How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations! – Isaiah 14:12

Today’s Scripture Reading (January 7, 2016): Isaiah 14        

             

I have to admit that I enjoy watching Fox Television’s “Lucifer.” The show is another superhero comic book rendering of a hero; often comic book heroes are tormented beings which is definitely true in this case, helping mortals to try not to destroy themselves. In the case of Fox’s “Lucifer,” the main character is a nightclub owner who has escaped hell and is teaming up with a Los Angeles police officer in an effort to fight crime.

But every once in a while the question is raised about how “Lucifer” might compare with the biblical description of this fallen angel. And the truth is that it doesn’t. The whole show is nothing more that fantasy – it is about as true a story as Superman and his Kryptonian roots or Spiderman and his radioactive spider. The real Lucifer Morningstar just isn’t all that interesting. And he is not a tortured soul trying to do good, nor is he a Son of God, as the Fox show portrays him to be. If there is a comparison, it would be better to place the T.V. Lucifer in the realm of the Norse Gods and make him the son of Odin, although even the Loki character in the Norse epic has more mischief and Satan in him than the main character of the “Lucifer” television show.

Isaiah calls the King of Babylon, Lucifer, which quite literally translates into “morning star.” Unlike the television show, Lucifer’s primary purpose on earth seems to be to stir up trouble and make his power known among the lowly mortals, something at which, at least for a time, the King of Babylon excelled.

Isaiah’s King of Babylon is likely Nebuchadnezzar II. And again this is where Isaiah’s prophecy proves to be uncannily true. Prophesying a hundred years before the event, Isaiah effectively tells the story of the time that Nebuchadnezzar was brought low by God. According to Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar was walking one day admiring all that he had created in Babylon when God came to him and gave him this message.

“This is what is decreed for you, King Nebuchadnezzar: Your royal authority has been taken from you. You will be driven away from people and will live with the wild animals; you will eat grass like the ox. Seven times will pass by for you until you acknowledge that the Most High is sovereign over all kingdoms on earth and gives them to anyone he wishes.”

Immediately what had been said about Nebuchadnezzar was fulfilled (Daniel 4:31-33).

How far the king had fallen. Eventually, according to Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar acknowledged God and recovered from his fall. (It is important to note that the portrait Daniel paints of the Babylonian King is very different from any of the other authors in the Bible.) But as far as Lucifer Morningstar is concerned, his collapse will not have a happy ending. The Bible clearly states that, unlike Nebuchadnezzar II, he never recovers from his sin, and is cast into an eternal punishment because of his lack of repentance.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Isaiah 15 & 16