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 I place a heavy emphasis on the dual authorship of Isaiah 14. In his infinite creativity, the Holy Spirit was able to inspire meaning in the biblical text in ways that go beyond the human author’s understanding. After all, as Peter wrote, the prophets longed to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when they wrote of Christ and his sufferings (1 Pet 1:10-12). It appears to me that the writers of the NT were able to see meaning in passages that the prophets themselves did not. The question is whether we can do the same.

In Isaiah 14, we are faced with a passage to which no NT writer makes direct reference. I think there are allusions, though, esp. in passages like Rev 12. So, are we able, having read the OT and the NT, to draw conclusions? I would suggest the NT writers were clear that Satan was the god of this world and as ruler, ruled the kingdoms and empires. So, I conclude if the King of Babylon was the one Isaiah had in mind, the Holy Spirit was aware of another who stood behind the king and as we read Isaiah 14 in light of greater revelation, and in light of greater clarity about Satan as the god of this world, I am comfortable about seeing another being in this passage as well as the king. Since the NT does have reference to Satan being thrown down from heaven, I think that is a warrant for applying this to Satan today.

I think there is a bit of another issue in all this. If we do not read Isaiah 14 with application to Satan, what is its application? Does it become just a history lesson about how bad the king was? Or perhaps we read it as a folk tale with a moral to all human rulers that they should pay attention to? In my estimation, the reader of the OT who does not read all of the OT as pointing to greater NT issues is faced with this problem of application:. What does it have to do with me? In my view, we can see an application to the work of Jesus that will ultimately reduce the god of this world to nothing.


 


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