Something of the significance of this sublime passage and the verses
that immediately follow, will be seen if we place beside it another
picture which also concerns the mysteries of the eternal world and the
throne of God. It is found in the fourteenth chapter of Isaiah: “How
art thou fallen from heaven, O day star, son of the morning! how art
thou cut down to the ground, that didst lay low the nations! And thou
saidst in thy heart, I WILL ascend into heaven, I WILL exalt my throne
above the stars of God; and I WILL sit upon the mount of congregation,
in the uttermost parts of the north: I WILL ascend above the heights of
the clouds; I WILL make myself like the Most High” (Isa. 14:12-14).
This is a portion of “a parable against the king of Babylon.” In it we
have undoubtedly the picture of the great Adversary of the Lord Jesus
Christ, Satan, the highest of created beings; here is a glimpse of his
fall and the secret of it. So striking is the contrast that it is hard
to escape the conviction that the Spirit intended this to be related
to the passage in Philippians that tells of our Lord’s emptying. This
contrast is one that runs from beginning to end through the Scriptures,
which are, indeed, the record of the conflict between these two beings,
the Son of God who became also the Son of man, and the “son of the
morning,” who became the son of uttermost darkness.
Pride Incarnate and Humility Incarnate.
The Son of God was the Word, who was in the beginning with God, and was
God. But though he possessed that equality he did not esteem it a thing
to be grasped after, but he emptied himself of the glory that was his
own. The other glorious being, exalted though he was among the hosts
of God, was not in the form of God; he was but a creature of the Most
High. But he essayed to grasp the equality that was not his: “I will
make myself like the Most High.” Mark now the terrific climax in each
of these descriptions. The Son of God in becoming the Son of man took
step after step in his humiliation, lower and lower, until he touched
the bottom in the cursed death of the cross: “becoming obedient unto
death, yea, the death of the cross.” Then immediately follows this
word: “Wherefore also God highly exalted him, and gave unto him the
name which is above every name; that in the name of Jesus every knee
should bow, of things in heaven and things on earth and things under
the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus is Lord, to
the glory of God the Father.” Satan sought to climb higher and higher
until his ambition reached after the Godhead: “I will make myself like
the Most High.” Immediately follows this word: “Thou shalt be brought
down to hell, to the uttermost parts of the pit.”
There is more in the passages, however, than these two tremendous
contrasts of humiliation and attempted exaltation, and then of
exaltation and uttermost destruction. Jesus told his followers that
he was sending them into the world as the Father sent him. His great
Adversary likewise sends men into the world to carry out the spirit
of his ambition. So he came to our first parents in the garden, and
the temptation was that they should imitate him in seeking to be like
God. They fell before the temptation and the sin was, essentially, a
declaration of independence of God. From that day on every sin, whether
the sin of an unbeliever or the sin of a born-again Christian, has
resulted because of this independence of God. The conflict of that
eternal world has thus been projected into the world of men. The Son
of God and the Prince of demons are contending for this world, and
the principles underlying the conflict are clearly set forth in these
passages that have been before us.