Lucifer, Son Of The Morning
Our Bible passage, introduction to Sunday 9th April service and hymns are below.
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Our verses are:
Isa 14:1 For the LORD will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land: and the strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob.
Isa 14:2 And the people shall take them, and bring them to their place: and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the LORD for servants and handmaids: and they shall take them captives, whose captives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors.
Isa 14:3 And it shall come to pass in the day that the LORD shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy fear, and from the hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve,
Isa 14:4 That thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased!
Isa 14:5 The LORD hath broken the staff of the wicked, and the sceptre of the rulers.
Isa 14:6 He who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke, he that ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted, and none hindereth.
Isa 14:7 The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet: they break forth into singing.
Isa 14:8 Yea, the fir trees rejoice at thee, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying, Since thou art laid down, no feller is come up against us.
Isa 14:9 Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations.
Isa 14:10 All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us?
Isa 14:11 Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee.
Isa 14:12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
Lucifer, Son Of The Morning
Isaiah re-affirms God’s plan of salvation for His chosen ones. Let us note the kindness and gentleness of the Lord toward His weak, weary people. He knows what we can bear. He is sensitive to our needs. Because the Lord knew what Judah must endure in captivity He upheld and sustained His bruised children with promises of mercy and, in due time, rest from sorrow, fear and bondage. The Lord will have mercy on Jacob, He will remember Israel.
Purpose in pain
Trials are necessary to mortify our flesh, humble our pride and shake our self-confidence. An easy life is an unproductive life, certainly in spiritual matters. In our need the Saviour proves His love for us and cultivates our growth in grace. It is God’s will that His sanctified people endure hardship in this sinful world, yet our heavenly Father sweetens our trials with helps along the way so we do not become discouraged. God’s love lightens dark days and relieves heavy burdens.
Hope and comfort
For the remnant of Judah and Israel the Babylonian captivity was a crushing period. It lasted seventy years. Some would experience the harsh disruption from the start. Some would be born and die in exile and know nothing but pain and hard labour. Some would live to see God’s promises fulfilled and freedom granted under Cyrus. The Lord will not forget mercy. Judah will be free, Israel will return home, Messiah will come, and divine promises received by faith will bring hope until all be fulfilled.
God will work a work
Isaiah delivers a proverb or parable concerning Babylon’s destruction and particularly the proud King of Babylon is singled out as an object of scorn and sarcasm. All the time Israel was smarting under Babylon’s oppression the faithful remnant would remember God’s plan. The days of the pompous king and his golden city were numbered. The Medes were the hammer but it would be wielded by God, ‘The Lord hath broken the staff of the wicked, and the sceptre of the rulers’.
When hell moves
The king of Babylon was a vicious man who ruled in anger and smote his enemies in wrath. He was a destroyer feared by the kings and nations of the earth. Isaiah says his demise will be a cause for singing, even the trees of the forest shall rejoice! The prophet’s language and imagery is extraordinary. He speaks of hell moving to meet this man, of dead kings rising in mock respect to offer him their thrones – or their graves, of jeering in the realm of the dead that such a one, having swapped a bed of luxury for a bed of worms, is now amongst them.
Lucifer
The description given of Lucifer has caused some to apply these words to Satan as describing his fall from heaven. No doubt there are similarities. The devil was once among the bright creatures of heaven until he was lifted up by pride and cast out. The name Lucifer has stuck to the devil but it is the king of Babylon who is intended in the passage. We are taught an important truth. Grim as death will be, physical death is not the end. Hell opens its mouth to consume all who leave this life without a door of access into heaven.
A warning to sinners
There is much to dread about hell by what is said of the Babylonian king’s entering into that house of the damned. Isaiah’s words must have made the people of Judah shudder to imagine this descent into the pit but this imagery is a warning to us all. These disembodied souls were conscious of their existence and knew one another in this pit of hell. They could think, move, act, speak and understand the effects of their loss and weakness. What a terrible place hell will be. What a timely warning this is to all sinners to flee to Christ from the wrath to come.
Spiritual pride and anti-Christ
It seems clear there was a religious element to Babylon’s wickedness and a spiritual component to the king’s ambition. He wanted to make himself a god. This same pride snared Adam and Eve in the garden and prompted Nimrod to build Babel. It is the foundation of all man-made religion for which reason Babylon is used as a synonym in Revelation not for the church of Rome alone but all anti-Christ religious activity.
A verse to remember
Isaiah reminds the Lord’s people that God’s promises are firm, His salvation is sure, His covenant shall stand and those who trust Him will prevail. The Messiah will redeem His people from their sins and give them peace and glory. One of scripture’s finest proofs of God’s sovereignty in salvation is found right here in this chapter.
Isaiah writes, ‘The LORD of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand’. This prophecy reassured the Old Testament remnant as they waited for ‘Christ, and the glory that should follow’. It is for our help, too, as we await ‘the restitution of all things’ and the glory that will follow.
Amen
Our hymns are below.
Hymn 1
Gadsby selection 491
Christ’s Resurrection and Ascension.
Rev. 1. 8-18; Isa. 25. 8; Matt. 25. 31-41
J. Hart 8.7.
1
Pleased we read in sacred story,
How our Lord resumed his breath;
Where’s, O Grave, thy conquering glory?
Where’s thy sting, thou phantom Death?
Soon thy jaws, restrained from chewing,
Must disgorge their ransomed prey;
Man first gave thee power to ruin;
Man, too, takes that power away.
2
I am Alpha, says the Saviour,
I Omega likewise am!
I was dead and live for ever,
God Almighty and the Lamb.
In the Lord is our perfection,
And in him our boast we’ll make;
We shall share his resurrection,
If we of his death partake.
3
Ye that die without repentance,
Ye must rise when Christ appears;
Rise to hear your dreadful sentence,
While the saints rejoice in theirs:
You to dwell with fiends infernal,
They with Jesus Christ to reign;
They go into life eternal,
You to everlasting pain.
Hymn 2
Gadsby selection 550
Christ the Nail in a Sure Place. Isa. 22. 23
W. Gadsby 148th
1
My soul, rejoice and sing
Thy Father’s glorious praise;
And let his precious love
Employ thee all thy days;
Proclaim, with honour to his name,
That God is love, and still the same.
2
To save my soul from hell
Was his eternal will;
And, bless his precious name,
His purpose to fulfil,
He took the Lord, the great I AM,
And as a nail he fastened him.
3
When deep calls unto deep,
And sins like mountains rise,
And the old prince of hell
Says, All the Bible’s lies,
This Nail is fastened in my heart,
Nor will it e’er from me depart.
4
My wicked heart has said,
Again, yea, and again,
That Christ my soul will leave
To perish in my sin;
But though I feel as cold as clay,
He will not, cannot go away.
5
He’s fastened there as God,
As Shepherd, Priest, and King,
My Lord, my Life, my Head,
From whom all blessings spring;
As all I need, as all I have,
While here, and when beyond the grave.
In his pride the King of Babylon set himself up as God, claiming divinity and personifying the religion of man’s fallen, sinful heart. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the true morning star. Salvation and healing are to be found only in the power of Christ’s death and resurrection.
9 April 2023