Lucifer in Isaiah 14:12 Update

 I did some more research into the Lucifer thing in Isaiah 14:12.

Just as a refresher, here is the verse in the KJV, NASB, ESV, and Hebrew:

Isaiah 14:12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! KJV

Isaiah 14:12 "How you have fallen from heaven, O star of the morning, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the earth, You who have weakened the nations! NASB

Isaiah 14:12 "How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low!  ESV

Isaiah 14:12 יב איך נפלת משמים הילל בן־שחר נגדעת לארץ חולש על־גוים׃

There are 32 occurrences of the word הילל in the Hebrew text, translated as “Lucifer” in the KJV, and as “Star of the morning” in the NASB and ESV.  But it’s only in the singular nominative masculine in the Isaiah passage, the 31 other passages such as Zechariah 11:2 have it in the imperative or imperfect, and it is translated as “Howl,” or “Wail.” 

Currently The Shack By William P. Young see related

Comic relief

I took Pendragon and SonnetJoy to the airport to put them on their flight to Honduras this morning.  We got there in plenty of time, and there are stories to be told about all that, but I will let them tell their own stories.  But …

There was a family right behind us as we went through the check-in point, mom & dad and a teen and a boy about eight years old.  The two brothers had obviously been “into it” with each other all morning already.  The older boy said something like “Well, I don’t have any metal on me;” and the little brother replied “I don’t have any metal either, not even any money.”

Well, here was a chance that was too good to be missed!  I said to the boy, “Here, let me check you out;” and a opened my cell phone and began waiving it around his head, pushing the side buttons as fast as I could, making the phone beep.  “Well,” I said, “I’m not so sure about that, maybe you do have something there in your head!”  The kid stood real still and started looking around for support from his family.  When they said nothing, I told the kid, “You know I’m just messing with you, don’t you?”  “Yeah! Yeah, I knew that,” he replied with a relieved sigh.

Not satisfied to let it go at that, I said, “When you get back home, if you’ll get some of your Mom’s aluminium foil and make a hat out of it, and wear it all the time, no one will be able to read your mind any more!”   His mom & dad giggled, and his brother gaped.  Pendragon started muttering, “I don’t know this guy, I never saw him before in my life.”

It provided some much needed comic relief.

Currently Holman Old Testament Commentary: Psalms 1-75 see related

LUCIFER

I was leading the Sunday night Bible study, Angels part 6, on Satan featuring the famous passages in Isaiah 14:12-15 and Ezekiel 28:11-19.  I began looking for the name Lucifer, and could not find it.  I was sure that it was in one of these two passages, and I could even remember the phrasing I was looking for, but alas, no “Lucifer” in the text, or in the concordance!

When I got home I searched for it in Bibleworks 8, to no avail; until I switched my search to the KJV, and compared that with the NASB and the ESV:

Isaiah 14:12 (ESV) "How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low!

Isaiah 14:12 (NASB) "How you have fallen from heaven, O star of the morning, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the earth, You who have weakened the nations!

Isaiah 14:12 (KJV) How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!

Amazingly, that is the only passage in the KJV that uses “Lucifer” as a name for Satan; “Lucifer” does not appear at all in the NASB or in the ESV.  I am very disappointed that the ESV and the NASB went for the adjectival meaning of the words בבל ואמרת איך instead of taking them in their nominative form to give the name Lucifer, Son of the Morning.

 Then as we discussed the idea of a powerful angel named Lucifer, or Satan, we considered that all angles are powerful agents of God to do the work of God that they do.  We often attribute power to Satan because of what we read about him in 1 Peter 5:8 “Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” 

Then I mentioned the power of Satan in opposing Gabriel for two weeks as he came with the answer to Daniel’s prayer in Daniel chapter 10.  Well, I had those facts wrong; it was 21 days, not 14 days.  But I also had the identity of the One who came to Daniel’s aid wrong; I had said that it was Gabriel, and that Michael had come to his aid.  I had the Michael part right, but not the Gabriel part.  Gabriel is not named, but the person that responded to Daniel’s plea is described in Daniel 10:1-6.

Daniel 10:1-6 ¹ In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia a message was revealed to Daniel, who was named Belteshazzar; and the message was true and one of great conflict, but he understood the message and had an understanding of the vision. ² In those days, I, Daniel, had been mourning for three entire weeks. ³ I did not eat any tasty food, nor did meat or wine enter my mouth, nor did I use any ointment at all until the entire three weeks were completed. ⁴ On the twenty-fourth day of the first month, while I was by the bank of the great river, that is, the Tigris, ⁵ I lifted my eyes and looked, and behold, there was a certain man dressed in linen, whose waist was girded with a belt of pure gold of Uphaz. ⁶ His body also was like beryl, his face had the appearance of lightning, his eyes were like flaming torches, his arms and feet like the gleam of polished bronze, and the sound of his words like the sound of a tumult.

