Chapter 14

This is a very interesting and important chapter. We start with some points on the false decision of King Ahaz, the king of Judah.

1. There are two empires who are struggling for world control, Assyria and Egypt.

2. There are three small nations caught between these two empires in the struggle — Syria, Ephraim [the northern kingdom which split from Solomon’s son, Rehaboam], and Judah in the south.

3. Syria and Ephraim form an alliance in order to conquer Judah and take them into captivity.

4. The threat of the Syro-Ephraimite coalition brings Isaiah to Ahaz with the message of the three sons — chapters 7-9. And in this message Isaiah promises Ahaz deliverance from this great danger, the Syro-Ephraimite alliance, if he will simply trust in the Lord and claims His promises.

5. Instead Ahaz puts his trust in demon advice by seeking the counsel of necromancers — 8:19.

6. The demon-possessed necromancers advise Ahaz to steal money from the temple and to bribe the Assyrians to help him; instead of believing the Word, pay for protection.

7. The decision of Ahaz to seek help from Assyria precipitates the fourth cycle of discipline.

8. Assyria, the staff on which Judah leans, becomes the rod of discipline. Assyria not only administers the fifth cycle of discipline to the northern kingdom in 721 BC, but it administers the fourth cycle of discipline to Judah — all because of one decision made by king Ahaz.

Assyria misinterprets the role of administrator, and through ego distorts it into anti-Semitism. Result: the destruction of the Assyrian empire — Isaiah chapter 14:25-27.

9. The fall of the Assyrian empire gives rise to the neo-Chaldean empire, and from 721 BC to 586 BC the southern kingdom is under the fourth cycle of discipline. And in 586 BC the neo-Chaldean empire puts them under the fifth cycle. The Chaldean empire also distorts it role as administrator, it enters into anti-Semitism and for this reason God destroys the Babylonian or the neo-Chaldean empire. This is described in Isaiah chapter 14:1-11, 16-24.

10. All of this is triggered by the decision of Ahaz.

So our first point of introduction really says this: we have a sequence of judgments. It starts with the evil decision of Ahaz. Isaiah warns Ahaz of the terrible repercussions which will eventuate if he doesn’t trust the Lord but he ignores that.

The pattern of Isaiah chapter 14

1. Verses 1-11 give us a declaration of the judgment of the Babylonian or neo-Chaldean empire.

2. Verses 12-15 is simply the fact that the judgment of the Chaldean empire is interrupted to illustrate. We are going to have the story of the three falls of Satan, but the three falls of Satan is simply an interruption, an illustration, of the certainty of divine judgment. The greatest illustration of the certainty of divine judgment is the three falls of Satan; the greatest illustration of the love of God is the work of Christ on the cross.

3. Verses 16-24 resumes the declaration of the judgment of Babylon or neo-Chaldea.

4. Verses 25-27 is a brief statement of the judgment of the Assyrian empire.

In these first four points we have principle and then illustration. In verses 1-11 the Babylonian empire was at its peak at the time that this prophecy was given. But they are going to be judged because of anti-Semitism and because they have distorted the biblical principle of the administration of the fourth and fifth cycles of discipline into ant-Semitism. The illustration of how they will be judged — as Satan was judged, so they will be judged.

5. Verses 28-32 we go from the judgment of the Assyrian empire back to the judgment of Judah, which brings Isaiah back where he started. He started with Ahaz and he ends up with Ahaz. As a result of the terrible decision of Ahaz we have the judgment of Judah.

Isaiah chapter 14 teaches us a great principle simply from its summary. All of these judgments are related. Ahaz gets his advice from Satan through necromancy but Satan himself is judged. So the point is: how can Ahaz hope to escape judgment if he is being advised by someone who is already judged and doomed. What does he expect? Ahaz can only expect the same thing as the one who advises him. Ahaz had the choice of going for the Word of God or going for Satan. But the whole point of Isaiah 14 is that Satan is already judged.

Principle: If in every problem in life you get your advice form human viewpoint your are already sunk! That advice can do you no good. (Saved but stupid! — always followed human advice.)

Verses 1-11, the judgment of the neo-Babylonian empire

(The neo-Babylonian empire will not be judged until the saved Jews are removed)

Verses 1-3 — the restoration of Israel. God warns the Jews to get out of Babylon. And after all the saved Jews get out then He hits Babylon with terrible judgment. There were a few exceptions such as Daniel who stayed.

The background to this is the first administration of the fifth cycle of discipline to Judah. It began in 586 BC when Nebuchadnezzar took Jerusalem and destroyed it. In 516 BC the fifth cycle of discipline was over, but long before then in 536 BC God started the Jews back to the land. And to begin with 50,000 saved Jews went back. And then during this particular period for several years there was warning from the prophecies of Jeremiah written before the captivity and warnings from Zechariah for the rest of them to get out. And then He gave them about two years before hitting Babylon and destroying it, after which you couldn’t find a Babylonian and you couldn’t find an Assyrian. Here were two empires whose job it was to administer the fourth and fifth cycles of discipline to the northern and southern kingdoms. But they distorted it into anti-Semitism because in their ego they began to think that they had accomplished what in reality God had accomplished. And so their ego caused them to distort just as the ego of the legalistic believer today causes him to distort the Christian life into something it is not. And, as a result, discipline.

Verse 1 — The Jews are restored from the first administration of the fifth cycle of discipline. “For the Lord will have compassion on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land: and the strangers shall be joined with them and they will cleave to the house of Jacob.” The Jews could not be restored to their land until the neo-Babylonian empire has run its course into this distortion. And anti-Semitism finally caused it to happen.

In 586 BC you have on the throne Nebuchadnezzar, and he became a believer. So in the days of Nebuchadnezzar’s rule God did not touch the empire. He was a believer and he honoured the Lord.

