Is Lucifer Satan? Does the fall of Lucifer describe Satan?

Isa. 14:12. The king of Babylon is intended here, the final holder of the power which was first vested in the hands of Nebuchadnezzar. It is the last head of the beast (Rev. 17), for the context supposes that his destruction is contemporaneous with the deliverance and blessing of Israel. The scene is of course future in any full sense. For styling Satan "Lucifer" there is, probably, no ground, save the fancy of poets, or the misinterpretations of the Fathers.

Even when the prophet is declaring God's judgment upon the ancient and heathen Babylon, the Holy Spirit looks onward to the mystic Babylon of which the city of Nebuchadnezzar was but the type. The judgment of the world is included in the prophecy against the ancient Babylon (Isa. 13:11). And though the pride and arrogancy of its king be great, the language of the prophet (Isa. 14) goes beyond a simple description of the heathen king and his city. The Spirit of God gives the time, when "thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon." It will be in the day when the Lord Jehovah gives rest to Israel. That day is not yet come, and it is evident that the prophecy looks onward to Babylon the Great. But does it not go beyond the ecclesiastical system destroyed by the Beast and the ten kings? Is not the direct power of Satan as exhibited in the false prophet referred to (Isa. 14:12-21)? Lucifer, son of the morning, is apparently a reference to what Satan was before he fell, and the expression of his heart, "I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will be like the most High," the pride which caused his fall. (Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil.) The same awful character of pride is seen in the "man of sin," who "exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sits in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God" (2 Thess. 2:4). Disgrace and unhonoured with any burial was the doom of the king of Babylon, but does not the prophet speak of a worse than the heathen king, "Thou shalt not be joined with them in burial, because thou hast destroyed thy land and slain thy people"? If darkly, yet is not this a prediction of the judgment upon that man of sin who is both the false prophet and the king that does his on will, in a word, the same doom as Rev. 19:20? Be this as it may, we know that prophecy wonderfully blends the future with the circumstances which are the occasion of the prophecy. And if the false prophet is included in this prophecy, the name of the Apostasy is applied to that state, which will arise from the destruction of the corrupt thing which is pre-eminently called "Babylon the Great."

But my task is to show that there is another and very distinct character in which the Lord next presents Himself. He will verify and make good all that David's root and offspring can impart in His coming kingdom. Yet He is also the "bright, the morning star." This is never said in the Old Testament about the Lord Jesus. The only morning star we hear of there is His enemy, foreshadowed by the haughty king of Babylon in Isa. 14, the last holder of the imperial power which began in "the golden city." "Thou saidst in thy heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God … I will be like the Most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the uttermost parts of the pit." It is because of his great words at the close that he will be given to the burning of fire. This appears to be the true identification of the "day-star, son of the morning," in the prophetic word of Isaiah. It is not Satan, as many have hastily thought. He is described as a great king, this king of Babylon. Thus the first king of Babylon is a type of the last who succeeds to the world-power which began then. It is not Nebuchadnezzar whose last appearance in scripture (Dan. 4) is as different as possible, both in humiliation and restoration. Nor did any other fully meet the terms of the prophet; but it surely will be in the little horn of the West (Dan. 7) He is the final holder of this world's imperial power. Such is the man whom Old Testament prophecy describes as the "son of the morning, or the day-star" (Lucifer).

Name, signifying in Latin 'light-bringer,' being a translation of the Hebrew word, helel, associated with 'morning star,' given in irony to the king of Babylon, because in his pride he said he would exalt his throne above the stars of God. Isa. 14:12. He resembles the leader of this world in the last days. Rev. 13:1-10.

When the last great Babylon is overthrown the Lord will remember His people and Jerusalem in mercy. He will then set His people in rest in their own land. The king of Babylon here in this chapter is not Nebuchadnezzar, nor his grandson Belshazzar, but the final great king of Babylon. It is the little horn of Daniel 7, the great political head of the restored Roman empire. Behind this final king of the times of the Gentiles looms up Satan, who energized that wicked and false king. The description of him who was "Lucifer," the light-bearer, and his fall is of deep interest.

We all know, beloved, what was the character of the first sin that entered the world, and has made it what it is — a scene of violence and corruption, sorrow, death, and judgment. It was disobedience. Pride and independence had led Satan, the prince of this world, to disobedience, and thus brought him to fall. That once exalted and bright angelic spirit, whose name was "Lucifer," or "Day Star," and "Son of the Morning," had said in his heart, "I will ascend into heaven; I will exalt my throne above the stars of God … I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High" (Isa. 14.) He had "sealed" up the sum, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. He had been in Eden, the garden of God. Every precious stone was his covering — the sardius, the topaz, and the diamond; the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper; the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold; the workmanship of his tabrets and of his pipes was prepared in him in the day that he was created. He was the anointed cherub that covereth; and God had set him so; he was upon the holy mountain of God; he had walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. He was perfect in his ways from the day that he was created, till iniquity was found in him. And what was his iniquity? "Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty; thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness; I will cast thee to the ground; I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee" (Ezek. 28.*).

In dreadful contrast with these worshiping servants, these "sons of God," we see one utterly unlike them in moral character, though having a spirit-nature like themselves. Indeed he was once morally like them, the very chief of them all (Ezek. 28) — the "covering cherub" that shadowed the throne of Jehovah. But "how hast thou fallen, O Lucifer, son of the morning!" Dazzled with his own glory, wilfully forgetting the creature-place which he must ever keep, he has fallen into pride ("the condemnation of the devil"), by which he became the bitter, eternal enemy of all that is good, and of God Himself.

But he says, "It was to cast down some of the host and of the stars. This is predicted respecting the dragon (Rev. 12:3-4). All admit that the dragon is Rome." Not quite. Scripture does not: the dragon it interprets as the old serpent, which is the devil, and Satan;" and it tells us that twice over, that there may be no mistake (Rev. 12:9; Rev. 20:2). The resemblance fails to prove the point.

Let us recollect also that Satan approached our Lord in the temptation in the wilderness with an offer of all the kingdoms of the world, if only He would worship him. The Lord's answer was, "Get thee behind Me, Satan." He utterly refused it. But the offer which the Lord in His perfection refused, will appeal to this man, who is called, "the beast," and he will do homage to the devil and get the kingdom for a brief spell. For that same brief spell Satan will be publicly acknowledged as "god," and thus seem to achieve what he has coveted from the beginning. We find a prophetic reference to it in Isaiah 14:12-14. "I will ascend … I will be like the Most High." Yet in result, "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!" The achievement of his darling desire is the prelude to his fall.

"How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground … 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: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds: I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell to the sides of the pit." The beginning of his sin was pride, and out of that sprang the determination to be independent of God, and to be as God, ruling a kingdom of his own, a kingdom of darkness, from which the knowledge of God should be utterly excluded. This kingdom bears the character of its founder and must in all things be opposed to God and His kingdom by its very nature. There can be no compromise between light and darkness, no league between good and evil; though with consummate audacity Satan proposed such a compromise to Jesus in the wilderness, when he offered to Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. Did he think that as he had beguiled the woman in Eden so he could beguile the Woman's Seed in the wilderness? If so what a surprise, what a check he got! The lie was detected and resisted and the deceiver was defeated. There can be no fellowship between Christ and Belial, the fight must be fought to the finish; it must end in the final and complete overthrow of one or the other.