For most of my life, I have been under the impression that Isaiah chapter 14 references Lucifer as satan, and how he fell from Heaven a long time ago, perhaps before mankind. This is the predominant teaching in the church. I must admit that in my many years of study, I did not study this. I just went with the flow. But the Lord led me to look into this recently, so here we are.
I first started by reading chapter 13, that’s where the context begins. I immediately got the impression that it was prophetic, primarily from 13:6 where it states that the Day of the Lord is near, backed up by similar wording found in other prophetic scripture. Verses 10 and 11 speak of the sun, moon and stars being darkened, and that He will punish the world for its evil. I don’t believe either of these is fully executed yet. And besides, the Hebraic mindset is cyclical, meaning that what has happened will happen again. That brings us to Isaiah 9 and The Harbinger revelation by Jonathan Cahn. All those things have come about again, so chapter 13 will likely do the same.
Chapter 14 begins with the exalting of Israel in that God will have mercy on them and choose them again, and the people that kept them captive will now BE their captives. To my knowledge this is yet to occur. It then goes on to explain what will happen to the king of Babel ( Gate of the gods ). I believe the coming antichrist will be the Islamic caliphate, and will likely rise from and/or rule in Babylon ( Babel ) . Long story short, I think this is still in our prophetic future and not a story of the distant past where satan fell.
Some older commentaries like Clarke and Barnes point out this same notion, but take it even further in that the word is ‘heeyleel’ (H 1966 ), a form of halal (H 1984 ) ) which stems from yalal (H 3213 ))( see 13:6 ). All this to say that it essentially means to howl, implying to be the center of attention, or in the spotlight, thus becoming the one who shines. But they go even further than that, implying that it should be translated as a verb. – “How you have fallen from Heaven. Howl, son of the morning.” This changes the focus to the ‘son of the morning’.
I know, it messes with your notions, mine too. But that’s the beauty of it all! This is enough to chew on for now. We will revisit it later. For now, rest assured that Jesus has it all under control.