But Nebuchadnezzar had a son. As is often the case in the history, even of Israel, the father is a great man and the son isn’t worth anything. You can trace this all the way through the divided kingdom, for example. Hezekiah and Josiah were the two greatest kings of the divided kingdom. But the son of Hezekiah, Manasseh, was one of the worst rats that ever lived and the only people who were worse than he was were the three sons of Josiah.

The son of Nebuchadnezzar was no good. He is known in history as Evil-Merodach [“Evil” here is not English at all. “Evil” is simply the Hebrew word for the Arab word “Emir", and it means “Great Prince"]. He is mentioned in 2 Kings 25:27 and he was so terrible he only lasted two years — 562-560 BC — until his brother-in-law, Neriglissar, killed him and took the throne. Neriglissar lasted a little longer — 560-556 BC. But they were getting worse and worse and from Nebuchadnezzar the line begins to go down.

Neriglissar had a terrible son called Labashi-Marduk who only lasted four months before he was assassinated by a nobleman by the name of Nabonidus. Nabonidus was a great man and a smart man and he began to see that being the king of this great empire was just a guarantee to assassination. He decided that he wanted to find the best spot in the world for climate and retire there. He found a spot in Arabia and turned the reigns of his government over to his son, Belshazzar, who was also a rat. In 539 BC Cyrus the Persian was knocking at the door of Babylonia and he conquered it. But when Belshazzar was killed, all of those Jews who were told to come back and did not, were killed too. Many of them were killed by Cyrus.

This is the background for all of this. Isaiah prophesied that the believing Jews would get out and this is the story of it — verse 1.

“the Lord will have mercy on Jacob” .Mercy is grace in action. He will not leave the Jews in the land where they will be destroyed. “and he will choose Israel,” which means that He is restoring them from the fifth cycle of discipline. There is a dual fulfilment here: the first has to do with the restoration of the Jews from the Babylonian captivity, and the second fulfilment is the restoration of the Jews at the second advent.

“and the strangers [Gentiles] shall be joined with them and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob” — Millennial reference to the blessing that will come to Gentiles through Israel in the Millennium.

Verse 2 — “And the people [the Persians] shall take them [the Jews] and bring them to their own place” — the Persians came in and delivered the Jews who were still there — “and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the Lord for servants and handmaids: and they shall take them captive, whose captives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors.” In other words, when they go back to the land people occupy the land but they will actually control the other people in the land.

Verse 3 — We have a reference to a period of prosperity and peace which follows the rebuilding of the temple. This period starts in 516 BC, the end of the Babylonian captivity, and goes to 323 BC, the death of Alexander. For nearly 200 years the Jews had great prosperity and great peace while the rest of the world was at war. Reason: because they stuck to the Word of God. By that time they had the entire canon of the Old Testament scriptures, they had promises from the Word of God and they faith-rested it all the way.

Verses 4-6 — the judgment of the Babylonian empire.

Verse 4 — “That thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon [Belshazzar], and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased!” The oppressor, the Babylonian empire; the golden city, Babylon the capital.

Verse 5 — The “staff of the wicked” is the fall of the Babylonian empire. This is the sudden destruction of that neo-Chaldean empire and “the sceptre of the rulers” is dual fulfilment and refers to the great forces of the king of the north and the revived Roman empire of the Tribulation.

Verse 6 — “Ye [the Babylonians] who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke.” The continual stroke refers to the three conquests of Jerusalem before it was finally completely destroyed.

In 606 BC after the battle of Carchemish Nebuchadnezzar came up to Jerusalem. The Jews had been working behind his back and trying to make alliances with the Egyptians. He took hostages from the nobility to keep the Jews in line. They included Daniel who was a son of nobility, which means he was probably in the tribe of Judah.

The second time was 598 BC. Again the Jews were working behind the back of Nebuchadnezzar and trying to make an alliance with Egypt. So again he came down and took hostages. And this time, among the hostages was Ezekiel. That is why Ezekiel’s prophecy was not written in the land but written in the Babylonian empire.

Then the third time he came down was 586 BC and this time he completely wiped out Jerusalem, destroyed the temple and took the whole nation into captivity, minus a few poor people and minus Jeremiah. Jeremiah do not go into captivity because of his faith in the Lord. Nebuchadnezzar greatly admired Jeremiah. So this is what is meant by the “continual stroke” .The Chaldeans had to keep hammering at the Jews.

In verse 6 also we have “that ruled the nations in anger is persecuted [the Babylonians who were conquered by the Persians] and none restrained” .No one kept the Persians from destroying the Babylonian empire.

Verses 7-8 — the restoration from the fifth cycle of discipline. In other words all the way through this passage you have alternating, grace and judgment, grace and judgment. Which means simply this: God always deals with believers in grace in times of world catastrophe, no matter how terrible world conditions may be.

Verse 7 — “The whole earth is at rest, and quiet” is what happened to the Jews who came back to the land. From 516 BC to 323 when Alexander the Great died the Jews had great prosperity, even though the rest of the world was in a terribly upset condition. The reason for it again: believers operating on the faith-rest technique, claiming the promises of God. The grace of God responds to the faith-rest principle — “they break forth into singing” --- the dual fulfilment again, the singing of the Jews who are restored at the second advent. Isaiah chapters twelve and twenty-six are actually the lyrics sung by the Jews when they were restored.

Verse 8 — “no feller is come up against us.” The word “feller” is a tree cutter. Every time the Jews are conquered their conquest is described in terms of their trees being cut down. And whenever Israel is under the fifth cycle of discipline they are always called a stump — a cut-off tree. The “feller” was firstly Assyria [which went too far and tried to root up the whole stump], next was the Babylonian empire. From 516-323 BC no one came along to chop down Israel. “No feller” means no nation or empire attacked them, it was a period of great prosperity.

