Isaiah 14: 12-15

You may notice that we just skipped over a couple of chapters from last week when we covered Isaiah 11. Chapter 12 is the end of the first part of this book and it is a pretty straightforward and clear statement, much like a psalm, proclaiming that the Lord is the prophet’s strength and might. In chapter 13 we begin a long series of proclamations, mostly condemnatory, about all the nations that surround Israel. For the next 10 chapters we hear what the Lord has to say through his prophet about Babylon, Philistia, Moab, Damascus, Egypt, Dumah, and Tyre. The point—or rather one point of these 10 chapters—is that Isaiah is trying to say that all the world is God’s, and that whether or not the nations of the world believe in God or acknowledge God, all of them still belong to God and that he will reward those who are faithful and punish those who are not.

Today we spent our time on one very short piece of scripture from chapter 14, beginning with the 12th verse: “How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn.” Now on the most immediate level this prophecy, which goes on to say that those who exalt themselves shall fall, is about the kingdom of Babylon. That is, again, the immediate level. But there is another level that comes to us because it seems that Jesus refers back to this piece of scripture in Luke 10:18: “He [Jesus] said to them, ‘I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightening.’”

After making this connection I then broached a most difficult subject, one that I would call Spiritual Warfare. When I heard people using this kind of language in seminary I just wrote them off and kept my distance. When I attended a conference on healing soon after graduating from seminary and heard people, again, use this kind of language I was once more scornful and dismissive. In my early twenties I had read C.S. Lewis’ book, Screwtape Letters, a book where an older devil instructs a younger devil about how to tempt and corrupt a human being’s soul, and I thought it all seemed pretty fanciful. Now, after 25 years of living in my own skin and trying to make sense of life and sin and grace with all of you, I take all this language much more seriously.

Now, I could not say whether or not evil is personified, whether evil has an actual, physical presence, but I do believe—know—that evil is real. There have been a few times when I have encountered things, situations, circumstances when I know that I am in the presence of something—someone?—that is very dark. I also know what Jesus means when he calls the devil the Accuser or the Father of Lies. And, who among us, doesn’t? The Accuser who comes to undermine and sabotage all of our efforts, and our very life itself. The Tempter who comes to beckon us to do or say things that we know are not good. The Father of Lies who either comes to exalt us or diminish us, who either beckons us to be our own god or who wants us just to give up on God altogether.


As I am inviting people into this conversation, I was feeling pretty nervous—I mean, this is not an easy subject and we have men there who have been working at their faith for a long time and those who are just beginning, and especially for the latter group I didn’t want to blow them out of the room.

I then opened the floor and I was amazed by how quiet and reflective and mature and wise and grounded these men were about doing spiritual warfare in their own lives. One person said, quoting C.S. Lewis, that we can make two big mistakes as we think about the devil, and that is to either think too much or too little about him.

As I said to them, I am not putting these words down on paper to persuade any one of you that the devil is real and that you are daily doing battle with the spiritual forces of darkness. You will need to make that determination for yourself. All that I am trying to say here is that I now take all of this language—language that is, by the way, woven all through the Christian scriptures—more seriously. I would commend Lewis’ book to you, as I would invite you to read the first several chapters of Mark’s gospel to see how often Jesus is doing spiritual battle.

At the end of the class I needed to wrap all this up. What I said to them is what I will now say to you: Remember who you are. Remember whose you are. If evil is indeed real, then we need to acknowledge that any one of us can do things that allow that presence to come into our lives. So, be vigilant—not afraid, but, again, vigilant. And remember: Jesus is with you. Jesus will protect you. Jesus will give you all you need to do the spiritual battles that you are facing. The war has been won—Jesus has assured us of that, but there are battles for lives and souls and hearts that still need to be fought. So, don’t be naïve about what is at stake. Jesus needs you to do these battles and you need Jesus, not only as your friend and savior and redeemer, but also as your warrior and protector.