Who does that description sound like?  Where else have we read those words to describe someone in the Bible?

Revelation 1:12-15 ¹² Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands; ¹³ and in the middle of the lampstands I saw one like a son of man, clothed in a robe reaching to the feet, and girded across His chest with a golden sash. ¹⁴ His head and His hair were white like white wool, like snow; and His eyes were like a flame of fire. ¹⁵ His feet were like burnished bronze, when it has been made to glow in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of many waters.

If the person described in Daniel 10 is the same person described in Revelation 1; then the person who came to Daniel’s aid, in response to his prayer, was the “son of man;” Jesus.  I am amazed that Jesus Himself would show up in response to the prayer of Daniel.

But that is not my point.  This person so gloriously described in Daniel, and apparently repeated in Revelation, also says this:

Daniel 10:11-13 ¹¹ He said to me, "O Daniel, man of high esteem, understand the words that I am about to tell you and stand upright, for I have now been sent to you." And when he had spoken this word to me, I stood up trembling. ¹² Then he said to me, "Do not be afraid, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart on understanding this and on humbling yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to your words. ¹³ "But the prince of the kingdom of Persia was withstanding me for twenty-one days; then behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left there with the kings of Persia,” (emphasis added).

Now we need to understand “the prince of the kingdom of Persia.”  The first thing to decide is “Could a mere mortal man have withstood the Angel of the Lord for 21 seconds, much less 21 days?”  That answer has to be “No.”  So, who then is this prince?  The kingdom of Persia was an evil empire at the time of Daniel, and its prince had no power because all power was concentrated into the hands of the king.  This prince would have been the power behind the throne, the source of the evil: Satan.  This is the pattern of all evil in the world, Satan is behind it.  In the book of Job, the man Job is opposed by Satan; even though he never meets him, it is the dragon and leviathan that emerge from time-to-time in the background of the events of the book of Job.

Do you get it?  If both descriptions are the “son of man,” and if “the prince of the kingdom of Persia” is Satan, as we think, then Satan was able to withstand the son of man for three weeks, and “Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left there with the kings of Persia,” (Dan 10:13 NAS).

Satan was powerful enough to hold up the son of man for three weeks from His mission of answering Daniel’s prayer!  And yet Satan is a defeated foe.  Jesus defeated him once in the temptation in the desert, and again in the resurrection; ultimately Satan will be cast into the lake of fire (Rev 20:10) to be tormented forever and ever.  In fact, in every encounter with Satan it is Jesus who wins.

And we can have victory over him also: James 4:7 “Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”

Noren Curtains

So we had some Xanga friends that came to take Sonnetjoy's dog, Rhombus, to live with them.  When they were here, they asked about the Noren curtains we have up in our hallways.  So, here is a link to the store where we found our Noren.

  http://www.jun-gifts.com/

This store is in Japan, and the items are authenticly Japanese, not knock-off items.  When we want new Noren, this is where we buy them.  It take just a few days for the items to come to us by USPS.

Reality Bites

Two months since my last blog, but there's been a reason.

The week after my last blog was Easter.  My Easter sermon was a disaster.  The church was full. There were lots of visitors. But my sermon started with a joke that insulted, apparently, everyone.  The sermon lasted five (count 'em, 5) minutes past high noon, and people did not get out to go eat Easter dinner on time; I don't know if anyone's roast burnt, but by that night I got a smoking email blasting me for all of it.  I was devastated.  I replied with Proverbs 27:6 "Faithful are the wounds of a friend, But deceitful are the kisses of an enemy." And I meant it, and still mean it.

The emailer wanted me to go to the head of every family in attendance to apologize for offending them, so I did so; and I informed my emailer of my progress contacting everyone by mail or in person.  After I was 90% done, the emailer wrote to say that the original email was an over-reaction, and the writer was sorry.

Except that everyone I talked to said that they were not offended, but were concerned that others might have been.  When I was done making apologies, I asked for a months sabbatical from the church, and it was granted. 

That week my sister died, and I had to go to Oregon for her funeral; she had fought MS for 25 years.  The day I got back I had to go to another funeral, a cowoker's mother had passed away, old age won out. The next week we made a trip to D.C. for a conference, and we wore ourselves out there. Last week a friend we met in Japan died with cancer, it began with breast cancer, but spread throughout her body.  Two weeks ago, Bloodtypo faced a life threatening situation with calmness and aplomb. Every week it has been something, not always that bad.  Next week SonnetJoy and Pendragon leave for Honduras for a year teaching in a Christian school (see her xanga); and Cornsilk moves back home.

God is faithful, I will endure, and God will bless in spite of me (not because of me).  In the mean time, think of my family when you say your prayers.