In 323 BC the Jews started to go apostate, they started to get religious and legalistic. When religion reasserted itself and came back into power in Judah, then from that time on they had trouble until the Maccabean revolt. “No feller” is a very important word here because it means that for nearly 200 years they are going to have great peace and prosperity and the basis of it was the spiritual factor, the grace of the Lord, the use of the promises of God. And the point is: even though the world is in great turmoil it is possible to be in a place of great safety and freedom and blessing. This is the whole story of what happened in verse 8 — “no feller” .

Verses 9-11, the doom of the Babylonian empire

Verse 9 — “Hell from beneath is moved for thee” — that is, it opens up to meet them — “at thy coming” — the fall of the Babylonian empire, hell is open to receive them — “it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief [mighty ones or proud ones] ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations” .

Verse 10 — “All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we?” In other words, all of the kingdoms and empires which had been conquered by the Babylonians, and in their rise to power, now they are going to mock and they are going to say, “Are you as weak as we are? have you become like us?”

Verse 11 — “Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy vials [musical instrument]: the worm is spread under thee [they have rotted out from within], and worms cover thee” — which means the Babylonian empire was so rotten from within that anyone who came along with an army could have conquered it.

Since Satan is the source of the bad advice that Ahaz took, Ahaz himself should know the certain judgment of Satan because as Satan is judged, Ahaz will be judged, as Satan is judged, Babylonia will be judged, as Satan is judged, Assyria will be judged. Knowing all of these things then he should not have taken the advice, and here is Isaiah pronouncing the doom of Ahaz as he pronounces already the judgment of Satan.

By way of introduction to this great passage which takes up the three falls of Satan there are actually two descriptions of this particular subject. The three falls of Satan are given chronologically in Ezekiel 28:11-19. And then they are given logically in Isaiah 14:12-15.

Ezekiel chapter 28:11-19

Verse 11 — “Moreover, the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,”

Verse 12 — “Son of man [title for a prophet], take up a lamentation against the king of Tyre.” A lamentation is a funeral dirge. In Ezekiel we have the fall of Tyre mentioned. “and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord God.”

Now there is an analogy between Tyre and all of its glamour and the glamour of Satan. And so from the king of Tyre, who took his orders from Satan, we go to Satan himself. “Thou sealest up the sum” — i.e. you were created in perfect proportions, and so this is an idiom for perfect beauty. Of all of the creatures that have ever come from the hand of God Satan is the most beautiful of all — “full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty” .Not only did he have perfect proportions physically but he was the most brilliant of all creatures. He had inner and outer beauty to the maximum.

Verses 11-14 describe the prehistoric Satan

Verse 13 — “Thou wast in Eden.” This isn’t the garden of Adam or Eve; this is the prehistoric garden of heaven. There are two Edens: one was on earth in Adam’s day, the other is in heaven; “the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering” — he had the most beautiful clothes that have ever been made. Satan, as all angels in prehistoric state, was transparent and in his transparency he had clothing made of beautiful gems. The stones that are mentioned here in connection with Satan are mentioned three times in scripture — in the breastplate of the high priest, Exodus 28:17; in the new Jerusalem, Revelation 21:19,20; in the garden of God, Ezekiel 28:13. The stones that are mentioned in Ezekiel 28:13 are prehistoric gems which are much greater than their counterparts existent today.

In addition to his beauty he had access to the garden of God, and he had the most beautiful voice of any creature that has ever existed — “the workmanship of they tabrets [voice box and his ability to sing] and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created.” Using the word “pipes” indicated that his voice was like a pipe organ, it had fantastic resonance and beauty and variation.

Verse 14 — “Thou art the messianic cherub” .Each member of the Godhead had angels who were always there, who had the privilege of being near God. And Jesus Christ had His own special servant and that one was Satan. The cherub is the most beautiful and the highest order of angel and Satan was not only in the highest order but he was specially prepared in creation to be the servant and guardian of the Lord Jesus Christ. “that covereth: I have appointed thee so, thou wast upon the holy mountain of God [in the throne room of God]; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.”

Verse 15 — “Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, until unrighteousness [iniquity] was found in thee.” This is the description of the prehistoric Satan. Of his own volition he walked with Jesus Christ. And iniquity was found in him — this refers to his first fall. In Isaiah 14:13,14 this iniquity is described. He said: “I will,” five times, indicating negative volition. He declared his independence from Jesus Christ whom he served. The first sin ever committed by a creature was committed by the most beautiful creature that ever came from the hand of God, and this sin was the sin of negative volition. The first sin ever committed by a member of the human race was identical — negative volition, independence from God. So the first fall of Satan was only alluded to quickly in verse 15. His first fall was iniquity — negative volition, the original sin, operating independently from God from one’s own free will.

Verse 16 — The second fall of Satan. “By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence.” The multitude of thy merchandise is the abundance of thy commerce, and it is an idiom for prosperity. Satan could not pass the prosperity test. The prosperity that Satan enjoyed as Lucifer the son of the morning was more than he could stand. “the midst of thee” means that inside of Satan he developed from his negative volition, power lust. He desired to supersede God. He desired the one thing he couldn’t have, he desired the absolute rulership over the universe. In his desire for it he had the first type of lust which ever existed — power lust. And power lust is described here by the word “violence”; power lust which could only be gratified by violence. There was no way to set God aside except by violence. So the violence refers to the expression of his power lust.

“and thou hast sinned” — again a reference to his first fall.

“therefore [here we have the second fall] I will cast thee as profane [as sinful] out of the mountain of God” .Notice it says; “I will cast.” The reason this is future is that Satan has not been cast out yet. Satan will not be cast out until the middle of the Tribulation. Job chapters 1 and 2 — Satan presently has access to heaven at any time.

