Lucifer’s 5 “I Will’s”

[This is a continuation of our look at the Fall of Satan]

Isa 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! Isa 14:13 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: Isa 14:14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Isa 14:15 Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit. Isa 14:16 They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms; Isa 14:17 That made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners?

The context of these passages is the fall of Belshazzar, king of Babylon, the great enemy and oppressor of God’s people, “the great whore that sitteth upon many waters,” “with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.” Babylon is also described in Rev 17 as a woman sitting “upon a scarlet coloured beast,” “arrayed in purple and scarlet,” “having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication,” and who like Belshazzar and the Prince of Tyre, she was adorned in precious stones. The great whore that sits upon many waters, like Tyre, was powerful, wealthy, and gorgeous to the eyes. Isaiah called Babylon the “golden city,” although New Jerusalem will outshine Babylon by literally being a city of gold with streets of pure gold, walls of jasper, and gates made of pearls.

Babylon was powerful and made the earth tremble and the kingdoms to shake, and like Lucifer and the Prince of Tyre, she was proud to a degree that she would exalt herself above God only to fall to the depths of ruin, hell, and judgment from God, whom they rejected. Isaiah said in vs. 12, “How art thou fallen from Heaven, O Lucifer!” which makes me think of what the Lord said in Luke 10:18, “I beheld Satan as lightning fall from Heaven.”

Verse 15 talks about how Satan “shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.” Hell being Sheol here must mean that Isaiah is referencing the period in which Satan will be chained and thrown into the pit for a thousand years during the earthly reign of Christ (Rev. 20:3). During that time, other fallen angels and unbelieving souls awaiting judgment will look upon him in amazement and will say of Satan, as will be said of Belshazzar, “Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms, that made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners?” Just as Belshazzar refused to release his captives, especially Israel, so too, Satan refuses to release all of his human prisoners caught up in his world-wide Satanic System.

Lucifer was the anointed cherub that covereth. His covering of the eternal throne in the sanctuary of the temple in the city of our God upon the holy mountain in Heaven brought glory to God. Because of his pride, Lucifer deceived himself with the five “I wills” in his heart.

First, he says, “I will ascend into heaven.” Wait. Wasn’t Lucifer already in Heaven? I suspect this meant that he would ascend the heights of heaven itself. In the OT, there are 5 verses that say “the heaven and the heaven of heavens.” Plus, there are 2 verses in the OT that say, plural, “heavens of heavens.” It may be that the third heaven is a heavenly place in and of itself, and that Heaven is so massive, beyond comprehension, that heaven has its own multiple heavenly places, and Christ is exalted above it all. The phrase “7^th Heaven” isn’t Biblical but it’s possible. The big point is, Lucifer wanted to ascend the very heights of Heaven Christ sits.

Second, he says, “I will exalt my throne above the stars of God.” I’d suggest “stars” is a reference to the other angels. In Scripture, stars sometimes represent angels. The apostle John writes in Rev 12:3 And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. Rev 12:4 And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born. The third part of the stars of heaven are the angels that rebelled with Satan.

In Rev. 1:16, we read, And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength… A few verses later, the Lord explains this symbolism. He says in Rev 1:20, “The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches.” Plus, in Rev. 9, we read about the star that fell from heaven, the star that was called a “him” and it was said that “…to him was given the key of the bottomless pit”? How can that star in Rev. 9 not be an angel? And, of course, there were those morning stars (Job 38:7) singing when the Earth was initially created in Gen. 1:2 and the real stars were not created until the fourth day. Stars are consistently a symbolic representation in Scripture of angels, which means that the morning stars can be nothing other than angels.

Third, Lucifer said, “I will sit also upon the mount.” This is the throne upon which God sat upon the mountain of God with the stones of fire, which we covered last week.

Fourth, he said, “I will ascend above the heights of the clouds.” I suspect the reference to clouds may be a reference to Cherubims, who are arguably the most powerful angels.

I once studied David’s song of deliverance after his war with the Philistines in 2 Sam. 22. David sings of the Lord in 2Sa 22:10 that He bowed the heavens also, and came down; and darkness was under his feet. 2Sa 22:11 And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly: and he was seen upon the wings of the wind. Then I noticed that David would say in Psa 68:17, “The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels…” So the chariots of God are thousands of angels. Then David would say in Psa 104:3 that the Lord “maketh the clouds his chariot: who walketh upon the wings of the wind…”

Consider the associations. David said in 2Sa 22:11 and Psa 18:10 that he rode upon a cherub, and did fly: yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind. Chariots are angels. He makes His clouds His chariots. The Lord rides a Cherub. So if the chariots of God are angels and He rides upon a Cherub, wouldn’t that make a Cherub an angel, because that Cherub was used as His chariot? And when David writes about the Lord making “the clouds his chariot…” in Psa 104:3, wouldn’t “clouds” be a symbolic reference to hosts of Cherubs because “clouds” are a “covering” just as lucifer was the anointed Cherub that covereth? And the clouds are always transitory, just as Ezekiel described the Cherubims as constantly transitory? Remember how Ezekiel wrote in 1:14 And the living creatures ran and returned as the appearance of a flash of lightning. Thus, Lucifer didn’t simply think he’d be over the angels, but he’d be over the most powerful angels, too.

Finally, Lucifer says, “I will be like the Most High.” He can only dream of being like God, because He is not God. Notice also that the lie that Lucifer told himself is the same lie he convinced Adam and Eve to accept, which brought about the fall in the Garden of Eden.

God responded in two ways. He cast Lucifer and his angels out of Heaven. The Lord said in Luke 10:18, “I beheld Satan as lightning fall from Heaven.”

Then He created the lake of fire “prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matt. 25:41). He also allowed Satan to be the god of this world, and earth became the battleground where God would use humans to wage warfare in the great battle for the repossession of the earth.

Humans, made lower than the angels, are the ones God would use against Satan, which is in keeping with the great theme of the lame takes the prey. God loves to use the foolish to confound the wise, the weak to confound the mighty, and the base things of the world, and things which are despised, to bring to nought things that are. Humans would be the ones used by God to carry out His eternal purpose to put all things on this earth into subjection unto Himself.