Isaiah 14:12-21, Happy New Year!

We will take a one-day hiatus from Matthew.  I came across this in my daily reading recently.  I read through the Bible yearly (not bragging; trust me, I have an over abundance of reasons to be humble).  So when I see something for the first time it is interesting.  Of course, I am now at an age where I may have seen this last year in my reading of Isaiah but, thanks to the blessing of forgetfulness, it made me stop and meditate.

Today’s passage is what we might call the “Lucifer prophecy.”  Probably that context is important.  The slightly larger context is that this is part of a prophecy against Babylon.  Lucifer is behind the proud king and kingdom of Babylon.

Pride.  Pride characterizes Babylon.  Without going into detail, remember two great illustrations.  Gen. 11 and the tower of Babel.  Daniel 4 and Nebuchadnezzar’s seven years of insanity.  In today’s passage we see Lucifer’s pride.  We see it in the familiar ways: his desire to ascend above God and his relegation to the lowest pit of hell. 

But did you see it in that last half of the last verse: Lest they rise up and possess the land, and fill the face of the world with cities.  What in the world could be wrong with filling the face of the world with cities?  It is a reminder of the two illustrations above.  The problem with the tower of Babel had to do with the desire of men not to disperse over the earth but to join together in one massive urban area.  God recognized this as man’s attempt to unseat Him as the Sovereign Lord.  And what was at the center of Nebuchadnezzar’s pride?  It was the great city he had built.  This is interesting.

Does anyone remember the name “Jackson Kernion” from this last year?  He was the instructor from Cal Berkeley who put the following on twitter: “Rural Americans are bad people who have made bad life decisions.”  He briefly explained how great cities are, with all they offer, and thus, how stupid people are who intentionally move to the country.  As is often said of such mindless words, he removed his twitter not long after it first appeared.

Here’s another historical thought.  Have you ever heard of a “Khrushchyovka”?  I guess I hadn’t either until I got to Googling the idea of apartment buildings in the old Soviet Union.  “Khrushchyovkas” were 4-5 story apartment buildings that were promoted, or rather demanded, by Nikita Khrushchev.  His point and plan was to get people into the cities, and to provide a place to live for everyone. 

Actually the plan of getting rural people into cities in the USSR goes back to Stalin.  He was ruthless about it.  And it was all about controlling the people.  Get them into cities where we can keep an eye on them.  By the time we started going to Ukraine, which was of course after the Soviet’s left, the city of Zaporozhye (it was true in all of Ukraine) was full of 7, 9, and 14 story apartment buildings.  Simple and inexpensive building plan.  Basically all concrete.  Families were crammed into one- and two-bedroom apartments.  The good news was there wasn’t much of a homeless problem.  Actually, it was forbidden. 

You may be saying, “There’s nothing wrong with cities; it’s the people in the cities that are bad.”  True, people are the one’s making choices.  But it seems the Bible would agree that cities provide a context that lends itself to pride.  Or maybe, as this passage indicates, the cities are the pride of the one who creates them.  And accordingly, it is Lucifer who destroys the cities of the world (14:17) and who then plans to fill the face of the world with his cities (14:21).  As with Stalin, so with Lucifer: whatever he does is about control, about taking the place of God over mankind.

So, do you want to have a happy new year?  Reject the pride.  Reject the idea of replacing God with yourself or of yielding control of your life to someone else.  Jesus said, among other things, Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth (Mt. 5:5; cf. 5:3-10).  The word “blessed” is the “happy” term for blessing.  Happy are those who yield themselves and their expectations and their aspirations to Christ. 

Should you choose the path of pride, and of wresting the control of your life away from God, you are a child of Satan and you are preparing yourself for slaughter (cf. Isa. 14:21; cf. also 1 John 3:4-15).  The choice is yours, at the beginning of a new year.  And every day along the way.  21; cf. also 1 John 3:4-15).  The choice is yours, at the beginning of a new year.  And every day along the way.  We wish you a blessed New Year!