“I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire” — this is the third fall of Satan when he is cast into the lake of fire — Matthew 25:41, the lake of fire was prepared for the devil and his angels.

Verse 17 — a summary of the three falls. Verse 18 goes back to the third fall again.

V.17 — The first fall: “Thine heart [i.e. mind. v12 “thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom"] was lifted up because of thy beauty [operation ego. Satan is the creator/originator of sin], thou hast corrupted [or distorted] thy wisdom.” What distorted his great brilliance? Sin, negative volition creating power lust and producing his mental attitude ego. So he was corrupted or distorted. And this is the whole story of religion. Religion is a distortion, a corruption of Bible doctrine.

“by reason of thy brightness” — brightness is scintillation. He was attractive in every possible way.

The second fall: “I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings [in the middle of the Tribulation], that they may behold thee”.

Verse 18 — The third fall of Satan: “ … thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffic” — In other words, since the original sin of Satan he has been adding up sin very rapidly — “therefore I will bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of them that behold thee.” All of these phrases are described in Revelation 20 verse 10.

Verse 19 — “All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee: thou shalt be a source of terror, and never shalt thou exist any more [exist in terms of beauty].”

Satan has his third fall at the end of the Millennium which is the Lake of Fire. This is described in Revelation chapter 20 verse 10 — the Lake of Fire is created with that beautiful light in Satan. The very beauty of Satan is turned into eternal judgment, not only for Satan but for the fallen angels and for all unbelievers.

Verses 12-15: The judgment of the neo-Chaldean empire is interrupted to indicate the certainty of divine judgment. And the illustration of the certainty of judgment is the dissertation on the three falls of Satan. In verses 16-24 the passage resumes with the declaration of the judgment on Babylon and then in verses 25-27 the judgment of the Babylonian empire causes Isaiah to move to the judgment of the Assyrian empire. Then in verses 28-32 Isaiah moves to the judgment of Judah. So the fact that Satan is initially judged indicates that God judges and in this case we have the judgments of three empires, and in one case really a national organisation. The judgment of the Babylonian empire: the Babylonians distorted the operation of the fifth cycle of discipline beyond the point that God intended and they moved into anti-Semitism. The judgment of the Assyrian empire: the Assyrians distorted the administration of the fifth cycle of discipline, again beyond the point which God intended and were removed. The judgment of Judah: the fifth cycle of discipline.

In this particular passage we have seen that all judgments are related. Ahaz gets his bad advice from Satan through necromancy. But Satan himself is judged and if you get your advice from someone who is under judgment you cannot help but be judged. Application: the Bible tells us that there are certain believers who are trouble makers and they are always under divine discipline. If you associate with these people the judgment which goes to them will overflow to you. Some people never know what hits them in the Christian life. And it is just the fact that they associate with trouble makers. They associate with people who are maligners or who are always malcontent, and consequently they are always in it too. And they never know why.

This is exactly what we have here. Isaiah had warned Ahaz that if he followed Satan’s advice. Satan is already judged, he too would be judged.

In verses 12-15 we have the three falls of Satan stated in logical sequence. From Ezekiel 28 we will possibly wonder why this account is changed around. Why do we have the second fall of Satan first, then the first fall and then the third. In Ezekiel 28 the chronology was followed but in Isaiah we have them in logical sequence rather than given chronologically. So we need some introduction:

1. Isaiah presents the same material that Ezekiel presents in chapter 28 but he puts it in logical rather than chronological order.

2. Isaiah presented the second fall of Satan first to demonstrate the fact that God did not arbitrarily cast Satan out of heaven, there was a cause for the casting of Satan out of heaven.

3. The whole principle of Isaiah 14 is this: Isaiah begins with the judgment of Belshazzar and carries it back to its root, which is the evil decision of Ahaz. 4. The evil decision of Ahaz results in the judgment of three nations — Babylonia, Assyria and Judah.

5. In like manner Isaiah begins with the second judgment of Satan and carries it back to its root. He shows how the second fall of Satan is based upon Satan’s original fall. At the point if his original fall Satan received a nature comparable to our old sin nature. Therefore, the second fall of Satan was just and fair, rather than arbitrary, because of the nature of the one involved. God is always fair and God is always just in His judgments.

Verse 12 — “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer! son of the morning! how art thou cast down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!” This particular passage is loaded.

1. “How art thou fallen” — refers here to the second fall of Satan. It is a reference to Satan being cast out of heaven in the middle of the Tribulation. Scripture: Luke 10:18; Revelation 12:7-9.

2. O Lucifer!” The Hebrew word for “Lucifer” is a very interesting one — helel, pronounced “haylel.” It means a transparent one, a shining one, a scintillating one. He is the greatest personality person of all time. There are two Hebrew words for shining, for light being thrown out from creatures. Two creatures were said to throw out light which made them ultra-attractive. One is helel and the other is nachash. Nachash is the Hebrew word used in Genesis three for “serpent.” It is interesting that Satan is a shining one and the serpent was a shining one. And both were attractive. Satan was attractive to at least one third of all the angels and the serpent was attractive to the woman. The translation “Lucifer” doesn’t mean anything today. But the bright scintillating one means something — exactly what Satan was.

Lucifer, then, means an angel of light. This is why Satan can transform himself into an angel of light in 2 Corinthians 11:14, and he transforms his ministers into angels of light. Satan has ministers and evangelists among the members of the human race. And they are glamorous personalities and they are sweet people; they have all of the attributes and traits of how to win friends and influence people. Principle: You must never look at the personality but the content of the message. Always go back to the content of the message and you will never be deceived. If you have a criterion in your frontal lobe, the Word of God, you will never be taken in by the sweet personality or by the extraordinary type of modus operandi.

