Isaiah [Part 6] - Historical Prophecy vs. Tradition

Read the transcript below, or watch a video of the teaching by Joseph Shulam.

Shalom. In our journey through the book of Isaiah we can't stop in every chapter, but I am picking highlights and important texts that need to be shared and understood. So, we are going to talk about one of the most misunderstood texts in the Christian world. The text is from chapter 14 of Isaiah, from verse 3.

I'm going to read the text a little bit and then get into it:

So, here is the text from Isaiah, chapter 14, verses 3 to 23. In Christian theological tradition of interpretation, this text is one of the texts that is used to describe Satan. The characteristics and the behavior of Satan are taken from this text. There is a parallel text in Ezekiel, very much a parallel text of Ezekiel, and it is a text that is talking about the king of Tyre, the prince of Tyre. Tyre, in Lebanon, just south of Beirut today; Babylon, in Mesopotamia, between the two rivers Euphrates and the Tigris. Both of these cities were great cities in the time of the Bible, in the time of the prophets. Both of them had kings.

Now, we're fortunate that we have an inscription of one of the famous kings of Tyre, Hiram, who partnered with Solomon and sent fifty thousand foreign workers to Jerusalem to build the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem. Very interesting story. But here are some rules of interpretation that we need to apply, and apply them across the whole board without compromise. Rule number one: We have to read what it says and believe what it says, and we have no right to insert into the biblical text what it doesn't say. It's a very simple rule, a very righteous rule, a very important rule that we read the Bible, God's revelation to mankind, and we only interpret what is written without lacing it with our own opinions and our own ideas. Because the Holy Spirit is the one who gave us this text, inspired men of God, prophets—in this case, Isaiah the prophet—wrote things that they heard, they saw, they were revealed to these prophets by God. So every word is precious.

Of course, I read it in English translation from the New King James, but the translation is not divine. That's why we have so many of them in the English language and in many other languages. But that original text, the Hebrew text, is divine. The text that we have of the Bible is given to us by the Holy Spirit. It's inspired by the Holy Spirit. Men of God, prophets in this case, received these texts, these words from God, and they wrote them down in their own style, in their own vocabulary. But they wrote them down. When God delivered revelation, message, words inspired by Him to the prophets, and they recorded it, we have the only right to read it, to try to understand it, and to interpret what is written without adding to it, changing it, ignoring the details, and adding our own details.

This is what's happened with this text and its parallel text in Ezekiel 28. We are told of whom the prophet is speaking. The prophet is speaking of the king of Babylon. He's speaking of the king of Babylon. He's not speaking of Satan. He is not speaking of the president of some country that is not nice, not kind, and mean as snakes. Without mentioning that country, he is talking about Babylon.

So the subject of this text is the king of Babylon. It's not some Satan, some devil. It is the king of Babylon. We have no right to change it.

We have a very similar text in the prophet Ezekiel, chapter 28, starting with verse 1, that says:

Prince of Tyre' in Ezekiel, 'Prince, king of Babylon' in Isaiah. They have some similarities, and they have some imagery in the text that is parallel. Both of them are full of self-pride

We have a similar text in Isaiah: First, the king of Babylon is marked, and then: "How you are fallen from heaven, O morning star." Lucifer is a name that in Latin the devil received, but he's not talking about the devil. He is still talking about the king of Babylon.

Very similar to the king of Tyre:

So you have parallel imagery, parabolic text—in other words, a parable. It's not a reality. It is imagery describing the pride and self-exaltation of two kings: one in Babylon, one in Tyre.

Now, to take these texts and to apply them to the devil can only be done in one way, and that way is to use the imagery that can be applied to kings and to princes and to presidents and to politicians, and apply it as imagery that also describes the hubris, the pride of the devil. But these texts are historical texts. They don't deal with the devil. The devil is not mentioned here. There is imagery that could be dressed on top of the devil, applied to the devil, applied to Satan. But the texts are historical, and we sin when we take a text like this and then misapply it, not on historical figures like Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon or Hiram in Tyre.

We miss the whole point of the revelation because we have taken the historical figures tied to a historical period, tied to a historical problem, that these kings battled against Israel. Babylon took Israel captive for 70 years, destroyed cities, plundered the temple, and then we apply it to the devil that we know so little about. Most of what Christians think they know about the devil is taken from these two texts. What do we know about the devil, that Satan? How many times is he mentioned in the Bible? What do we know about him? We know from Job, chapter 1, verse 6, that he was in the council of God's presence, in the boardroom of heaven. We know about that. We know that God sent him against some of the kings of Israel. We know that he's the snake that tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden.

But to take these texts that are historical, that deal with the king of Babylon and the king of Tyre, and they're very parallel in both of their texts—what is in Ezekiel 28 and the other one from Isaiah—and to apply them to a kind of character that we know so little about, and to change the whole imagery of Satan from what we actually read in the Bible, we have him, like I said, in Job, chapter 1. We have him again in the end of the last chapter of the book of First Kings, in the days of Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, and Ahab, the king of the ten northern tribes in Israel.

We have a glimpse into what's happening in heaven, in the boardroom in heaven, that God said, "Who is going to go and deceive Ahab and the false prophets that he has?" and the spirit of falsehood, the spirit of lies—which is Satan being the father of all lies—said, "I'll go down and deceive Ahab." We know so little about Satan, and most of the information that people take about Satan is taken from these two historical texts that are addressed directly by the Holy Spirit, by the pen of the prophet Isaiah and by the pen of the prophet Ezekiel. One is addressed to the king of Tyre in Ezekiel, and the other one is addressed to the king of Babylon in Isaiah.

Yes, I could tell you politicians in the world today, in very powerful countries, that say the same things about themselves and about their countries, and about their campaigns and about their business and about their military aspirations, that these ancient kings said 2,800 years ago. I can tell you about presidents and prime ministers and even some kings. Few of the kings that are left alive on their throne feel and felt like they’re the masters of the world.

Yes, dear brothers, this is a lesson about hermeneutics, about how we understand, how we treat, and how we relate to God's word. We are commanded both in the Five Books of Moses and in the New Testament not to add and not to change anything in the word of God. So, when we take this text that is historical and directly addressed to kings that were alive even when the prophets wrote them, and the empires fell and were decimated because of the evil of these kingdoms, we have no right to treat the word of God and take it out of context, out of historical context, out of textual context, and away from what the text itself says and apply it to somebody else.

I know that for some pastors this lesson may be difficult, but it is important for you to know, dear brothers and sisters, that the word of God is holy. When God gave it in the mouth of His prophets, He intended every word that He said. If He wanted to write about Satan, He would have said Satan and not the king of Babylon. If He wanted to write about Satan, He would have said Satan and not the king of Tyre, the prince of Tyre.

Yes, my dear brothers and sisters, let's stick to the word of God with respect and enjoy God's revelation as it was given to the prophets and transmitted to us. Let us draw from these parables, from these proverbs, from these imageries that are proverbial, not literal, to learn how we in our countries and our politicians should take a more humble, a more servant position than thinking that they're going to sit on the right hand of God or be rulers of the world or have everybody else bow down to them.

Yes, we can learn practical lessons from the word of God, from past texts, ancient texts, but we have no right to doctor the ancient text and make them say what we think it ought to say. God knows what He's talking about. God bless all of you.