O shining star, son of the morning!  You have been thrown down to the earth, you who destroyed the nations of the world.  For you said to yourself, ‘I will ascend to heaven and set my throne above God’s stars. I will preside on the mountain of the gods far away in the north.  I will climb to the highest heavens and be like the Most High.’  Instead, you will be brought down to the place of the dead, down to its lowest depths.

Isaiah 14 is described as a song of triumph (even a taunt, see verse 4) of Israel over Babylon.  However, this is a prophetic song, written 150 years before Babylon became a conquering empire over Israel.  The most significant king of Babylon (see Isa 14:4) was Nebuchadnezzar who carried away Judah (southern kingdom) into a 70 year captivity and was the prominent king in the books of Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel. 

Who is the “you” in this passage?  Is it Nebuchadnezzar or Satan or both?  It describes the fall of king of Babylon which ostensibly seems to refer to Nebuchadnezzar, but also could describe Satan’s fall from heaven.  Nebuchadnezzar was Satan’s representative during his brutal and ruthless reign over the Israelites.  The fall of Satan from heaven and the fall of Nebuchadnezzar from his rule over Israel run in parallel. 

“O Shining star” can be translated as “Lucifer”.  Lucifer is another name for Satan although some scholars do not believe this.  It gets very confusing when you read in II Peter 2:19 and Rev 22:16 that Jesus is referred to as the morning star (“phorphoros”).  So Lucifer in this passage could refer to either Satan or Nebuchadnezzar. 

Whether Isaiah is writing about Satan or Nebuchadnezzar or both, note that he describes this person as being filled with excessive pride, e.g. “I will ascend to heaven”, “I will set my throne above God’s stars”, “I will preside on the mountain….”, I will climb to the highest heavens”, “I will be like the Most High”.  Such excessive pride exists today in the hearts of too many people.  What happens, however?  Such a person, be it Satan, Nebuchadnezzar, or whoever shows this kind of pride, will be brought down to the place of the dead, even to its lowest depths! 

Indeed, Proverbs 16:18 says that “pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.”  Yet prideful people don’t know that the Bible says this, don’t believe it, or know and believe it, but still allow pride to control their lives.  Pride, in the form of selfishness, self-sufficiency, arrogance, smugness, and anything/everything that replaces God’s will with your own will, eventually will cause some kind of destruction, the worst being what Jesus exclaimed in Matthew 7:21, “Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter”

Satan appeals to human pride as he did to Eve and Adam in Genesis 3.  Every wrong and every sin in human history is rooted in human pride.  Examine your life right now and determine what pride might be doing to you.  You may think that being prideful is proper and justifiable, but realize that it counters biblical truth.  Confess you pride and ask the Holy Spirit in you to replace the human pride in your life to godly pride where you aim to put the Lord first in everything you do.  Oh, indeed, it’s a lifelong process and you’ll stumble along the way, but work daily on reducing/ eliminating a prideful life is what Jesus meant when He said, “Deny yourself……..” (Luke 9:23).