3. The shining one is said to be “cut down to the ground.” That means that Satan is cast to the earth, he can no longer leave the earth. From the middle of the Tribulation on Satan has to stay on the earth, he is confined. And then at the end of the Tribulation he is kept in the heart of the earth imprisoned for a thousand years.

4. “which didst weaken the nations.” The words “nations” here refers to divine institution number four — nationalism. And God’s order for the preservation of the human race is nationalism. The great attack on nationalism came with the tower of Babel and the first united nations organisation. And to show how God feels about political or religious internationalism he destroyed the first united nations building, the tower of Babel. And at that point He started nationalism all over again and He divided nations three ways — by race, geographically and linguistically.

Now the best the world can do as long as the devil rules it, and the most ideal situation which has ever existed on the earth, is to have a balance of power among the major nations and a quiet benevolence toward the smaller nations on the part of the major nations. And the only way there have ever been prolonged periods of world peace is by having the balance of power in the military realm as well — the major nations being prepared to the maximum. Jesus says, concerning the world [which is the devil’s world]: “You are going to have wars and rumours of wars until I come.” But there must be some peace because there must be order in the world. And the reason there must be order in the devil’s world — the devil is incapable of having order in the world; his schemes destroy order and freedom — is to have evangelism in the world. If you are going to have evangelism in the world you must have two things:

a. Divine institution number one, volition. People must be free to hear in freedom, and choose or reject in freedom. But they must have the right to choose for themselves and this is impossible unless you have internally a good common law with freedom under that concept.

b: Nationalism: and as soon as you break through the boundaries of nationalism and get into any form of internationalism, whether political or religious, then you begin to have the seeds for war and you remove freedoms from individuals. You have one small oligarchy dictating to numerous nations instead of each nation being autonomous. Now who is it that weakens the nations? It is Satan who does it, and his primary weapon for weakening the nations is internationalism — communism, World Council of Churches is internationalism. So first of all Satan weakens from without through systems of internationalism which are designed to break down the boundaries of nations. For example the idea of a world court which means the turning over of autonomy to a world organisation. To think that you can turn over your autonomy to jealous envious nations who desire what we have and would like to take it away from us, and that something will come from it, is crazy.

There is also an internal attack and Satan’s greatest internal attack is represented by the fall of Israel — religion. The worst thing that can happen to a nation on the inside and the greatest enemy, is religion. Religion always seeks to destroy human freedom; it always tries to become the State; it distorts the mind of man and gives him a mental acceptability to the principle of internationalism, and the two of them together can destroy a nation very rapidly. Religion also destroys the true principle of economy which sustains a nation. And wherever you find religion it is always in favour of two things: on the outside, internationalism; on the inside, socialism. So religion comes along and says government ought to do a hundred things for you today, next year two hundred, and then it will be a thousand — and then you can be a vegetable! This destroys human freedom as well as anything else. Religion always goes for some form of socialism: “We will feed the people, we will help the people, we will be the crutch of the people.” And we have our counterpart today of religion: the social gospel [which is no gospel at all]. It is a Satanic device whereby Satan tries to control the world over which he is sovereign; he is sovereign of the world but he doesn’t control the world. And the thing that Satan hates more than anything in the world is demonstrated by the first two chapters of Job. He can’t stand to see believers in his domain. Job was a believer in his domain and he couldn’t stand it.

Verses 13-14 — Why is a person like Satan cast out of heaven? (There is a parallelism in these verses: five times we have the words, “I will”) .Here is why. Here is the original sin among creatures. “And thou hast said in thine heart, [he thought it. To say something in the heart is to think it].” a. “I will ascend into heaven”; b. “I will exalt my throne above the stars of God”; c. “I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north”; d. “I will ascend above the heights of the clouds”; I will be like the Most High” .In these two verses we have the original sin.

Notice the parallelism: “I will” occurs five times. So first of all the original sin was a sin of volition. Secondly, the background for the original sin was thought. Thirdly, the ingredient for the original sin is lust. And the lust which is predominate is power lust, and the first cousin to power lust is ego lust. This also explains the sin of Adam and this also explains us.

The first “I will” is power lust — “I will ascend into heaven” — expressing a desire to rule over God. Satan was so taken with himself that he thought that he could become superior to God and could rule over God. Angels dwell in the second heaven. The third heaven is the abode of God. Since the cross the third heaven is also the abode of all believers — learned by comparing Ephesians 1:21 with Ephesians 4:10 and other passages. But Satan was different from other angels. He lived in the third heaven as the personal attendant of Jesus Christ. He was the anointed cherub. Because he resided in the third heaven he decided he should rule from the third heaven, so he developed a power lust and an ego lust. He expresses these lusts when he says: “I will ascend” .And this means, “I will have the ascendancy, I will rule, I will have the sovereignty in heaven” .

The second “I will” expresses power lust in a desire to rule over the angels. The angel at that time was the highest of all creatures. The word “angel” is in the phrase “the stars of God” .He said: “I will exalt my throne above the stars of God.” The stars of God sometimes refer to stars but generally when literal stars are mentioned in the Bible we have the word “stars.” But when you add the phrase “stars of God", then you have a different construction and you have a different reference. Stars of God refer to angels, as in Job 38:7; Jude 13; Revelation 12:3,4. It is Satan’s desire to have complete and absolute power over angels. Again this is power lust and always with power lust is its first cousin, ego. The third “I will,” power lust or Satan’s ambition to rule the earth. Remember, man isn’t in the picture, so what does it mean to rule the earth? The earth in its prehistoric form. “I will sit” means I will sit on the throne. This was his headquarters then. It comes to mean to rule. “upon the mount of the congregation, on the sides of the north.” This would be a little difficult to understand were it not for Psalm 48:2 where we discover that the mount of the congregation, the mount of the assembly, has the same concept as Greek mythology where the gods ruled. But the mount in this case is a mount where creatures assembled, superior creatures, and Satan wanted to rule over the angels that lived on the earth. So the mount of the assembly of the congregation of the north was the angelic group assigned to the earth with the prehistoric creatures. And he just simply wanted to run it.

