"That thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased!" (Isaiah 14:4).

The remarkable prophecy against "the king of Babylon" in this chapter was given through Isaiah "In the year that king Ahaz died" (v.28) long before the reign of Nebuchadnezzar and the glory days of Babylon. It describes this king of Babylon in ways that far transcend anything that could properly be ascribed to any earthly king of the past or present. It may refer in part to the man called "the beast," who will reign as king of the world in rebuilt Babylon at the time of the end (Revelation 13:4-8; 17:5-8; 18:1-21), for this chapter is set in the last days, when God's hand of judgment will be "stretched out upon all the nations" to fulfill His "purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth" (Isaiah 14:26).

This king, however, is also called "Lucifer, son of the morning," and is said to have "fallen from heaven" (v.12), words that can really apply to none other than Satan, the highest of all the angels, who had rebelled against his Creator long before. Thus the "proverb against the king of Babylon" is actually addressed primarily to this wicked spirit who had taken possession of the king's body, just as he had once used the body of the serpent in the Garden of Eden. "For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: . . . I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell" (vv.13-15).

In these days, when ancient Babylon was being rebuilt by the recent evil king of Iraq, when Luciferian conspiracies and even Satanic cults are growing rapidly, and the burgeoning "New Age" movement is vigorously promoting a coming humanistic world government, we can rest upon the promise that God's will cannot be defeated, for "His hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?" (v.27). HMM