Most Bible scholars believe that Isaiah 14:12-14 and Ezekiel 28:12-18 tell us about Lucifer's transformation from an incredibly beautiful and powerful angel of light into Satan. Yes, that Satan, the enemy of God, the enemy of all God does, and the enemy of all God loves. Lucifer's once beautiful and pure essence became dark, evil, and unceasingly hateful, all by his own choice to rebel and seek his own glory. Every teaching I've heard on this subject attributes that horrid transformation to Lucifer's pride. I don't dispute that, but I've also come to think there was something missing deeper within him that allowed the fatal flaw of pride to flourish.
In the simplest terms, Lucifer was in love with himself first and foremost. He served God but didn't really love Him. If Lucifer had truly loved God, he could not have become prideful. To say it another way, Lucifer became prideful because he did not truly care deeply about the Father. He did not love God with all of his heart, soul, mind, and strength.
Lucifer thought about himself first, sort of like the older brother in the story of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32), another example of serving the Father without loving Him. If Lucifer had truly loved God, he would have cared about God first, delighting in God's happiness and losing sight of himself as he indulged in loving God. If fully loving God had been in his heart, there would have been no room for the me, me, me of pride.
It's been a few years, but for nearly a decade my wife and I were foster parents. We strove to give the children a real home and a loving, stable family. We weren't perfect, but we loved them and we learned what it was like to lose sight of ourselves as we cared for them. The intensity of it sort of snuck up on us. I remember being asked one year what I wanted for Christmas. My thoughts went immediately to several new bicycles and a few other things that we wanted for the children. It struck me that I really had no idea what I wanted for me. God let me experience that because He wanted me to glimpse losing myself in love and care for something other than myself.
In Mark 12:30, Jesus said "AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH.' This is the first commandment." Notice, He did not say "Avoid Pride" or "Walk Humbly with God", though those are both excellent admonitions and there are plenty of verses telling us to do both of those things. Jesus knew that if we loved the Lord first and foremost with all the heart, soul, mind, and strength, we wouldn't really have to worry about avoiding pride or walking humbly with God.
Loving the Lord with all the heart, soul, mind, and strength is an inoculation against all sorts of evil that can otherwise overtake the human soul. I ask Him everyday to transform me so that I may increasingly love Him that way. It's mostly a process and only partially an event. I want the full inoculation. I want the full transformation. I want to completely and consistently lose myself in loving Him, but I can't fix myself and I can't make that transformation on my own.
So I choose to pray for that goal because I understand it's His goal for me...and for you. He really likes it when we pray and choose to surrender to the very things that He wants, believing and trusting that He will complete the good work He has begun in us.
I've come to realize that even in the very best moments of my very best days, my decision to surrender is fairly thin and so easily made ineffective, like a thread-bare coat on a cold, blustery day. I so easily fall from my high perch! I am totally dependent upon Him for this transformation, just as you are, through Jesus' sacrifice and Lordship. I have no choice but to believe and trust and regularly repent, wanting with my oft-divided heart to be totally transformed. Only His grace and His mercy can see us through.
Here are some passages that speak to these things.
Isaiah 14:12 -15 "How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, You who weakened the nations! For you have said in your heart: 'I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation On the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.' Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, To the lowest depths of the Pit.
Ezekiel 28:12 -17 ...Thus says the Lord GOD: "You were the seal of perfection, Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God...You were the anointed cherub who covers; I established you; You were on the holy mountain of God; You walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones. You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, Till iniquity was found in you. I cast you as a profane thing out of the mountain of God; And I destroyed you, O covering cherub, From the midst of the fiery stones. Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; You corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor..."
Micah 6:8 He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God?
Proverbs 16:18 Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before a fall.
In the simplest terms, Lucifer was in love with himself first and foremost. He served God but didn't really love Him. If Lucifer had truly loved God, he could not have become prideful. To say it another way, Lucifer became prideful because he did not truly care deeply about the Father. He did not love God with all of his heart, soul, mind, and strength.
Lucifer thought about himself first, sort of like the older brother in the story of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32), another example of serving the Father without loving Him. If Lucifer had truly loved God, he would have cared about God first, delighting in God's happiness and losing sight of himself as he indulged in loving God. If fully loving God had been in his heart, there would have been no room for the me, me, me of pride.
It's been a few years, but for nearly a decade my wife and I were foster parents. We strove to give the children a real home and a loving, stable family. We weren't perfect, but we loved them and we learned what it was like to lose sight of ourselves as we cared for them. The intensity of it sort of snuck up on us. I remember being asked one year what I wanted for Christmas. My thoughts went immediately to several new bicycles and a few other things that we wanted for the children. It struck me that I really had no idea what I wanted for me. God let me experience that because He wanted me to glimpse losing myself in love and care for something other than myself.
In Mark 12:30, Jesus said "AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH.' This is the first commandment." Notice, He did not say "Avoid Pride" or "Walk Humbly with God", though those are both excellent admonitions and there are plenty of verses telling us to do both of those things. Jesus knew that if we loved the Lord first and foremost with all the heart, soul, mind, and strength, we wouldn't really have to worry about avoiding pride or walking humbly with God.
Loving the Lord with all the heart, soul, mind, and strength is an inoculation against all sorts of evil that can otherwise overtake the human soul. I ask Him everyday to transform me so that I may increasingly love Him that way. It's mostly a process and only partially an event. I want the full inoculation. I want the full transformation. I want to completely and consistently lose myself in loving Him, but I can't fix myself and I can't make that transformation on my own.
So I choose to pray for that goal because I understand it's His goal for me...and for you. He really likes it when we pray and choose to surrender to the very things that He wants, believing and trusting that He will complete the good work He has begun in us.
I've come to realize that even in the very best moments of my very best days, my decision to surrender is fairly thin and so easily made ineffective, like a thread-bare coat on a cold, blustery day. I so easily fall from my high perch! I am totally dependent upon Him for this transformation, just as you are, through Jesus' sacrifice and Lordship. I have no choice but to believe and trust and regularly repent, wanting with my oft-divided heart to be totally transformed. Only His grace and His mercy can see us through.
Here are some passages that speak to these things.
Isaiah 14:12 -15 "How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, You who weakened the nations! For you have said in your heart: 'I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation On the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.' Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, To the lowest depths of the Pit.
Ezekiel 28:12 -17 ...Thus says the Lord GOD: "You were the seal of perfection, Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God...You were the anointed cherub who covers; I established you; You were on the holy mountain of God; You walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones. You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, Till iniquity was found in you. I cast you as a profane thing out of the mountain of God; And I destroyed you, O covering cherub, From the midst of the fiery stones. Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; You corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor..."
Micah 6:8 He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God?
Proverbs 16:18 Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before a fall.
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