The fourth “I will” is a little different. “I will ascend above the heights of the clouds.” There are 150 references to clouds in the Bible and out of the 150, 100 of these references allude to the divine presence. The other fifty refer to clouds as clouds. Where clouds are specifically used as divine presence: Exodus 16:10; 40:38; 1 Kings 8:10; Psalm 104:3; Isaiah 19:1; Matthew 24:30; Acts 1:9; Revelation 1:7. Since clouds refer to the divine presence, the fourth “I will” indicates Satan’s ambition to take over the functions of God. It has its counterpart on the earth today. This is the devil’s world and any system of taking away from the individual follows the same principle. Many of the systems that we call “good” today, and “great” — the greatest good for the greatest number — are merely Satanic systems for taking over the functions of God. So this is operation usurper. Here is the desire to displace God as the sovereign of the universe and to substitute his own system.

Here is what is wrong with the fourth “I will.” Satan has neither the character [divine essence] nor the personality [deity] to control all types of creatures, bringing them into eternal compatibility with God. There is where he failed. All of his systems together will not do it. In other words, Satan wants the glory but he doesn’t have the ability — something that is manifest in the human race in a fantastic way. People always want the glory but they have neither the ability nor the sense of responsibility. Only God has the ability to operate divine principles. God’s principle in dealing with the human race is grace. Which means that man can never earn it or deserve it. Man cannot of his own ability or of his own talent do anything to glorify his God.

The fifth “I will.” This is the counterfeit; this is where religion was born. “I will be like the Most High” .Satan’s ambition is to be like God; he would like to reproduce the essence box in himself. But the very nature of his sin frustrated any possibility of reproducing any part of the character of God. And since he could not reproduce any part of the character of God and still wanted it ,the only thing he could do was to imitate or counterfeit. Satan is the original counterfeiter. And what makes Satan so mad today and frustrates him more than anything else? Any believer with a little bit of moxy in the frontal lobe, who knows anything about spirituality, can do what Satan always wanted to do and never could, imitate God. Satan can’t do it. But the believer who is filled with the Spirit imitates God — Ephesians 5:1. How? Ephesians 5:18 — “Be filled with the Spirit”; Galatians 4:19 — “My little children, I am sweating you out until Christ be formed in you.” Christ is God and Christ can be formed in you. How? The fruit of the Spirit is … ! Satan does more to obscure the doctrine of spirituality than anything else except the Gospel. The filling of the Spirit produces the character of God and Satan by all of his activity and all of his work and by his evil nature cannot produce it.

The counterfeit of Satan — Religion is the counterfeit of Satan.

1. Counterfeit doctrine — 1 Timothy 4:1 — called doctrines of demons.

2. Counterfeit communion table — 1 Corinthians 10:20,21.

3. Counterfeit ministers — 2 Corinthians 11:13-15.

4. Counterfeit gospel — 2 Corinthians 11:3,4.

5. Counterfeit spirituality — Galatians 3:2,3 — keeping the law.

6. Counterfeit righteousness — Matthew 19:16-28.

7. Counterfeit power — 2 Thessalonians 2:8-10.

8. Counterfeit gods — 2 Thessalonians 2:3,4.

9. Counterfeit modus operandi: self-righteousness — Matthew 23.

Verse 15 — Third fall of Satan. “Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.” Thou shalt be brought down to hell is fulfilled at the end of the Millennium — Revelation 20:10. It says the devil was cast — Aorist tense: in a point of time, divorced from time and perpetuated forever. He was cast into the lake of fire — “tormented day and night forever and ever.”

In the first eleven verses we have a judgment of the neo-Babylonian empire which was interrupted. In verses 1-3 we have the restoration of Israel; in verses 4-6 the judgment of the Babylonian empire; in verses 7-8 the restoration of the Jews from the Babylonian captivity and/or the fifth cycle of discipline; again through verses 9-11 the discipline which would come to the Babylonian empire. Now the reason for the discipline to the Babylonian empire was because the king or the one who was actually ruling as regent and crown prince was Belshazzar. Because of his anti-Semitism and because if his religion and other things the administration of the fifth cycle of discipline by the Babylonians had been distorted. Ego had taken this man beyond the concept of the fifth cycle of discipline until he thought that he was doing God’s work. As a result, down went the Babylonian empire.

Since Satan was the source of the bad advice to king Ahaz, Ahaz himself should know how certain was the judgment of Satan. Ahaz had received the bad advice through necromancy and we have an interruption in verses 12-15. And in this interruption we have the principle: if Satan is judged, you Ahaz will be judged by taking advice from Satan. Ahaz is going to be judged and his nation, Judah, is going to be judged. The three judgments of nations begin in verse 16 and go through verse 32. In verse 16 we simply have a resumption of the judgment of the neo-Chaldean and/or the Babylonian empire — verses 16-24. The principle is simply this: the neo-Chaldean empire and/or Babylonia was raised up to administer both the fourth and the fifth cycles of discipline to Judah.

