A passage from Isaiah that may pertain to September 11, 2001

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May God richly bless and protect you and your family ....

Isaiah 14:12-23 presents a commentary upon human pride ... and verses 16 & 17 
speak to the destructive nature of it. The author Isaiah uses Babylon in a 
symbolic way as a representation of human pride which seeks to exalt itself 
above God. (My feeling is that the symbolic usage of Babylon here in Isaiah may 
parallel the symbolic usage in chapters 17 and 18 in the book of Revelation.)

Here are three verses from Isaiah 14, starting with verse 15, that speak to the 
ultimate outcome of human pride:
  Instead you are put down into Sheol, into the depths of the pit. Those who 
see you will stare at you and consider you. Is this the man who shook the 
earth, making the kingdoms quiver, who made the earth like a desert, 
overthrowing its cities, refusing to send his captives home?
A commentary my wife and I are using to study Isaiah (authored by John N. 
Oswalt) has an interesting insight about this passage on page 323:
  "The frightful nature of this kind of pride is seen in the fact that it would 
prefer the world to be a desert in its own hands than a garden in the hands of 
someone else. In fact, the capacity to destroy and oppress becomes a source of 
pride (see Isaiah 14:6). This is perversion at its plainest."
In my personal view, the attack on our nation yesterday was a manifestation of 
this intensely evil form of pride.

Let's pray for wisdom for President Bush and his advisors so that they may 
receive guidance from the Lord on how to remove this evil from our world. Let's 
pray that the Lord's hand protect our nation and that He use the September 11th 
tragedy to move the United States back to its precious foundation: Christian 
faith and the principles written in the Holy Bible.

God bless you,

Milt


e-mail:  mhabeck@execpc.com
www.unbeatenpathintl.com




** Note ... some take the wording of Isaiah 14:12 ("how you have fallen from 
heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn") to signify that this part of Isaiah 
is about Satan. However, a closer reading of the Hebrew in 14:12 suggests that 
"morning star" is used there as a symbol for human pride. It is more likely 
that "morning star" is a word picture which employs what we know about the 
bright appearance of the planet Venus at the eastern horizon just before dawn.
  We know that Venus is at first more prominent than the sun (sun used as a 
symbol for God). Then Venus attempts to rise from its prominence in the 
before-dawn eastern horizon to appear in the middle of the daytime sky. 
However, this competition for prominence with the sun (God) fails entirely as 
the sun rises brightly in the sky and overwhelms the light from Venus.
Of course, because Satan has pride, this passage can be read to include Satan 
without interpreting the passage to mean only Satan.
  .

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