Isaiah 14

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Welcome to Jubilee Life Coaches Life blog where I share Bible meditations and some useful lessons and information that I gather from different sources that I believe will help us walk with the Lord these days. Now this week we are continuing our reading and meditation of the book of Isaiah. It's not an easy book to read and meditate, but it is a must book. So let's let's press on. So chapter 13 that we looked at over the weekend, it recorded the fall of Babylon and the day of the Lord. Isaiah chapter 13 opened a major section of the book of Isaiah, which spans from chapter 13 through 23, consisting of prophetic oracles, often called burdens, against the surrounding nations. Now, though written during a time when Assyria was the primary regional power, it was a visible power, Isaiah foretells the eventual rise of another empire, Babylon, and its catastrophic ruin. So what's fascinating is that Babylon had not even come to power, and Assyria had not lost the power, and yet Isaiah is able to foretell of these empires' fortunes. Yeah, that's like that with God's word and the kingdoms of this world. However strong they may be, it's just a vapor in the morning. God's word stands forever. It's God's kingdom, however weak that it may appear to be, will be uh standing forever with our Lord. Let's not forget that as we continue our study of the book of Isaiah. Now Isaiah chapter 14, the it's the song over Babylon, which begins with mercy, verse 1 and 2 says, The Lord will have compassion on Jacob, meaning the people of God. Once again he will choose Israel and will settle them in their own land. So before God gives his people a single word about the proud king, he tells them who he is toward them, and he is the covenant keeping Lord who pities, who chooses again, and who brings the exiles home and even draws foreigners alongside them. Only then does the taunt begin, and even the taunt is good news for the oppressed. The tyrant who struck the nations with unceasing blows is finished, and all the lands are at rest and at peace. They break into singing. The God we meet here is the one who breaks oppression and gives rest. The whole poem of Babylon's fall is set inside his compassion for his people. Then the taunt lifts the curtain curtain of the heart of the fallen king. You said in your heart, I will ascend to the heavens, I will raise my throne above the stars of God, I will ascend above the tops of the clouds, I will make myself like the most high. Well, five times he says, I will, I will. And each rung of ladder climbs higher until the last one reaches for God's own throne. And this is where our guilt is also named. The sin buried under all this splendor is the oldest sin of all, and it is the serpent's promise in the garden, you will be like God. Genesis 3 5 Taken up and made a life's ambition. So Isaiah even calls the king morning star, son of the dawn, a name of shining height. Yet the same verse says he has fallen from heaven and been cast down to the earth. The title of the chapter is the whole tragedy in a few words. From star to pit, pride always climbs, and pride always falls, because there is only one most high, and the throne above the stars is not vacant. See how far the fall goes. The one who wanted to sit enthroned on the Mount of Assembly is now brought down to the depths of the pit. Those who see him only stare. Is this the man who shook the earth and made the kingdoms tremble? They say verse 16. Other kings are laid to rest, each in his own tomb, but this king is cast out like a rejected branch, a corpse trampled underfoot. The higher the climb, the lower the pit. Long after Isaiah Jesus stated the law in a single sentence. Luke fourteen eleven says, For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted. We should let that sentence search us before we congratulate ourselves that we are not Babylonian kings. The same small voice that said, I will make myself like the Most High, whispers in us whenever we quietly climb to be our own center, our own judge, our own God. Every little Babylon that we build in the heart is on its way to the same pit. Now the gospel turns the whole picture inside out. There is another one who stood at the height of heaven, higher than any morning star. Being in very nature God, the Bible says. Yet where Babylon's king said, I will make myself like the Most High, this one who was the Most High, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped or to be used to his own advantage. Rather, he made himself nothing, according to Philippians 2, verses 6 through 8. And he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. So the false morning star grasped toward uh upward and was thrown down to the pit. However, the true morning star willingly came down, all the way down to the pit of death, and he did it for you and me in our place. So Philippians 2 9 says, Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name. You see, the way up, it turns out, is the way down. In the gospel, the way down is way up. At the very end of the Bible, Jesus says in Revelation 22, 16, he says, I am the root and the offspring of David and the bright morning star. Indeed, he is the shining height that never falls. So we do not need to climb. We come down from our proud towers, we humble ourselves under God's mighty hand, and we let the true morning star lift us. The chapter that begins with the Lord will have compassion on Jacob ends with the proud city swept away and the humble people brought home. God still brings the proud low and raises the lowly, and in Christ, that whole story is already ours to claim. Well, that's it. Uh thanks for joining us once again. Um on my website, jubileecoach.com, under the life blog section, I have some coaching questions if you wanted to uh dig deeper into this passage and bring out some applications for your life. Thank you once again. Godspeed