The Church Age actually began in 32 AD on the Day of Pentecost. But from 32-68 AD there was a period of very intense evangelism in Jerusalem and in southern Palestine — Judah. And this period of evangelism was designed with this in mind: to bring the Jew out from under his curse. All members of the human race are under a curse but with Gentiles it is a single curse. We are born spiritual dead and we have no fellowship with God, and that is why we need Christ as saviour. But as far as the Jews are concerned they are under a double curse. They are not only spiritually dead but at the same time they are under the curse of the fifth cycle of discipline. This is why when a Jew accepts Christ as saviour he is no longer a Jew, he simply enters into union with Christ and is a member of the body of Christ and is simply designated Church. So when a Jew accepts Christ it is a fantastic thing because a double curse is removed.

In 32 AD the Church began. The evangelism that took place in Judea was of a very special nature because of something we will study in Isaiah 28. The Jews had to know that the fifth cycle of discipline was about to begin and the only way they could know this was to follow what Isaiah had said. Isaiah said that Jews would be warned of the fifth cycle because they would be evangelised in Gentile languages — Gentile tongues. So this was the gift of tongues which was used from 32 AD to 68 AD and then terminated. And the reason for it was to announce to the Jews their sign. There were two signs to the Jews given in Isaiah. The first, Isaiah 7:14 — the sign of the virgin birth; the second, Isaiah 28. But this led to a concentrated period of evangelism by use of the gift of tongues; miracles would be performed by those who evangelised to focus attention on the Gospel; the Gospel would be declared in the power of the Spirit through all methods of evangelism — mass evangelism and personal evangelism. And as a result of this we find that between 32 and 68 AD there was a concentrated period of evangelism.

Now, beginning in 68 AD the sign that Jesus announced in His Olivet discourse and in all of His teachings began to come to pass. In Luke 20:21-24 we have the warning that Jesus gave to the Jews of that generation to get out of Jerusalem, with the result that by the time that June of 70 AD occurred saved Jews were all gone — except those who would simply not accept the Word. When the Roman legions surrounded the city believers were gone and were safe. They were not only born-again but they had also heeded the warning which Jesus gave and which was reiterated in apostolic teaching — the warning that when certain things come to pass, move out of Jerusalem. Then the most terrible siege in history took place. Principle: Grace before judgment.

All of this adds up to a principle which Isaiah was teaching: Gentile nations administer the fourth and fifth cycles of discipline, and in Isaiah’s day — 725 BC — he gave the message of chapter 14. In 721BC the Assyrians began the administration of the fourth cycle of discipline. The trouble was that the Assyrians, in their ego, magnified the fourth cycle of discipline into some accomplishment of their own. The Babylonians did exactly the same thing. And in 539 BC the Babylonian empire disappeared from history just as completely as the Assyrian empire before it, and after that never again was there a Babylonian empire, never again was there a Chaldean empire.

Verses 16-24, the statement of the judgment of the Babylonian empire

When this was written the Babylonian empire had not even come into its own. So some people would laugh at Isaiah and say: “Well, what are you talking about. The Babylonians are a vassal of Assyria.” When Isaiah preached this message the Assyrian empire was at it peak and Babylon was merely a vassal of the great Assyrian nation. So people could look at Isaiah and wonder what he was talking about: the Assyrians will never be destroyed! But you see this is God’s Word and no matter how strong a nation may be, when the Word of God says “this is it", then “this is it” .And when the Word of God tells you that all things work together for good, that’s it; and when the Word of God says: “Stop being worried,” and “Cast your cares on Him,” that’s it. So there is a direct parallel in this prophetic, historical picture of Isaiah and the Christian way of life which still has as its basic concept the believer claiming the promises of God and utilising them, resulting in perfect peace and stability and power and blessing. But, you see, there were a lot of people in Isaiah’s day who “changed churches” just as soon as Isaiah came out with this message. They said he was a madman.

However, it turned out that before all this was over Isaiah had such a large congregation that they actually met on the city walls and when the Assyrian army came down in Hezekiah’s day this revival led by Isaiah was so fantastic that the Jewish people would sit on the walls and thumb their nose at the Assyrians. The principle is that the people were anchored in the Word.

Verse 16 — “They that see thee [Belshazzar, the last ruler of the neo-Chaldean empire] shall narrowly look upon thee” — i.e. they will look upon you with ridicule — “and consider thee [talk about you], saying, is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms” — descriptions of the power of the neo-Chaldean empire.

Verse 17 — —“That made the world as a desert, and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house of its prisoners?” In other words, a description of a great empire arbitrarily ruling many peoples.

Verse 18 — “All the kings of the nations, even all of them, sleep in glory [received a proper burial. Their tombs were known at the time that Isaiah said this. They were recorded in history and honoured], every one in his own house [tomb].”

Verse 19 — “But thou [Belshazzar] art cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch, and as the raiment of those that are slain.” In the ancient world, when a person was killed in battle he was hacked and cut and, of course, his clothes would be torn to pieces. Isaiah was saying that Belshazzar was going to be hacked up; “thrust through with the sword, that go down to the stones of the pit; as carcasses trodden under foot.” These are all gruesome pictures of what Belshazzar is going to look like. Belshazzar was that drunken bum who was regent of the neo-Chaldean empire.

Verse 20 — “Thou shalt not be joined with them in burial.” Other kings, like Nebuchadnezzar, had great tombs but he would not be buried; “because thou hast destroyed thy land, and slain thy people; the seed of evildoers shall never be renowned” .In other words, no honour ever goes to this kind of king.

Verse 21 — “Prepare slaughter for his children for the iniquity of their fathers.” This is a law which must be understood. The best way to deal with it is to go back to where the principle is first given: Exodus 20:4 -5, “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any form that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God [an anthropopathism merely to explain that when God possesses and owns a believer He wants him to follow His principles] , visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me.” “Hateme” has to do with unbelievers. So this principle has no application to believers. This principle is called the law of culpability.

Under the law of culpability you have this principle: that children are not responsible for the sins of their father without culpability of their own. Children are not responsible for the sins of their parents unless they themselves repeat them — culpabilibty of their own. Of course one can see immediately the possibility of repeating them but God does not punish anyone for the sins of their parents. But often within the individual he may inherit weaknesses which lead to sins. And therefore it is possible for him to repeat the sins of his parents and then his liability comes in. In other words, every one is responsible for his own sins. Compare: Ezekiel 18:2; Jeremiah 31:29-30.

God visits the sins of the father upon the children only when the children repeat the same sins — that is the point. But there is another principle: God does not visit the sins of the father on believers. This is only for those who reject Christ a saviour: Deuteronomy 24:16 — “The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers: every man shall be put to death for his own sin.”

There is a principle involved in the way this passage is stated in Exodus 20:5. And, again, the principle has to do with idolatry. Idolatry was always the greatest manifestation of religion in the ancient world. When the Jews got into religion they passed it down to their children and the children picked up this thing and they did the same thing. Notice: After four generations are phased out. Others may develop. In other words, if you are a fifth generation from a pirate, the chances of you being a pirate are very limited. After about every three or four generations there is a changing around of the whole situation. That is the point.

Is. 14:21 — “that they do not rise nor possess the land, nor fill the face of the world with cities.” It appears from verse 21 that the children are paying for what the parents did but this is not correct. The children repeated what the parents did and this was the generation that it hit. Belshazzar simply repeated certain things that were found, for example, in his grandfather.

Verse 22 — “For I will rise up against them, saith the Lord of hosts, and cut off from Babylon the name and the remnant, and son and son’s son, saith the Lord.” This is a complete judgment which was completed in 539 BC when Cyrus attacked the city of Babylon. This was actually preached in 725 BC and it happened just as said.

Verse 23 — “I will make it a possession for the porcupine, and pools of water [it became a swampy area]: and I will sweep it with the besom [a word for sulphur when it burned] of destruction, saith the Lord of hosts.”

Verse 24 — “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:” Exit Babylonian empire!

Verse 25 — “And I will break the Assyrian in my land, and upon my mountains tread him under foot: then shall his yoke depart from off them, and his burden from off their shoulder.” This was a special prophecy for the Sennacherib invasion in which the Lord Jesus Christ personally delivered the Jews from the great invasion which took place at that time. One hundred and eighty thousand of Sennacherib’s choice infantry were wiped out in one morning by the Lord Jesus Christ. And this will only happen twice in the history of the human race when Jesus Christ will personally deliver Jerusalem. Once at the second advent — Zechariah 14:1-4 — and at the time of the Sennacherib invasion. And the basis of it: the people on the wall, faith-resting all the way.

Verse 26 — “This is the purpose that it purposed upon the whole earth: and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all nations.”

Verse 27 — “For the Lord of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? and his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?” It is very interesting that in the plan of God, whenever there is a judgment set up, there is always through the volition of the individual an escape hatch. There is an alternate.

Verses 28-32, The result of the decision of Ahaz: the judgment on Palestine, the fourth and fifth cycles of discipline which would come.

“In the year that king Ahaz died was this burden [judgment].” What do we have when we have divine judgment? “Rejoice not, O Philistia [thou whole Palestine].” It has nothing to rejoice in in anticipation of the future — judgment is coming.

“because the rod of him that smote thee is broken.” The rod of him that smote thee is Shalmaneser. At the time that Isaiah lived Shalmaneser died, and with his death — 722 BC — they thought that because Shalmaneser died they would be delivered. But what happened, just as Isaiah predicted, was when Shalmaneser died the Jews had a great outburst of rejoicing. But Isaiah warns — verse 29: “But out of the serpent’s root [from this same man] shall come forth a basilisk [a spiting cobra]” .So there is an egg which Shalmaneser hatched and just because the serpent is dead you are not safe.—

“and his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent” — literally: he shoots fire at you, venom. He will shoot venom at you, is the concept.

Shalmaneser dies without leaving an actual heir but the root of the serpent is, someone will take over — another snake, Sargon the second. But who was worse than Sargon the second? His son, Sennacherib.

Verse 30 — “The firstborn of the poor [saved Jews in the time of Hezekiah].” Who was the Cobra who came back? Sennacherib. So Isaiah tells them that even though the Cobra is coming “the firstborn of the poor” — a simple idiom for believers. The word “poor” means a person who does not rely upon his assets but relies upon God — “shall feed [they feed on the Word], and the needy shall lie down in safety [this is the story of the people on the wall using the faith-rest technique].” But what is going to happen to the others who are not saved? “I will kill thy root with famine, and he shall slay thy remnant.” The remnant here is used in the sense of others besides the saved ones just described. So, what should you do?

Verse 31 — “Howl O gate; cry O city; thou whole Palestine are dissolved [operation 5th cycle]; for there shall come forth from the north a smoke” — Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon — “and none shall be alone in his appointed times” — in other words this is going to be a mass migration, a mass captivity.

In view of this, is that the end? Is this the end of the Jews? Once the Babylonian captivity takes place will there be the same thing as happened with Assyria and Babylon, does the parallel go to this far? This question at the end in verse 32 says simply: Now look, Assyria disappears from history, Babylonians disappear from history. Does this mean no more Jews?

Verse 32 — “What shall one then answer the messengers of the nation?” This is an idiom which simply says: what are we going to be in the list of nations still? The answer: “That which the Lord hath founded in Zion, and the poor of his people shall trust in him.” Now this phrase, “that which the Lord hath founded in Zion” is a reference to the fact that the Jews would not disappear from history. It is called “that which the Lord hath founded” because Jesus Christ is the founder of the Jewish race — it was founded on regeneration. “The poor of his people shall trust in him” is a reference to the born-again Jews. Just like anyone else they have eternal life and they cannot be destroyed and the Jews will not be removed from the earth.